College of Arts & Sciences
July 29, 2013
Natural affinities – unrecognized until now – may have set stage for life to ignite
It might not have been just happenstance that caused components of RNA and the earliest “cell” membranes to be in the right place at the right time to spark life.
July 9, 2013
Biceps bulge, calves curve, 50-year-old assumptions muscled aside
The basics of how a muscle generates power remain the same: Filaments of myosin tugging on filaments of actin shorten, or contract, the muscle – but the power doesn’t just come from what’s happening straight up and down the length of the muscle, as has been assumed for 50 years. The rest of the force should be credited to the lattice work of filaments as it expands outward in bulging muscle – whether in a body builder’s buff biceps or the calves of a sinewy marathon runner.
June 25, 2013
More women pick computer science if media nix outdated ‘nerd’ stereotype
The media often portray computer scientists as nerdy males with poor social skills. But a UW psychologist found women will want to study computer science if they don’t buy into the stereotypes.
June 21, 2013
Airborne gut action primes wild chili pepper seeds
Seeds gobbled by birds and dispersed across the landscape tend to fare better than those that fall near parent plants. Now it turns out it might not just be the trip through the air that’s important, but also the inches-long trip through the bird.
May 30, 2013
Big feet preference in rural Indonesia defies one-size-fits-all theory of attractiveness
In most cultures, a woman’s small feet are seen as a sign of youth and fertility, but that’s not true of all cultures, including the Karo Batak on the island of Sumatra.
May 21, 2013
The tea party and the politics of paranoia
New research argues that the tea party owes more to paranoid politics of the John Birch Society and others than traditional American conservatism. “True conservatives aren’t paranoid,” says political scientist Chris Parker. “Tea party conservatives are.”
May 8, 2013
Herbert Blau remembered as teacher, history-making theater pioneer
Herbert Blau, who died on May 3, will be remembered as a theater innovator and scholar who introduced American audiences to avant-garde playwrights such as Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter.
May 7, 2013
Guggenheim names Braester, Daniel as fellows
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation names 173 fellows for 2013.
May 1, 2013
National Academy of Sciences selects Mary Lidstrom, David Kaplan
Mary Lidstrom and David Kaplan are among the 84 new members announced by National Academy of Sciences.
April 29, 2013
Dinosaur predecessors gain ground in wake of world’s biggest biodiversity crisis — with photo gallery
Newly discovered fossils reveal a lineage of animals thought to have led to dinosaurs taking hold in Tanzania and Zambia, many millions of years before dinosaur relatives were seen in the fossil record elsewhere on Earth.
April 24, 2013
Carlos Gil tells family story in memoir, ‘We Became Mexican American’
A conversation with Carlos Gil, UW professor emeritus of history and author of the memoir “We Became Mexican American.”
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 8, 2013
New book explores Harry Truman’s record on civil liberties
A few questions for Richard Kirkendall, UW professor emeritus of history and editor of the new book, “Civil Liberties and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman.”
April 3, 2013
Diversity programs give illusion of corporate fairness, study shows
Diversity training programs lead people to believe that work environments are fair even when given evidence of hiring, promotion or salary inequities, according to findings by UW psychologists.
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.
March 19, 2013
Jordanna Bailkin studies postwar Britain in new book ‘The Afterlife of Empire’
UW History Professor Jordanna Bailkin discusses her new book “The Afterlife of Empire.”
Grieving parents find solace in remembrance photography – with photo gallery
A UW anthropology student investigated how remembrance photography helps grieving parents, and how the practice’s resurgence could signal a change in the way death and dying are dealt with in our society.
March 4, 2013
‘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 22, 2013
News Digest: Flower and garden show winner, RecycleMania under way, Honor: Michael Gelb and František Tureček
Part-time UW gardener designs winning display garden || RecycleMania a chance to increase recycling, composting || Newborn screening test brings chemical society honor to Gelb, Tureček
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 13, 2013
Psychology in the real world: Public lecture series begins
The eighth annual Allen L. Edwards Psychology Lecture Series will spotlight “The Science of Psychology in the Real World,” exploring psychological aspects of the natural world, adolescence and the law.
February 12, 2013
Get off my lawn: Song sparrows escalate territorial threats – with video
UW researchers have discovered a hierarchical warning scheme in which territorial song sparrows use increasingly threatening signals to ward off trespassing rivals.
February 11, 2013
A reading life considered in David Shields’ ‘How Literature Saved My Life’
English professor David Shields discusses his new book, “How Literature Saved My Life.”
February 5, 2013
Scholars urge Supreme Court to keep Voting Rights Act provisions ensuring equal access
Political science and law scholars from the UW and elsewhere file a brief saying the Supreme Court should fully uphold the Voting Rights Act in a case out of Shelby County, Alabama.
January 29, 2013
News Digest: Explore global food law Feb. 8, Honor: Nina Isoherranen
Explore global food law at Feb. 8 UW conference || Nina Isoherranen honored for early-career achievement
January 23, 2013
Better outlook for dwindling black macaque population in Indonesia
Hunting and habitat loss harm the critically endangered Sulawesi black macaque, but new research shows the population has stabilized in the past decade.
January 9, 2013
UW, Pacific NW National Lab join forces on computing research
The University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have formed the Northwest Institute for Advanced Computing, a joint institute based at the UW that will foster collaborative computing research.
December 26, 2012
Piranha kin wielded dental weaponry even T. rex would have admired — with video
Taking into consideration size, an ancient relative of piranhas weighing about 20 pounds delivered a bite with more force than prehistoric whale-eating sharks or – even – Tyrannosaurus rex.
December 17, 2012
Plumes across the Pacific deliver thousands of microbial species to West Coast
Microorganisms – 99 percent more kinds than had been reported in findings published just four months ago – are hitching rides in the upper troposphere from Asia.
December 6, 2012
Moths wired two ways to take advantage of floral potluck
Moths are able to enjoy a pollinator’s buffet of flowers because of two distinct “channels” in their brains, scientists have discovered.
December 4, 2012
Scientists find oldest dinosaur – or closest relative yet
Researchers have discovered what may be the earliest dinosaur, a creature the size of a Labrador retriever, but with a five foot-long tail, that walked the Earth about 10 million years before more familiar dinosaurs.
October 1, 2012
UW composer fills arboretum byways with her ‘Music of Trees’
A UW doctoral student in musical composition uses sounds from the Washington Park Arboretum to create music that’s part natural, part imagined.
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