Research

September 9, 2014

Documents that Changed the World: The Star Spangled Banner turns 200

The flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write what would become "The Star Spangled Banner," shown on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of History and Technology, around 1964. Many pieces were cut off the flag and given away as souvenirs early during its history. A linen backing, attached in 1914, shows the original extent of the flag.

Information School Professor Joe Janes takes a look at “The Star Spangled Banner” for his Documents that Changed the World series.

September 8, 2014

Geneticist Mary-Claire King to receive Lasker Foundation Award

Mary-Clare King, a world leader in cancer genetics and the application of genetics to justice for human rights violations, will be honored by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation.

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 4, 2014

Predicting when toxic algae will reach Washington and Oregon coasts

Better understanding of how a deadly algae grows offshore and gets carried to Pacific Northwest beaches has led to a computer model that can predict when the unseen threat will hit local beaches.

September 3, 2014

Health Sciences News Digest

Latest news from the UW Health Sciences: Comparative genomes, open notes, teaching Ebola, depression in women

The power harvester could be placed outside and runs off of temperature changes in the natural world.

University of Washington researchers have taken inspiration from a centuries-old clock design and created a power harvester that uses natural fluctuations in temperature and pressure as its power source.

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 26, 2014

Health Digest: Ebola outbreak, HIV persistence, kids’ sleep routines

UW Health Sciences News Digest: Ebola outbreak, HIV persistence, back-to-school sleep routines

As seen under an optical microscope, the heterostructures have a triangular shape. The two different monolayer semiconductors can be recognized through their different colors.

Scientists have developed what they believe is the thinnest-possible semiconductor, a new class of nanoscale materials made in sheets only three atoms thick.

August 25, 2014

Learning by watching, toddlers show intuitive understanding of probability

UW researchers have found that children as young as 2 intuitively use math concepts to help make sense of their world.

August 21, 2014

Busy midsummer week for UW undergraduate researchers

Trinh Ha, an incoming freshman who will study engineering, talks with visitors at the UW Summer Undergraduate Research Poster Session Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014.

The popular Summer Undergraduate Research Poster Session allows UW students — and some just arriving — to show off their research.

graph of global temperatures and ocean heat

Observations show that the heat absent from the Earth’s surface is plunging deep in the north and south Atlantic Ocean, and is part of a slow, naturally recurring cycle.

Washington state’s housing market rebounded from its first quarter performance, as the annual rate of existing home sales rose 6.4 percent in the second quarter of 2014.

August 20, 2014

UW project becomes a focal point in hunt for dark matter

UW physicists Leslie Rosenberg (left) and Gray Rybka examine the Axion Dark Matter Experiment detector package.

The UW has one of three experiments aimed at detecting elusive dark matter in the universe that have gotten a big financial boost.

August 18, 2014

StopInfo for OneBusAway app makes buses more usable for blind riders

A UW study found that StopInfo, a new hub for bus stop information in the OneBusAway app, is helpful for blind riders and can promote spontaneous and unfamiliar travel. A UW research team launched the program recently in collaboration with King County Metro.

August 16, 2014

Virginity pledges for men can lead to sexual confusion — even after the wedding day

Hands of a man and woman wearing weddng rings on to pf open bible

Young men receiving support after they pledge to abstain from sex until marriage, can find themselves without advisors and help once they do marry.

August 15, 2014

Research from 1960s shakes up understanding of West Coast earthquakes

A new study used seabed samples collected by UW graduate students in the late 1960s to question current interpretations of earthquake frequency along the West Coast.

August 14, 2014

Stardust sample analysis finds likely interstellar dust

An artist's conception of the Stardust spacecraft meeting the comet Wild-2.

The Stardust mission, the brainchild of a UW astronomer, enlisted help from thousands of citizen scientists to find likely evidence of interstellar dust.

August 13, 2014

Snow has thinned on Arctic sea ice

Historic observations and NASA airborne data provide a decades-long record showing that the snowpack on Arctic sea ice is thinning.

August 8, 2014

Ancient shellfish remains rewrite 10,000-year history of El Niño cycles

Piles of ancient shells provide the first reliable long-term record for the powerful driver of year-to-year climate changes. Results show that the El Niños 10,000 years ago were as strong and frequent as they are today.

August 7, 2014

Ocean’s most oxygen-deprived zones to shrink under climate change

Predictions that the lowest-oxygen environments in the ocean will get worse may not come to pass. UW research shows climate change, by weakening the trade winds, will shrink these extremely low-oxygen waters.

UW physics graduate student Nikola Whallon shows off a Legos version of the Atlas detector.

