UW In The News

How parents can help themselves, and their children, feel okay again

Parents can talk about their child’s personal growth and say, “ ‘I’ve been thinking how great it was that you found ways to stay connected to your friends,’ ” says Seth Pollak, a professor in the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “A child may not have the meta-awareness to reflect in that way, but you can help them develop a self-concept of, ‘I’m a person who handles things.’ ”

Wisconsin leads nation in imprisonment rates of Black people

Further, prosecution rates are higher and plea deals are lower for Black residents, said Ion Meyn, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The new faces of Covid deaths

“This has become a disease of the unimmunized,” said Dr. James Conway, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and associate director for health sciences at the school’s Global Health Institute.

Kyle Rittenhouse’s Homicide Trial Will Be a Debate Over Self-Defense

“It’s a battle of the narratives,” said Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin. “People will either see this as a young man who came across state lines with a weapon intending to do trouble, or people will come with the belief that he came here with a medical kit and attempted to defend the law and defend people.”

Most Americans Likely Qualify for COVID-19 Booster Per CDC Guidelines

“The guidelines are unnecessarily complex, but there is a fair degree of latitude,” David O’Connor, a pathology professor at the University of Wisconsin, told Insider.

Charleston Saver Coupon Book Spread Conspiracies and Sparked Furious Backlash

But Anuj Desai, an expert on the intersection of free-speech law and the usage of the U.S. postal system at the University of Wisconsin Law School, explains that the mail is considered a conduit for the free flow of ideas. In other words, the First Amendment protects people’s ability to mail out even baseless conspiracies and falsehoods freely.

Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial in Kenosha begins this week

The case “represents that clash of our polarized politics,” said Keith A. Findley, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin.

Kyle Rittenhouse: Teen’s homicide trial for Kenosha shootings opens with jury selection

“It’s a pretty substantial burden for the prosecution to do that and I think that’s going to be where the real challenge for them lies,” said John Gross, a clinical associate professor and the director of the Public Defender Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

Those chosen to sit on the jury will be tasked with assessing the reasonableness of Rittenhouse’s actions that night.”We want the jury to be a check on the power of the state and to enforce community norms,” said Cecelia Klingele, an associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So when the law requires that force is used reasonably, we want our community to decide what is or isn’t reasonable.”

COVID Booster Shots: Experts Share Advice They Give Friends and Family

David O’Connor, a pathology professor at the University of Wisconsin, said there’s little downside to adults of all ages getting a booster.

Kyle Rittenhouse Shooting Trial to Focus on Reasonableness, Self-Defense

Ultimately, the case will be decided by the jury based on their assessment of the reasonableness of Mr. Rittenhouse’s actions, said Cecelia Klingele, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

Rittenhouse judge in spotlight after disallowing word ‘victims’ in courtroom

Keith Findley, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin and a former public defender, said that while the order is more of a “defense-friendly position,” it’s not entirely unjustified, because it would “allow the prosecution to continually use language that suggests a conclusion as if it’s a given fact to jurors.”

Why people shot by Kyle Rittenhouse can be called “rioters” and “looters” but not “victims” at trial

Findley explained the judge is differentiating the facts of the case from the questions the jury must answer. Since Rittenhouse is claiming he acted in self-defense, the question is not who shot three people, killing two of them, but rather if Rittenhouse was justified in defending himself out of fear of bodily harm. If his lawyers can show he had reason to believe the men were each engaged in activities such as looting, rioting and arson at the time, that could sway the jury to accept Rittenhouse’s defense.

What kind of costs can unvaccinated workers ring up for a business?

“You know, there are a lot of downstream decisions that need to be made,” said Margie Rosenberg, professor of risk and insurance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said this is where calculating costs starts to involve some prediction, planning and math.

Influencers aren’t going anywhere. So what does that mean for today’s teens?

“Media influence on young people is something that’s been known for years,” Ellen Selkie, an adolescent medicine specialist and researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Mashable. “But I think the thing with influencers that is additional is that there is a development of a para-social relationship with the influencer.”

Should young children be made to wear face masks?

But other experts are skeptical of how much of an impediment masks really are. “Faces aren’t necessarily the only or the most important cue to someone else’s emotions,” says Ashley Ruba, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Child Emotion Lab. There are other vital signals too, she says, “things like tone of voice, body posture, and overall social situation”.

We Need to Ground Truth Assumptions about Gene Therapy

Emily Howell, a science communication expert at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, says that the trust part happens when researchers meet people where they are by asking about their concerns, their hopes and their fears. Howell, who studies how to communicate controversial topics such as fracking and gene editing, says starting with emotions and values rather than with facts and figures can help to foster trust. People tend to trust someone when that person not only is competent but also seems to care about the same things as they do, Howell says.

