UW-Madison in the Media

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

• Capacity lift for hard disc drives Financial Times Aug. 18, 2008 Materials which have the remarkable ability to assemble themselves spontaneously into microscopic structures are promising to make possible higher-capacity computer hard disc drives at lower cost. The new fabrication method comes as manufacturers reach the limits of hard disc miniaturisation using traditional manufacturing techniques and look to so-called "patterned media" - regular arrays of magnetic material on the disc surface - as the way ahead. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Hitachi scientists have combined the conventional way of creating microelectronic devices - lithography - with these unusual materials, called block co-polymers.
• Editorial: Growing our own Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Aug. 18, 2008 The renewed focus on developing entrepreneurs at the Wisconsin School of Business is an important ingredient for a state that needs more home cooking. Incomes in Wisconsin lag the national average, making economic growth an imperative. But with the exception of communities like Hudson and Kenosha that border large metropolitan areas, most communities in Wisconsin traditionally haven't been able to attract companies from outside the state. That doesn't mean they shouldn't try, but realistically, most growth has to come from existing businesses - or by creating new ones. Under the leadership of University of Wisconsin-Madison business school dean Michael Knetter, and with the strong support of UW's vast network of alumni, the school is trying to produce more graduates interested in starting companies.
• Professor creates microscope program for elementary school kids Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Aug. 13, 2008 When Doug Weibel spotted an $85 microscope at Toys “R” Us, he immediately bought it and brought it home for his children. His children started magnifying everything they could get their hands on - wires, sponges, insects - capturing images and recording movies on a computer linked to the microscope. It struck Weibel, however, that this was not only fun, but also educational. Last December, Weibel, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, decided to start an outreach program called MicroExplorers to bring microscopes to classrooms and after-school activities.
• N.O. could see homes values rise New Orleans Times-Picayune Aug. 12, 2008 Quoted: Morris Davis, a professor in the real estate and urban land economics department at the University of Wisconsin, disagreed that increases in home prices should always track increases in rents. Houses in desirable locations can be expected to appreciate, and he said the buyer has to pay upfront for the right to partake of that appreciation.
• Airless Tire Promises Grace Under Pressure for Soldiers Scientific American Aug. 12, 2008 To keep troops from being stranded and easily ambushed on the battlefield, the Army is working with researchers to develop tires for their Humvees that can better withstand roadside attacks. One such design comes from Resilient Technologies, LLC, based in Wausau, Wis., and the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Polymer Engineering Center. With a four-year, $18-million grant from the Pentagon, Resilient is working to create a "non-pneumatic tire" (NPT) technology, called that because it doesn't require air.
• With Drug Testing System Broken, Let Olympic Games Be Doped New York Times Aug. 12, 2008 Quoted: Norman Fost, a professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin.
• Between a maverick and a hard place Los Angeles Times Aug. 11, 2008 Quoted: Charles H. Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin.
• UW-Madison Opens Newest Dairy Facility Ag Weekly (Twin Falls, ID) Aug. 8, 2008 It has been a long road, but one goal of the UW-Madison Dairy Science Department is now reality. The newest addition to UW-Madison’s dairy facilities dedicated to serving Wisconsin’s and the nation’s dairy producers, was officially dedicated last week on location in Arlington. “It has been a relatively long journey for our department and college,” noted Ric Grummer, Dairy Science Department chairperson. But the department now has an elite facility for research to prove that it is the premier dairy science department and school in the country. The new facility is located on Badger Lane outside of Arlington. It includes a parlor and two freestall barns that are all specially geared to foster research projects in an environment that closely resembles a typical dairy operation today.
• Researchers craft curved, eyelike electronic camera Chicago Tribune Aug. 7, 2008 Quoted: Max Lagally, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
• Adolescents' TV Watching Is Linked to Violent Behavior Los Angeles Times Aug. 6, 2008 Quoted: Joanne Cantor, professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a longtime media violence researcher.
