UW In The News

Big dairy wants you to know vegan ‘butter’ isn’t actual butter

Quoted: Bob Bradley, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Department of Food Science and author of two books on the topic of butter, said in an interview that such products are mislabeled. “It is not butter,” he said flatly.

With New Senior Center, Wausau YMCA Seeks to Expand Definition of Health

Noted: Dr. Amy Kind is a physician and Ph.D.-trained researcher in geriatrics with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She studies the way people’s environment affects their well-being. That can mean the ways housing or income-levels in a neighborhood can affect population health. She said another big factor in her aging patients’ health is their ability to maintain social connections.

Setback in Wisconsin Forces Democrats to Study Next Move

Quoted: Similar moves haven’t yet been seen in Democratic-controlled legislatures with incoming Republican governors, said Howard Schweber, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Now that it’s an established strategy, I’m sure we’ll see it again,” he said.

12th man on moon says it’s time to go back

Quoted: Schmitt, 83, one of just four moonwalkers still alive, remains active in the scientific community. He’s currently an associate fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the user advisory group for the National Space Council, revived by President Donald Trump in 2017 for the first time since it was dissolved in 1993.

Russian Biologist Plans More CRISPR-Edited Babies

Quoted: Alta Charo, a researcher in bioethics and law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says Rebrikov’s plans are not an ethical use of the technology. “It is irresponsible to proceed with this protocol at this time,” adds Charo, who sits on a World Health Organization committee that is formulating ethical governance policies for human genome editing.

Telecoms Providers Are Bracing for the Impact of Climate Change

Meanwhile, a 2018 study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that more than 4,000 fiber optic cabling will be submerged underwater.

Russian biologist plans more CRISPR-edited babies

Quoted: Alta Charo, a researcher in bioethics and law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says Rebrikov’s plans are not an ethical use of the technology. “It is irresponsible to proceed with this protocol at this time,” adds Charo, who sits on a World Health Organization committee that is formulating ethical governance policies for human genome editing.

The Elderly Are Getting Complex Surgeries. Often It Doesn’t End Well.

Without clear understandings, things can go very wrong in the hospital. Consider this account from Dr. Gretchen Schwarze, a vascular surgeon and ethicist at the University of Wisconsin.

Scientists Feel Chill of Crackdown on Fetal Tissue Research

Quoted: “I predict over time we will see a slow and steady elimination of federal funding for research that uses fetal tissue, regardless of how necessary it is,” said University of Wisconsin law professor Alta Charo, a nationally recognized bioethics expert.

1984 Barneveld tornado: Deadly Wisconsin storm killed 9, injured 200

Barneveld became part of a landmark study of tornado debris by University of Wisconsin-Madison meteorology professor Charles Anderson. In the days following Barneveld’s tornado, Anderson and his students placed ads in newspapers, conducted a ground survey and a mail and phone campaign seeking information on the fallout of debris.

The Reason Why So Many American Families Are in Debt

In their paper published in the journal Pediatrics in 2016, they wrote that high mortgage and student loan debt didn’t have the same negative impact on parents’ and kids’ well-being as credit card or medical bill debt, says lead author Lawrence M. Berger, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and professor and doctoral program chair in the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

‘Reaching end game’: New paper on climate change raises alarm

Quoted: Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA Today the technology for a carbon-free economic system is already in place.

Growing number of Latinos broaden labor’s mission, political power

Quoted: Armando Ibarra, chair of the Chicano and Latino Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of The Latino Question: Politics, Laboring Classes and the Next Left, says union power extends beyond the workplace.

Opinion | Save Our Food. Free the Seed.

Noted: Bill Tracy leads the sweet corn program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His work is intended to help the state’s corn farmers.

Carrots have just one land-grant breeder: Irwin Goldman at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Beto O’Rourke Wants To Increase Voter Registration. But Can It Work?

Quoted: If all 50 states did participate, O’Rourke’s goal of 50 million new registered voters seems plausible, according to Barry Burden, professor of political science and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It would require 21% of eligible voters to register.

Everyone’s got a climate plan. So where’s the carbon tax?

Quoted: But other green technologies have achieved lower costs and more widespread adoption precisely because of the relatively free movement of ideas, people and production, as University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Gregory F. Nemet notes in his new book, “How Solar Energy Became Cheap.”

Australian policy paper predicts climate change apocalypse by 2050

Quoted: Jonathan Patz, a physician and director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA Today that he has studied the health effects of global warming for two decades.

How internet ghost stories take on a life of their own

Quoted: Humans have always told stories as a way to connect, share our past, and look into the future, says Robert Glenn Howard, Director of Digital Studies and professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

You Don’t Have to Turn on Your Oven for This Delicious Beet Dip

Noted: If love is a kind of deep knowledge, then it’s possible no one loves beets more than Irwin Goldman, a professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Everyone Knows Money Influences Politics … Except Scientists

Quoted: “It is kind of a ‘duh,” said Eleanor Neff Powell, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She’s one of many researchers who have found evidence that money and politics are linked, just like American voters always suspected. McKay isn’t the first scientist to show that the two forces connect outside the roll-call vote.

UW researchers make robot’s hands work together, a breakthrough crucial to multiple tasks

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a new way of mimicking the complex coordination between our two arms and hands, a development that could one day help robots defuse bombs and allow nurses to care for patients thousands of miles away.

People With Depression May Face A Higher Risk Of Chronic Illnesses, A New Study Suggests

Stress reduction techniques, such as meditation and deep breathing, getting some exercise into your routine, and optimizing your sleep at night can help, the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says. Turmeric, fresh produce, and probiotics are also considered anti-inflammatory foods, as Annakeara Stinson previously wrote for Bustle.

How Korea was divided and why the aftershocks still haunt us today

New missile tests in North Korea have put the region back in the spotlight. The tests portend trouble ahead for President Trump’s extremely ambitious Korean agenda no matter how much confidence he has in Kim Jung Un.

–David P. Fields is the associate director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin and the author of “Foreign Friends: Syngman Rhee, American Exceptionalism, and the Division of Korea.”

US rollback of protected areas risks emboldening others, scientists warn

Noted: Around the world, protected areas appear to be facing increasing threats from industrial-scale developers, said Lisa Naughton-Treves, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new report.

Debate rages over 5G impact on US weather forecasting

Quoted: Jordan Gerth, a meteorologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that the water-vapour signal lies in the spectrum band between 23.6 and 24 GHz and that 5G transmissions could easily leak into that range.  “It would be like noisy neighbours moving in next door with a very loud transmitter,” he told Physics World.

NBC Nightly News’ annual commencement tradition

Features commencement speaker J.J. Watt

Breaking: robot makes breakfast

The research team led by Daniel Rakita from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, set out to find a way to replicate the so-called “gestalt” effect of human two-handed movement, in which arms and hands move together to achieve what each individual limb cannot do alone.

The Secret To Safe Swimming: Traffic Lights?

Yuli Liu, a PhD candidate in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, helped develop the device.

Wisconsin’s Middle Class Sees Growth But Lags Pre-Recession Levels

Quoted: “We used to expect the middle class to grow. That was kind of a given. And we’ve had nearly 20 years where it hasn’t,” said Laura Dresser, associate director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a progressive policy institute on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus.

Abortion: Supreme Court has overturned more than 200 of its own decisions

Quoted: CNN spoke to Ryan Owens, a professor from the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Paul Schiff Berman, a professor from the George Washington University Law School, to outline some of these cases.