UW In The News

Why is the US far right finding its savior in Spanish dictator Francisco Franco?

Stanley Payne, a revisionist historian of Spanish fascism at the University of Wisconsin Madison until his retirement in 2004, has penned a string of recent articles in rightwing outlets like First Things which invite readers to compare the US with Spain in the 1930s. He has reiterated a line that Franco’s hand was forced by leftist violence and promoted the work of other revisionist historians like Pio Moa, who many professional historians dismiss as a “pseudo-historian”.

Opinion: Why your chain-store pharmacist is so unhappy

Editor’s Note: David Mott is the William S. Apple Distinguished Professor in Social and Administrative Sciences at the University of Wisconsin. CNN — Pharmacists swear an oath upon entering the profession to “assure optimal outcomes for all patients.” But current working conditions are making it nearly impossible to live up to this oath.

Anyone can help monarch butterflies. All you need is a yard.

Karen Oberhauser, the director of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum and the founder of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, advises against rearing monarchs in captivity on a large scale or for more than a single generation, since captivity may disrupt the development of their navigational abilities and, over time, can alter their genetic makeup.

Hunting Ghosts in the Sky and Finding What Makes Their Colors

“The metallic traces are interesting, but I’ll caution that this was only a single event,” said Chris Vagasky, a lightning researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the new work. To see if all ghosts are iron-fueled spooks, he added, “it would be nice to see the results from multiple ghosts.”

Experts in concussion, NFL leaders gather to identify gaps in knowledge, offer guidelines on preventing brain injuries

Dr. Julie Stamm, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the summit, says it’s exciting to see a lineup of experts coming together to discuss not just CTE but other conditions related to traumatic brain injury.

One product, so many prices: Unit price, list price, ‘MSRP.’ Which one do shoppers actually pay at checkout?

“For a retailer, they’re primarily a tool to incentivize people to make a purchase,” said Laura Hensen, executive director of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

How to forgive someone and the benefits that come with it

If the incident in question causes you continued distress and negatively impacts your life, that’s where the f-word  — forgiveness — may have a role to play, said psychologist Robert Enright, a pioneer in the field of forgiveness science and professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Renewables’ growing price advantage over fossil fuels paves way for industry dominance

And installing technologies to capture greenhouse gasses on fossil fuel power plants would further raise prices for a sector already struggling to compete with renewables, as Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin who studies the public policy of technology change, told The Hill.

World’s Stinkiest Cheese Hits Supermarket Shelves in Britain

“I think that there are a small group of people out there that just love it,” said Dr. Mark Johnson, a scientist at the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin. “It’s almost like an ‘I dare you to eat it’ kind of thing, like hot peppers.”

How Much Can Forests Fight Climate Change? A Sensor in Space Has Answers.

“Nearly all protected areas are becoming much more accessible and much more vulnerable,” said Lisa Naughton, a researcher who studies protected areas at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Not just to local subsistence hunting and illicit timber extraction, but to things like artisanal mining and road penetration.”

Couples Are Embracing Joint Custody. American Policy Isn’t.

Although the increase is steepest among high-income couples, it’s happening across the socioeconomic spectrum, Daniel Meyer, a social-work professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who studies child custody, told me.

2023 Hurricane Season Ends: A Recap of This Year’s Storms

“Such warm water ‘sets the stage’ for these events,” James P. Kossin, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote in an email.

COP28 president draws fierce backlash with attack on climate science

“Cheap renewables have killed the economics of gas and coal power generation with carbon capture — and even more so going forward,” Gregory Nemet, a University of Wisconsin professor who studies the public policy of technological change, told The Hill.

Wisconsin veterinarian gives insight into unusual dog respiratory illness

To learn more about the unusual disease, Lake Effect spoke with Dr. Keith Poulsen, a veterinarian and director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

Russia Issues Ominous Warning About ‘Next Victim’

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that Lavrov’s comments “double down” on Russia’s view that it was encouraged or forced to invade Ukraine because that nation was moving closer to NATO admittance.

A 4-second power nap? These penguin parents survive on ‘microsleeps.’

