UW In The News

As Earth warms, more ‘flash droughts’ suck soil, plants dry

Another sudden drought happened in the U.S. Southeast in 2016 and was a factor in devastating wildfires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, said Jason Otkin, a study co-author and an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Look! Webb Recaptures a Famous Hubble Image in Incredible New Detail

“Our whole program was ~24 hours, which isn’t that much time in the grand scheme of how much time other observatories have looked at it,” said Michael Maseda, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a statement. “But, even in this relatively short amount of time, we’re starting to put together a new picture of how galaxies are growing at this really interesting point in the history of the Universe.”

Why Wisconsin Has Republicans Worried

“Extreme” is no overstatement. Robert Yablon, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a faculty co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative, told me by email that although Democrats have won more of Wisconsin’s statewide elections in recent years than their Republican opponents have, “under the maps that the Republican-controlled legislature drew in 2011, Republicans maintained an iron grip on the legislature throughout the last decade—even in years when Democratic candidates won more votes statewide.”

‘A nightmare’: Texas parents say their baby was taken by CPS after using midwifery care for jaundice

Jaundice occurs when blood contains an excess amount of bilirubin. “For most babies, this is not a big deal, it clears out,” Tiffany Green, an associate professor in the obstetrics and gynecology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Yahoo News. “But for a certain small subset of babies, high levels of bilirubin can lead to brain damage, including cerebral palsy and other illnesses.”

How a Fourth Traffic Light Color Could Make Self-Driving Cars a Reality

“The way our roads are built — the things that changed the 1890s city to the kind of city we have today — a lot of that came out of conflict between the rights and responsibilities of different kinds of road users,” says Cameron Roberts, a sustainability and transportation researcher at the University of Wisconsin.

NATO Ally Bordering Russia to Meet With Top U.S. Weapons Makers

“I think it is important for Poland to keep up its credentials as an indispensable ally of the United States in Europe—especially in light of the pre-war frictions that marred Poland’s relationship with European Union bodies,” Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek via email. “Warsaw is likely to be considering various scenarios of continuation of the war in Ukraine and various designs for post-war Europe.

Global warming is making baseball home runs easier, study says

Dr. Jonathan Martin, a professor in the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that the study seems plausible—to an extent.

After Tennessee House expels 2 Democrats, will other states follow?

“Weaponizing legislative discipline reveals a concerning level of democratic dysfunction,” said Seifter, who is the co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She added, “it suggests that more attention should focus on state-level government.”

Abortion Ruling Could Undermine the F.D.A.’s Drug-Approval Authority

R. Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin and an author of a brief by drug-policy scholars in support of the F.D.A., said, “The biggest threat that a decision like this brings is the threat of creating chaos.” The ruling, she added, could empower a range of groups to begin “looking over the shoulder of the F.D.A., re-evaluating their risk-benefit analyses.”

Declines in Loan Values Are Widespread Among Banks

“Fair values of loans and securities are not qualitatively different,” said Tom Linsmeier, an accounting professor at the University of Wisconsin and former member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. “They measure the same amount: the price at which the asset can be sold in an orderly transaction in the market today.”

Without the right to adequate counsel, is our criminal justice system legitimate? 

After 60 years of deliberate indifference to the right to counsel, our criminal justice system is on the verge of collapse. Only a large, overdue investment can save it and restore the noble ideal that justice shouldn’t be based on how much you can afford. –John P. Gross is a clinical associate professor at University of Wisconsin Law School and director of the Public Defender Project.

Trump indictment and Wisconsin election revealed the GOP’s 2024 dilemma

Second, Republicans lost control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in an off-year election — a campaign where abortion was “the dominating issue,” per University of Wisconsin political scientist Barry Burden. The repeal of Roe v. Wade brought back an 1849 state law, never technically repealed, that banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy (with an exception for the mother’s life). Janet Protasiewicz, the liberal candidate in the Supreme Court race, openly campaigned on her support for abortion rights. She won by a comfortable margin in a closely divided state — yet another sign that strict abortion bans are seriously unpopular.

How state and local judicial elections became so politicized

NPR’s A Martinez speaks with University of Wisconsin political scientist Mike Wagner about partisanship in state and local judicial elections following Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election.

