UW In The News

New Wyoming rhynchosaur discovered, named in First Nations language

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered a new species of ancient reptile in central Wyoming and named it in the language of the First Nations people indigenous to the area where it was found.

Gene-edited cells move science closer to repairing damaged hearts

One of the genes edited out in MEDUSA cells ― SLC8A1 ― “can impact the ability of heart cells to contract,” said Timothy Kamp, director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Still, he added, “I think the concept of editing these genes is powerful. Perhaps a simpler combination [of edits] may work.”

Many melatonin gummies are labeled with the wrong dosage

“This is one of those drop-the-mic revelations,” said Christine Whelan, who studies the wellness industry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An Exhibition Proposes Alternatives to Removing Contentious Statues

In 2020, as statues of Confederate generals and other contentious historical images were being taken down in many cities, Sanford Biggers, the acclaimed New York-based contemporary artist, and Amy Gilman, the director of the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, were watching with keen interest.

UW-Madison hopes for further computer and data sciences innovation as new building starts

First Colorado bat infected by deadly white-nose syndrome fungal disease

A $2.5 million federal grant was also awarded last month to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fund research for a cure.

UW-Madison’s newest recreation gym, complete with nap pods and a rock climbing wall, opens Monday

8 Books Experts Would Recommend About Meditation

“Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body” by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson‌. This 2017 title was written by Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and science journalist, and Richard Davidson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds.

Leave your grass long to help bees, butterflies

“If you have a traditional lawn, letting the grass grow to a foot tall or whatever it would be at the end of May is no value whatsoever,” says Susan Carpenter, native plant garden curator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. Grass that long could be harmful to lawn health and become a mowing nightmare.

Opinion | Could Peer Influence Be a Cause of the Global Baby Bust?

I read several papers on peer effects on fertility with Angrist’s caveats in mind. One, by Jason Fletcher and Olga Yakusheva, looked at American teenagers and found that a 10 percentage point increase in pregnancies of classmates is associated with a 2 to 5 percentage point greater likelihood of a teenager herself becoming pregnant. Disentangling causality is “a really hard problem,” Fletcher, an economist at the University of Wisconsin’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, told me.

Minnesota organic dairy farmers face peril after spikes in grain costs pushed consumer prices higher

“We hadn’t really seen prices that high for a while, if ever,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy researcher Charles Nicholson, an associate professor of animal and dairy sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Forgiveness is good for mental health, a new study shows

Other researchers led by Robert Enright, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, have also focused on forgiveness for programs for young people. Their workbooks and teacher training programs have been shared with thousands of educators worldwide.

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tapped as UW-Madison spring commencement speaker

We know how kids learn to read, so why are we failing to teach them?

“The US has done poorly in teaching kids to read for a long time,” says Mark Seidenberg, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And the problem isn’t confined to English-speaking countries: there is also confusion about how to teach children to read other languages.

For Centuries, Boys Used To ‘Dress Like A Girl.’ Here’s When Everything Changed.

Jessica McCrory Calarco, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, weighed in on the little-known history, too. “As I teach my students, kids’ clothing only became gendered when capitalists realized they could double their money by selling separate clothes for girls and boys,” she tweeted. “Before that, kids wore gender-neutral dresses, which better accommodated growth spurts and toilet training.”

Why is there always a blood shortage?

With its direct connection to the heart, its vivid hue (from wine-dark to cherry bright and cobalt blue), and its spilling in both birth and death, blood has historically served as a metaphor for humanity, as Susan Lederer, a professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argues in her 2008 book, Flesh and Blood. “Write with blood, and thou wilt find that blood is spirit,” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche in the 1880s. “All the soarings of my mind begin in my blood,” wrote Rainer Maria Rilke in 1921. “Blood is memory without language,” added Joyce Carol Oates, more recently.

UW-Madison formally inducts Jennifer Mnookin as 30th chancellor

The university’s tenet of education extending beyond the classroom has propelled her as chancellor, she told the audience. In December 2020, she donated a kidney to her father, who was diagnosed with late-stage kidney disease. A synthetic solution created at UW-Madison, which increased preservation times for organs outside of the body, allowed her kidney to safely travel on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to her dad in Boston.

