UW In The News

George Church: The complicated ethics of genetic engineering

Not everyone agrees. A 2017 survey at the University of Wisconsin-Madison asked 1,600 members of the general public about their attitudes toward gene editing. The results showed 65 percent of respondents think gene editing is acceptable for therapeutic purposes. But when it comes to whether scientists should use technology for genetic enhancement, only 26 percent agreed.

It’s long past time to give every child free lunch at school

Since the National School Lunch Program was created in 1946, it has had a flawed funding model that relies on children’s payments to supplement federal funding. This ultimately puts pressure on local school administrators to go after families with unpaid school lunch bills, or “lunch debt,” to balance budgets.

-Jennifer Gaddis is assistant professor of civil society and community studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools.”

Birds are getting smaller. Scientists see the echo of climate change.

Quoted: This could be especially problematic if birds are unable to adapt quickly enough in the face of global warming, said Stanley Temple, a professor emeritus of forests and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved with the study.

Remembrance Lake: In Japan, Climate Change Unravels 600 Years of History Held Dear

Quoted: More than 20 years ago, John Magnuson, a longtime researcher of inland waters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was scouring the world for climate observations taken before the 1840s when he remembered Suwa.

Madison, University Of Wisconsin Collaborate To Face Down Climate Change Future

The city of Madison is teaming up with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to identify the problems that come with climate change and ways to adapt to them.

Most Massive Black Hole in Nearby Universe With 40 Billion Solar Masses Discovered

Noted: The local universe is the section of the cosmos that can be observed in the most detail, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Astronomy. Thus most of our knowledge about the universe comes from this region.

Londinium Romans’ blood lead levels so high they may have lowered birth rates

Environmental health scientist Sean Scott of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues found that lead levels in bones taken from three cemeteries in Londinium may be more than 70 times higher than those in remains from pre-Roman Iron Age Britain.

Tariffs, NATO, Philippines: Your Tuesday Briefing

Quoted: “What the Chinese government is doing should be a warning to everybody who kind of goes along happily thinking, ‘How could anyone be worried about these technologies?’” said Pilar Ossorio, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Madison West High School Tries New Equation To Boost GPA

Quoted: Peter Goff, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said this sort of grading system could have potential for addressing the gap in graduation rates among white and black students.

Milwaukee Common Council Bans Plastic Straws

Quoted: Rebecca Klaper, a professor at the School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, told WPR that the push for straw bans came after a video of a sea turtle with a straw stuck in it’s nose went viral.

Could your next mobile phone wreck our weather forecasts?

Quoted: “It’s like an apartment building of sorts,” explains Jordan Gerth, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “There’s some general expectation that everybody keeps relatively quiet.

A Tight Job Market Insulates a Slowing Economy—and Perhaps Trump, Too

“Farmers had prepared themselves for three-year cycles, but not five,” said Mark Stephenson, director of Dairy Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Does ‘hazing’ work in keeping coyotes away from homes?

Quoted: The motivation behind those attacks is unclear. But David Drake, a wildlife biologist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Urban Canid Project, ventured a guess.

Could 5G and your next cell phone wreck our weather forecasts? It’s possible.

Quoted: “It’s like an apartment building of sorts,” explains Jordan Gerth, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “There’s some general expectation that everybody keeps relatively quiet.

2018 Sees Continued Downward Trend In Babies Born In Wisconsin

Quoted: “The number of births and the birth rates are at some of the lowest levels since the mid-70s. We haven’t seen this pattern for over 40 years,” said David Egan-Robertson with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Applied Population Lab.

How safe is vaping? New human studies assess chronic harm to heart and lungs

And given that e-cigarettes vary more than conventional cigarettes in their chemical composition, “We’re asking medical science to do a huge, heavy lift” to pinpoint health impacts across people, says James Stein, a preventive cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Interview: Cartoonist Lynda Barry, Author Of ‘Making Comics’

It’s always a surprise to see who the MacArthur Foundation selects to receive its annual fellowships — the six-figure awards known as Genius Grants — but one of this year’s picks was particularly exhilarating: comic artist Lynda Barry. For anyone who read alternative weeklies from the ’80s through the ’00s, she was the eternally wise and strange mind behind Ernie Pook’s Comeek.

Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame to induct three in 2020 class

The Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame will induct Stephen Born, Jens Jensen and Stanley Temple in its 2020 class.

Francis Wilkinson: This white Wisconsin county has no time for Trump

Quoted: Dane County’s prosperity appears to drive both Democratic votes despite Democratic support for higher taxes on the affluent and rural conservative resentment. University of Wisconsin political scientist Katherine Cramer spent years meeting with small groups of residents in rural Wisconsin.

Doctors Underscore Cannabis Risks For Some Users As Legalization Expands

“Children and adolescents are really the place we have to look the most,” said Dr. Angela Janis, director of psychiatry for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s University Health Services.

Bloomberg News will avoid investigating Mike Bloomberg during his presidential campaign

Quoted: But Bloomberg News’s safeguards may not be enough to avoid perceptions of conflicts, said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, who directs the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Flu ‘wonder drug’ may cause the virus to dangerously mutate

However, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found worrying evidence that, in the process of banishing the virus, the drug may cause it to mutate while it is still infectious, and that drug-resistant mutation can be passed on to others.

UW-Madison Saw Second Highest Big Ten Voter Turnout In 2018

The University of Wisconsin-Madison had the second highest voter turnout in 2018 of any Big Ten university in the nation. With the help of a concerted volunteer effort to increase political engagement, voting increased on campus by nearly 20 percent compared with turnout in 2014.

The Last Time America Turned Away From the World

One hundred years ago, on Nov. 19, 1919, Alice Roosevelt Longworth threw a late-night party. Longworth, the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt and wife of Nicholas Longworth, the future speaker of the House, was celebrating the defeat in the Senate that day of the Treaty of Versailles, which encapsulated President Woodrow Wilson’s grand project for world peace, the League of Nations.

How MacArthur ‘genius’ Lynda Barry is exploring brain creativity with true artists: Preschoolers

As an associate professor of interdisciplinary creativity at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Barry is pushing the envelope on understanding how the brain creates and responds to words and pictures — a scholarly envelope that, in her mind, should be positively covered with illuminating doodles.

Kamala Harris’ claim about typical dad paying higher taxes than 400 richest families is Mostly False

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky praised the study, but called Harris’ claim misleading.

Revealed: Bayer AG discussed plans to give not-for-profit funding for influence

Quoted: Kathleen Bartzen Culver, who leads the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said any arrangement in which a funder is given influence into and journalistic endeavors, education and awards is improper.

What happens when college students discuss lab work in Spanish, philosophy in Chinese or opera in Italian? – The Washington Post

Quoted: “I don’t understand the conceptual model for global competence that leaves language out,” said Dianna L. Murphy, director of the Language Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

American Trust in Scientists Remains Stable—Despite “Demonstrated Growth” in Conspiracy Theories

“Over and over again, scientists are at the top of trustworthy professions,” said Dominque Brossard, a professor of life sciences communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and senior author of the report, in a statement.

Report: Milwaukee, Racine Rank As Worst Cities For African Americans To Live

Quoted: Pamela Oliver, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she has studied incarceration rates across the state.