UW-Madison in the Media

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

• Swine flu deaths show this flu is different: experts (Reuters) Forbes Sept. 16, 2009 Quoted: Dr. Yoshi Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin said tests in monkeys showed the virus lives and replicates 1,000-fold better in the lungs than does seasonal flu.
• Obama poll: Scores higher on personal traits USA Today Sept. 15, 2009 Quoted: Obama’s address to Congress last week "wasn’t the huge game-changer some had hoped or thought," says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin who studies public opinion.
• How blight becomes a killer MSNBC.com Sept. 10, 2009 Scientists have unraveled the genome of the parasite that sparked the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, revealing why it was such a killer back then and why it’s still a scourge today.
• Predicting tipping points before they occur USA Today Sept. 8, 2009 Now some of the most prominent scientists in that field have published a new paper on detecting early warning signals before a system changes. Titled "Early-warning signals for critical transitions," the review paper is in this week’s issue of the journal Nature. "We began to realize that there was really pretty cool and fundamental thing going on here," says Stephen Carpenter, one of the paper's authors and a lake ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Point twins get a bang out of playing Bucky Wausau Daily Herald Sept. 4, 2009 Actors often talk about how playing a character gives them a chance to be someone they’re not.Stevens Point natives Austin and Aaron Wessell must feel like they’re part of a Hollywood fraternity without leaving Wisconsin.The twins transform themselves into Bucky Badger, the much-loved University of Wisconsinmascot, at least 100 times a year.
• Brand Loyalty and the Financial Crisis Wall Street Journal Sept. 4, 2009 Quoted: Many things influence why embrace or reject particular brands, says Aric Rindfleisch, a marketing professor with Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Our relationships with brands can be deeply psychological and rooted in our personal experience with a company.
• Music made for monkeys MSNBC.com Sept. 2, 2009 Music may have charms to "soothe the savage breast," but that doesn't mean the same music that soothes humans will charm other species. Monkeys, for example, aren't much affected by human music. To find out whether any kind of music could affect a monkey's mood, a musician and a primatologist created tunes tailor-made for cotton-top tamarins. They report that the experiment worked - but the melodies are unlike anything you've ever heard.
• Monkeys are heavy metal fans Daily Mail (UK) Sept. 2, 2009 They have wild shaggy manes that are perfect for tossing about and are known to bite the heads off rodents. Unsurprising, then, that tamarin monkeys are big heavy metal fans. When a group of cottontop tamarins were played a variety of types of music, from classical to jazz, only the songs by hard rock bands such as Metallica caused them to react.
• Scientists create music that helps monkeys chill out Guardian (UK) Sept. 1, 2009 Music inspired by the soothing calls of contented monkeys relaxes the animals when it is played back to them, researchers have discovered.Researchers composed "monkey melodies" to investigate whether non-human primates are capable of responding to music with the same emotions as people.
• The feminist prince The Nation Aug. 27, 2009 Quoted: It was Prince Damrong who instituted suffrage for Thai women under the 1897 Local Administration Act, which made Siam the first major country in the world in which women and men achieved the vote on an equal basis and without any record of controversy, says Katherine A Bowie, an American professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Scientists Morph Human Skin Cells Into Retinal Cells Popular Science Aug. 27, 2009 The retina is a lush layered field of tissue lining the back of the eye, a complex mix of specialized cells that serve as a transfer station where light signals are absorbed and sent to the brain to be translated into sight. Researchers from University of Wisconsin, Madison have now created these unique retina cells from lowly skin cells -- opening the possibility that patients with damaged or diseased retinas might some day be able to grow themselves a cure from their own skin.
• UW Political Expert Examines Doyle Decision WISC-TV 3 Aug. 18, 2009 Video: University of Wisconsin political scientist Charles Franklin discusses Gov. Jim Doyle’s decision not to run for another term.
• Public is more skeptical of health reform efforts Minnesota Public Radio Aug. 18, 2009 People appear divided on how health care should be changed and whether the Obama administration is doing a good job on the issue. Recent polls suggest the heated town hall exchanges may have had an impact on people's perception on how Congress and the president are doing on health care. Audio: Charles Franklin: Professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He's the co-founder of Pollster.com.
• Alternate Plan as Health Option Muddies Debate New York Times Aug. 18, 2009 Quoted: Prof. Ann Hoyt, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has done extensive research on cooperatives in many industries, said they could serve a useful purpose in health care — just as credit unions compete effectively with banks, prompting them to offer higher interest rates on deposits and lower rates on loans.
• Fishing lure has an angle Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Aug. 17, 2009 When thinking of things you can cook up in the kitchen microwave, soft plastic worms don’t usually leap to mind. Unless you are an inventor, angler and dreamer seeking to build a better fish bait. Ben Hobbins is just that, and he is hoping the bait he has invented and patented with help from the University of Wisconsin System will capture at least a portion of the $45 billion spent annually on fishing in the United States.
• If The U.S. Can Kill Mehsud, Why Not Osama bin Laden? ABCNEWS.com Aug. 7, 2009 Quoted: According to Joe Elder, a professor of sociology and a specialist on Pakistan at the University of Wisconsin, Mehsud has likely been under extreme surveillance for a long time now, whereas bin Laden has remained a moving target. "With the assistance of Pakistani intelligence it's much easier to track down and follow the head of the Pakistani Taliban. Many of them have been residing in the region for a long time," said Elder. "It's his home turf, so it's an easier target."
• Mysterious bright spot found on Venus New Scientist July 30, 2009 Quoted: The spot is bright at ultraviolet wavelengths, which may argue against a meteoroid impact as a cause. That's because rocky bodies, with the exception of objects very rich in water ice, should cause an impact site to darken at ultraviolet wavelengths as it fills with debris that absorbs such light, says Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the Venus Express team.
• Venus flytrap origins uncovered BBC News Online July 21, 2009 Noted: "Darwin was fascinated by carnivorous plants in general and the Venus flytrap in particular, I think, partly because they go against type," says Don Waller, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, US. "In his time and ours, most of us feel that plants are passive, harmless, and can't move. But the Venus flytrap acts like an animal, it moves fast and eats fresh meat." A DNA analysis by Ken Cameron of the University of Wisconsin confirmed that the Venus flytrap and waterwheel are indeed related, and the closest relative of both turns out to be a species called Drosera regia.
• 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.