UW In The News

A Supreme Court justice’s paragraph could mean weaker protections for voters of color

But the judge cited Gorsuch’s one-paragraph opinion and decided the case had to be thrown out. That’s because, the judge said, the Voting Rights Act does not explicitly say private groups can bring Section 2 lawsuits. Dan Tokaji, dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School, says that literal interpretation of the law doesn’t make sense.

More Doctors Can Now Prescribe Buprenorphine to Opioid Users. Will It Help?

Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, an addiction physician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has trained doctors in prescribing buprenorphine, said there were “so many health shortage concerns in rural areas” that it would be hard for health providers to meet demand, “because there aren’t enough clinicians.”

Putin One Skirmish Away From Reaching 150,000 Battlefield Losses: Ukraine

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that it’s difficult for one military faction to calculate its own losses—let alone tally that of an adversary.

What is red light therapy? Benefits, uses and more

“In terms of red light therapy for facial rejuvenation, we don’t really have many human studies to look at,” said Dr. Apple Bodemer, a board-certified dermatologist and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “most experts say that they don’t know yet if red light therapy is effective for all its claimed uses. Most say that the studies so far show some potential,” but ultimately, more studies are needed to prove its efficacy.

What Ivanka’s Testimony May Reveal to Trump Special Counsel

Ion Meyn, an assistant professor of law at the University of Wisconsin, said that the prosecution is also likely to ask Ivanka about other key players, which could be used to impeach those who denied being a part of certain conversations that day.

Mike Lindell’s ‘No Merit’ Lawsuit Over Jan. 6 Tapes Is Doomed to Fail

Ion Meyn, an assistant professor of law at the University of Wisconsin, also told Newsweek on Friday that Lindell, as a network owner, is “not part of a protected class under the equal protection clause.”

Democracy has a customer-service problem

Think income inequality, an extortionate health-care system, and rural decay. Think, too, about the senses many people have that the sources of power—both public and private—are far away and unresponsive, and that when something goes wrong, they’re on their own. Katherine Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has argued that this anger breeds a “politics of resentment.”

Voting Rights Act’s private right of action is in danger

“I think it’s an open question only in the sense that no court has ever felt compelled to expressly say that people whose voting rights have been violated can sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because everyone — and I do mean everyone — understood that that’s what Congress meant,” says Dan Tokaji, dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School, who has written about private individuals suing for violations of federal election laws.

Carla Vigue gives back to Native community as UW tribal relations director

Growing up on the Oneida Indian Reservation, just outside of Green Bay, Carla Vigue fondly remembers the close relationships she formed with the tribe’s leadership.

Camel antibodies could help pioneer future medicine

Every four months, pathologist Aaron LeBeau scoops into a net one of the five nurse sharks he keeps in his University of Wisconsin lab. Then he carefully administers a shot to the animal, much like a pediatrician giving a kid a vaccine. The shot will immunize the shark against a human cancer, perhaps, or an infectious disease, such as Covid-19. A couple of weeks later, after the animal’s immune system has had time to react, LeBeau collects a small vial of shark blood.

Inflammation of the body may explain depression in the brain

“Activation of these inflammatory pathways in the body and brain is one of the ways through which depressive symptoms can be produced,” said Charles Raison, a professor of human psychology, human ecology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Covid-19 pandemic: Celebrities may have helped shape anti-vaccine opinions, study finds

The study doesn’t get into exactly why celebrity tweets would have such an impact on people’s attitudes about the vaccine. Dr. Ellen Selkie, who has conducted research on influence at the intersection of social media, celebrity and public health outcomes, said celebrities are influential because they attract a lot of attention.

Slamming the Door on Scholarship

“It’s a significant rupture,” said Theodore P. Gerber, a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and director of its Wisconsin Russia Project. “It seems like there’s not going to be a happy ending any time soon.”

Sexual attacks against teen girls increased in 2021, CDC report found

“We really don’t have that robust evidence-based, supportive, trauma-informed education at scale in the United States. And at this particular time in history, it is especially needed given what we’re seeing,” said LB Klein, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Such a curriculum would be included in what’s known as comprehensive sex education.

