Science
April 25, 2013
Astronomer studies far-off worlds through ‘characterization by proxy’
A UW astronomer is using Earth’s interstellar neighbors to learn the nature of certain stars too far away to be directly measured or observed, and the planets they may host.
Keeping beverages cool in summer: It’s not just the heat, it’s the humidity
Drops forming on the outside of your drink don’t just make the can slippery. Experiments show that in hot, humid weather, condensation heats a drink more than the surrounding air.
April 23, 2013
Robots, solar-powered cars at Engineering Discovery Days, April 26-27
Engineering Discovery Days is April 26-27 at the UW campus and will feature exhibits and demonstrations from engineering departments and student groups.
April 18, 2013
Astronomers discover five-planet system with most Earth-like exoplanet yet
A University of Washington astronomer has discovered perhaps the most Earth-like planet yet found outside the solar system by the Kepler Space Telescope.
April 17, 2013
A key to mass extinctions could boost food, biofuel production
A substance implicated in several mass extinctions could greatly enhance plant growth, with implications for global food supplies biofuels, new UW research shows.
April 15, 2013
Preparing to install the world’s largest underwater observatory
Engineers at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory are under pressure to build and test parts for installation this summer in the world’s largest deep-ocean observatory off the Washington and Oregon coasts.
High glucose levels could impair ferroelectricity in body’s connective tissues
Researchers found that a protein in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract can lose their functionality when exposed to sugar.
April 14, 2013
Recent Antarctic climate, glacier changes at the ‘upper bound’ of normal
In recent decades the thinning of glaciers at the edge of Antarctica has accelerated, but new UW-led research indicates the changes, though dramatic, cannot be confidently attributed to human-caused global warming.
April 12, 2013
New device could cut costs on household products, pharmaceuticals
A new procedure that thickens and thins fluid at the micron level could save consumers and manufacturers money, particularly for some soap products.
Tsunami debris could be found in Washington’s annual beach cleanup
The annual beach cleanup may turn up new items from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan more than two years ago and sent objects to the Washington coast.
April 11, 2013
Space-age domes offer a window on ocean acidification
At Friday Harbor Labs, students are conducting a three-week study on the effects of ocean acidification using a strategy that’s midway between a controlled lab test and an open-ocean experiment.
Tuberculosis fighter and promoter reveals what’s behind its split identity
Latest research findings suggest the possibility of reverting TB hyper-susceptibility to TB hyper-resistance.
April 5, 2013
World renowned brain cancer researcher to join UW Medicine
Neurosurgeon Eric Holland has been recruited to establish a preeminent brain cancer program at UW Medicine and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute.
April 4, 2013
Listening to the Big Bang – in high fidelity (audio)
A UW physicist has used new satellite data to update his decade-old recreation of the sound of the Big Bang at the birth of the universe.
Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars
Astronauts could be a step closer to a fast journey to Mars using a unique manipulation of nuclear fusion devised by UW scientists and those at a Redmond company.
April 3, 2013
Brain cell signal network genes linked to schizophrenia risk in families
The genetic variants disturb the functioning of the same brain signal receptors affected by hallucinogenic drugs.
April 2, 2013
Book focuses on 1969 fight to save America’s premier fossil beds
Book Q and A: To allow buildings on 34 million year-old fossils would be like using the Dead Sea Scrolls to wrap fish in, proclaimed the lawyer defending land that would eventually become Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.
April 1, 2013
Infant tests for debilitating diseases set for mainstream
UW-developed screening for debilitating, often-fatal genetic conditions has drawn interest from companies that could use it in tests distributed nationally and around the world.
UW Medicine launches multi-media health and wellness initiative April 1
In partnership with Fisher Communications, UW Medicine Health will provide information on healthy living and on the latest treatments and medical breakthroughs
March 29, 2013
Head-on collisions between DNA-code reading machineries accelerate gene evolution
Bacteria speed up their evolution by positioning specific genes along the route of expected traffic jams in DNA encoding. Collisions can result in mutations.
