UW In The News

Spending on services is starting to cool, U.S. data indicates

That’s not such a bad thing, said Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin. “To the extent that there’s still many job openings relative to people willing to take those jobs, then we do want to see some reduction in demand for labor,” he said.

Rural Americans aren’t included in inflation figures – and for them, the cost of living may be rising faster

When the Federal Reserve convenes at the end of January 2023 to set interest rates, it will be guided by one key bit of data: the U.S. inflation rate. The problem is, that stat ignores a sizable chunk of the country – rural America. -Tessa Conroy, Development Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Germany Says Quiet Part Out Loud About Ukraine War

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that Baerbock’s use of the term “war” was likely more figurative than literal, shaped by the emotional atmosphere at the Council of Europe.

100-year floods: The metric behind America’s infrastructure is out of date, and thanks to climate change we’re paying the price.

“It’s kind of a mess, even in the absence of climate change,” said Daniel Wright, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin. Wright helped Madison adopt climate-conscious design guidelines and works with the magically named U.S. Office of Water Prediction. “Almost all of [the models] assume that data varies from year to year, but underlying drivers are not changing over time. Those assumptions just don’t hold.”

Direct Air Capture Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide From the Sky

“The next decade is crucial because the amount of deployment required in the second half of the century will only be feasible if we see substantial new deployment in the next 10 years,” Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a coauthor of the report, said during a press call.

There’s a path away from toxic polarization: shared problem-solving

It is within our grasp to solve the problems facing our nation and world. To get there, we must reject the lure of polarization and dogmatic certainty and instead, seek interdependence and collaboration. The world depends on it. –Clif Conrad is a professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author (with Todd Lundberg) of the book “Learning with Others.” Todd Lundberg is an associate director in the Center for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cancer blood test using DNA fragments brings hope for earlier detection, say researchers

A University of Wisconsin­–Madison research team was able to detect cancer in the bloodstream in most of the samples tested, it said. Muhammed Murtaza, professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health based in Madison, Wisconsin, led the study, which was published recently in Science Translational Medicine, a medical journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to the study’s press release.

Weird winter weather: Thundersnow, frost quakes and more

“Very intense winter storms can trigger the rare phenomenon of thundersnow,” says Michael Notaro, an atmospheric scientist and director of the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “Thundersnow events usually bring infrequent lightning flashes and quieter thunder as the heavy snowfall muffles the sound.”

Online racial harassment leads to lower academic confidence for Black and Hispanic students

Online racial discrimination or harassment has a negative effect on the academic and emotional well-being of students of color. That is the key finding from a study I published recently in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. –Alvin Thomas Assistant Professor, Phyllis Northway Faculty Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Global Carbon Removal Efforts Are Off Track for Meeting Climate Goals

“Carbon removal looks a lot like renewables did like 25 years ago,” said Gregory Nemet, an environmental policy expert at the University of Wisconsin and one of the report’s co-authors. “Interesting technology: [It] could be really helpful for climate change, but [it’s] still small and not taken very seriously — in part because there wasn’t a lot of data about how much these technologies cost, how much we would need or how much there even was.”

8 Subtle Ways Parents Create Anxiety Without Realizing It

Alvin Thomas, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, also emphasized the importance of talking about your emotions as a parent. This approach prevents your children from making up anxiety-based stories to explain why the adults around them are behaving differently.

“It is OK, for instance, to say to your child that dad is feeling a little sad or a little frustrated,” he explained. “It expands the child’s emotional vocabulary, teaches them to talk through their emotions, and models for them how to do this. Then you could go on to give age-appropriate reasoning. Dad is feeling frustrated because dad was really hoping for something, but it did not happen.”

Single-use coffee pods aren’t as wasteful as you may think

“Sometimes it’s really counterintuitive,” said Andrea Hicks, an environmental engineering expert at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She conducted a similar analysis comparing different brewing methods, and also found pods had less environmental impact than the conventional drip filter method, and in some cases were better than using a French press.

“Often people assume that something reusable is always better, and sometimes it is,” Hicks said. “But often people really don’t think about the human behavior.”

In defense of “haters” like TikTok’s Talia Lichtstein

These kinds of “pro-negativity” behaviors, whether ironic or not, have been studied by scholars for decades, notably by University of Wisconsin communications professor Jonathan Gray, who in 2003 argued for the inclusion of “anti-fans” within audience studies, or people who actively dislike specific texts. Anti-fans, many scholars have suggested, subvert the traditional mode of media consumption, wherein we’re supposed to accept and like the thing we’re watching. “As active, engaged viewers, we are not supposed to dislike, and we are meant to treat dislike with suspicion in others because liking has been characterized as a progressive effort to champion the underdog in popular media,” writes Anne Gilbert in the anthology Anti-Fandom: Dislike and Hate in the Digital Age.

