UW-Madison in the Media

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

• UW astrophysicist left 'big footprint' on the stars Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 7, 2008 Just because something couldn't be seen did not mean that it couldn't be mapped. William Kraushaar, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and a pioneer in the field of high-energy astrophysics, developed experiments that created the first gamma ray map of the sky, showing gamma rays from both the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. He died on March 21.
• Learn to Be Kind Scientific American March 28, 2008 We’re in the midst of a revolution in brain science. The long-held dogma that brain connections are unchangeable after age five, is being usurped with findings that the brain is more plastic than we thought. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a study in PLoS One this week, showing that our capacity for empathy can be learned and mastered – as one might learn to play soccer or piano. The skill here comes from meditation. (Audio.)
• For Guard and His Fan, Strength in a Number Washington Post March 26, 2008 OMAHA -- Somewhere among the socks, shirts and toiletries Michael Flowers packed to take with him to the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament is a No. 22 jersey. It is significantly smaller than the No. 22 jersey Flowers wears during games, the one with "Wisconsin" stitched across the front.
• Lab Notes : The Lotus and the Synapse Newsweek March 26, 2008 The scientist who has worked most closely with the Dalai Lama is Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Davidson first met the Dalai Lama in 1992, and since about 2000 has been investigating a question dear to the heart of the leader of Tibetan Buddhism: can mental training such as meditations change the brain in an enduring way?
• Springsteen 'in awe' of UW's Davis Capital Times March 20, 2008 Madison bass player Richard Davis is pretty nonchalant about his role Monday night on stage with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. "We know each other from years ago," said Davis, 77, who has been a popular school of music professor at the UW-Madison for 31 years. ....His Wikipedia bio calls Davis one of the most widely recorded bassists of all time. He has worked in both jazz and classical music all over the world and has recorded extensively both as a leader and sideman.
• Scientists show up Michelangelo's faults Guardian (UK) March 19, 2008 Quoted: "Understanding structural properties of historical and cultural artefacts through computer simulations is often crucial to their preservation," said Prof Vadim Shapiro at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At present this kind of analysis was expensive, time-consuming and error-prone, he said. "The 'scan and solve' technology promises to transform the simulation into a simple and fully automated process that can be applied routinely."
• Michelangelo's David has dodgy legs The Telegraph (UK) March 19, 2008 Quoted: Today, Vadim Shapiro of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Igor Tsukanov of Florida International University and their colleagues will present their latest results from their "Scan and Solve" computer technique at the International Conference on Computational and Experimental Engineering and Sciences in Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Another Problem with Biofuels? Time March 13, 2008 It's called the dead zone. Agricultural fertilizer byproducts like nitrogen are running off farms and into the Mississippi River, which then spills out into the Gulf of Mexico.
• More ethanol will expand Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone': report CBC News March 11, 2008 Ramping up ethanol production for alternative fuels will worsen the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, a stretch of water unable to support aquatic life, according to a report co-written by the University of British Columbia. The U.S. Senate's recently announced plan to triple production of ethanol made from corn starch by 2022 will increase the zone by 10 to 19 per cent from the 20,000-square-kilometres — an area roughly the size of New Jersey — it has recently occupied, the report said.
• UW-Madison professor fights cancer in her lab and life Wisconsin State Journal March 7, 2008 Patricia Keely is fighting cancer on two fronts: • In her lab, she and her colleagues at UW-Madison are discovering secrets of breast cancer, including why it occurs more often in dense breast tissue. • In her life, she volunteered for a clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic of a new drug in hopes of surviving her own cancer of the esophagus.
• Climate Study Links Atlantic Storms With African Dust Levels Voice of America March 7, 2008 Aided by satellite monitoring, scientists at the University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies have updated their study of cyclone formation in the eastern Atlantic Ocean off of Africa’s west coast. Their findings, released last moevels (Voice of America)nth, appeared about the same time as tropical Cyclone Ivan struck Madagascar in the Indian Ocean east of the African continent.
• Mathematics Explains Mysterious Midge Behavior New York Times March 7, 2008 Here’s a place that’s unlikely ever to be a vacation spot for Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain: Lake Myvatn, in Iceland. Myvatn, translating from Icelandic to English, means Midge Lake. During mating season, the air at Lake Myvatn can also be thick with male midges, each hovering, waiting for a female to join him. “It’s a like a fog, a brown dense fog that just rises around the lake,” said Anthony R. Ives, a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin.
• Groundbreaking Alzheimer's Research Happening At UW Hospital WISC-TV 3 March 4, 2008 MADISON, Wis. -- Some groundbreaking research being done at the UW could greatly affect those at risk for Alzheimer's disease. The goal of the research is to try to identify Alzheimer's disease before symptoms start occurring, and researchers believe to do that, you must look at the brain. That's exactly what Dr. Sterling Johnson is doing. He's been doing work where healthy people, both with a family history of Alzheimer's disease and without, have MRI's done while performing memory tasks.
• Kathy Walsh Nufer column: It's more than just baby talk Appleton Post-Crescent March 4, 2008 Parents, especially anxious first-timers who devour every baby book, might panic when their child shows no inclination to speak, even as toddlers playing nearby jabber away with abandon. Late talkers can cause many moms and dads fits but, in most cases, they need not worry, says brain investigator Susan Ellis Weismer, a professor of communicative disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a principal researcher with UW's Waisman Center.
• Obama benefiting from shift in values Appleton Post-Crescent March 3, 2008 Quoted: Dhavan V. Shah, a journalism and political science professor at UW-Madison, points to a 20-year study by the Pew Research Center that looked at changes in public opinions and values for answers.
