UW In The News
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UW-Madison student activist Deshawn McKinney awarded Truman Scholarship
UW-Madison junior Deshawn McKinney has been selected to receive the prestigious national Truman Scholarship. The Harry S. Truman Scholarship, created by Congress in 1975 as a memorial to the former president, is intended to support the next generation of public service leaders.
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I Saw the Future of Netflix in a Japanese Reality Show
Quoted: Michele Hilmes, a professor emeritus of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, points out that the DVD market went a long way toward breaking language barriers by providing subtitles and dubbing. What Netflix can do that DVDs can’t is provide an instantaneous global push.
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Scientists design fast, flexible transistor for wearables
A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have devised a cheap method to make impressively fast and flexible silicon-based transistors. Their technique involves using beams of electrons to create reusable molds of the patterns they want, as well as a very, very tiny knife to etch minuscule trenches into those patterns. The result is a small, bendy transistor — though not as small as a the Navy’s single-molecule design — that can transmit data wirelessly and has the potential to operate at a whopping 110 gigahertz. In other words, it’s capable of some extremely fast computing and could lead to wearables a lot more powerful than those available today.
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Photographer’s Crusade to Save a Bumble Bee
The rusty-patched bumble bee used to be abundant, including in Wisconsin. This story starts at UW-Madison’s Arboretum.
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Dealing with epidemics
When the United States took the global lead in combating the world’s deadliest Ebola epidemic in 2014, the White House and public and private organizations sent out an all-call for assistance in equipping health care workers on the front lines with better weapons to battle the disease.
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UW-Madison Researchers Develop Lab Mice To Study Zika Virus
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine have developed lab mice that can be used for testing vaccines and antivirals against the Zika virus.
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UW researchers simulate Zika virus in mice, a key step in developing treatments
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine have found a way to simulate the Zika virus in mice, a step that should help researchers better understand the disease and even gain a foothold in the effort to develop vaccines and antivirals.
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Now teaching at UW, former commissioner, Brewers owner Bud Selig fondly recalls his impact
Bud Selig is just not the retiring type.So even though it’s been 15 months since he stepped down as commissioner of Major League Baseball after nearly 23 years on the job, it would be a stretch to say he’s retired.
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Spring Forward? Get Tips To Avoid Sore Muscles As Outdoor Activities Pick Up
Noted: According to Jill Thein-Nissenbaum, an associate professor in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a staff physical therapist for UW Athletics and Badger Sportsmedicine, said that even people who regularly exercise have this problem. She said she knows someone who was in great shape — playing indoor soccer three times a week during the winter — but on his first day back on the golf course, he was left feeling stiff and sore.
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With An Even Number Of Justices, U.S. Supreme Court Has Some Options To Avoid Deadlock
Noted: Ryan Owens, a professor of political science at University of Wisconsin-Madison and an honorary fellow at the Institute for Legal Studies, said when the court is at its usual state of nine sitting justices, the judges try hard to avoid a situation where there is a chance of a deadlock.
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Can Facebook Influence Results Of 2016 Elections?
Noted: A University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor in Journalism Ethics, Robert Drechsel, adds that Facebook, while not necessarily a media company, has the same responsibilities like those of media outlets and should provide content that is “thorough, fair, accurate, complete, and contextual.”
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Michel: UW takes a stand against racism
Another academic year draws to a close this month, and as it ends I have mixed emotions. I’m certainly happy for the graduates, as well as the students who’ve just completed a year of outstanding education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At the same time, I’m concerned about the racially charged incidents that were reported on the UW–Madison campus this past semester.
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Do Honeybees Feel? Scientists Are Entertaining the Idea
Noted: Christof Koch, the president and chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, and Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin, have proposed that consciousness is nearly ubiquitous in different degrees, and can be present even in nonliving arrangements of matter, to varying degrees.
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Ask the Weather Guys: What connection does UW-Madison have with the National Weather Service?
Last week, the director of the National Weather Service (NWS), Louis W. Uccellini, visited his alma mater as the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award winner. Uccellini presented the story of the intellectual and professional journey that led him to the leadership of this extraordinarily important government agency … Uccellini’s visit reminded us all, we strive to do great things at Wisconsin and we usually succeed.
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University of Wisconsin Band rocks packed house at Mauston High School
Members of the University of Wisconsin Band played to a packed gym on Saturday at Mauston High School.
