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UW In The News

  • When it comes to smog, Cook County in Illinois is the worst neighbor in the country, EPA finds

    Chicago Tribune | March 8, 2023

    “The good news is the air is getting cleaner,” said Tracey Holloway, an air quality researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “But the bad news is researchers are finding there are health effects at lower levels of exposure.”

  • Bioacoustics is revolutionizing conservation

    The Atlantic | March 6, 2023

    One of the biologists researching this issue was Zach Peery, from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Peery had been tracking the spotted owl’s decline since 2001, and he knew that a team in the state of Washington had been experimenting with ARUs to help identify northern spotted and barred owls there.

  • Forthcoming genetic therapies raise serious ethical questions, experts warn

    The Guardian | March 6, 2023

    Despite the advances, Professor Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, suspects most people will stick with having babies the old-fashioned way. “The biggest risk I see at the moment is that discussion around germline editing will continue to present such dystopian visions as realistic,” she said.

  • A prolific fundraiser, Rebecca Blank reshaped UW-Madison research, finances

    Wisconsin State Journal | March 6, 2023

    Rebecca Blank’s influence can be seen in some unexpected places.

    It’s embedded in a nationwide breast cancer database that examined how long patients could delay surgical treatments at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s noticeable in research endeavors she helped make possible. It’s found, subtly, in portraits hanging at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

  • Memorial service for former UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank honors her life’s work

    Wisconsin State Journal | March 6, 2023

    University and government officials and community members celebrated former UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank’s life Saturday in just the way she planned — a sea of Wisconsin Red, German chocolate cake and plenty of Diet Coke.

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

    NPR | March 3, 2023

    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?

    The New York Times | March 3, 2023

    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

    Newsweek | March 2, 2023

    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

    NBC News | February 27, 2023

    “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

    Newsweek | February 27, 2023

    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

    Newsweek | February 27, 2023

    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

    The Atlantic | February 27, 2023

    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

    NPR | February 27, 2023

    “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

    The Capital Times | February 27, 2023

    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

    Knowable Magazine | February 27, 2023

    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

    The Washington Post | February 24, 2023

    “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

    CNN | February 24, 2023

    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

    Chronicle of Higher Ed | February 24, 2023

    “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

    NBC News | February 23, 2023

    “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

    Newsweek | February 23, 2023

    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’

    The New York Times | February 22, 2023

    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

    The Guardian | February 21, 2023

    “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

    CNN Politics | February 20, 2023

    “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

    Vox | February 20, 2023

    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

    Bloomberg | February 20, 2023

    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

    The Indicator from Planet Money : NPR | February 17, 2023

    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

    Newsweek | February 17, 2023

    “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

    CNBC | February 16, 2023

    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

    Newsweek | February 15, 2023

    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

    CNN | February 14, 2023

    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.”

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