UW In The News

What Meditation Does To Your Brain When You’re Annoyed, According To Experts

“We begin to see stabilization of changes in the brain after 1,000 to 1,500 hours of meditation practice,” Dr. Richard Davidson, PhD, William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the founder of the Center for Healthy Minds, tells Bustle. “You can think of it as learning a musical instrument; if you got 24 hours of training in playing the violin, you still wouldn’t be very good at playing it.”

An all-woman team will edit the flagship political science journal this year. Here’s why that matters. – The Washington Post

In a bold move, the American Political Science Association recently appointed us — a team of 12 women — to edit the flagship journal of the discipline of political science, the American Political Science Review (APSR).

Aili Mari Tripp is Wangari Maathai Professor of political science and gender & women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Latest Wolf Count Provides Further Evidence Wisconsin’s Wolf Population Is Stabilizing

Quoted: Some scientists argue the state hasn’t been fully transparent or allowed independent verification of Wisconsin’s wolf count since 2012, including Adrian Treves, professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW-Madison ranked 23rd best university in country by Washington Monthly magazine

Hot Toddy: Can This Home Remedy Really Cure Your Cold?

Hot liquids help move mucus and germs out of your system. They “increase the mucociliary clearance rate,” explains Bruce Barrett, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the department of family medicine and community health at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Basically, it helps your body sweep mucus and germs out of your body.

First day of school: Teaching jobs go unfilled at rural schools

Quoted: In fact, said University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Peter Goff, who has studied teacher retention in rural areas, educators value strong support systems, good school leadership and welcoming communities just as much as higher pay.

Five ways parents can help their kids transition smoothly to middle school

Quoted: If a new sixth-grader has no one to sit with in the lunchroom one day or bombs a test, “they may start to question whether they fit in socially or can succeed academically,” notes Geoffrey Borman, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Borman and Rozek conducted research to see whether it was possible to bolster kids’ sense of belonging by underscoring that all students have difficulty at the start of middle school but eventually feel better.

As U.S. Jews Cool To Israel, Evangelicals Flock There As Tourists

Quoted: Hummel, who spent a year in Israel researching his book and now teaches in the history department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the tours designed for evangelicals generally have minimal contact with Palestinians, even with Palestinian Christians.

Where Trump Stands on Israel

Quoted: Among Christians, “it’s much more of a culture-wars mentality,” says Dan Hummel, a historian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who studies Christian Zionism. “It’s about winning and maintaining power.”

Just Ask Us: Why don’t undocumented immigrants who marry citizens automatically become citizens?

In the War Against Gerrymandering, an Army of Voters Meets a Dug-in Foe

Quoted: The reason is obvious, said Kenneth Mayer, a University of Wisconsin political scientist and an expert on gerrymandered maps: Nonbinding referendums and resolutions — even those with overwhelming public support — are the equivalent of Nerf guns in a political battle that demands heavy artillery.

Wisconsin Sees Drop In Opioid Deaths

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine also oversees a statewide network where peer counselors in emergency rooms around the state urge overdose patients to consider treatment. Since 2017, the ED2 Recovery program has discussed treatment with 559 individuals; most were willing to try efforts to break their addiction; 4 percent were not.

Wisconsin Corn Farmers Facing More Market Uncertainty After USDA Planting Report

Paul Mitchell, director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the numbers make up a significant amount of the state’s typical corn and soybean production.

State Health Officials Confirm New Cases Of Vaping-Related Lung Disease | Wisconsin Public Radio

Doug Jorenby, the director of clinical cervices for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Tobacco Research, says the cases are unusual and it might be difficult to find out what products the patients used.

The Classic Novel That Is Most Often Abandoned By Readers

Quoted: Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematician and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, devised his own way of calculating a book’s unreadability, which he dubbed the Hawking Index.

Skulls Analyzed From The Mayan Sacred Cenote Show That Human Sacrifices Were Sourced From Far And Wide Across Mexico

The study published in American Journal of Physical Anthropology Magazine in July of 2019 by T. Douglas Price et al. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that the birthplaces of the individuals varied from near their final resting places in the still waters of the Sacred Cenote (pronounced say-NO-tay) and from far across Mexico and beyond, indicating that the Mayan network extended across thousands of miles.

