Environment
October 29, 2013
Redwood trees reveal history of West Coast rain, fog, ocean conditions
Scientists found a way to use coastal redwood trees as a window into historic climate, using oxygen and carbon atoms in the wood to detect fog and rainfall in previous seasons.
October 20, 2013
Global ocean currents explain why Northern Hemisphere is the soggier one
A new study in Nature Geoscience explains a major feature of global precipitation, and shows how a current originating from the poles influences tropical rainfall in Africa and southern India.
October 17, 2013
Campus sustainability, climate change focus of Sustainability Summit Oct. 23
Learn how to be more involved with campus sustainability during UW Sustainability Summit activities Oct. 23.
October 8, 2013
UW, local company building innovative deep-sea manned submarine
The UW, Boeing and an Everett company are building a carbon-fiber submersible that will carry five passengers almost 2 miles deep.
September 30, 2013
UW researchers helped draft international assessment of climate change
UW faculty members were among international researchers who compiled the fifth climate-change assessment report. The UW will host a seminar Tuesday, Oct. 1 with some of the Seattle-area authors.
September 19, 2013
Mantas, devil rays butchered for apothecary trade now identifiable
Dried filters from the mouths of filter-feeding rays started appearing in apothecary shops in recent years, but there’s been no way to know which of these gentle-natured rays was being slaughtered. Now scientists have discovered enough differences to identify the giant manta and eight devil rays using the dried filters.
September 18, 2013
Cables, instruments installed in the deep sea off Pacific Northwest coast
In a seven-week cruise this past summer, oceanographers and students laid 14 miles of extension cable and installed about a dozen instruments for a historic deep-sea observatory.
September 17, 2013
Stronger winds explain puzzling growth of sea ice in Antarctica
Despite warming temperatures, Antarctic sea ice is on track to hit a record high. A new study suggests stronger polar winds can explain the recent increase in Southern Hemisphere sea ice.
September 13, 2013
Neighborhoods and UW team up to measure diesel exhaust pollution in South Seattle
The residents of the Georgetown and South Park neighborhoods in Seattle’s Duwamish Valley now know how much diesel exhaust they are exposed to. A report on findings from an air pollution study comparing these neighborhoods to Beacon Hill and Queen Anne was published today, Sept. 13.
September 11, 2013
UW engineers to make cookstoves 10 times cleaner for developing world
University of Washington engineers have received a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to design a better cookstove, which researchers say will use half as much fuel and cut emissions by 90 percent.
September 9, 2013
Breaking deep-sea waves reveal mechanism for global ocean mixing
Oceanographers for the first time recorded an enormous wave breaking miles below the surface in a key bottleneck for global ocean circulation.
September 4, 2013
Pico-world dragnets: Computer-designed proteins recognize and bind small molecules
Computer-designed proteins that can recognize and interact with small biological molecules are now a reality. Scientists have succeeded in creating a protein molecule that can be programmed to unite with three different steroids.
August 30, 2013
New ocean forecast could help predict fish habitat six months in advance
UW researchers and federal scientists have developed the first long-term seasonal forecast of conditions for the Northwest ocean ecosystem.
August 14, 2013
UW garners highest score possible, named again to Green Honor Roll
The University of Washington has again been named to the Princeton Review’s Green Honor Roll, receiving the highest score possible for the 2012-13 academic year.
August 8, 2013
Ocean acidification center another example of state leading the nation
Washington’s governor and state legislators in the last session created a hub at the University of Washington to coordinate research and monitoring of ocean acidification and its effects on local sea life such as oysters, clams and fish.
August 7, 2013
Regulating electron ‘spin’ may be key to making organic solar cells competitive
UW researchers have discovered a high-performance polymer that could make inexpensive, organic solar cells competitive with silicon-based cells.
August 1, 2013
Scientists review the ecological effects of sea ice loss
A UW atmospheric scientist is co-author of a review paper, published this week in the journal Science, looking at the ecological consequences of sea ice decline.
July 30, 2013
Fifty years of ecological insights earn UW biologist international award
Biologist Robert Paine has been awarded this year’s International Cosmos Prize that carries a cash award of about $408,000 and has previously gone to well-known conservationists such as David Attenborough and the leaders behind the Census of Marine Life project.
Santa’s workshop not flooded – but lots of melting in the Arctic
Widespread media reports of a lake at the North Pole don’t hold water — but scientists who deployed the monitoring buoys are watching closely as Arctic sea ice approaches its yearly minimum.