UW students used Legos to build a replica of the Atlas detector, part of the Large Hadron Collider that made physics history. (With video)

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.

August 5, 2014

Funding approval a big step forward for Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

A photograph and a rendering mix of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

With a key funding approval, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, an international astronomy project of which the University of Washington is a founding member, is taking a major step toward becoming a reality.

August 4, 2014

No-power Wi-Fi connectivity could fuel Internet of Things reality

University of Washington engineers have designed a new communication system that uses radio frequency signals as a power source and reuses existing Wi-Fi infrastructure to provide Internet connectivity to battery-free devices.

July 31, 2014

Companion planets can increase old worlds’ chance at life

For certain ancient planets orbiting smaller, older stars, the gravitational influence of an outer companion planet might generate enough energy to keep the inner world habitable even when its own internal fires burn out. This is an illustration of a planet in the habitable zone of a star about the size of the sun. But what would such a world look like at its surface? Here, UW astronomy Rory Barnes provides a speculative illustration. "The star would appear about 10 times larger in the sky than our Sun. The sky is mostly dark because cool stars don't emit much blue light, so the atmosphere doesn't scatter it."

Having a companion in old age is good for people — and, it turns out, might extend the chance for life on certain Earth-sized planets in the cosmos as well.

July 30, 2014

Dissolvable fabric loaded with medicine might offer faster protection against HIV

The UW's dissolving fibers could be spun and placed within an applicator, similar to those used to insert a tampon. The inset image shows the quick-release fibers magnified 5,000 times.

University of Washington bioengineers have discovered a potentially faster way to deliver a topical drug that protects women from contracting HIV. Their method spins the drug into silk-like fibers that quickly dissolve when in contact with moisture, releasing higher doses of the drug than possible with other materials.

July 29, 2014

Huge waves measured for first time in Arctic Ocean

The first measurements of waves in the middle of the Arctic Ocean recorded house-sized waves during a September 2012 storm. More sensors are going out this summer to study waves in newly ice-free Arctic waters.

News from the UW Health Sciences: Alzheimer’s impact on our aging population, hunger cues, trauma treatment study, avoiding burnout, training new neuroscientists, an AIDS-free generation

July 28, 2014

New protein structure could help treat Alzheimer’s, related diseases

An abnormal protein, left, is intercepted by the UW’s compound that can bind to the toxic protein and neutralize it, as shown at right.

University of Washington bioengineers have a designed a peptide structure that can stop the harmful changes of the body’s normal proteins into a state that’s linked to widespread diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

July 23, 2014

Historical guide ‘Shaping Seattle Architecture’ returns in second edition

The second edition of "Shaping Seattle Architecture" is out from University of Washington Press.

Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, UW professor of architecture, discusses the second edition of “Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects.” Ochsner edited both editions, working with a five-person editorial board.

July 22, 2014

Oso disaster had its roots in earlier landslides

An aerial view of the slide site at Oso, Washington, from March 31, 2014.

The UW is part of a new study that shows the disastrous landslide that killed 43 people at Oso, Washington, involved the “remobilization” of a 2006 landslide in the same place.

July 15, 2014

Sustainable, sharing communities explored in Karen Litfin’s book ‘Ecovillages’

The forest provides firewood for the 40,000 Tamil villagers who live around Auroville. "Founded in 1968 upon a severely eroded plateau in south India, the first order of business for the pioneers was to revitalize the land. Three million trees later, Auroville is home to over 2,000 people from 43 different countries and is one of the few places on Earth where biodiversity is actually increasing," Litfin writes.

UW political scientist Karen Litfin spent a year traveling to 14 ecovillages worldwide in researching her book “Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community.”

brain scan showing activation of the amygdala in the left hemisphere

By using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans from before the attack and survey data from after, the researchers found that heightened amygdala reaction to negative emotional stimuli was a risk factor for later developing symptoms of PTSD.

July 14, 2014

Months before their first words, babies’ brains rehearse speech mechanics

A year-old baby sits in a brain scanner, called magnetoencephalography -- a noninvasive approach to measuring brain activity. The baby listens to speech sounds like "da" and "ta" played over headphones while researchers record her brain responses.

Research from UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences shows that in 7- and 11-month-old infants speech sounds stimulate areas of the brain that coordinate and plan motor movements for speech.

July 10, 2014

Students calculate future sea-level rise in Olympia

Students in a UW statistics course did a case study on sea-level rise in Olympia. All are co-authors on a new paper that looks at the uncertainties around estimates of rising seas.

Fluke Hall, home of the UW business incubator, New Ventures Facility.

The UW’s New Ventures Facility has been named emerging incubator of the year in a global ranking of top university business incubators.

July 8, 2014