Ending the COVID emergency will further harm Black maternal mortality |

April 11-17 marks Black Maternal Health Week, a week-long campaign officially recognized by the Biden administration as a time to address racial inequities in Black maternal health and to “amplify ​the voices, perspectives and lived experiences” of Black during pregnancy.

–Tiffany L. Green, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of any institutions or organizations.

A ‘Science of Reading’ Revolt Takes on the Education Establishment

“I saw this post where somebody said, ‘Reading wars are over, science of reading won,’” said Mark Seidenberg, a cognitive scientist at the University of Wisconsin.

As Earth warms, more ‘flash droughts’ suck soil, plants dry

Another sudden drought happened in the U.S. Southeast in 2016 and was a factor in devastating wildfires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, said Jason Otkin, a study co-author and an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Look! Webb Recaptures a Famous Hubble Image in Incredible New Detail

“Our whole program was ~24 hours, which isn’t that much time in the grand scheme of how much time other observatories have looked at it,” said Michael Maseda, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a statement. “But, even in this relatively short amount of time, we’re starting to put together a new picture of how galaxies are growing at this really interesting point in the history of the Universe.”

Why Wisconsin Has Republicans Worried

“Extreme” is no overstatement. Robert Yablon, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a faculty co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative, told me by email that although Democrats have won more of Wisconsin’s statewide elections in recent years than their Republican opponents have, “under the maps that the Republican-controlled legislature drew in 2011, Republicans maintained an iron grip on the legislature throughout the last decade—even in years when Democratic candidates won more votes statewide.”

‘A nightmare’: Texas parents say their baby was taken by CPS after using midwifery care for jaundice

Jaundice occurs when blood contains an excess amount of bilirubin. “For most babies, this is not a big deal, it clears out,” Tiffany Green, an associate professor in the obstetrics and gynecology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Yahoo News. “But for a certain small subset of babies, high levels of bilirubin can lead to brain damage, including cerebral palsy and other illnesses.”

How a Fourth Traffic Light Color Could Make Self-Driving Cars a Reality

“The way our roads are built — the things that changed the 1890s city to the kind of city we have today — a lot of that came out of conflict between the rights and responsibilities of different kinds of road users,” says Cameron Roberts, a sustainability and transportation researcher at the University of Wisconsin.

NATO Ally Bordering Russia to Meet With Top U.S. Weapons Makers

“I think it is important for Poland to keep up its credentials as an indispensable ally of the United States in Europe—especially in light of the pre-war frictions that marred Poland’s relationship with European Union bodies,” Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek via email. “Warsaw is likely to be considering various scenarios of continuation of the war in Ukraine and various designs for post-war Europe.

Global warming is making baseball home runs easier, study says

Dr. Jonathan Martin, a professor in the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that the study seems plausible—to an extent.

After Tennessee House expels 2 Democrats, will other states follow?

“Weaponizing legislative discipline reveals a concerning level of democratic dysfunction,” said Seifter, who is the co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She added, “it suggests that more attention should focus on state-level government.”

Abortion Ruling Could Undermine the F.D.A.’s Drug-Approval Authority

R. Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin and an author of a brief by drug-policy scholars in support of the F.D.A., said, “The biggest threat that a decision like this brings is the threat of creating chaos.” The ruling, she added, could empower a range of groups to begin “looking over the shoulder of the F.D.A., re-evaluating their risk-benefit analyses.”

Declines in Loan Values Are Widespread Among Banks

“Fair values of loans and securities are not qualitatively different,” said Tom Linsmeier, an accounting professor at the University of Wisconsin and former member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. “They measure the same amount: the price at which the asset can be sold in an orderly transaction in the market today.”

Without the right to adequate counsel, is our criminal justice system legitimate? 

After 60 years of deliberate indifference to the right to counsel, our criminal justice system is on the verge of collapse. Only a large, overdue investment can save it and restore the noble ideal that justice shouldn’t be based on how much you can afford. –John P. Gross is a clinical associate professor at University of Wisconsin Law School and director of the Public Defender Project.