Mark Riechers

They eat rocks. They're some of the strangest living beings on the planet. They are fungi.

Historian Jules Gill Peterson shares stories of trans experiences from the 1920s and 1930s

How The Irish Talk About Death

Most COVID-19 Patients In Wisconsin Have Recovered, But What Does That Mean?

'Spooked' Podcast Producer Eliza Smith On Controlling Panic With Tales Of Terror

What You Learn In The 'Magic Circle'

From Benign to Deadly: A Brief History Of Household Poisoning

While not as terror-inducing as a demon or ghoul, the sheer number of things that could kill us by swallowing them is truly terrifying. Throughout history, we've been surrounded by substances that seemed benign and innocent in our food, in our…

'Fantastic Fungi' And How To Film Them

Louie Schwartzberg is on a journey to the center of life on Earth. The filmmaker started with time-lapse photography of flowers, which led him to bees and their role pollinating crops to seeds and plant-based food. That got him interested in…

Teens Don't Want Hope. They Want Action.

Lydia Hester is counting the days. Not until she can drive, or head off to college, like a teen out of central casting. She's not chasing after her first job, either. She already had one — as the campaign director for her local city councilman, Tag…

Bringing Computation into the Economist’s Toolkit

Computational problem solving advances are opening new paths for economists to further understand an increasingly complex economy Every decision we make, every subset of information we digest and process — from shopping for shoes to seeking out…

Why yodeling still matters: The art form is alive and well in Wisconsin, for the time being

It begins simply, just a man singing. He bounds from word to word in an unfamiliar language. The cadence, however, is familiar. Suddenly his voice swells, and each syllable breaks into a flurry of harmonious notes. Parts of Swiss words roll and…

Nerds on the town: Madison hangouts for fun-loving poindexters

Dorky comic-book heroes like Batman and the Avengers outgrossed cool superspy James Bond two-to-one at the box office in 2012. Data wizards like Nate Silver deliver commentary alongside former football stars. And many kids beg their parents for…

When it comes to nerdy ballads, the Doubleclicks get specific

Fast, flexible electronics for the next generation of gadgetry

This year’s thin, powerful smartphone quickly becomes yesterday’s underperforming battery hog in today’s consumer electronics market. The demand for smaller devices with more features and increased battery life seems insatiable-and electrical and…

Printed photonic crystal mirrors shrink on-chip lasers down to size

Electrical engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Texas at Arlington have devised a new laser for on-chip optical connections that could give computers a huge boost in speed and energy efficiency. The team published…