• Friedman: China a great power? Then make a deal with the Dalai Lama The Daily Star (Lebanon) Aug. 6, 2008 On the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, many human rights activists and observers continue to hope that the Chinese Communist Party's embrace of odious regimes such as Burma's and Sudan's, and its oppression of Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and Falun Gong spiritualists, will lead democratic heads of state to boycott the Olympics, or athletes and spectators to demonstrate on behalf of the victims. I doubt it. The only demonstrations are likely to be those celebrating China's massive gold medal count.
• Erratic climate predicted Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Aug. 6, 2008 A University of Wisconsin-Madison climatologist has found that increased year-to-year climate fluctuations are expected to have drastic effects on the world’s ecosystems. “Climate variability reduces total vegetation cover,” said Michael Notaro, an assistant scientist at the UW Center for Climatic Research. Notaro presented his findings Tuesday at the Ecological Society of America’s annual meeting in Milwaukee.
• Cheese scholar finds magic in milk's transformation Chicago Tribune July 28, 2008 When Scott Rankin smells stinky cheeses—the kind so potent that the French refer to them as "the feet of God"—he doesn't just use his nose. In spite of such a rarefied interest, Rankin isn't an evangelist of the curd, a champion of cheese. No, he's a food scientist, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He studies not only the chemistry of cheese, but also the intricacies of production (10 gallons of milk equals 1 pound of cheese) and the evolution of craft. He experiences dairy's golden cousin like few others.
• Math Scores Show No Gap for Girls, Study Finds New York Times July 25, 2008 Three years after the president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, got into trouble for questioning women’s “intrinsic aptitude” for science and engineering — and 16 years after the talking Barbie doll proclaimed that “math class is tough” — a study paid for by the National Science Foundation has found that girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests. Janet Hyde, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study, said the persistent stereotypes about girls and math had taken a toll. “The stereotype that boys do better at math is still held widely by teachers and parents,” Dr. Hyde said. “And teachers and parents guide girls, giving them advice about what courses to take, what careers to pursue. I still hear anecdotes about guidance counselors steering girls away from engineering, telling them they won’t be able to do the math.”
• The Myth of the Math Gender Gap Time July 25, 2008 A new report by researchers at University of Wisconsin and University of California, Berkeley, aims to overturn the long-held belief that girls aren't as good at math as boys. According to new data, the researchers say, that gender gap has become a myth — a finding they hope will help shift the very real gender gap in math, science and technology professions, which are currently dominated by men.
• X-citement builds for sequel San Diego Union-Tribune July 22, 2008 Quoted: Dean A. Kowalski, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and author of the book “The Philosophy of the X-Files.”
• Explore the world of American cheddar Chicago Daily Herald July 16, 2008 Quoted: Bill Wendorff, dairy professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and cheddar judge for the American Cheese Society.
• Foodies go crackers for Potter's Capital Times July 15, 2008 Thanks to an innovative pair of Madison food entrepreneurs, the lowly cracker gets to be a star at the snack table, rather than just the unsung transport vehicle for cheese or savory dips. But it's not just any cracker that chefs like Chicago's Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill fame are raving about and local consumers are craving.
• How Ritalin Works Popular Science July 14, 2008 You’d think that a drug prescribed to 10 million Americans would be well understood. But until now, scientists haven’t firmly grasped why Ritalin helps the scatterbrained. In a University of Wisconsin-Madison study published recently in Biological Psychiatry, researchers found that the stimulant works by optimizing brain signals in the prefrontal cortex.
• Ritalin Dose Changes Effect Scientific American July 14, 2008 Doctors prescribe Ritalin to hyperactive kids to calm them down and increase their attention span. And college kids have taken to using Ritalin to concentrate when they hit the books. But it hasn’t been clear how the drug boosts focus. Now a paper in the journal Biological Psychiatry suggests how it might work. (Audio.)
• UW-Madison team advances effort to find drugs to thwart evolving viruses Milwaukee Journal Sentinel July 10, 2008 A team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is one step ahead of a quickly evolving influenza virus that’s been threatening the planet with pandemic disease for the past five years. The team, led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, is leading the charge to find new drugs and weapons to fight a virus that has evolved to resist the only drugs known to beat it.