Wagner’s Ammo Problem Could Cost Them Bakhmut Amid Massive Losses

The contention of Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is that Prigozhin is “going all in now” due to the number of mercenaries within his group being “decimated” in cities like Bakhmut and otherwise.

In New York, 2 Teens’ Deaths Underscore Dangers of ‘Subway Surfing’

In an increasingly digital world, the blurring of lines between screen and reality can normalize risky behavior, said Dr. Megan Moreno, interim chair of the department of pediatrics and principal investigator of the Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team at the University of Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin’s supreme court race, a super-rich beer family calls the shots

“It’s escalating rapidly,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin – Madison. “If $15m, $20m, $25m is spent on this race it’s more than you see in governor’s races in some states.”

Wisconsin Supreme Court race holds high stakes for abortion, redistricting and 2024

“This seat is crucial to the balance of the court, and the court is crucial to the balance of the state,” said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of its Elections Research Center.

How to let go of a grudge

Grudges exist on a spectrum, says Robert Enright, a professor in the department of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin Madison and a founding board member of the International Forgiveness Institute. Some grievances don’t impact your daily life, but you remember them nonetheless. These surface-level grudges are easier to relinquish, Enright says. Others take root in the soul and can grow into hatred.

Mother Nature Has the Best Climate-Fixing Technology

Gregory Nemet, a co-author of the “State of Carbon Dioxide Removal” report and a public policy professor at University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me that pretty much all successful CO2 removal to date has come from natural climate solutions like protecting forests, planting trees and better managing soils. So I asked him, “Why not invest heavily in that?” To my mind, supporting and expanding the extraordinary potential of natural ecosystems to perform carbon removal is what investors and policymakers should be focusing on — not fantastical machines.

The EPA is updating the social cost of carbon to better fight climate change

I called up a philosopher to help me make sense of this. His name is Paul Kelleher. He’s a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin.

Invasive Rusty Crayfish Appear to Be Dying Off and It’s Not Clear Why

“It can be tough to get an actual population estimate because there’s so many rusty crayfish in a lake,” lead study author Danny Szydlowski, a Ph.D. researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology, told Newsweek.

Ex-‘Shark Tank’ guest star Matt Higgins: Ditch backup plans to succeed

In a 2016 Wharton and University of Wisconsin-Madison study, two groups of research participants were given the same assignment and the same plan for completing it. One group had a backup plan. That group performed worse, and lost motivation to see their initial goal through.

If ChatGPT Can Replace What We Teach, We Should Teach Something Else

If AI that doesn’t really understand medicine (or much of anything else) can pass the test for being a doctor, then we need to change what we teach doctors—and everyone else. – David Williamson Shaffer is the Sears Bascom Professor of Learning Analytics and the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Data Philosopher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

Animals with love lives more complicated than yours

Male Neopyrochroa flabellata beetles are attracted to a chemical called cantharidin. “Males eat the stuff like candy,” said Dan Young, a professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. “They then sequester it away in their bodies, and they then transfer it to females when they copulate.”

It’s Time We Talked About Our Bambi Problem

In the forests of Wisconsin and Michigan, research suggests, expanding whitetail populations are responsible for at least 40 percent of the change observed in forest structure. “It’s rare in ecology to find one factor that accounts for so much change,” says Donald Waller, a retired professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who has studied white-tailed deer for over 20 years.

‘Stakes are monstrous’: Wisconsin judicial race is 2023’s key election

“The stakes are monstrous,” said Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. “There’s a confluence of factors that have come together, intentionally or not to make this a terribly important race for the future of the state.”

Childbirth Is Deadlier for Black Families Even When They’re Rich, Expansive Study Finds

“It’s not race, it’s racism,” said Tiffany L. Green, an economist focused on public health and obstetrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The data are quite clear that this isn’t about biology. This is about the environments where we live, where we work, where we play, where we sleep.”

In dire need of more space, UW-Madison Engineering gets System’s top priority

UW-Madison expands tuition promise for low-income students to cover room, board and other college costs

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is expanding its tuition promise program to cover not only tuition for some low-income students, but nearly all other college costs that can derail progress toward a degree, such as room and board.