UW In The News

The Very Hungry Caterpillars That Turned to Cannibalism

If you’re a hungry caterpillar and you’ve got a choice between eating a plant or another caterpillar, which do you chose?

Tomatoes Can Turn Plant-Eaters Into Cannibals, Study Shows

Plants are often seen as taking a passive role in their environments, just hanging out and soaking up the sunlight. But that impression is wrong—plants have many sophisticated ways of influencing their environment, and other plants and animals in it. And this includes leading herbivores down the garden path to cannibalism.

There’s Plague on the Prairie, but These Dogs May Be Protected

Prairie dogs with a taste for peanut butter, scientists reported recently, can now be vaccinated against plague — the Black Death that killed much of Europe centuries ago.

Summer Reading Books: The Ties That Bind Colleges

At least four schools, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have chosen a best seller written by a young conservative: J. D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which explores issues of social breakdown among working-class whites, such as drug use and child neglect.

The committee that chose “Hillbilly Elegy” had a “vigorous discussion” about it, said Sheila Stoeckel, director for teaching and learning programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison libraries. “We’re picking books there are not easy answers for. If we picked a book that there was an easy answer for, it wouldn’t be as lively of a discussion or exploration.”

Wisconsin Eyeball Lab’s 56,000 Specimens Aid Vision Research

There is a little room at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that is filled with the eyeballs of animals — everything from the duck-billed platypus to the two-toed sloth to the boa constrictor.

New Technology Targeting Fungi Could Speed Up Drug-Discovery Process

New technology developed in part by UW-Madison researchers is speeding up the discovery time for new molecules from fungi.  We’ll find out how it works and why fungi are a potential-rich place to look for new disease-fighting agents.

America’s urban-rural divides

Noted: Kathy Cramer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison followed the same groups of voters in Wisconsin from 2007 to 2012 and wrote about her findings in “The Politics of Resentment”. This is how she describes the atmosphere during a heated recall referendum that was won by Governor Scott Walker: “People stole yard signs from each other. They stopped talking to one another. They spat on each other. They even tried to run each other over, even if they were married to one another. I am not kidding.”

How scientists modeled a deadly tornado with an insanely powerful computer

Supercell thunderstorms are giant tempests with powerful rotating updrafts at their cores—and one out of every four or five spawn tornadoes. Most of these twisters are little, but some can grow fierce. To predict the rare killers, and thus give more targeted warnings, meteorologists need to better understand how tornadoes form. But simulating a supercell thunderstorm and the tornado it produces involves hundreds of terabytes of data—an amount so vast that Leigh Orf, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, had to use a supercomputer to make it happen.

What’s Next For The Democrats?

Following Democratic candidate Jonathan Ossoff’s loss for Georgia’s 6th congressional seat, party members are trying to regain their footings and figure out what’s next for the party. University of Wisconsin’s Barry Burden joins us to talk about what the future could hold for the Democrats.

Lyme Disease: Inside America’s Mysterious Epidemic

Noted: And of course, climate change plays a role. “Any insect-borne disease is very sensitive to climate conditions,” says Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute University of Wisconsin. “Warmer temperatures speed up the development of tick larvae and nymphs, and that can influence transmission dynamics. Modeling studies of climate change effects on Lyme disease show a northward expansion of the disease,” says Patz. “Lyme is already moving north into Canada.”

34 UW faculty named recipients of Vilas professorships

One of the most prominent citizens of Wisconsin’s early history continues to recognize excellence in education today.

By 2100, Deadly Heat May Threaten Majority of Humankind

Noted: Heat kills ten times more people in the U.S. than tornados or other extreme weather events, says Richard Keller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of medical history.

