UW In The News

What Is the World to Do About Gene-Editing?

Quoted: This can be seen in what the University of Wisconsin bioethicist Alta Charo, an author of the 2017 NASEM report, both observes and endorses as the “yellow light” approach to regulating “technology [that] innovates faster than the regulatory system can adapt.”

Climate change is taking a toll on the $20 billion ski industry

Tonight’s spring equinox “supermoon,” explained in one chart

Quoted: A supermoon is when these two cycles match up and we have a full moon that’s near its perigee. The result is that the full “super” moon appears slightly larger and slightly brighter in the sky. This occurs about one in every 14 full moons, Jim Lattis, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin Madison, notes.

The return of internet nationalism

Quoted: According to Paul Barford, an internet topology expert at the University of Wisconsin who worked on the Internet Atlas, Russia’s plan is almost certainly part of an attempt to defend itself against what he calls a “cyber cold war.”

UW-Madison scientists make key discovery on protein that’s a major focus of cancer research

New work by two University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers provides crucial insight into a major medical mystery: how a protein that normally protects cells from tumors is induced to abandon its mission.

UW scientists discover pathway behind common cancer gene

UW-Madison researchers have discovered one way a gene that usually protects against tumors can, when mutated, spur cancers of the breast, ovaries, lung and bladder.

Muslim Students Host Vigil for New Zealand Victims

Devastated, yet motivated to come together, Muslim University of Wisconsin students Mouna Algahaithi and Ali Khan hosted a vigil just 12 hours later with the Muslim Student Association at the Multicultural Student Center, where the staff were more than willing to provide space and services. The Assistant Director of Leadership and Involvement, Maria Ahmad, assisted in inviting University Health Services mental health counselors, as well. Over 50 staff, students, and community members from various religious backgrounds gathered to honor the fallen victims.

When America’s Love of the Open Frontier Hit a Wall

The first person to articulate the frontier thesis was a University of Wisconsin historian who was little regarded at the time, Frederick Jackson Turner.

Exposing Baby to Foods Early May Help Prevent Allergies

“There’s no reason to restrict early introduction to allergenic foods,” said a co-author of a new clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Dr. Frank Greer. He’s a professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Would You Give Your Kidney to a Stranger?

“She will donate her kidney. It will fly somewhere else in the country. Then that patient’s donor will have a kidney go on a plane to somewhere else,” UW Health transplant surgeon Dr. Josh Mezrich explained to “To the Best of Our Knowledge” host Anne Strainchamps.

Governors vs. senators: Hickenlooper, Inslee will test old theory

“In 2016, the Democrats had one of the most experienced candidates ever. That failed,” said Barry  Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist who has written about the advantages governors hold in presidential races. “That might cause the party to rethink the value of experience, and especially Washington experience.”

Wisconsin Farmers Expected To Take On More Debt Despite Improved Income

But Steven Deller, agricultural and applied economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it won’t offset the 17.8 percent decline in farm income last year.

Insects could be an untapped source of new antibiotic drugs

“The insects are doing the searching for us,” added co-author of the study, Cameron Currie, a bacteriologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Power and Science of Forgiveness

Quoted: In addition, as noted by Bob Enright, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who has studied forgiveness for decades, true forgiveness includes empathy and compassion toward the injuring individual before you can forgive completely.

Fact-checking Bernie Sanders on a $15 minimum wage

Quoted: Timothy Smeeding, a professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin, said the study is incomplete because it only counts the benefits and not the drawbacks.

Hiding in Plain Sight: PAC-Connected Activists Set Up ‘Local News’ Outlets

Quoted: The issue, according to Kathleen Bartzen Culver, the director for the Center of Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is disguising conservative activism as journalism. “I have no problem with advocacy organizations creating content that reinforces the positions they take on public policy issues on the left, right or center. The issue comes in when they’re not transparent about that advocacy,” Culver told us via phone.

Wisconsin has nation’s highest rate of deadly falls among older adults

“It’s multi-factorial,” said Dr. Jane Mahoney, a UW-Madison geriatrician who has done extensive research on falls. “You add in alcohol, winter weather … reporting differences … those all play a role.”

North Carolina election fraud: Mitch McConnell’s dishonest spin

Quoted: “If the rationale were to prevent voter fraud, it would focus on absentee ballots,” said Barry Burden from the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the time. “The consensus is fraud is more common among mail ballots.”

Ancient poop is helping archaeologists understand a midwestern city’s demise

“In the ancient world, there were other places people could have moved that were more resource-rich,” says Sissel Schroeder, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and co-author of the study. “In the modern world, we’re experiencing the same pressures but it’s becoming more difficult to find resource-rich areas that aren’t already occupied by humans.”

Should American Libel Law Be Revisited? 1 Political Scientist’s Take

Quoted: Howard Schweber, First Amendment expert and professor of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently spoke with Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time” host Rob Ferrett about the case.

A Wisconsin runner won a Big Ten track championship while shouting encouragement to her teammate

The announcer called Alicia Monson the “fastest coach at this meet.”

Monson, a junior on the University of Wisconsin women’s track and field team from Amery, won the Big Ten championship in the 5,000 meters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Saturday, crossing the finish line in 16 minutes, 18.63 seconds.

How to start a food journal: Why it works and only takes 15 minutes

“This study highlighted the importance of tracking. There was a strong benefit of doing it three times a day,” said Alisa Sunness, a registered dietitian at the University of Wisconsin Health in Madison, who was not involved in the study. “It can work.”

Discovery sheds light on mystery of ancient Native American city’s downfall

“When we see correlations with climate, some archaeologists don’t think climate has anything to do with it, but it’s difficult to sustain that argument when the evidence of significant changes in the climate show people are facing new challenges,” said Professor Sissel Schroeder, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Climate Change May Have Caused Collapse of Cahokia, America’s First City

“Cultures can be very resilient in face of climate change but resilience doesn’t necessarily mean there is no change,” said study co-author Sissel Schroeder, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, in a statement. “There can be cultural reorganization or decisions to relocate or migrate. We may see similar pressures today but fewer options to move.”

Fish poisoned by World War Two bombs could be saved by BACTERIA

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison sequenced the genes of two Pseudomonas bacteria to get the flavoprotein enzymes to break down TNT.

Poop helps show climate change contributed to fall of Cahokia

Last year, White and a team of collaborators — including his former advisor Lora Stevens, professor of paleoclimatology and paleolimnology at California State University, Long Beach, and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Anthropology Sissel Schroeder — showed they could detect signatures of human poop in lake core sediments collected from Horseshoe Lake, not far from Cahokia’s famous mounds.

The CRISPR-baby scandal: what’s next for human gene-editing

Quoted: Alta Charo, who specializes in law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, agrees that it was unclear how any of these individuals could have effectively blown the whistle.

Trump stays silent on media-hating Coast Guard officer

Quoted: “I think it’s very difficult to draw a bright line between what comes out of the president’s mouth or his Twitter account and action from other individuals,” said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But that doesn’t mean we should accept a normalization of this rhetoric.”

Stephen Miller’s claim that ‘thousands of Americans die year after year’ from illegal immigration

Noted: A 2018 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Criminology, led by Michael Light, a criminologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, examined whether places with higher percentages of undocumented immigrants have higher rates of violent crime such as murder or rape.

Why changing how you think about stress could help you be less affected by it

A large study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison bears this out.Researchers asked almost 29,000 people to rate their levels of stress as well as how much they believed this stress influenced their health.