Sound smarter at parties with help from UW experts
Here are some fascinating facts you can bring up in conversation when mingling at holiday parties. Photo: Rawpixel, via iStock
Did you know that people in the United States spend about 90 percent of their time indoors?
You would if you read last year’s edition of Smarter at Parties.
Since 2019, Inside UW has been dishing out interesting informational tidbits with help from some of UW–Madison’s newest faculty members. As part of their introduction to campus in Inside UW’s New Faculty Focus, we asked them: “What’s something interesting about your area of expertise you can share that will make us sound smarter at parties?”
You could make idle chitchat about the weather. Or you could inform fellow party-goers that Wisconsin’s official state soil is Antigo Silt Loam. Bonus points if you learn the Antigo Silt Loam Song.
Imagine the looks on people’s faces.
OK, maybe save the song for the drive to the party. You don’t want to impress people too much.
We hope you enjoy this year’s generous serving of semi-random facts. And click for Smarter at Parties leftovers from 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Textbook calories
“Humans can’t digest the cellulose in paper, but if they could, the average medical textbook would provide over 2,000 calories!”
— Jonathan Wong, assistant professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and Division of Global Pediatrics
Soothing, powerful chamomile
“Chamomile is one of the greatest plants. It has a wide range of health benefits, yet is so gentle. It calms the nervous mind, settles a crampy gut and is anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant. Chamomile tea should be part of everyone’s daily routine.”
— Margaret (Meg) Scandura , visiting associate professor, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
Custom tailored nutrition
“Breast milk is a food source perfectly made for human infants, and it includes nutritional components as well as immune factors, growth factors, anti-inflammatory factors and hormones.”
— Samantha Cordum, assistant professor, Division of Neonatology and Newborn Nursery
Milking dairy’s health benefits
“Milk has unique health-promoting bioactive compounds such as prebiotics (which promote the growth of beneficial bacteria) and antimicrobials (which can selectively eliminate pathogens).”
— Gulustan Ozturk, assistant professor, Department of Food Science
Letting children chill
“Children prefer to stay in cooler spaces compared to adults! Adults feel cold but they feel OK. So, it’s worth thinking before you put on sweaters for your kids. They may not need them just because you feel cold.”
— Wenwen Cheng, Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture
We are family
“All humans share about 99.9% of the same genetic code. So, despite our many visible and invisible differences, we are all very much the same.”
— Anjali Rao, visiting associate professor, Division of Developmental Pediatrics and Rehabilitation Medicine
The dynamic Hmong experience
“Hmong Americans are some of the most dynamic populations in the U.S. today. In a state like Minnesota, for example, they have been influential in shaping policies around marriage equality, reproductive justice and economic reform in the last decade, just to name a few. I would definitely say that Hmong Americans and their histories and contemporary experiences are integral to understanding regional Midwestern cultures, histories, and politics and even democracy at large.”
— Kong Pheng Pha, assistant professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies
Behind the name
“One thing that Oxford, England; Vancouver, Canada; and Bosphorus, Turkey all have in common is that their names basically translate into ‘place to cross your cows over a river.’ Water features have always been central to the formation and growth of cities.”
— Rhiannon Jerch, assistant professor, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics
Improv is for everyone
“Improvisation can be a learned skill involving understanding of creative frameworks, limitations and expression. Anyone can learn to do it, believe it or not.”
— Dan Cavanagh, Pamela O. Hamel/Board of Advisors, Director of the Mead Witter School of Music, and professor of composition and jazz studies
The comfort food decision
“We are creatures of habit, and in no place is that more visible than in our food decisions. It is estimated that people make more than 200 food-related decisions each day — everything from what to eat, how much, when, when not to eat even when we are tempted by the sight or smell of food. When we become cognitively depleted, stressed or emotionally burdened, we often seek refuge in habits to minimize the amount ‘thinking’ we have to do. That is why our comfort food favorites often bring us back to familiar family food experiences.”
— Melissa Bublitz, Liz Kramer Professor of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Department of Consumer Science, Department of Civil Society and Community Studies, School of Human Ecology
Poverty’s wide reach
“While this insight stems from the somber realm of poverty research, many find it surprising to discover the universality of poverty exposure in the United States. Data indicate that approximately 60% of Americans will encounter poverty, spending at least one year of their adult lives below the official poverty line.”
— Quentin Riser, assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies, School of Human Ecology
Prescribed fires can help ecosystems
“Did you know that suppressing fire can reduce sustainability of some ecosystems? At my previous position, I worked with prescribed fire management in rangelands of Florida. These agroecosystems evolved with the natural occurrence of fire, which happened in those regions due to frequent thunderstorms and large quantities of biomass. Maintaining these ecosystems unburned really decreases diversity of plant and animal species, while prescribed burning help maintain it. Fire is often perceived as something destructive, but in those agroecosystems, it was a great ally of sustainability!”
— Marta Kohmann, assistant professor and extension specialist, Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences
Fungal life finds a way… 25,000 of them
“Some fungi have over 25,000 different sexes! Learning about fungal strategies for survival helps build a greater appreciation for the diversity of life on earth and all the different ways that life can find a way.”
— Emile Gluck-Thaler, assistant professor, Department of Plant Pathology
Einstein’s early arrival
“Prematurity in babies can be scary. I remind parents that Albert Einstein was born two months early, so prematurity should never be viewed as a limitation!”
— Luke Addesso, assistant professor, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Baby’s first jolt
“Caffeine is a common medicine given to extremely premature infants in the NICU. It’s one of the few medicines that’s been shown to reduce the risk of longer-term lung issues in these infants.”
— Patrick Peebles, assistant professor, Division of Neonatology and Newborn Nursery
Thank you, kidneys
“Each kidney has 500,000 tiny filters that work to clean our blood.”
— Benjamin Spector, assistant professor, Division of Nephrology
No really, kidneys, thank you
“The kidneys filter all of the blood in your body about 40 times per day.”
— Taylor House, assistant professor, Division of Nephrology
Health potpourri 2023
“It’s a myth that we only use 10 percent of our brains. We use our whole brain, and there is remarkable plasticity and adaptation that can help when damage occurs.”
— Nicholas Pytel, assistant professor, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant
Mass production
“You make about 2 million new red blood cells every second.”
— Becky Richards, assistant professor, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant
Are viruses alive or dead? It’s complicated.
“Viruses are not alive or dead. Many people anthropomorphize viruses, giving them lifelike qualities, but they do not fit the classic definition of life given that they require the host machinery of a cell to self-sustain. But given that no organisms are completely self-supporting, maybe we should change our view?”
— Jo Wilson, instructor, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology
The royal disease
“Hemophilia is sometimes referred to as ‘the royal disease’ because Queen Victoria of England was thought to be a carrier and passed it along to her children and subsequently the royal families in Germany, Russia, and Spain.”
— Christina Amend, assistant professor, Division of Hematology, Oncology
Whose body is it anyway?
“You have more cells in your microbiome (single cell bacteria, multicellular protists, and fungi) than you have human cells, but it only adds up to about a pound of mass.”
— Claire O’Leary, assistant professor, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, and the O’Leary Research Group