Skip to content

This week in the arts, attend a talk with an artist whose work stands at the crossroad of art and science, listen to music of today, see the preview of “In the Heart of American,” and more! SOLD OUT: A Conversation with Zadie Smith, Moderated by Valerie Curtis-Newton February 27, 7:30 pm | Benaroya Hall Seattle Arts & Lectures Series brings to you Zadie Smith, one of the world’s preeminent fiction and non-fiction writers. Her novels include White Teeth, The Autograph Man,…

In a paper published Feb. 25 in the journal Nature, a University of Washington-led team of physicists report that it has developed a new system to trap individual excitons — bound pairs of electrons and their associated positive charges. Their system could form the basis of a novel experimental platform for monitoring excitons with precision and potentially developing new quantum technologies.

This week in the arts, see one of “[The] most successful and influential choreographer alive and indisputably the most musical (The New York Times)” on stage, have an inside look of the Ceramic and Metal Arts Building at the 3D4M Open House, and more! Gurvich Visiting Artist: Carolina Caycedo Los Angeles-based artist Carolina Caycedo will engage in a series of programs that explore the geopolitics of water, collective resistance, and regional narratives that relate to her ongoing project Be Dammed, aspects…

Recess, for most children, is synonymous with freedom. A break from class that has nothing to do with learning and everything to do with play. For children with autism, the playground can be an isolating experience. The spontaneous soccer games, roving packs of friends and virtual buffet of activities can be chaotic, frustrating and confusing. Recess is not a time to join, but to retreat. Or is it? A University of Washington-led research team found that children with autism communicate…

What geopolitical challenges is global climate change creating for the national security of the United States and throughout the world? The UW’s Jackson School of International Studies will host a public panel discussion of these issues on March 6, featuring Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

Researchers at the University of Washington wanted to know how Magellanic penguin parents in South America balance the dietary demands of multiple chicks. As they report in a paper published Jan. 23 in the journal Animal Behaviour, when a Magellanic penguin parent returns to its nest with fish, the parent tries to feed each of its two chicks equal portions of food, regardless of the youngsters’ differences in age or size.

The Zwicky Transient Facility, based at the Palomar Observatory, has identified over a thousand new objects and phenomena in the night sky, including more than 1,100 new supernovae and 50 near-Earth asteroids. University of Washington scientists are part of the ZTF team and led the development of the collaboration’s alert system, which informs science teams of possible new objects or changes to known objects in the sky.

  Recent notable books by University of Washington faculty members explore the importance of Hebrew to modern America, remember the 1919 Seattle General Strike and look at issues in education, among other topics. Practical advice for healthy travel, near or far A new book by Dr. Christopher Sanford offers simple, practical recommendations for those traveling near or far, short or long term, for work or recreation, to “destinations ranging from rural areas to large cities, in both developing and industrialized…

This week in the arts, partake in an exhibition opening with Danny Giles, the 2019 Jacob Lawrence Legacy Resident, attend the preview of a School of Drama production, and more! Guest Artist Recital Tony Cho, Piano and David Bowlin, Violin January 17, 7:30 PM| Brechmin Auditorium Oberlin Conservatory colleagues Tony Cho, piano, and David Bowlin, violin, perform duo arrangements of chamber music repertoire. Cho, a former piano student of UW professor Craig Sheppard, completed a DMA in piano performance at the…

On Jan. 10 at the 2019 American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, an international team of astronomers announced that they have identified the type of companion star that made its partner in a binary system, a carbon-oxygen white dwarf star, explode. Through repeated observations of SN 2015cp, a supernova 545 million light years away, the team detected hydrogen-rich debris that the companion star had shed prior to the explosion.

Female Magellanic penguins are more likely to die at sea as juveniles, which has caused a skewed sex ratio of nearly three adult males to every female, as well as population decline of more than 40 percent since 1987 at one of their largest breeding colonies — Punta Tombo in Argentina.