Ancient-DNA Researchers Set Ethics Guidelines for Their Work

“I will say that it’s encouraging to see a group of scientists like this say we have talked about this standard of behavior and we’re willing to agree to it,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved with the paper. “It’s a step forward for them to say at least we’re going to follow the law.

Yes, There Has Been Progress on Climate. No, It’s Not Nearly Enough.

“We know there are these big tipping points in the climate system, and once we get past them, it’s too late to go back,” said Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison who co-authored a study finding that a 3 degree trajectory could lead to an abrupt jump in the rate of Antarctic melt as early as 2060.

Will eliminating quantitative popularity on Instagram actually make it safe for kids?

Megan Moreno, a principal investigator of the Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team at the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Mashable that there’s space to try out what we can to make social media safer. While she thinks the idea of fully eliminating quantitative popularity is “an interesting idea,” she is “not hugely optimistic that it will make a gigantic difference.” That’s because the idea of likes is so engrained in our society already, that the concept will be there if it’s turned off or not. And, she adds, popularity isn’t completely numerical.

The Pay Gap for Women Starts With a Responsibility Gap

In fact, our research and research by others shows conclusively that women do ask for higher salaries as often as men do—sometimes more. They’re just not getting the same results. A 2018 study from the University of Wisconsin examined the propensity to ask for salary bumps among 4,600 employees across 800 Australian workplaces and found no gender difference, but men who asked got raises 20% of the time compared with 15% of women.

Thousands of missed police killings prove we must address systemic bias in forensic science

Peter Neufeld is a co-founder of the Innocence Project. Keith Findley is a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Dean Strang is a criminal defense lawyer and law professor at Loyola University Chicago. Findley and Strang are also co-founders of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences.

A new study from the University of Washington concludes that, over nearly 40 years, medical examiners and coroners undercounted killings by U.S. police by more than half. During that time, these officials missed or covered up more than 17,000 police killings between 1980 and 2018.

VendRx sounds convenient. But it could pervert physician incentives.

In the years that followed, some patients continued to buy certain drugs from their doctors, and some pharmacists continued to compound medications. But, as regulation increased, the diverse pharmaceutical market began to consolidate. With that transition, said Lucas Richert, a historian of pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pharmacists began “moving away from this role of compounders, and moving into a role where they are offering pharmaceutical services in their own shops.”

‘Lurching Between Crisis and Complacency’: Was This Our Last Covid Surge?

“We’re in a shoulder season, where it’s cooler in the South than it is in the middle of the summer and it’s warmer in the North than it is in the middle of the winter,” said David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

HHMI devotes $2 billion to boost diversity in biomedical sciences

“It is a disservice to fund individuals to come into environments that continue to drive them away,” said Angela Byars-Winston, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health who led a 2019 National Academy of Science study on effective mentoring in STEM fields. “We know there are things institutions can do to change the environment instead of focusing on students who are not broken.”

Wisconsin GOP review of 2020 election beset by blunders from former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman

“I do think it’s harmful,” Barry C. Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said of the review. “It’s obviously amateurish and uncoordinated and irresponsible and open-ended and partisan. The people who are leading the effort have already decided they think the election was fraudulent, or they’re distrustful of the outcome. It’s a violation of all the standards you’d use in a usual election audit or review the state might do.”

UW-Madison secures $20 million donation for new classroom building

Vaccine hesitant New Yorkers consider leaving the city as mandates take effect

“We can’t expect that medical systems who have earned the mistrust of many marginalized groups will now be trusted because of Covid. It doesn’t work that way,” said Tiffany Green, a population health scientist and economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As more colleges require COVID-19 vaccinations, one is finding success without mandate

Getting vaccinated on campus at the University of Wisconsin in Madison is relatively normal.

“I think is in the best interest of everyone, not just here on campus but in the larger Dane County community for students to be vaccinated,” said Sam Kuchta, a senior at the university.

Dorland v. Larson: On the Legal Disputes at the Heart of “Bad Art Friend”

The New York Times dropped jaws with a tea-spilling article detailing an ongoing six-year dispute between a white writer who donated a kidney and a writer of color who wrote a short story inspired by the donation. Dawn Dorland and Sonya Larson now find themselves deep into contentious litigation with no end in sight.

Why 2021’s college sophomores are the new freshman

With so many colleges going virtual last year, many sophomores are on campus for the first time. But it’s different — a lot still feel like freshman. Colleges set up programs to get them caught up.