July 29, 2013
Natural affinities – unrecognized until now – may have set stage for life to ignite
It might not have been just happenstance that caused components of RNA and the earliest “cell” membranes to be in the right place at the right time to spark life.
July 22, 2013
Geochemical ‘fingerprints’ leave evidence that megafloods eroded steep gorge
For the first time, scientists have direct geochemical evidence that the 150-mile long Tsangpo Gorge, possibly the world’s deepest, was the conduit by which megafloods from glacial lakes, perhaps half the volume of Lake Erie, drained catastrophically through the Himalayas when their ice dams failed during the last 2 million years.
July 19, 2013
Nighttime heat waves quadruple in Pacific Northwest
Nighttime heat waves — events where the nighttime low is unusually hot for at least three days in a row — are becoming more common in western Washington and Oregon.
July 16, 2013
News Digest: UW unveils events calendar, ocean expedition blog
New UW events calendar now available || Follow ocean expedition via bilingual blog, photo page
July 10, 2013
Julia Parrish speaks at White House about citizen science
Julia Parrish was one of 12 “champions of change” invited to share their ideas on public engagement in science and science literacy June 25 at the White House.
July 9, 2013
Hazy days of summer: Southeast U.S. field work measures mercury, smog
Dozens of atmospheric scientists, including three University of Washington faculty members, are taking part in what’s being described as one of the largest atmospheric field campaigns in decades.
July 3, 2013
Great ape genetic diversity catalog frames primate evolution and future conservation
A model of great ape history during the past 15 million years has been fashioned through the study of genetic variation in a large panel of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.
July 1, 2013
Work this summer extends reach of cabled deep-ocean observatory
A UW research vessel leaves July 2 for six weeks at sea, during which oceanographers will install miles of cable for a new type of deep-sea observatory.
June 25, 2013
Clearing up confusion on future of Colorado River flows
Leading experts on water issues in the Western U.S. have come together to establish what is known about the future of Colorado River water, and to understand the wide range of estimates for future flows.
June 21, 2013
Airborne gut action primes wild chili pepper seeds
Seeds gobbled by birds and dispersed across the landscape tend to fare better than those that fall near parent plants. Now it turns out it might not just be the trip through the air that’s important, but also the inches-long trip through the bird.
June 19, 2013
Detour ahead: Cities, farms reroute animals seeking cooler climes
In the first broad-scale study of its kind, UW led research finds half a dozen regions that could provide some of the Western Hemisphere’s more heavily used thoroughfares for mammals, birds and amphibians seeking cooler environments in a warming world.
June 7, 2013
Treks reveal distinctive forests of Cascade Mountains — with photo gallery
In “Spring Comes to the Cascades,” students don’t just read about the forests – they hike and snowshoe through them.
June 6, 2013
Pollution in Northern Hemisphere helped cause 1980s African drought
Air pollution in the Northern Hemisphere in the mid-20th century cooled the upper half of the planet and pushed rain bands south, contributing to the prolonged and worsening drought in Africa’s Sahel region. Clean air legislation in the 1980s reversed the trend and the drought lessened.
June 5, 2013
A walking revolution helps older adults get and stay active
Older adults are assessing their neighborhoods to make them more amenable to a favorite physical activity: walking.
June 4, 2013
Two wheels, four days: UW hosts international symposium on bicycling
The UW will become the global capital of bicycling when scores of scholars, policymakers, analysts and activists come to campus for the Bicycle Urbanism Symposium, June 19-22.
May 30, 2013
Transportation fuels from woody biomass promising way to reduce emissions
Two processes that turn woody biomass into transportation fuels have the potential to exceed current Environmental Protection Agency requirements for renewable fuels.
May 29, 2013
Traffic air pollution turns good cholesterol bad
Exposure to diesel exhaust undermines one of the body’s protections against heart and blood vessel disease.
May 24, 2013
‘The Return’ illustrates Native American environmental health story
“The Return,” a dreamlike account of a Native woman and her baby, is an allegory for passing environmental health values to the next generation.
May 22, 2013
New documentary on cabled ocean observatory airs on UWTV
A new half-hour documentary about a UW research expedition to Axial Seamount, an underwater volcano off the Washington coast, airs tonight at 9:30 p.m. on UWTV.
May 20, 2013
Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rain forest
A study published this week in Nature Geoscience shows that woody plant matter is almost completely digested by bacteria living in the Amazon River, and that this tough stuff plays a major part in fueling the river’s breath.
May 13, 2013
New report released on health impacts of Duwamish River cleanup
The UW report recommends ways to protect the health of Native American tribes and others affected by the cleanup.
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