What Meditation Looks Like In Your Brain, According To Experts

Quoted: “If meditation just produces changes when you’re meditating, it’s like a drug, and it would wear off — and what would be the point of that?” Dr. Richard Davidson, PhD, the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds, tells Bustle.

Five myths about corn

Quoted: According to Bill Tracy, an agronomy professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, none of the canned or frozen corn at the grocery store is GMO. (Because labeling standards established by the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law aren’t compulsory until January 2022, stores don’t have to indicate which corn on the cob is GMO.) As of 2018, only about 10 percent of the sweet-corn acreage planted in the United States and Canada was genetically modified.

Climate change is amplifying deadly heatwaves

A 2018 study written by Limaye and his former colleagues found that climate change would lead to thousands more heat-related deaths in the eastern United States by the middle of the century.

UN Report: Agriculture Must Change To Reduce Effects Of Climate Change

The way soil is managed can have a big impact on carbon in the atmosphere, according to Thea Whitman, assistant professor of soil science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Reversal Took Three Times Longer Than Thought

In their paper published today in Science Advances, Brad Singer of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his colleagues calculate that Earth’s last magnetic field reversal took roughly 22,000 years.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Went Completely Haywire During Last Reversal and Took 22,000 Years to Get Back to Normal

In a study published in Science Advances, a team led by Brad Singer, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, looked at lava flows to trace back the last major reversal and find out how long it took.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Could Take Longer to Flip Than Previously Thought

“[Polarity reversal] is one of the few geophysical phenomena that is truly global,” says Brad Singer, professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and lead author of the study.

Earth’s Last Magnetic-Pole Flip Took Much Longer Than We Thought

“We found that the last reversal was more complex, and initiated within the Earth’s outer core earlier, than previously thought,” lead study author Bradley Singer, a professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Space.com.

Earth’s roaming magnetic poles create longer periods of instability, study says

“Reversals are generated in the deepest parts of the Earth’s interior, but the effects manifest themselves all the way through the Earth and especially at the Earth’s surface and in the atmosphere,” said Brad Singer, study author and University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist. “Unless you have a complete, accurate and high-resolution record of what a field reversal really is like at the surface of the Earth, it’s difficult to even discuss what the mechanics of generating a reversal are.”

Major surgeries linked to small decline in mental functioning in older age

“Our data suggest that, on average, major surgery is associated with only a small cognitive ‘hit,’” said Dr. Robert Sanders, an assistant professor in the department of anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the study’s senior author.

Retailer, Legal Expert Say Legal Clarity Needed For Wisconsin’s CBD Industry

Quoted: Jeff Glazer, an attorney and clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, said state law creates a straightforward process for how to legally grow hemp, but it doesn’t provide enough clarity on manufacturing and retail of hemp products.

Is an adversarial justice system compatible with good science?

Quoted: Keith A. Findley, Center for Integrity in Forensic Science, University of Wisconsin Law School: I would urge some caution on the idea of court-appointed experts. While independent, court-appointed experts can sometimes be helpful to minimize the bias inherent in the adversarial process, it is dangerous to think that a court-appointed expert or experts will necessarily reflect true neutrality or truth in science.

Trump’s China Problem Is That a Weak Yuan Is a Strong Weapon

Quoted: “If he’s trying to encourage jobs and producing things here by taking away from other countries, the tariff could in principle do that, but it’s got to inflict pain upon somebody,” says Menzie Chinn, a professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

UW research ‘angels’ help find and identify American MIAs

Tens of thousands of American service members never returned home.

People who pulled on American uniforms, raised their right hand to support and defend the Constitution before dying in foreign lands and waters far from their homes, and worried families who never got the chance to bury their loved ones.

But the missing in action have not been forgotten. Not by a nation that sent them to war and not by a dedicated group of volunteers and researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.