College of Arts & Sciences

January 27, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Meany On Screen: Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Maria Gaspar: Disappearance Landscape, and More

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT. Outpost:…

Sleep cycles in people oscillate during the 29.5-day lunar cycle: In the days leading up to a full moon, people go to sleep later in the evening and sleep for shorter periods of time. The team, led by researchers at the University of Washington, observed these variations in both the time of sleep onset and the duration of sleep in urban and rural settings — from Indigenous communities in northern Argentina to college students in Seattle, a city of more than 750,000. They saw the oscillations regardless of an individual’s access to electricity, though the variations are less pronounced in individuals living in urban environments.

An image of the planet Venus, showing its thick atmosphere.

A University of Washington-led team has revisited and comprehensively reinterpreted the radio telescope observations underlying a widely reported 2019 claim that phosphine gas was present in the atmosphere of Venus. In a paper accepted to the Astrophysical Journal, they report that sulfur dioxide, a common gas in the atmosphere of Venus, is likely what was detected instead of phosphine.

January 25, 2021

Ancient food scraps provide clues to past rainfall in Australia’s Northern Territory

A new study led by the University of Queensland and involving the University of Washington provides a glimpse into the Australia’s ancient climate and early human occupation.

January 22, 2021

The 7 rocky planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1 may be made of similar stuff

An image showing three illustrations of potential interiors of the exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 star system.

A study accepted by the Planetary Science Journal shows that the planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system share similar densities. That could mean they all contain roughly the same ratio of materials thought to be common to rocky planets, such as iron, oxygen, magnesium and silicon — though they appear to differ notably from Earth.

January 20, 2021

‘Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems,’ co-edited by UW’s Robert Pekkanen, out in paperback, online

"The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems," published in 2018, is coming out in paperback in February from Oxford University Press. The entire book is already available online through UW Libraries.

A book co-edited by Robert Pekkanen of the UW’s Jackson School of International Studies brings together top scholars to study the origins and effects of electoral systems in the United States and other democracies.

January 14, 2021

Astronomers document the rise and fall of a rarely observed stellar dance

An image of stars in the night sky, showing a particularly bright binary at the center called HS Hydra.

Astronomers have catalogued 126 years of changes to a binary star system called HS Hydrae. Analyzing observations from astro-photographic plates in the late 1800s to TESS observations in 2019, they show that the two stars in HS Hydrae began to eclipse each other starting around a century ago, peaking in the 1960s. The degree of eclipsing then plummeted over the course of just a half century, and will cease around February 2021.

A man and woman sitting across a desk. Only their hands are visible, using a tablet and notebook.

A new UW study reveals people’s perceptions that sexual harassment primarily affects young, feminine and conventionally attractive women. Women who fall outside that prototype not only are perceived as unharmed by harassment, but also have a harder time convincing others that they have been harassed.

January 12, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Events to honor Martin Luther King, Jr; ‘Attack on the Capitol: What Does It Mean for Democracy?’; COVID-19 and racial inequities — and more

January 6, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: The Converso’s Return, Drop-in Meditation Session, and More

December 28, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Protest, Race and Citizenship across African Worlds, TEAL Digital Scholarship for East Asian Studies: The Deep Fake of Place, and More

In a new book, Taso Lagos of the UW Jackson School studies the rivalry between Aimee Semple McPherson and Robert “Fighting Bob” Shuler, two California-based performer-preachers who had the country’s rapt attention in the 1920s.

December 15, 2020

How to have holidays ‘full of love and connection’ and set goals for 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic and social-distancing guidelines have changed how we celebrate the holidays this year. University of Washington psychologist Jonathan Kanter explains that, by being intentional about how we approach and experience the season, we can find joy, and recognize – even embrace – how we’ve weathered this year.

December 14, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Set in Motion, Drop-in Meditation Session, and More

December 9, 2020

Warm oceans helped first human migration from Asia to North America

New research reveals significant changes to the circulation of the North Pacific and its impact on the initial migration of humans from Asia to North America. It provides a new picture of the circulation and climate of the North Pacific at the end of the last ice age, with implications for early human migration.

December 7, 2020

The Smellicopter is an obstacle-avoiding drone that uses a live moth antenna to seek out smells

A hawkmoth in the lower right hand corner of the photo with an out of focus drone behind it

A team led by the UW has developed Smellicopter: an autonomous drone that uses a live antenna from a moth to navigate toward smells. Smellicopter can also sense and avoid obstacles as it travels through the air.

December 3, 2020

Researchers discover how bean plants fend off famished foes

A photograph of a beet armyworm caterpillar crawling across the surface of a tobacco plant.

A team led by scientists at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego has discovered that cowpeas — a type of bean plant — harbor receptors on the surface of their cells that can detect a compound in caterpillar saliva and initiate anti-herbivore defenses.