Anyone who has ever nodded off briefly while on the subway or watching TV has experienced a microsleep, says Chiara Cirelli, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin who wasn’t involved in the study.

More States Now Require Financial Literacy Classes in High Schools

But a recent study she wrote with Melody Harvey, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found no impact on eventual retirement savings. Perhaps, she said, for teenagers heading to college or just entering the work force, the idea of retiring is too distant.

We’re That Much Likelier to Get Sick Now

To toss any additional respiratory virus into that mess is burdensome; for that virus to be SARS-CoV-2 ups the ante all the more. “This is a more serious pathogen that is also more infectious,” Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me.

The Chicken Tycoons vs. the Antitrust Hawks

“These are issues that have festered for a quarter of a century or more,” says Peter Carstensen, an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin law school who focuses on antitrust issues in agriculture. “So we’ve finally got an administration that says: ‘We get it, there are some problems here. Maybe we should do something.’”

COVID Vaccine Prevented Thousands of Premature Births in Pandemic—Study

In their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Torche and Jenna Nobles from the University of Wisconsin-Madison analyzed birth records from siblings born in California between 2014 and 2023. By comparing sibling births, the researchers found that from July to November 2020 mothers were nearly twice as likely to give birth three weeks before their due date.

Opinion | Biden Trade Policy Breaks With Tech Giants

The truth is that Ms. Tai is taking the pen away from Facebook, Google and Amazon, who helped shape the previous policy, according to a research paper published earlier this year by Wendy Li, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who used to answer the phone and interact with lobbyists at the U.S. trade representative’s office.

A century after the Osage murders, ‘guardians’ still harm American Indians

“Killers of the Flower Moon” highlights the U.S. government’s role in a historical injustice. But those concerned with modern poverty should not lose sight of the elephant in today’s room. Oppressive regulatory oversight means paper rights for American Indians, paper rights mean dead capital, and dead capital means poverty. We can’t change the past, but the federal government should cut today’s white tape.

-Dominic Parker is an economist at the University of Wisconsin and the Ilene and Morton Harris Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Adam Crepelle is a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Treating the Depressed Brain – Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Nearly one in five US adults are diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. As the use of antidepressants have steadily risen since their introduction in the 1980s, what have we learned about depression? Is depression truly a “chemical imbalance” of the brain? And why do antidepressants work for some people and not others? Sanjay talks to Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about what we now believe causes depression, and most importantly, what this means for how we treat the illness – from SSRIs to psychedelics and other emerging therapies.

Here’s What Causes Fainting, According to New Research

“You could potentially imagine that there’ll be therapies on the horizon,” Zachary Goldberger, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health who did not participate in the research, tells the publication.

Beef is a way of life in Texas, but it’s hard on the planet. This rancher thinks she can change that

Randy Jackson, an agronomy professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, cites efforts like Ellis’ and argues the U.S. needs more cattle grazing, not less: “Well-managed grazing on perennial grasslands is our best and maybe our only hope of helping to mitigate climate change.”

5 things to do when you’re depressed

Psychiatrist Charles Raison, a professor of human ecology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he has struggled with depression. Raison, who is also the director of the Vail Health Behavioral Health Innovation Center and a former mental health expert for CNN Health, described the state of mental health in the Unites States in one word: “bad.”

A flu shot is still worth it before the holidays. Here’s why.

“This is something influenza absolutely loves,” said Dr. Jonathan Temte, an associate dean at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

The 2024 Republican primary looks like the 2016 Democrats — with no Bernie

For the past few weeks, University of Wisconsin at Madison political science professor Barry Burden had been depicting the size of the GOP primary field by plotting the time until the Iowa caucuses against the number of candidates still in the race. The resulting effect is a sort of a bell curve, with the field already well into the downslope.

With pandemic relief programs over, how will the economy fare?

“It’s neither acting as a material boost or drag on the U.S. economy,” he said.And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, said Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin.

Three Days That Changed the Thinking About Black Women’s Health

One effect of this work was “increased awareness that health is political, that health is impacted by race and gender and class and sexuality,” said Sami Schalk, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin.