UW In The News

Covid News: U.S. Daily Record for Cases Is Broken

David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said of the Omicron estimate, “The 73 percent got a lot more attention than the confidence intervals, and I think this is one example among many where scientists are trying to project an air of confidence about what’s going to happen.”

UW-Madison again ranks 8th in nation for research spending

E.O. Wilson, a Pioneer of Evolutionary Biology, Dies at 92

The legacy of “Sociobiology” was profound for researchers who study animals. “It was liberating,” Karen Strier, a primatologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the president of the International Primatological Society, said in an interview. “You can study all animals with the same basic perspective.”

Sharks may be able to protect us from coronavirus, research suggests. Here’s how

Although some may fear sharks when swimming in open waters, these often misunderstood creatures may hold a way to help protect us from the coronavirus, new research suggests. As one of the ocean’s top predators, sharks have antibody-like proteins that can stop the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study published Dec. 16.

Seeking refills: Aging pharmacists leave drugstores vacant in rural America

“It’s going to be harder to attract people and to pay them,” said David Kreling, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. “If there’s not a generational thing where someone can sit down with their son or daughter and say that they could take the store over, there’s a good chance that pharmacy will evaporate.”

Kids under 5 still waiting for Covid-19 vaccine protection

Omicron Tracking in U.S. Is Hindered by Data Gaps

With less real-time reporting and piecemeal testing programs, policy makers are reacting to Covid-19 rather than proactively working to contain it, said Ajay Sethi, an associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW expert: Omicron could be dominant COVID-19 variant in Wisconsin in matter of days

Dr. Nasia Safdar, the vice chair for research in the School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Hospital’s medical director of infection control, made the remarks in a live-streamed question-and-answer session focused on the variant Tuesday night.

How Long Does Omicron Take to Make You Sick?

Shorter incubation periods generally lead to more infections happening in less time, because people are becoming more contagious sooner, making onward transmission harder to prevent. Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me he still wants more data on Omicron before he touts a trim incubation. But “it does make sense,” he said, considering the variant’s explosive growth in pretty much every country it’s collided with. In many places, Omicron cases are doubling every two to three days.

NCAA champion Badgers volleyball players celebrate with their fans

UW-Madison winter Class of 2021 celebrates after years of resilience amid pandemic

Seeking Refills: Aging Pharmacists Leave Drugstores Vacant in Rural America

“It’s going to be harder to attract people and to pay them,” said David Kreling, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. “If there’s not a generational thing where someone can sit down with their son or daughter and say that they could take the store over, there’s a good chance that pharmacy will evaporate.”

Opinion | Is the University of Austin Just a PR Stunt?

To debate the free speech crisis — or lack thereof — on campuses, Jane Coaston brought together Greg Lukianoff, the president and C.E.O. of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and Mark Copelovitch, a professor of political science and public affairs and the director of the Center for European Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mexico’s monarch butterflies are falling victim to a real-life butterfly effect

Climate change may be one of the other threats pushing down monarch numbers. It’s messing with weather across their range, which plays a huge role in how many butterflies ultimately arrive in Mexico each year, according to Karen Oberhauser, a monarch expert and professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. It’s getting hotter where monarchs breed, for example, and that makes it harder for them to flourish, she said.

China’s Quest for Space Power Starts With Moon Dust

The theory that the moon might have abundant reserves of helium-3 goes back several decades. In 1986, scientists at the University of Wisconsin estimated that lunar soil could contain a million tons of the isotope, also known as He3.

COVID-19 pandemic: Scientists focus on virus’ animal origins

The economics of concert tickets and how Adele strained the vinyl supply chain

Now, we knew Charli XCX was going to sell out within minutes of going on sale. And Alan Sorensen, an economist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that this suggests that the $54 that she was charging was way too low.

Southeast Asians are underrepresented in STEM, but still boxed out

When Kao Lee Yang received a nomination from her university for the Gilliam Fellowship by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering and math, she was thrilled. She’s spent years working toward her doctorate in Alzheimer’s research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As medicine aims to close diversity gaps, orthopedic surgery is an outlier

The lack of diversity is painfully obvious to patients as well. When one of her family members needed a serious operation recently, Angela Byars-Winston, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin who is Black, scoured the internet looking for expert orthopedic surgeons who could provide a second opinion. She was struck that nearly all of them were white. “Really,” she told STAT, “there’s hardly anyone that looks like us? In the whole country?”

Hoping for a Dog Phone? You May Have a Long Wait.

Dr. McConnell, a retired professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Dr. Andrea Y. Tu, a behavior veterinarian who was also not involved with the research, said there was very little research about technology made for dogs.

Ariana Grande ‘Asianfishing’ Controversy Explained

Meanwhile, Leslie Bow, a professor of Asian American studies at the University of Wisconsin, described blackfishing as “a racial masquerade that operates as a form of racial fetishism” to CNN that same month

Why Are We Still Isolating Vaccinated People for 10 Days?

“It’s clear that vaccination will reduce infectiousness,” Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me. And fully vaccinated folks who repeatedly test negative “are probably not a risk to anybody anymore,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, told me.

Can depression worsen Covid-19 and other infections? And can a virus make you depressed?

It appears that something in the body, something biological associated with these disorders, may be at play. “That suggests there’s a physiologic vulnerability there in these folks,” said Charles Raison, a psychiatrist and researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Millennials are facing high inflation for the first time

OK, this can seem a little dramatic. But millennials have met economic woes as they’ve aged into life’s milestones — like when they entered the job market around the Great Recession, said Cliff Robb, who teaches consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What a Giant Map of Fungus Tells Us About Climate Change

“When you talk about carbon cycles you really want to start thinking carefully about decomposers,” said Anne Pringle, a professor of botany and bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “A massive and coordinated effort to collect biodiversity data on a global scale is badly needed and will be very welcome”, she added, saying “there are good reasons to include all kinds of fungi in that effort.”

Loyalty to family — instead of CNN — puts Chris Cuomo at risk

While people can relate to wanting to help a family member, his primary obligation as a journalist is to CNN’s viewers, said Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. These revelations can damage CNN’s reputation, and all journalists, at a time people are already suspicious of the profession, she said.

US tracking of virus variants has improved after slow start

University of Wisconsin AIDS researcher David O’Connor noted: “We don’t have the sorts of interstate travel restrictions that would make it possible to contain the virus in any one place.”

‘Sad and angry and frustrated’: Black moms on the Rittenhouse verdict

“He was 17 at the time of the offense,” said Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin. “Having someone who looks like a child there might make some jurors see their younger selves in him or their children in him, and they might think, ‘What would my younger self have done or my son or daughter have done in his position?’”

Millennial Money: It’s OK to not buy stuff on Black Friday

“This time of year, there is a lot of pressure to consume happiness — to show your love through products,” says Christine Whelan, a clinical professor in the department of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

That Product Will Work Well for You. But for Me? Not So Much.

In the end, it’s useful to remember that it’s simply not possible for everyone to be correct in believing that products work better for others, yet our studies show that people reach this conclusion. We buy books for the pleasure or knowledge we expect them to impart, creams for the lines they will hopefully erase, and cooking classes to acquire new skills. Do these products work? When we buy them for ourselves, we hope so. When we buy them on behalf of others, we know so. If this sounds discouraging, take comfort in the abiding truth that when you believe others will benefit more from these products, everyone else feels exactly as you do.

-Dr. Polman is an associate professor of marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.