113-year experiment at UW-Madison ends this year. It will be crushing

Freshwater fish are significantly more contaminated with toxic forever chemicals than saltwater fish and shellfish, analysis shows

“People are getting PFAS from so many different places, from their diet and from water,” said Christy Remucal, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin who researches forever chemicals but was not involved in the new study.

Snarl, You’re on Candid Camera

“The compression of species niches will likely lead to new interactions among species with unknown consequences,” Benjamin Zuckerberg, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an author of the study, said in an email.

What, if Anything, Can You Do to Prepare for a Recession?

The best strategy is to always be preparing for recessions, says Cliff Robb, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies financial decision-making. Which means now is as good a time as any to get started.

Question Everything: Do metal detectors at schools really work?

We spoke with Ben Fisher, a professor at the University Of Wisconsin. He has researched security measures in schools.”You can spend some money and put in metal detectors, or put on a big show of having police dogs some in, but those aren’t the things that make schools safe,” believes Fisher.

UW-Madison names Oneida Nation member as new tribal relations director

Moving to Florida Could Save You on Taxes, but Cost More Overall

University of Wisconsin economics professor Steven Deller agreed. “Florida is above the national average, but it’s not even close to the most expensive place to live,” he said.

Eating only raw food is ranked the worst diet

“What’s nice is Mediterranean is relatively user friendly. How it’s structured is similar to the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) healthy eating plan,” Camila Martin, a nutritionist at University of Wisconsin Health in Madison, who wasn’t involved in the rankings, tells TODAY.com. “It’s very modifiable based off what people have access to even with limited resources.”

7 questions older patients should ask their surgeon

What’s the goal of this surgery? Ask your surgeon, “How is this surgery going to make things better for me?” said Margaret “Gretchen” Schwarze, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Will it extend your life by removing a fast-growing tumor? Will your quality of life improve by making it easier to walk? Will it prevent you from becoming disabled, akin to a hip replacement?

Study: Toxic PFAS chemical plume detected in Green Bay

University of Wisconsin researchers have traced movement of the chemicals in nearby groundwater and streams. In a report published last week, they said a plume had made its way into Green Bay, which extends 120 miles (193 kilometers) along northeastern Wisconsin and the south coast of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Day 3: Small Talk Has Big Benefits

Weak ties often have different knowledge from those in our immediate social circle, said Stav Atir, an assistant professor of management at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Atir led a study in 2022 that suggested that people underestimate the potential for learning from these interactions. “In our data, we often see strangers giving each other recommendations such as a new restaurant to check out, a new band to listen to and even a potential place of employment,” she said.

CDC tracking rise of new XBB.1.5 COVID variant, already more than 40% of U.S. cases

“With what we know so far, XBB.1.5 has not acquired any new mutations in the viral protein targeted by Paxlovid. The susceptibility of XBB.1.5 against Paxlovid should not change given the current data,” the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Peter Halfmann, one of that study’s authors, told CBS News in an email.

How did the pandemic affect the Corona Beer brand?

A group of researchers from the University of Kentucky, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ohio State University actually set out to study how consumers reacted to the beer brand after its name became inadvertently associated with the coronavirus.

Fact check: Post falsely links WI military votes to election tampering

Such a comparison is inappropriate because of turnout differences in both elections, Barry Burden, a politics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY in an email.

“Turnout of military and especially non-military voters is far higher in a presidential contest because of the intensity, visibility and national importance of a presidential election,” Burden said. “Military voters in particular tend to be less involved in non-presidential elections because their deployments take them away from the everyday news of state politics.”

Layoffs have ticked up but hiring is still strong

Many companies still need to hold on to workers, said Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin.“I think you’d need a much higher ratio of layoffs to hiring in order to be alarmed.”

Private investors, Rising Rents

These firms “have an incentive to raise rents as quickly as they can so that they can get the next buyer to pay more,” said Michael Brennan, chairman of the Brennan Investment Group, a real estate firm, and director of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Other owners, he said, are “not as maniacally focused on getting the last nickel as quickly as they can.”

Best Kids TV Shows And Cartoons for Toddlers

“The main key, as in all parenting, is to know your kid,” says Marie-Louise Mares professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Some kids are pretty easily scared, others really love excitement, some adore anything to do with trucks, others are crazy about puppies.”