UW-Madison in the Media

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

• 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.
• Madison's Olympic Opportunity In Business Magazine March 16, 2009 Noted: Chicago 2016, the organization making the bid, has already spent millions in detailed planning as part of its pitch for the $4-billion games. Because there's no suitable site for cycling in Chicago, an auxiliary facility called the Wisconsin Olympic Village would be constructed on the UW-Madison campus in the Natatorium area. "For the mountain bike and road cycling competitions, cyclists and officials will stay in a brand-new student residential complex at the University of Wisconsin in Madison on the beautiful shores of Lake Mendota," offers Chicago 2016's bid book.
• UW's new chief diversity officer takes long view of multiculturalism Capital Times March 11, 2009 The University of Wisconsin-Madison's new chief diversity officer wants to make one thing clear about his role on campus. "I'm not the vice provost for black folks," Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate, said at a recent meeting of the Academic Staff Assembly. Williams, who is African American, started work at UW-Madison on Aug. 1 and is in the process of developing a new strategic framework for how the university will approach diversity issues on campus for years to come.
• UW-Madison scientists hail Obama's stem cell order (AP) Chicago Tribune March 10, 2009 President Barack Obama's order lifting restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research was cheered Monday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the birthplace of the field. UW-Madison scientists said the order will mean more cells and funding for studies, fewer bureaucratic hurdles for scientists and greater student interest in entering the field. UW-Madison scientist James Thomson was the first to isolate human embryonic stem cells in 1998. He called Obama's action "a welcome milestone."
• UW Researchers Invited To Obama Stem Cell Ceremony WISC-TV 3 March 9, 2009 MADISON, Wis. -- Five University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers were invited to President Barack Obama's ceremony lifting restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research. Obama signed the order Monday undoing some restrictions put in place by former President George W. Bush on the work. UW-Madison spokesman Terry Devitt said those invited include scientist James Thomson; the co-directors of the school's Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, Tim Kamp and Clive Svendsen; bioethicist Alta Charo; and National Stem Cell Bank Director Derek Hei.
• Newspapers make move to online only Seattle Times March 9, 2009 Quoted: Sue Robinson, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has followed The Capital Times' transformation, says it's too soon to say whether the move online will succeed.
• Pepper patch takes aim at shingles-related pain Lousiville Courier-Journal March 6, 2009 Post-herpetic neuralgia, a complication of shingles, can be so exquisitely painful that some sufferers can't stand for clothes to touch their skin during an episode. So the idea of treating the pain with lots of capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot chili peppers, might seem odd. But that's exactly what scientists, such as Dr. Miroslav Backonja of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, have been studying with some success.
• Are Officials Too Optimistic About the Economy? Part II New York Times March 4, 2009 Quoted: Others have come to the administration’s defense. The Washington Post’s editorial board and the University of Wisconsin economist Menzie Chinn, for example, have noted that the White House numbers were in line with other economists’ estimates, even if the White House estimates were on the more optimistic side.
• The raw milk debate rages on Los Angeles Times March 2, 2009 Quoted: Rusty Bishop, director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After raw milk has been pasteurized, he says, "there's no difference in composition, other than that you've killed off a significant number of bacteria that were in the milk."
• Ancient Shipwreck's Stone Cargo Linked to Apollo Temple National Geographic Feb. 26, 2009 Quoted: "The fascinating aspect of the Kızılburun shipwreck project is the snapshot of building processes the cargo provides," says William Aylward, a classical archaeologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who specializes in marble architecture. He's helping Carlson learn the column's story.
• End of home price slide in sight? Christian Science Monitor Feb. 26, 2009 Quoted: “I think house prices will be done declining within the year,” says Morris Davis, a University of Wisconsin economist who studies real estate. But, given today’s uncertainties, he cautions that “anyone that tells you that they know, doesn’t know.”
• Slash Your Property Tax SmartMoney.com Feb. 25, 2009 From Broward County, Fla., to Flint, Mich., homeowners might be facing exorbitant hikes in property taxes. In one of the more extreme cases, residents of West New York, N.J., are fighting a planned 27% bump in their property tax rates. What gives? Squeezed by foreclosures and falling revenues, many local governments are facing unprecedented budget shortfalls. To fill some of the gap, more municipalities will have to raise property taxes, says Sharon McCabe, associate director of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin.