March 28, 2013
Volunteers use historic U.S. ship logbooks to uncover Arctic climate data
A volunteer project enlists citizen scientists to transcribe climate observations buried in historic logbooks of U.S. ships that spent time in the Arctic.
March 26, 2013
Gene therapy may aid failing hearts
Scientists come closer to boosting heart muscle by powering its contractile machinery.
March 20, 2013
2013 Canada Gairdner Global Health Award goes to King Holmes for STD work
Holmes was honored for his groundbreaking work on sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, genital herpes, gonorrhea and human papilloma virus.
Some Alaskan trout use flexible guts for the ultimate binge diet
The stomach and intestines of certain Dolly Varden trout double to quadruple in size during month-long, salmon-egg-eating binges in Alaska each August. It’s the first time researchers have documented such fish gut flexibility in the wild.
March 19, 2013
Tenfold boost in ability to pinpoint proteins in cancer cells
New research offers a more comprehensive way to analyze a cell’s unique behavior, revealing patterns that could indicate why a cell will or won’t become cancerous.
March 18, 2013
UW students create, harvest fog in campus ‘hoop house’
University of Washington students have been testing low-cost materials capable of harvesting water from fog.
March 11, 2013
Long-term relationships, access to data drive sustainability institutions’ success
Successful sustainability initiatives need to be grounded in long-standing relationships among scientists, local communities and decision-makers, UW’s Lisa Graumlich told a session on sustainability science at AAAS.
Remote clouds responsible for climate models’ glitch in tropical rainfall
One of the most persistent biases in global climate models is due to poor simulation of cloud cover thousands of miles to the south.
March 8, 2013
Spring move-in slated for new UW Medicine South Lake Union research building
Occupying the seven-story facility will be labs for kidney research, vision sciences, immunology, rheumatology, and infectious disease investigations.
March 7, 2013
Tracking sediments’ fate in largest-ever dam removal
Any day now, the world’s largest dam-removal project will release a century’s worth of sediment . For geologists, it’s a unique opportunity to study natural and engineered river systems.
March 6, 2013
UW nautilus expedition may have spied new species
A University of Washington research team has captured color photographs of what could be a previously undocumented species of chambered nautilus, a cephalopod mollusk often classified as a “living fossil,” in the waters off American Samoa in the South Pacific. “This is certainly a new taxon, but we are not sure if it is a…
March 4, 2013
United States lags behind many developed countries on key health measures
A public symposium on the Global Burden of Diseases study will be held on campus Monday, March 11.
‘True grit’ erodes assumptions about evolution
New work in Argentina where scientists had previously thought Earth’s first grasslands emerged 38 million years ago, shows the area at the time covered with tropical forests rich with palms, bamboos and gingers. Grit and volcanic ash in those forests could have caused the evolution of teeth in horse-like animals that scientists mistakenly thought were adaptations in response to emerging grasslands.
February 28, 2013
Changes in cloud distribution explain some weather patterns
Regional cloud changes may be as important for climate change as the overall amount of cloud cover.
February 27, 2013
Contaminated diet contributes to phthalate and bisphenol A exposure
People are exposed to these endocrine-disrupting chemicals even if they eat an organic diet and do not store, prepare or cook in plastic containers.
February 21, 2013
Drugs to slow aging are a matter of when, not if
Evidence suggests it will someday be possible to slow down aging and delay the onset of diseases common in the elderly.
Using amount of fish caught as measure of fisheries health is misleading
Do changes in the amount of fish caught necessarily reflect the number of fish in the sea? “No,” say UW researchers in a “Counterpoint” commentary in Nature.
February 19, 2013
Mutant champions save imperiled species from almost-certain extinction
Species facing widespread and rapid environmental changes can sometimes evolve quickly enough to dodge the extinction bullet. UW scientists consider the genetic underpinnings of such evolutionary rescue.
February 18, 2013
Mussels cramped by environmental factors
The fibrous threads helping mussels stay anchored are more prone to snap when ocean temperatures climb higher than normal.
February 15, 2013
Flu researcher whose findings met U.S. biosecurity review to speak at UW
The review generated public debate on publishing legitimate biological science findings that could pose a threat to public health or national security,
Previous page Next page