• Record numbers using the Quit line Wisconsin Radio Network March 3, 2008 The Wisconsin Tobacco Quit line has seen record numbers of callers this year. Rob Adsit is with the U-W Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. He says the quit line has received 20,000 calls in January and February, compared 9,000 for an entire year typically. He attributes this unprecedented growth to several factors.
• The Nukes of October: Richard Nixon's Secret Plan to Bring Peace to Vietnam Wired.com Feb. 27, 2008 Historian Jeremi Suri wrote a column about a plan hatched by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger to end the conflict in Vietnam by pretending to launch a nuclear strike on the USSR.
• Taxi to the Dark Side highlights work of UW-Madison prof Alfred McCoy Isthmus Feb. 25, 2008 UW-Madison history professor Alfred McCoy describes viewing the Academy Awards Sunday night as a “euphoric moment." The winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature award was Taxi to the Dark Side, a 106-minute film by Alex Gibney about the history of torture in American policy, centering on the death of an Afghan taxi driver named Diliwar who died in the custody of U.S. Army interrogators in December, 2002. McCoy is featured in the film, speaking about the findings in his 2006 book A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on
• Obama outspent Hillary 5-1 on WI TV MSNBC.com Feb. 25, 2008 One of the keys to Obama's 17-point Wisconsin win? Per a University of Wisconsin Advertising Project study, he outspent Clinton nearly 5-to-1 on TV ads in the state. Overall, the four Dem and GOP candidates aired more than 8,000 spots in the state, spending a combined $2.1 million.
• Deconstructing an Obama Victory New York Times Feb. 25, 2008 Here’s further grist for the mill for anyone deconstructing how Senator Hillary Clinton lost so many states to Senator Barack Obama. The story is starting to sound the same everywhere: slow start and outspent, if not out-organized. These are the details from Wisconsin, as culled by Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, which analyzes political advertising across the country.
• How important is oratory to Obama and other politicians? Cleveland Plain Dealer Feb. 21, 2008 Quoted: Stephen Lucas, a professor of communications at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
• Nanotechnology Is Morally Unacceptable Wall Street Journal Feb. 21, 2008 If you don’t have a super-fast, super-small computer in a few years, blame the moral majority. It turns out that most Americans find nanotechnology, the scientific field most likely to produce such a breakthrough, morally unacceptable. That’s according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin who are studying people’s attitudes towards nanotechnology, an emerging scientific field that involves manipulating molecules and atoms. They found that just 29.5% of the 1,000-plus Americans surveyed said they thought nanotechnology research was morally acceptable.
• Obama, McCain add to victory streaks USA Today Feb. 20, 2008 Quoted: Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, likened the state's primary to the football competition that can consume campus. "It feels like the end of the regular season in Madison," he said, "and they'll be moving on to the championship games in Texas and Ohio."
• No one championed hockey in the U.S. more than "Badger" Bob ESPN.com Feb. 20, 2008 After the recent Hockey Weekend Across America, what better time to reminisce about one of the imperishable personalities and most influential people the game has ever seen or enjoyed? Because no one cared for the game itself and championed hockey in the United States more than "Badger" Bob Johnson.
• Americans Reject Morality of Nanotechnology on Religious Grounds Christian Post Feb. 19, 2008 Religion is said to be the driving influence behind Americans’ low moral opinion of nanotechnology, according to a researcher who surveyed public opinion on science and technology. Dietram Scheufele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of life sciences, and a colleague found in their study that only 29.5 percent of respondents from a sample of 1,015 adult Americans agreed that nanotechnology was morally acceptable. When the survey was conducted in European countries, who are reportedly also key players in nanotechnology, the results were strikingly different.
• Study finds tutor plan lacking Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Feb. 18, 2008 Early reports from a University of Wisconsin-Madison study raise questions about the value of federally funded tutoring sessions for low-performing Milwaukee Public Schools students.
• A 'Fair Trade' Approach to Licensed College Gear New York Times Feb. 13, 2008 One day seven or eight years ago in Bangkok, Joe Falcone began to feel an uncomfortable sensation of futility. The grandson of garment workers, he had been working in Asia’s clothing factories for nearly a decade, making certain they complied with labor and environmental laws. The idea was to assure American consumers their apparel and shoes were not made in sweatshops. But, as Mr. Falcone recalled in a recent interview, he had come to wonder if the laws were strong enough. Quoted: Dawn Crim, a special assistant to the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, was one administrator persuaded by Mr. Falcone’s sales pitch. “Our chancellor has always said to find the best supplier who makes the best product in a fair way and give him a chance,” said Ms. Crim, whose responsibilities include licensing. “We’re always on the lookout for a company that can operate in an ethical way.”
• Are the Olympics evicting Vancouver's poor? CTV (Canada) Feb. 12, 2008 Quoted: Kris Olds, a professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin.
• Study tries to pin down state black bear population Appleton Post-Crescent Feb. 11, 2008 MADISON — A University of Wisconsin research biologist is taking a new look at Wisconsin's black bear population, and results of his work are likely to impact bear management in the state. "There are more bear now than there probably has been in 20 years," said Tim VanDeelen, assistant professor of wildlife ecology, who is overseeing a two-year study that is in its final year.
• Sprinting down the evolutionary highway Toronto Star Feb. 11, 2008 Think that we humans are a fait accompli, a done deal that hasn't changed over the eons? Think again. Evidence is accumulating that the species is still evolving, and doing so at an unprecedented rate. A major new study led by UW-Madison anthropologist John Hawks says that in the past 5,000 years, natural selection – gene mutations that spread because they're beneficial – has occurred 100 times faster than at any other period in human history.