UW-Madison in the Media

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

• 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.
• 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.