Holy cow! Moo-Day Brunch features feasts, facts

The great American fallout: how small towns came to resent cities

It’s no secret Donald Trump benefited from rural voters. But Democrat or Republican, they usually tell Katherine Cramer – who has spent a decade visiting residents of small-town Wisconsin – the same thing: it’s the cities that get all the breaks, and then have the gall to look down on them, too

Seeking better use for crops grown in research, program provides free produce at UW-Madison

Honoring UW mega-donor John Morgridge

Every summer, about 60 graduate students with diverse backgrounds and interests come together at the UW-Madison School of Business for a week of intensive schooling about what it takes to start a tech-based company.

Perfectly healthy produce grown in UW-Madison labs often gets tossed. One student has an idea to change that.

Every day while working in a university lab, biology student Hannah DePorter sees produce grown for research wasting away in compost piles.

Compound From Chickens Being Used To Improve Growth, Survival At Fish Farms

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are using oil that comes from a gland on chickens’ tails to improve survival at fish farms. The discovery could have global implications for the Atlantic salmon industry.

UW-Madison student’s Food Shed idea to offer fresh produce while cutting food waste

Every day while working in a research lab, Hannah DePorter sees produce wasting away in compost piles. “There were just hundreds of pounds (of vegetables) left there,” DePorter said. “I would just come home with a ton of vegetables and my friends would take it within three seconds and it would all be gone.” That put the University of Wisconsin-Madison student’s wheels in motion to develop Food Shed, an initiative to support local farmers and reduce food waste.

Burden: Wisconsin’s retirement system is a competitive advantage

The state’s retirement system was one of the things that brought me to Wisconsin.

UW study looks at issues with online dating

There’s an online dating site for nearly everybody, but can too many choices be problematic? Live at Four talks with professor Catalina Toma, one of the authors of a recent University of Wisconsin study, that reveals choice overload can raise the stakes.

Medical College and UW scientists seek to illuminate early stages of Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are seeking to do what has only become possible in recent years: use imaging technologies to illuminate the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and its effect on the still-living brain.

A Wisconsin grad is using art to educate about the school’s prairie past

A native of the Midwest, Liz Anna Kozik spent much of her childhood surrounded by prairies. Yet it wasn’t until Kozik left her home in Naperville, Illinois, for her undergrad studies in Rhode Island that she began to appreciate their beauty. She opted to go to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin – not just so she could be close to the prairie again, but also to study the grassy habitat’s history.

UW-Madison archaeologists excavating Aztalan Park pits

“It’s always exciting to be here,” said Schroeder as she watched members of her team check the measurements on the westernmost pit. “This is the third consecutive summer on this project to discover and explore what daily life at Aztalan was like 900 to 1,000 years ago.”

Madison professor archiving podcasts, making sure the audio form never disappears

A UW-Madison professor says it’s the golden age for podcasts, but he’s worried some of those podcasts may soon disappear.

This Summer Promises To Be A Big One For Ticks

Interviewed: Susan Paskewitz talks about the upcoming tick season, and ways we can protect ourselves from getting bitten.

Pardeeville twins carry on family legacy in Marines

For twin brothers Cogan and Cole Kirchenwitz, joining the U.S. Marine Corps continues a family legacy, but the road ahead is the result of decisions they made entirely on their own.The Pardeeville brothers, 22, received their commissioning certificates in May in a ceremony after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Reserve Officers Training Corps. They were among 35 graduates who completed ROTC training, and in the military they will follow in the footsteps of their father and grandfather.

The science behind a perfectly-toasted marshmallow

Noted: But take the marshmallow out of the heat, and it’ll deflate — although the stretched out gelatin doesn’t bounce back. “It shrinks to a shriveled mass,” Richard Hartel, a food scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tells The Verge in an email. “Don’t get me started on Peeps jousting.”

The Benefits of Talking to Yourself \

Noted: “The idea is, if you hear a word, does that help you see something?” said Gary Lupyan, a researcher and psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

University of Wisconsin Naming Partnership approaches halfway point

The price to buy nothing has gone up over the last 10 years, and an exclusive group of donors is very interested in finding out what the next 10 will bring.