UW-Madison in the Media

A selection of media coverage about the university and its people.

• University of Wisconsin-Madison, NASA share moon rock history Wisconsin State Journal July 20, 2009 For years before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, there were many arguments over the makeup of the lunar surface. Scientists were pretty sure it wasn’t green cheese. But one UW-Madison researcher got to prove to naysayers the surface was created by volcanic activity. Monday, July 20, is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission moon landing.
• Shaky home movies get a big budget feel New Scientist July 14, 2009 The kind of shaky handheld footage that is a hallmark of home movies has become popular with Hollywood directors in recent years. But new software means that handheld cameras need no longer give wobbly results. Computer scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and software giant Adobe have developed a technique that mixes 3D reconstruction with optical illusion to turn distinctive wobble of handheld camera footage into the smooth glide of a Hollywood tracking shot.
• Flu strains circulate for years before becoming a pandemic USA Today July 14, 2009 A new study finds that the way swine flu multiplies in the respiratory system is more severe than seasonal flu. Tests in monkeys, mice and ferrets show that the swine flu thrives all over the respiratory system, including the lungs, instead of staying in the head like seasonal flu. The findings were released Monday by the journal Nature. The study's researcher, Yoshishiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, told the Associated Press that he is more concerned about swine flu because of these results.
• Low-Calorie Diet May Extend Life in Primates New York Times July 9, 2009 A long-awaited study of aging in rhesus monkeys suggests, with some reservations, that people could in principle fend off the usual diseases of old age and considerably extend their life span by following a special diet.
• UW-Madison makes an unlikely ally: the military Associated Press June 29, 2009 The University of Wisconsin-Madison, which saw some of the fiercest Vietnam War protests in the nation, is shedding its long-standing antimilitary image by hiring a military historian and teaching a new course for military officers. The university also has improved services for veterans after hiring an assistant dean with a military background last year.
• Chinese coming to a school near you Salt Lake Tribune, The June 15, 2009 Quoted: America is behind the rest of the world when it comes to bilingualism, with only 9 percent of the population reporting fluency in a second language, compared with 52 percent of Europeans, according to a research review by University of Wisconsin professor Francois Victor Tochon. English is spoken by about 15 percent of the world's population, but its "postulated ubiquity" is a "myth," writes Tochon. "On average, bilinguals earn more in the United States and, more recently, in the United Kingdom."
• Regional Dictionary Tracks The Funny Things We Say National Public Radio June 15, 2009 "Adam's off ox" is one of the phrases included in the Dictionary of American Regional English, Volume I: Introduction and A-C , part one of a multivolume effort to capture regional expressions. The DARE project, as it is known, was initiated in the 1950s by Frederic Cassidy, a well-known linguist who sent field workers out across the country in "word wagons" to interview people. Cassidy's catalogers talked to nearly 3,000 people over six years, making recordings along the way in order to capture pronunciations.
• Backyard chickens on the rise Los Angeles Times June 15, 2009 Quoted: "People are turning to things that remind them of simpler times," said Ron Kean, a poultry specialist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "If you're smart, you can save money doing this."
• Economist Michael Knetter: Technology is the key to U.S. recovery Wausau Daily Herald June 9, 2009 The United States is in the midst of its deepest economic downturn since World War II, but unlike the recession of the early 1980s, there is a clear avenue to recovery: technology. That is the outlook of Michael Knetter, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, who will be among the featured speakers during a regional business summit Thursday in Wausau.
• Math: It's not a gender thing Los Angeles Times June 2, 2009 Math hasn't always been thought of as a girl thing. For decades, boys in the U.S. were considered the brainiacs when it came to mathematics, with many believing that their gender predisposed them to better understanding it. They just naturally had a head for numbers. Jur5lenc But new research from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, seeks to dispel that myth via a meta-analysis of studies and data showing that the gap is more a cultural issue than a gender-based one. The study, published in the June 2 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sought to answer three questions: Do gender differences in math performance exist in the general population, do gender differences exist among the mathematically talented, and do females exist who possess profound mathematical talent?
• The Safety Net: Slumping Economy Tests Aid System Tied to Jobs New York Times June 1, 2009 Quoted: “We have a work-based safety net without work,” said Timothy M. Smeeding, an economist at the University of Wisconsin. “We’re really in a pickle.”
• An old flame in the Ring of Fire BBC News Online May 27, 2009 Of all the seismological hot-spots around the Pacific Rim, none has been as well documented as the Nankai Trough. "We have just a phenomenal record of earthquakes here," says Harold Tobin from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Innards of H1N1 Virus Resemble 'Flu Sausage' LiveScience.com May 22, 2009 Quoted: “The change we’ve seen is a different kind of change. In fact we’ve seen the creation of a new kind of virus through the process of reassortment,” said Christopher Olsen, a public health professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of the study. “The viruses we’ve seen emerge in pigs are a mixture of the classical swine flu, avian flu and human flu,” he said. Experts also witnessed the emergence of a new subtype in 1998. “We’ve not been able to determine any specific reasons for why that began to happen,” Olsen said.
• 'Roid Rage: John Stossel Confronts Steroid Alarmists ABCNEWS.com May 7, 2009 Quoted: University of Wisconsin bioethicist Norman Fost says "the horror stories about the medical claims, some of them are just frankly made up."
• H1N1 could get serious if not prepared Wisconsin Radio Network May 6, 2009 State Health experts discuss the flu virus at a public hearing at the state capitol. Dr. Dennis Maki, head of Infectious Diseases at the UW Medical School, tells members of the Assembly Health Committee the H1N1 Influenza A is serious.