In a paper published Jan. 2 in PLOS Biology, two scientists at the University of Washington and North Carolina State University use the economic theory of contests to illustrate how the competitive grant-application system has made the pursuit of research funding inefficient and unsustainable — and that alternative methods, such as a partial lottery to award grants, could relieve pressure on professors and free up time for research.

Two University of Washington scientists have unveiled a new statistical method for estimating migration flows between countries. They show that rates of migration are higher than previously thought, but also relatively stable, fluctuating between 1.1 and 1.3 percent of global population from 1990 to 2015. In addition, since 1990 approximately 45 percent of migrants have returned to their home countries, a much higher estimate than other methods.

End 2018 artfully by visiting the Henry Art Gallery, seeing Clotilde Jiménez’s “Apple of My Eye” before it closes, and ringing in the new year and at the same time – saying goodbye – to the old Burke Museum! Visit the Henry Art Gallery The Henry is internationally recognized for bold and challenging exhibitions, for pushing the boundaries of contemporary art and culture, and for being the first to premiere new works by established and emerging artists. Enjoy, learn, and be…

A new collaborative study led by a research team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Washington could provide engineers new design rules for creating microelectronics, membranes and tissues, and open up better production methods for new materials.

This week in the arts, learn about the history of art and its politics in Japan post-1945, see the final performances of Fefu and Her Friends, take a workshop at the Henry Art Gallery, and more! Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan December 7, 3:30 PM| Thomson Hall Justin Jesty, associate professor at the University of Washington Department of Asian Languages and Literature will be giving a talk on his newly published book Art and Engagement in Early Postwar…

A study by an international team of researchers, including from the University of Washington, determines that carved stone tools, also known as Levallois cores, were used in Asia 80,000 to 170,000 years ago. With the find — and absent human fossils linking the tools to migrating populations — researchers believe people in Asia developed the technology independently, evidence of similar sets of skills evolving throughout different parts of the ancient world.

This week in the arts, shop for hand-printed gifts, attend a sonic-theatrical performance, dive into lectures about Indian Painting in Mewar and Marwar, and more! Print Sale November 14 to 15, 8:00 AM–7:00 PM | Art Building Hand-printed artwork, cards, soft goods, and more! UW student members of the UW Printmaking Association and UW printmaking alums invite the community and public to their Print Sale. More Info Kurbasy November 16, 8:00 PM | Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater From the Carpathian mountains,…

In a paper published Oct. 8 in the journal Nano Letters, a team from the University of Washington and the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan announced that it has constructed functional metalenses that are one-tenth to one-half the thickness of the wavelengths of light that they focus. Their metalenses, which were constructed out of layered 2D materials, were as thin as 190 nanometers — less than 1/100,000ths of an inch thick.

This week in the arts, attend “Unbelievable: Reflections on Caravaggio’s Religious Art” lecture, go to a Print Sale, see Brooklyn Rider perform, and more! Faculty Lecture: Estelle Lingo on Caravaggio November 8, 5:30–6:30 PM | Art Building Estelle Lingo, Associate Professor of Art History and Donald E. Peterson Professor in the Arts,  will give the lecture “Unbelievable: Reflections on Caravaggio’s Religious Art.” Lingo was recently in residence at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National…

Researchers from the University of Washington have shown how Magellanic penguins fare during the winter months when they spend months at sea feeding. They have discovered that oceanographic features are more likely to negatively impact the body conditions of Magellanic penguin females, but not males, when the penguins return to their nesting grounds in spring.

Jiun-Haw Chu, a University of Washington assistant professor of physics and faculty member at the UW’s Clean Energy Institute, has been named a 2018 fellow by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for his research on quantum materials — substances that exhibit novel combinations of quantum-mechanical properties that could one day transform information technology.

A study led by the University of Washington is the first large-scale trial of hundreds of PTSD patients, including veterans and survivors of sexual assault, to measure whether patient preference in the course of treatment impacts the effectiveness of both cognitive behavioral therapy and use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a type of antidepressant often prescribed for PTSD.