UW News


November 25, 2014

‘Subirdia’ author urges appreciation of birds that co-exist where we work, live, play

Drawing of back of bird as it looks over buildings

Surprisingly, the diversity of birds in suburban areas can be greater than in forested areas, according to John Marzluff’s new book “Welcome to Subirdia.”


November 17, 2014

‘Probiotics’ for plants boost detox abilities; untreated plants overdose and die

Two women and willow cutting in lab

Scientists using a microbe that occurs naturally in eastern cottonwood trees have boosted the ability of willow and lawn grass to withstand the withering effects of the nasty industrial pollutant phenanthrene.


November 6, 2014

Zebrafish stripped of stripes

Sideview of fish

Within weeks of publishing surprising new insights about how zebrafish get their stripes, University of Washington researchers now explain how to “erase” them.


November 5, 2014

Incorporate more voices to loosen conservation gridlock, scientists urge

Looking down into treetops and dead snags

More diverse voices could help break a deadlock gripping the conservation community, say 238 co-signatories – including a dozen from the University of Washington.


October 30, 2014

Trout trick-or-treat: fish gobble furry animals with four feet

A fish on its side out of wter and a line up of dead shrews

Freshwater fish with bellies full of shrews – one trout a few years back was found to have eaten 19 – aren’t as random as scientists have thought.


October 16, 2014

Athletics initiatives, barriers to sustainability topics for Sustainability Summit

Theannual one-day Sustainability Summit this year is the centerpiece of a new weeklong SustainableUW Festival.


October 13, 2014

Symposium Oct. 20 will unveil draft campus landscape framework

Pedestrians walk under cherry trees in full bloom

A campus landscape framework – meant as a starting point for planning how the UW’s outdoor environment might look in 10, 20, even 50 years – will be unveiled in draft form Oct. 20 as part of a regional symposium on campus landscape planning and design.


October 10, 2014

Citizen science key to keeping pace with environmental change

Seven students stand on beach holding bird carcass

Better integration of citizen science into professional science is a growing consideration at the UW and elsewhere.


October 3, 2014

Not stuff of musty museums: Enlist evolutionary biology against modern threats

Full-size models of elephant, leopard, rhino on display

Using evolutionary biology is one way to try to outwit evolution where it is happening too quickly and to perhaps find accommodations when evolution occurs too slowly.


September 23, 2014

Don’t ignore looming Metro bus cuts, check your options now

a bus on the street stopped at a bus stop

The UW in August introduced a Commute Concierge service to help riders with personalized commute plans.


Dying brain cells cue new brain cells to grow in songbird

Sparrow perches among tree branches

Using a songbird as a model, scientists have described a brain pathway that replaces cells that have been lost naturally and not because of injury.


September 5, 2014

California blue whales rebound from whaling; first of their kin to do so

Overhead view of blue whale swimming in ocean

The number of California blue whales has rebounded to near historical levels and, while the number of blue whales struck by ships is likely above allowable U.S. limits, such strikes do not immediately threaten that recovery.


September 2, 2014

Dwindling waterways challenge desert fish in warming world

One of Arizona’s largest watersheds – home to many native species of fish already threatened by extinction – is providing a grim snapshot of what could happen to watersheds and fish in arid areas around the world as climate warming occurs.


August 29, 2014

Revisit 1990s HUB, U District as missing-student mystery unfolds

Shelves of books and head shot of author

Nick DiMartino, employee at University Book Store for 44 years, sets his latest novel at the University of Washington in the early 1990s.


August 8, 2014

David Briggs remembrance Aug. 17 at UW

Head shot of David Briggs

David Briggs, professor emeritus of environmental and forest sciences, will be remembered Sunday, Aug. 17 at the University of Washington Club.


August 6, 2014

Penguins at risk world over, scientists urge new strategies

Scientists writing in the current issue of Conservation Biology call for marine protected areas and partially protected areas to help penguins cope.


June 26, 2014

Foul fumes derail dinner for hungry moths

moth with flower and exhaust pipe

New research on how pollinators find flowers when background odors are strong shows that both natural plant odors and human sources of pollution can conceal the scent of sought-after flowers.


June 25, 2014

Shellfish center – named after UW’s Ken Chew – to tackle shellfish declines

Platter of raw shellfish

Washington state’s newest shellfish hatchery has been named after longtime faculty member Ken Chew.


June 17, 2014

UW news office, advancement services, Columns win national awards

Logo of world with CASE

UW units have won medals in the annual awards program sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.


June 4, 2014

It’s not giant asparagus: Nine-foot agave showing off at botany greenhouse

People gather around pot with plant that has tall flower spike

Stop outside the botany greenhouse to see an agave plant that’s grown a 9-foot-plus flower spike and is about to bloom for the first time in 25 years.