• Thai Leader Struggles at the Center of a Storm New York Times May 6, 2009 Quoted: “I’m not sure he knows or accepts that he came to power through the support of one side of the conflict,” said Thongchai Winichakul, a specialist in Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I’m not sure he has enough guts and that he has gathered enough political clout to break away from the people who brought him to power.”
• How to beat stress and angst through meditation Chicago Tribune May 5, 2009 Quoted: One study of individuals who were new to meditating showed measurable brain and behavior differences after just two weeks of daily 30-minute sessions, says Richard Davidson, director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But meditation is like any other workout: To reap the benefits, don't stop.
• Lab Notes: A Tweeting Brain Newsweek April 21, 2009 Writing emails is all well and good, but now brain-computer interfaces have made the big leagues: a BCI has been used to Tweet. Earlier this month Adam Wilson, a graduate student in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sent “using EEG to send tweet.” He used what has become the standard methodology, in which EEGs pick up electrical signals from the brain and translate them into movements of a cursor, in this case on a screen with the 26 letters of the alphabet, as the scientists show in this video.
• Scientist updates Twitter using only his mind The Telegraph (UK) April 21, 2009 Adam Wilson posted the 17-character message using a brain-computer interface (BCI) that he is helping to build for people whose minds function but whose bodies do not work. Mr Wilson, a biomedical engineering doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, first wrote: "SENT FROM BCI2000", referring to the model number of his machine.
• Twitter Telepathy: Researchers Turn Thoughts Into Tweets Wired.com April 21, 2009 Early on the afternoon of April 1, Adam Wilson posted a message to Twitter. But instead of using his hands to type, the University of Wisconsin biomedical engineer used his brain. "USING EEG TO SEND TWEET," he thought. That message may be a modern equivalent of Alexander Graham Bell's "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you." Brain-computer interfaces are no longer just a gee-whiz technology, but a platform for researchers interested in immediate real-world applications for people who can think, but can't move. "We're more interested in the applications," said Justin Williams, head of the University of Wisconsin's Neural Interfaces lab. "How do we actually make these technologies useful for people with disabilities?"
• Tune in: Online radio show on African women in power Worldfocus Radio April 15, 2009 Over the past several decades, women politicians have made strides in Africa. The share of parliamentary seats held by women increased from 7 percent in 1990 to 17 percent in 2007. Interviewed: Aili Mari Tripp is a professor of political science and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the director of the Women’s Studies Research Center. (Audio.)
• Thai Protests Reveal Deep Divisions New York Times April 14, 2009 Quoted: “Whoever wins or loses this round, the stalemate and tension will remain,” said Thongchai Winichakul, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin.
• Underground economy thriving, UW economist says Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 14, 2009 While the overall economy is struggling, the underground economy is surging, based on research by a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist. Unreported income in the United States has likely ballooned to as much as $2.25 trillion, creating a ratio of unreported income to reported adjusted gross income that is approaching the peak levels of the World War II era, the university said Monday.
• Disappearing Before Dawn The Scientist April 2, 2009 At 10 a.m. on a frigid January, the lights automatically flicker on in a rat room at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Research Park. Postdoc Erin Hanlon strolls in, still wearing her scarf from the trip to the lab, where she will spend the next hour or so with Telito, a rat. Telito's cage is tucked away in a television cabinet–like enclosure.
• Stem-cell lookalikes may end controversy USA Today March 30, 2009 Stem cell researchers have created embryonic-cell lookalikes that don't have the cancer-causing genes found in earlier experiments. The team led by University of Wisconsin researcher James Thomson Thursday released a study showing how it changed skin cells into "induced pluripotent" cells by adding growth genes that disappear after the new cells reproduce.
• US university's dictionary project on the road to completion Guardian (UK) March 24, 2009 As university research projects go, compiling the Dictionary of American Regional English was a challenging and sometimes hazardous one: It took more than four decades, and thousands of interviews, conducted by researchers who were sometimes chased out of rural communities by suspicious locals. Finally, though, their monumental effort to chart the idiosyncrasies of regional speech in the US is, as they might say in the south, fixin' to be done. The final volume, covering the letters S to Z - and revealing, at long last, the meaning of the Maine word "whiffle-minded" (vacillating) - has received a government grant that should see it being published by the end of next year, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who have been working on the dictionary since 1965.
• Blogging in a Post-Campaign World New York Times March 23, 2009 Quoted: Of course, presidents have always been under the microscope of grassroots activists. University of Wisconsin political science professor David Canon believes the basic elements of political discourse in the United States have been consistent, even with the rise of new media.
• Engineering good will in El Salvador Greater Milwaukee Today March 23, 2009 You wouldn’t expect detail-oriented, data-based engineering types to go all cross-cultural, change-the-world- one-village-at-a-time kumbayah. But then Engineers Without Borders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison isn’t your typical 4-year-old organization.
• On to Z! Quirky regional dictionary nears finish Associated Press March 23, 2009 If you don't know a stone toter from Adam's off ox, or aren't sure what a grinder shop sells, the Dictionary of American Regional English is for you. The collection of regional words and phrases is beloved by linguists and authors and used as a reference in professions as diverse as acting and police work. And now, after five decades of wide-ranging research that sometimes got word-gatherers run out of suspicious small towns, the job is almost finished.
• UW System ties with Harvard for most CEOs among graduates Wisconsin State Journal March 16, 2009 The University of Wisconsin System tied with Harvard University for educating the most chief executive officers of major companies in 2008, according to one report. That Harvard University is churning out the heads of top businesses in no surprise, but the perch of UW System graduates is perhaps more unexpected. The calculations, by global executive search firm Spencer Stuart, include individuals who graduated from any school in the UW System, although the majority are likely University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni.