As scientists around the world celebrated the detection of what appears to be the long-sought Higgs boson, University of Washington physicists took satisfaction in knowing they played a significant part in it.
Science
Researchers have long believed that the longer days and calmer seas of spring set off an annual bloom of plants in the North Atlantic, but UW scientists discovered that warm eddies fuel the growth three weeks before the sun does.
Four incoming faculty members promise to make the University of Washington a leading institution in machine learning and the science of “big data.”
In one of the twists of scientific discovery, a UW duo working on fusion energy — harnessing the energy-generating mechanism of the sun — may have found a way to etch the next generation of microchips.
It’s been a decade since a swarm of relatively mild earthquakes shook up parts of Spokane. Now, armed with the right tools, scientists want to find out what was at fault.
A research team led by the University of Washington and Harvard University has discovered a bigger version of Earth locked in an orbital tug-of-war with a much larger, Neptune-sized planet as they orbit very close to each other around the same star.
New research from an international team that includes a UW professor emeritus confirms that the Arctic has gone through intensely warm periods, warmer than scientists thought was possible, during the last 2.8 million years.
University of Washington scientists are studying swirling whirlpools in the Sargasso Sea via a pioneering experiment that repeatedly sent profilers deep into the ocean and back to the surface in unison.
University of Washington engineers and scientists are one step closer to deploying sophisticated equipment that will collect important information about ocean properties like currents and temperature and send the information via the Internet in real time to scientists around the world.
Axial Seamount, an undersea volcano, gave warning signals hours before its eruption, scientists say in three papers published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.
An unappreciated aspect of chemical reactions on the surface of metal oxides could be key in developing more efficient energy systems, including more productive solar cells or hydrogen fuel cells efficient enough for automobiles.
Not having enough Chinook salmon to eat stresses out southern resident killer whales more than having boatloads of whale watchers nearby, according to hormone levels of whales summering in the Salish Sea. In lean times, however, the stress normally associated with boats becomes more pronounced, further underscoring the importance of having enough prey.
In a study published this week in Nature Climate Change, University of Washington and European scientists project that in the next 50 years global climate change will disrupt power generation in the U.S. and Europe. Warmer water and lower flows are predicted to interrupt the supply of cooling water.
A new UW club has qualified to participate in an international underwater robot competition and has designed its robot to be used by UW oceanographers in the field.
New research shows some of the steepest mountain slopes in the world got that way because of the interplay between terrain uplift associated with plate tectonics and powerful streams cutting into hillsides, leading to large landslides.
Mathematician Gunther Uhlmann and colleagues have devised an amplifier to boost light, sound or other waves while hiding them inside an invisible container. The findings are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Bioengineers have developed the first structure to grow small human blood vessels, creating a 3-D test bed that offers a better way to study disease, test drugs and perhaps someday grow human tissues for transplant.
Conservation Remix, a daylong event June 2 organized by UW staff with Conservation Magazine and biology, offers an eclectic mix of topics for discussion – from designing superefficient buildings that generate their own energy to controlling invasive species by eating them.
Scientists try to find which single-letter switches in the genetic code influence health risks.
A safe haven could be out of reach for 9 percent of the Western Hemisphere’s mammals, and as much as 40 percent in certain regions, because the animals just won’t move swiftly enough to outpace climate change, according to new research from the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
A textured surface mimics a lotus leaf to move drops of liquid in particular directions. The low-cost system could be used in portable medical or environmental tests.
UW researchers have discovered a problem with a climate record that is often cited by climate change skeptics.
Changes in the speed that ice travels in more than 200 outlet glaciers indicates that Greenland’s contribution to rising sea level in the 21st century might be significantly less than the upper limits some scientists thought possible, a new study shows.
Big trees three or more feet in diameter accounted for nearly half the biomass measured at a Yosemite National Park site, yet represented only 1 percent of the trees growing there.
The cells that line the pipes leading to the heart pull more tightly together in areas of fast-flowing blood. The cells’ mechanical response to their environment could aid understanding of heart disease.
Decades of research into how much plastic litters the ocean, conducted by skimming only the surface, may in some cases vastly underestimate the true amount of plastic debris in the oceans, according to a University of Washington oceanographer publishing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Electrical engineering professor John Sahr gives his read on the increase in solar activity, and how it relates to his research.
A magnetized ion plasma system devised by a UW researcher to propel spacecraft at ultra-high speeds could be adapted to clean up dead satellites and other debris crowded in Earth orbit.
Head for Paws-On Science: Husky Weekend, March 30, 31 and April 1, at Pacific Science Center, for 50 stations featuring UW research. UW faculty, staff, students and their families receive a 20 percent discount on admission during the event, as do UW alums.
Evidence from fossilized raindrop impressions from 2.7 billion years ago indicates that an abundance of greenhouse gases most likely caused the warm temperatures on ancient Earth.
Researchers have devised a nanoscale sensor to electronically read the sequence of a single DNA molecule, a technique that is fast and inexpensive and could make DNA sequencing widely available.
An odd, previously unseen landform could provide a window into the geological history of Mars, according to new research by University of Washington geologists.
A new online portal and smartphone app lets Washington and Oregon residents enter the addresses of their homes, schools, workplaces or kids’ day care centers to check if they’re in harm’s way should a tsunami hit. The tool, being publicized on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the Tohoku tsunami, was developed by researchers at the Applied Physics Laboratory.
Cherry trees in full bloom in our nation’s capital could be as much as four weeks earlier by 2080 depending on how much warming occurs. So says an analysis conducted at the University of Washington that relied on the UW’s own cherry trees as one test of a computer model used in the project.
New research shows that at least one group of small mammals, the multituberculates, actually flourished in the last 20 million years of dinosaurs reign and survived their extinction.
Greenroads, a rating system developed at the University of Washington to promote sustainable roadway construction, awarded its first official certification to a Bellingham project that incorporates porcelain from recycled toilets.
On the one-year anniversary of Japan’s great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, UW scientists said the devastating event has some important lessons for the Pacific Northwest – most notably, that a similar event will happen here, and this region is much less prepared than Japan.
From Seattle to Japan, University of Washington faculty had an important role in providing information about the aftermath of the March 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
Over the next three years, a team of UW students will convert a 2013 Chevy Malibu into a fuel-efficient, low-emissions vehicle that still meets consumer demands for a driver-friendly car. The UW is one of 15 schools participating in the EcoCAR 2 contest, sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Learn about polar bears and penguins. Center a two-foot tusk on your forehead and imagine youre a narwhal exploring your icy-ocean home. For these activities and more, grab the kids and head for Polar Science Weekend, March 1 to 4, sponsored by the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory and Pacific Science Center.