• Scientists dig for the guts of earthquakes Las Vegas Sun Feb. 16, 2009 Quoted: Scientists can tell when a plate is under high stress but don't have a way to determine where a fracture will occur, launching a quake, explained Harold Tobin of the University of Wisconsin.
• Scientists are inching closer to a cure for the common cold Chicago Tribune Feb. 13, 2009 Scientists announced Thursday that they have cracked the genetic code of all known species of the common cold virus, a major step forward in the effort to develop a cure—and perhaps even a vaccine—or the common cold. The findings, published this week in the journal Science, highlighted why researchers have found it so difficult to build effective drugs to combat the virus, which sickens millions each year and sends thousands of children with asthma to the hospital.
• Cure for the Common Cold? Not Yet, but Possible New York Times Feb. 13, 2009 Curing the common cold, one of medicine’s most elusive goals, may now be in the realm of the possible. Researchers said Thursday that they had decoded the genomes of the 99 strains of common cold virus and developed a catalog of its vulnerabilities.
• Adventures in evolution MSNBC.com Feb. 12, 2009 Evolutionary biology isn't just something you do in the lab or the library: Over the past two centuries, scientific pioneers have had to weather seasickness, survive shipwrecks and watch out for polar bears while they ferreted out the facts. In his latest book, "Remarkable Creatures," molecular biologist Sean B. Carroll recounts the rip-roaring adventure tales behind the great advances in the theory of evolution.
• Empathy Might Be in the Genes U.S. News and World Report Feb. 12, 2009 Genes may play a role in a person's ability to empathize with others, suggests a U.S. study involving mice. Researchers trained highly social mice to identify a sound played in a specific cage as negative by also having squeaks of distress come from a mouse in that cage. But a genetically different strain of mice that were less social didn't make the same negative connection.
• A Musician's Final Mission Spectrum Magazine Feb. 10, 2009 As one of the world's premier bass players, Richard Davis's music has touched the lives of countless fans, and his teaching has inspired generations of students in the classroom as well as with the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists, Inc., which provides musical instruction for financially challenged youth.
• U.S. dairy farms in crisis as milk prices turn sour Reuters Feb. 10, 2009 Quoted: "We could see the lowest prices here in January or February. By March or April, we could see prices come up about a dollar or so, but as we move into the second half of the year we could be moving closer to $15 or $16," Bob Cropp, dairy economist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
• Freeing Up Stem-Cell Research Technology Review (MIT) Feb. 10, 2009 Three years ago, when Rene Rejo Pera was setting up a new lab at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), she had to make sure she had two of everything: one microscope for her federally funded lab, for example, and one for a privately funded replica next door. Because of funding restrictions on stem-cell research ordered by President George W. Bush in 2001, this was a redundant scenario played out in labs across the country. The edict specifically limited federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research to a small number of cell lines already in existence, leaving scientists who wanted to conduct cutting-edge research in this area scrambling for private money. Quoted: Tim Kamp, codirector of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center at the University of Wisconsin.
• They Don't Make Homo Sapiens Like They Used To Discover Magazine Feb. 10, 2009 Bones don’t lie. John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin at Madison likes evidence he can put his hands on, so he takes me on a tour of the university’s bone laboratory. There, the energetic 36-year-old anthropologist unlocks a glass case and begins arranging human skulls and other skeletal artifacts—some genuine fossils, others high-quality reproductions—on a counter according to their age. Gesturing toward these relics, which span the past 35,000 years, Hawks says, “You don’t have to look hard to see that teeth are getting smaller, skull size is shrinking, stature is getting smaller.”
• No child left behind: Did Bush get it right? Guardian (UK) Feb. 9, 2009 Quoted: Gary Cook, a research scientist at the Wisconsin Centre for Education Research, part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that while "aligning the standards is a nice thing to say, I've tried to do it, and it's really difficult."
• New Efforts Focus on Exonerating Prisoners in Cases Without DNA Evidence New York Times Feb. 9, 2009 Noted: So-called innocence projects at Northwestern, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Cincinnati have reported that their non-DNA caseloads have risen. And for almost a year the district attorney in Dallas has been focusing on wrongful-conviction claims that lack DNA evidence.
• The evolution of Darwin's theory Los Angeles Times Feb. 9, 2009 Blue eyes are typically associated with beauty, or perhaps Frank Sinatra. But to University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks, they represent an evolutionary mystery. For nearly all of human history, everyone in the world had brown eyes. Then, between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, the first blue-eyed baby was born somewhere near the Black Sea.