May 29, 2014

Retirees honored for more than 10,000 years of service to UW

Two men shake hands

Some 480 faculty and staff members retired between spring 2013 and spring 2014 and were invited to the event earlier this month at the UW Club


May 27, 2014

UW students, neighbors join forces down on the Union Bay ‘bayou’

Woman kneels by two-foot tall willow branches

Swamp once site of historic Yesler sawmill being restored with UW student and neighborhood help.


May 21, 2014

Marine apprenticeships give UW undergrads role in animal-ancestor breakthrough

Three people on beach with buckets

Comb jellies – and not sponges – may lay claim as the earliest ancestors of animals, according to new research in Nature.


May 13, 2014

Focus on research: Undergraduates bring findings alive Friday

Student explains work to attendee of 2013 poster session

Join your colleagues at the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium Friday, May 16.


May 12, 2014

Improve grades, reduce failure – undergrads should tell profs ‘Don’t lecture me’

Man talks with two rows of students in class auditorium

A significantly greater number of students fail science, engineering and math courses that are taught lecture-style than fail with active learning according to the largest analysis ever of studies comparing lecturing to active learning in undergraduate education


May 1, 2014

Amphibians in a vise: Climate change robs frogs, salamanders of refuge

Frogs head shows above surface of the water

Amphibians in the West’s high-mountain areas find themselves caught between climate-induced habitat loss and predation from introduced fish. A novel combination of tools could help weigh where amphibians are in the most need of help.


April 23, 2014

Fisheries act, up for reauthorization, subject of UW symposium

Words and line drawing of fish

The Magnuson-Stevens Act is the subject of this year’s Bevan Series on Sustainable Fisheries.


April 21, 2014

Campus events Earth Day, April 22

Illustration shows part of Earth and tex saying Earth Day

Network with representatives of environmentally minded campus units and learn who won this year’s Husky Green Awards during Earth Day activities Tuesday on the HUB lawn.


April 17, 2014

2014 Awards of Excellence recipients announced

Medal with UW seal and writing

UW recognizes achievements in teaching, mentoring, public service and staff support.


April 10, 2014

Fruit flies, fighter jets use similar nimble tactics when under attack

Close up of fruit fly

Get on your 3-D glasses for one of the animations of tiny fruit flies employing banked turns to evade attacks just like fighter jets.


March 26, 2014

Decline of natural history troubling for science, society

Two people kneel by tide pool

Seventeen North American scientists outline the importance of natural science and call for a revitalization of the practice.


March 13, 2014

2014 UW cherry tree watch, March 21 update: Bloom at 100 percent

The cherry trees in the Quad are at about 75 percent of their full bloom, according to the UW arborist.


February 18, 2014

Chemistry’s Matthew Bush named Sloan fellow

Mug shot of man

UW’s Matthew Bush has been selected as one of 126 Sloan Research Fellows for 2014.


February 14, 2014

UW helps protect $30 million to $40 million in U.S. wood exports to Japan

Ends of logs in a row

A recently introduced homebuilding subsidy program in Japan put logs and lumber imported from the U.S. and other countries at a competitive disadvantage.


February 8, 2014

UW among 19 campuses – out of 1,700 – getting nod for access, affordability, success

Only 19 universities – including the University of Washington– met the bar for access, affordability and student success set by the Center on Higher Education Reform.


February 4, 2014

Fruit flies – fermented-fruit connoisseurs – are relentless party crashers

Flies on banans and grapes

That fruit fly appearing moments after you poured that first glass of cabernet, has just used a poppy-seed-sized brain to conduct a finely-choreographed search and arrive in time for happy hour.


January 29, 2014

Deaths attributed directly to climate change cast pall over penguins

Six penguin chicks stand under shrub

Climate change is killing penguin chicks from the world’s largest colony of Magellanic penguins, not just indirectly but directly because of drenching rainstorms and heat.


January 28, 2014

Environmental sciences lab ups bar for green labs at UW

Purple log shows testube with tree growing out of it

A soils lab has achieved the highest score yet in the University of Washington’s 10-month-old Green Laboratory Certification Program.


January 20, 2014

Montlake Triangle/Rainier Vista project breaks ground, expect Burke-Gilman detour

Map of Rainier Vista with lines for detour

Burke-Gilman Trail users will see a detour starting the early weeks of February as work on the Montlake Triangle Project ­– the triangular area from the corner of Northeast Pacific and Montlake to Stevens Way – gets underway.


January 15, 2014

DNA detectives able to ‘count’ thousands of fish using as little as a glass of water

Visitors stand looking through glass as sea animals swim by

A mere glass full of water from a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium tank is all scientists really needed to identify most of the 13,000 fish swimming there.



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