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BTN LiveBIG: Wisconsin engineers fish for inspiration on artificial-eye development
If you don’t already, odds are that someday you’ll hold a newspaper at arm’s length to read it more clearly. This incredibly common eye condition, called presbyopia, generally affects those in their 50s and older. It occurs when eye muscles begin to age and harden, making it more difficult to focus on nearby objects.
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UW-Madison scientists let crowds tell the New Yorker what’s funny
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have developed a way for New Yorker magazine to use crowd-sourcing to judge captions in its weekly cartoon caption contest.
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How to Not Fight with Your Spouse When You Get Home from Work
Noted: Different recovery times. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, has spent decades studying the relationship between our emotions and various brain structures and neurological systems. In his 2012 book The Emotional Life of Your Brain, Davidson notes that people vary widely with regard to the speed with which we recover from adverse experiences. (Davidson calls this quality “resilience,” but I prefer “recovery time,” as I use the former term more broadly when discussing our overall response to stress and challenges.) Davidson’s research demonstrates that people with different recovery times even show different patterns of activity in their brains.
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The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War
While it wasn’t written about the Vietnam War, the song “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by The Animals became an iconic song at the time, and now signifies the era.
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Madison is a serious poetry city
The recent “retirement” of one of my favorite poets of all time, Ron Wallace, from the UW–Madison English Department reawakened a personal source of civic pride: Madison as a serious poetry city.
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Snowshoe Hare Habitat Shrinks As Winters Grow Milder
New University of Wisconsin-Madison research shows that the snowshoe hare’s habitat in northern Wisconsin is shrinking, in part due to shifts in climate.
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If You’re Rich, You’ll Probably Live Longer
Quoted: Barbara Wolfe, Ph.D., a professor of public affairs, economics, and population health services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wasn’t involved with the study, said environment could play a role in health as well.
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Legal fight against Wisconsin right-to-work law faces difficult path
University of Wisconsin Madison history professor William Jones said such arguments have initially seen success in other states, although they have ultimately fallen short when the case has been appealed. He pointed to the most recent challenge of Indiana’s right-to-work law, which was struck down, but then eventually upheld by that state’s Supreme Court.
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Shakespeare collection from 1623 to make stop in Madison
A nearly 400-year-old collection of William Shakespeare’s plays will be on display this fall in Madison.
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UW-Madison to award posthumous degree to student who died in October
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison plan to award a graduate student who died last year a rare posthumous degree.
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Rebecca Blank: UW-Madison won’t lay off tenured faculty
UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank said Friday that the university won’t lay off tenured faculty so long as it remains a leading research school.“Top-ranked universities always take care of their tenured faculty,” Blank said in a blog post. “As long as this university is a top-ranked institution we will behave like other top-ranked universities. That means we don’t layoff tenured faculty. Period.”
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Madison to host a Shakespeare treasure — the First Folio
The First Folio, a printed collection of William Shakespeare’s plays that dates back to 1623, is scheduled to arrive in November. Shipped under conditions of top security and high-tech climate control, the book will be on display for nearly six weeks at the Chazen Museum of Art, with UW-Madison Libraries and UW Arts Institute as co-presenters.
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UW engineering PhD student who died last year will get rare posthumous degree
When he died last October at age 30, Craig Schuff, a quadriplegic, was just a few neutrons short of completing his doctorate in electrical engineering at UW-Madison. He had already earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering, already passed a qualifying examination and prelims, and had already begun preparing to defend his thesis. He had interrupted his graduate studies in the College of Engineering once before, in 2011, when a Lake Monona diving accident damaged his spinal cord and left him motionless, but no less motivated. Now, in death, Schuff rejoins the elite: In May at UW-Madison graduation ceremonies, his parents will accept for him a posthumous doctorate in electrical engineering.
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Why Pennsylvania Dutch language is thriving
Noted: The Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania Dutch population was made up of “church people, or fancy Dutch” associated with Lutheran and Union churches, says Mark Louden, a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Among them, the language is pretty much gone, diluted out as children grew up, went to college and married non-Dutch-speaking people.
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Meet Ashley Hampton, the vegan blogger behind ‘Raw in College’
University of Wisconsin-Madison sophomore Ashley Hampton is, in many ways, a lot like other students on her campus. She’s in sorority, is steadily working toward a degree in community and nonprofit leadership, and loves to travel and spend time with friends.
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Jonathan Martin: Extreme Cold in Wisconsin
Jonathan E. Martin, a professor in the UW–Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, can speak to what’s driving the… More