UW In The News

Delta Forces Hospitals Across U.S. to Ration Scarce ICU Beds

Truly stopping transmission would require about 90% vaccination, impossible to achieve, because children under 12 aren’t eligible for a shot, said Ajay Sethi, an associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin.

Studying poverty through a child’s eyes

Researchers studying how poverty and adversity affect children’s development often track how negative experiences — be they poverty itself or factors such as having an incarcerated parent — affect decision-making, stress levels or aspects of brain function. But Seth Pollak, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, says that most of these efforts miss a crucial but long-overlooked component: children’s perceptions of their experiences.

Pollak spoke with Knowable Magazine about the importance of studying individual differences in experience.

UW-Madison will require masks indoors regardless of vaccination status

New Division of the Arts director Chris Walker plans to support art and student activism

If They Say They Know, They Don’t Know: A principle for understanding which experts to trust, including the CDC.

Written by Jordan Ellenberg, a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin and the author of Shape and How Not to Be Wrong.

Farmers markets are growing their role as essential sources of healthy food for rich and poor

Written by Edna Ledesma, Assistant Professor of Planning and Landscape Architecture, and Alfonso Morales, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Planning and Landscape Architecture, University of Wisconsin-Madison

A reason to be optimistic about our democracy: Students are flocking to public policy programs

Written by Susan Yackee, director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs and a Collins-Bascom Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at UW-Madison.

How Olympians Are Fighting to Put Athletes’ Mental Health First

“Five years ago, mental health among elite athletes was not a very often-discussed topic,” says Dr. Claudia Reardon, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. If there was any focus on athletes’ mental health, it centered around performance and ways to optimize results on the field. “Most of the emphasis when it came to mental health was around sports psychology and performance, and offering resources to help you perform at your highest level,” says Ross. “Occasionally in the health history [questionnaire] there might be some questions about mental health but they were sort of hidden, and weren’t prominent.”

Bill O’Reilly accuser’s appearance on ‘The View’ stopped by order

That’s a potential conflict of interest, raising the question of whether Falzone’s experience with Fox would affect her independence, said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said it would be wrong to suggest Falzone can’t write about these issues, but it’s questionable for her to write about them when it concerns Fox.

Small farms vanish every day in America’s dairyland: ‘There ain’t no future in dairy’

Mark Stephenson, the director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the industry definitely has a lot of challenges but is nowhere near extinction.“We’ve produced record amounts of milk in the last year or two. It’s being consumed. Most of it domestically, but increasingly with exports,” said Stephenson.

Hardy Microbes Hint at Possibilities for Extraterrestrial Life

Extremophile research was pioneered by the late Thomas Brock, a microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He found, against all expectations, that certain hardy microbes could thrive in geothermal springs hot enough to poach an egg. The microbiologist’s curiosity led to the isolation of a molecule—from a heat-loving bacterium—that is now used in labs across the world to amplify and sequence DNA. Brock passed away in April, but his legacy lives on.

U.S. companies that paid little or no income taxes support taxpayer-funded infrastructure deals

Fabio Gaertner, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was also not surprised by the corporate behavior.

LGBTQ patients face bias at the doctor’s office. Here’s how a first-of-its-kind fellowship at UW medical school aims to change that.

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will be the first site to host a new national fellowship that aims to make the doctor’s office more supportive of LGBTQ patients.

UW to start LGBTQ+ fellowship program for doctors

Post-Covid, office wear and other clothing get a rethink as we all try to remember how to dress

“I expect to see lots of color,” agreed Gail Brassard, who taught costume design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Covid was such a life-changing event — like war or an economic crash — that its effects will be profound on all visuals and especially in the arts.”

New UW clinic to use latest genetic technology to help patients with unknown diseases

Twelve years after scientists in Wisconsin delved into all the genes of a young Monona boy, diagnosed a new disease and saved the child’s life, a new clinic will try to do the same for scores of other people suffering from mysterious illnesses.

Why diverse children’s books are important tools for teaching kids about themselves and others

Includes interview with KT Horning, director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the School of Education.

Notes from a Transplant Surgeon

Guest Dr. Joshua Mezrich, an associate Director of Surgery at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, shares insights from his book, “When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon.”

UW-Madison collects relics from COVID-19 to document the pandemic on campus

Wisconsin’s gray wolves are in serious trouble

The aim of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was to have a hunting season that “resulted in no annual increase or decrease in the state’s wolf population.” Wolf hunts are annual events where hunters congregate to hunt the animals for sport, though this practice has become controversial in many countries. However, that no change in the wolf’s population goal was not met, says Adrian Treves, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and coauthor of the new findings.

After COVID-19 Successes, Researchers Push to Develop mRNA Vaccines for Other Diseases

In 1990, the late physician-scientist Jon Wolff and his University of Wisconsin colleagues injected mRNA into mice, which caused cells in the mice to produce the encoded proteins. In many ways, that work served as the first step toward making a vaccine from mRNA, but there was a long way to go—and there still is, for many applications.

Blackfishing: Here’s what it is and why people are doing it

Leslie Bow, a professor of Asian American studies at the University of Wisconsin, describes Blackfishing as “a racial masquerade that operates as a form of racial fetishism.”

Wildfires threaten all of the West — and one group more than others

“People know the risk, and that’s been a little bit of a wake-up call to ecologists like myself,” said Volker Radeloff, a fire ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

The economic toll of having your criminal record in the news

“What the AP has done here is say, ‘Well, we can still report on these cases. But can we really justify the harm that’s being done to people when the case is just a minor crime?’” said Katy Culver, the James E. Burgess Chair in Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Self-powered biodegradable patch zaps broken bones to heal them

Seeking a simpler, less invasive alternative, a team led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Prof. Xudong Wang created a self-powered electrical patch that is surgically placed onto a bone-break site, but that is harmlessly absorbed by the body once its job is done. It’s called the fracture electrostimulation device, or FED.

We Are on Track for a Planet-Wide, Climate-Driven Landscape Makeover

Scientists debate what this floral rearrangement will look like. In some places, it may take place quietly and be easily ignored. In others, though, it could be one of the changing climate’s most consequential and disruptive effects. “There’s a whole lot more of this we can expect over the next decades,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoecologist Jack Williams. “When people talk about wildfires out West, about species moving upslope—to me, this is just the beginning.”

Hunters killed as many as one-third of Wisconsin’s wolves since November, study finds

Poaching and a February hunt that far exceeded kill quotas were largely responsible for the drop-off, University of Wisconsin scientists said, though some other scientists say more direct evidence is needed for some of the calculations.

Up To Third Of Wisconsin’s Wolves Killed After Removal From Endangered Species List

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimated in a new study between 313 to 323 wolves were likely killed by humans between April 2020 and April 2021. Adrian Treves, a professor at UW-Madison and a lead author of the study, said the figures should raise concerns about further hunting seasons in the state.

‘It’s Science Fiction Until it Isn’t.’ UW-Madison Joins Global Institute To Help Prepare For, Prevent Future Pandemics

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has joined an international effort to create a pandemic prevention institute aimed at helping researchers, public health officials and governments respond quickly to future pandemics.

Ballots and voting equipment are moved again as review of 2020 election drags on in Arizona’s Maricopa County

In addition, a new report published last week and co-authored by former Kentucky secretary of state Trey Grayson, a Republican, and University of Wisconsin Professor Barry C. Burden concluded that the Arizona procedures “deviate significantly from standard practices for election reviews and audits” and that any findings are “suspect and should not be trusted.”