Democrats Keep Abortion Rights Front and Center in Wisconsin

Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that Tuesday’s results will be a test of Democrats’ strategy.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court Race the Nation is Watching

Opponents are challenging the 1849 law, and the state Supreme Court will likely make the final decision, motivating voters not only in Wisconsin, but nationally, ahead of the 2024 elections, says political science professor Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin Supreme Court race breaks records

JOHNSON: In swing state Wisconsin, election after election, people are used to hearing that this campaign is the most important. But University of Wisconsin-Madison political science and law professor Howard Schweber says there’s actually so much riding on Wisconsin’s court race that this time it might be true.

‘A truly incredible amount of money’: millions ride on one US judicial election

“What has been most surprising is that Dan Kelly has basically raised no money as a candidate … So all of his backing has been from outside groups,” said Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s hard to understand. Legally, they’re not allowed to coordinate. So he’s essentially handed over messaging to groups that he cannot control.”

Human and Coyote Coexistence in Urban Areas: Academic Minute

David Drake, professor and extension wildlife specialist in the department of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, explores human and coyote coexistence in urban areas. Learn more about the Academic Minute here.

How to Tell If a Photo Is an AI-Generated Fake

Creating these AI detective programs works the same way as any other machine learning task, says Yong Jae Lee, a computer scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “You collect a data set of real images, and you also collect a data set of AI-generated images,” Lee says. “Then you can train a machine-learning model to distinguish the two.”

Pharmacists say they are burning out because of working conditions

The new findings support Bernstein’s conclusion, said David Mott, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy and the principal investigator on the new survey, which gathered almost 5,000 responses.

Living with cats or dogs may lower children’s risk of food allergies

“The finding that exposure to dogs and cats is related to less food allergy seems pretty solid and agrees with several prior studies,” said James Gern, professor and chief of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Wisconsin wins 7th NCAA women’s hockey championship by blanking Ohio State

The Big Oil Firms Are Giving Up on Researching Algae Biofuels

“It’s very challenging and very expensive to bring these technologies to market,” said George Huber, whose biofuels research at the University of Wisconsin at Madison was funded by Exxon for years. “It’s not gonna happen overnight. It’s great they make these commitments, but you know they need to start putting in more capital into these projects.”

COVID-19: A look back on where the US succeeded and where we didn’t

“I think that that kind of mixed messaging created enormous space for doubt enormous space for skepticism among the public,” Dr. Richard Keller, a professor in the department of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, told ABC News. “It created levels of uncertainty that were really unnecessary and deep and eventually became harmful.”

Fact check: Banks failed during both Trump, Biden administrations

“That is, bank failures are the results of mistakes that accumulate over time,” said Roberto Robatto, a finance professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

How the overturn of Roe v. Wade is impacting medical students entering gynecology

SULLIVAN: That’s Dr. Ellen Hartenbach, who chairs the obstetrics and gynecology department at the University of Wisconsin and practices at UW Health.

HARTENBACH: It would be either a spontaneous abortion, which would be a miscarriage, or it would be an induced abortion.

Want to help pollinators this spring? Expert suggests these tips

“Compared to some other native bees, honey bees are less efficient or unable to pollinate some of our food crops,” Susan Carpenter, native plant garden curator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, tells Nexstar. Honey bees are, instead, “domestic animals, maintained and cared for by beekeepers” that can be “detrimental to the wide diversity of native bees” around you.

Few legal challenges to laws limiting lessons on race, gender

Suzanne Eckes, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said it will be tough to prove that laws like Florida’s Stop Woke Act infringe on K-12 teachers’ academic freedom — largely because such freedom does not exist, at least according to the courts.

Russia Abandoning Outskirts of Kherson Months After Losing City: Ukraine

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that Russia may be hedging its bets and trying to entrench its forces in comfortable defensive positions in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Is Devastating Birds, and Humans May Be Next

“We’ve been thinking a lot lately about this strain because of its potential to be a zoonotic disease” spread from animals to people, Adel Talaat, a microbiology researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Daily Beast. Talaat has been working on vaccine development for avian influenza that one day could be given to poultry.