An image of the Stingray Nebula taken in 2016 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

The tiny Stingray Nebula unexpectedly appeared in the 1980s is by far the youngest planetary nebula in our sky. But a team of astronomers recently analyzed a more recent image of the nebula, taken in 2016 by Hubble, and found that it has faded significantly and changed shape over the course of just 20 years. If dimming continues at current rates, in 20 or 30 years the Stingray Nebula will be barely perceptible.

A new University of Washington study finds that Black youth are more likely than white youth to be treated as “usual suspects” after a first encounter with police, leading to subsequent arrests over time. Even as white young adults report engaging in significantly more illegal behavior, Black young adults face more criminal penalties.

November 30, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Katz Lecture: Remaking the Silicon Society, The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump, and more

November 24, 2020

Study shows plant extinction is more common than previously realized

A photograph of a museum specimen of a now-extinct plant species.

A new study reveals that 65 plant species have gone extinct in the continental United States and Canada since European settlement, more extinctions than any previous scientific study has ever documented.

Miranda Belarde-Lewis, assistant professor in the UW Information School, has been named the inaugural Joe and Jill McKinstry Endowed Faculty Fellow in Native North American Indigenous Knowledge.

Recent honors and awards for UW faculty and staff include a top young innovator, a new endowed faculty fellow, research grants awarded and a career achievement award in environmental political science.

November 23, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Ladino Day 2020, Commemorating the Centennial of the Negro Leagues in baseball, Meany Center presents Ragamala Dance Company, and More

November 19, 2020

The 2020 census: deadlines, politics and what may come next

The 2020 census has been subject to court fights, shifting deadlines and pandemic-related process adjustments. Sara Curran, director of the UW Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, explains the developments with this year’s count.

November 18, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Lessons (Not) Learned from the Holocaust, What to Watch, Read, and Listen to at Home, and Drawing Wild Washington

November 12, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Rick Steves at UW Global Month, Beethoven Piano Trios, Lessons (Not) Learned from the Holocaust, and more

November 4, 2020

Faculty/staff honors: New atmospheric research board trustee; prize-winning fiction; PBS show consultant

Shuyi Chen, UW professor of atmospheric sciences, has been elected one of five new trustees to the board of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the group that manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

A University of Washington meteorologist joins a national board for atmospheric research, an English professor’s story is honored and a Jackson School faculty member helps with research for a PBS show.

November 3, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Global Challenges Discussion, Katz Lecture: Abderrahmane Sissako, and more

November 2, 2020

No social distancing in the Cretaceous: New study finds earliest evidence for mammal social behavior

An illustration of ancient mammals in an underground burrow.

A new study led by paleontologists at the University of Washington indicates that the earliest evidence of mammal social behavior goes back to the Age of Dinosaurs. A multituberculate that lived 75.5 million years ago, Filikomys primaevus engaged in multi-generational, group-nesting and burrowing behavior, and possibly lived in colonies.

October 29, 2020

UW Space Policy and Research Center brings researchers, policymakers together for online symposium Nov. 6

A preview of the Nov. 6 SPARC Symposium, which will feature a conversation with Andy Weir, author of “The Martian.”

A research team led by UC Irvine and the University of Washington has created a new model of how the coronavirus can spread through a community. The model factors in network exposure — whom one interacts with — and demographics to simulate at a more detailed level both where and how quickly the coronavirus could spread through Seattle and 18 other major cities.

October 28, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: UW Global Month, 2020 Annual Space Policy and Research Center Symposium, and more

October 27, 2020

Vanessa Freije of UW Jackson School explores Mexican politics, journalism in new book ‘Citizens of Scandal’

A talk with Vanessa Freije of the UW Jackson School about her new book, “Citizens of Scandal: Journalism, Secrecy, and the Politics of Reckoning in Mexico.”

October 20, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: So Far So Good, Conversation with Jorge Ramos, and Emily Levesque in Conversation with KUOW’s Ross Reynolds

October 16, 2020

New annual book prize named for late UW historian William Rorabaugh

The national Alcohol and Drugs History Society has established an annual book prize in the name of UW history professor William Rorabaugh, who died this spring, calling him “a pioneer in the social history of alcohol.”

October 13, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Beyond Guilt Trips, Washin Kai: Rakugo by Katsura Sunshine, Protests for the Soul of a Nation, and More

October 12, 2020

UW awarded NIH grant for training in advanced data analytics for behavioral and social sciences

With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, a five-year, $1.8 million training program at the University of Washington will fund 25 academic-year graduate fellowships, develop a new training curriculum and contribute to methodological advances in health research at the intersection of demography and data science.

October 7, 2020

UW books in brief: Children’s books on STEM professionals, a courageous personal memoir — and UW Press looks back at 100

New books by UW faculty members include children’s works profiling STEM researchers and a personal memoir of an immigrant’s journey to freedom. Also, UW Press remembers a century of publishing, and a book on British colonialism is honored.

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