• Study uncovers how Ritalin works in the brain Reuters July 3, 2008 Stimulant drugs like Ritalin work by "fine-tuning" neuron activity in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for filtering out distractions and helping people to focus on tasks, new UW-Madison research in rats suggests.
• Are Some People Mosquito Magnets? Newsweek July 3, 2008 Carbon dioxide and lactic acid are released whenever we breathe or sweat, but the emission rates vary by person. Larger people and pregnant woman, for example, have higher levels and are more likely targets. According to Susan Peskewitz, a mosquito researcher and entomology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the scents of these compounds coupled with body heat are the biggest attractors.
• Book Review: 'One to Nine - The Inner Life of Numbers,' by Andrew Hodges New York Times July 7, 2008 Author: Jordan Ellenberg is an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “The Grasshopper King,” a novel.
• Writing's easier for obsessives Sydney Morning Herald June 30, 2008 IN COMMUNITY LIFE, a short story by Lorrie Moore, a woman librarian looks around and realises that compared with her boyfriend's social group, her friends are all a bit wonky. They say sour things in quiet voices and make terrible wardrobe decisions. They are "delicate and territorial, intellectual, and physically unwell" but, writes Moore, "these were the people she liked: the kind you couldn't really live with". She might be describing her characters in general, who, even when they do find someone to live with, tend to wince at everything they say and then show them up in public.
• Extinctions of Early Life Probably Happened Slowly Over Time, Not With a Bang U.S. News and World Report June 30, 2008 A new study suggests the epic ebbing and flowing of sea and sediment for eons upon eons account for world's periodic mass extinctions over the past 500 million years. "Impacts, for the most part, aren't associated with most extinctions," said Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of geology and geophysics and leader of the study. "There have also been studies of volcanism, and some eruptions correspond to extinction, but many do not."
• For Kids: IceCube Science Science News June 30, 2008 Francis Halzen has an unusual job. This scientist studies itsy bitsy, teeny tiny objects zipping through the universe. They’re called neutrinos. His job should be easy because neutrinos are all around us, all the time. They pass from the depths of outer space to the depths of your sock drawer — and then just keep going. And don’t even think about trying to count these super-tiny particles. The neutrinos flying around our universe outnumber all of the people, animals, plants, satellites, planets, stars, galaxies, black holes and asteroids combined. They’re also fast, traveling at almost the speed of light. In the time it took you to read the previous paragraph, more than a trillion neutrinos zoomed through you. They always travel in straight lines. Some fly from your eyes to your ears, others from your feet to your head. They fly from the left, from the right and from everywhere in between. Although you can’t see them, they’re also flying through everything you can see. So you would think Halzen’s job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison should be a snap. All he has to do is catch a few of the gazillions passing through his university every day.
• UW-Madison biochemist named Searle Scholar Milwaukee Journal Sentinel June 25, 2008 University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemist Doug Weibel has won the prestigious Searle Scholar Award, a prize recognizing academic excellence of young faculty in medicine, chemistry and the biological sciences. The award nets Weibel $300,000 over the next three years in research funding, one of the top monetary prizes available in the biomedical sciences.
• Binary stars might not form simultaneously United Press International June 24, 2008 NASHVILLE, June 23 (UPI) -- A U.S.-funded study finds binary stars might not be identical, and that might cause the world's astronomers to re-examine some of their theories. "The easiest way to explain the observed differences is if one star was fully formed about 500,000 years before its twin," said Keivan Stassun, an associate professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University. The discovery by Stassun and Robert Mathieu from the University of Wisconsin-Madison appears in the journal Nature.
• Harsh climate weathered away early rocks MSNBC.com June 24, 2008 The climate of early Earth was no day at the beach, with stinging acid rains and an intensely warm surface, a new study suggests. These harsh conditions could explain why geologists today have found no rocks more than 4 billion years old: They were all weathered away. Geologists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined zircon crystals, the oldest known materials on Earth, to shed light on the fate of rocks from the early Earth. Zircons, which are smaller than a speck of sand, can offer a window back in time to about 4.4 billion years ago, when the Earth was a mere 150 million years old because they are extremely resistant to chemical changes.