University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: research

Recent sightings

Reflecting on reflections Shadowy shapes of people walking through the atrium of the Engineering Centers Building are seen silhouetted against late daylight reflecting off the building’s polished terrazzo floor. Photo: Jeff Miller

Book smart

From neighbors to killers: Book explores the personal horror of Rwanda’s genocide Scott Straus became a foreign correspondent stationed in central Africa in 1995, one year after one of the most unspeakable crimes in modern history: a swift genocide campaign in Rwanda that killed a half-million people. Straus says what he saw as a journalist …

Data provides misleading picture of autism

National special education statistics show a 657 percent increase in autism over the decade from 1993 to 2003. That data suggests the country is experiencing an epidemic of autism. But inconsistencies in how the condition is diagnosed throughout the nation’s schools, and the fact that the increasing trend for autism coincides with a corresponding slump in the reporting of mental retardation and learning disabilities, challenges the use of special education data to portray such an national epidemic.