UW News

College of Arts & Sciences


December 19, 2013

Sinuous skeletons, glowing blue and crimson, leap from lab to art world

Skeleton

Fish “stripped” to their skeletons and stained for UW research are now part of an art exhibit at the Seattle Aquarium.


December 17, 2013

Hack the planet? Geoengineering research, ethics, governance explored

ship that sprays clouds

A special interdisciplinary issue of the journal Climatic Change includes the most detailed description yet of the proposed Oxford Principles to govern geoengineering research, and surveys the technical hurdles, ethics and regulatory issues related to deliberately manipulating the planet’s climate.


December 12, 2013

New state-funded Clean Energy Institute will focus on solar, battery technologies

Gov. Jay Inslee (center) shakes hands with Dan Schwartz, director of the new Clean Energy Institute, with UW President Michael Young (left).

A new University of Washington institute to develop efficient, cost-effective solar power and better energy storage systems launched Dec. 12 with an event attended by UW President Michael K. Young, Gov. Jay Inslee and researchers, industry experts and policy leaders in renewable energy.


December 3, 2013

Signalers vs. strong silent types: Sparrows exude personalities during fights

Song sparrow on a tree branch..

Like humans, some song sparrows are more effusive than others, at least when it comes to defending their territories. New UW findings show that consistent individual differences exist not only for how aggressive individual song sparrows are but also for how much they use their signals to communicate their aggressive intentions.


‘Spooky action’ builds a wormhole between ‘entangled’ particles

An illustration depicting a wormhole between two black holes.

New research indicates that a phenomenon called “quantum entanglement” could be intrinsically linked with the creation of wormholes.


November 21, 2013

David Barash explores science, religion and meaning of life in ‘Buddhist Biology’

book cover of Buddhist Biology

David Barash, a UW psychology professor, is an evolutionary biologist, unapologetic atheist, and self-described Jewbu. In his latest book, “Buddhist Biology: Ancient Eastern Wisdom Meets Modern Western Science,” Barash examines the overlap between Buddhism and biology.


November 6, 2013

UW scholars offer short takes on Shakespeare Nov. 14 at ACT Theatre

The UW English Dept will hold "Shakespeare Ever After," a series of short presentations on the Bard, Nov. 14 at ACT Theater.

Ten Shakespeare scholars, students and actors, most from the University of Washington, will discuss the Bard’s life and work at Seattle’s ACT Theatre on Nov. 14 — and verily, they’ll be quick about it.


A shot in the dark: Detector at UW on the hunt for dark matter

Physicists examine components of the axion detector at the University of Washington.

Physicists are using a detector at the UW to search for a particle called an axion, which would be the first physical evidence of the universe’s dark matter.


November 5, 2013

‘Music is an infinite thing’: Jazz great Bill Frisell joins School of Music

Guitarist and trumpet player rehearse

The School of Music has lured Bill Frisell, one of modern jazz’s premier guitarists, to a position on the faculty.


October 28, 2013

New musical theater degree begins with outreach, talent search

Student Annmarie Morro caught in motion during a class in advanced jazz and theater dance taught by Wilson Mendieta. Morro was accepted into the new musical theater degree program.

The first order of business for the UW’s new degree in musical theater is not greasepaint or tap shoes but public outreach and finding talented, committed students.


October 10, 2013

Arts Roundup: Music, film, drama, lectures — and Chamber Dance Company

This week, the Chamber Dance Company’s 2013 concert is the icing on the cake in a busy week of arts events that also includes the School of Drama’s opening of “The Real Inspector Hound” and the Emerson String Quartet performing with School of Music Professor Craig Sheppard.


September 26, 2013

History lecture series to explore slavery in making of America

Part of a poster for 2013 history department lecture sereis.

The UW history department will review America’s history of slavery from four different angles in its annual lecture series, which begins on Oct. 23.


September 19, 2013

Mantas, devil rays butchered for apothecary trade now identifiable

Side view of manata ray swimmming

Dried filters from the mouths of filter-feeding rays started appearing in apothecary shops in recent years, but there’s been no way to know which of these gentle-natured rays was being slaughtered. Now scientists have discovered enough differences to identify the giant manta and eight devil rays using the dried filters.


August 5, 2013

Compile and create: Early book collecting examined in Jeffrey Todd Knight’s ‘Bound to Read’

"Bound to Read," by Jeffrey Todd Knight

Jeffrey Todd Knight, UW professor of English, discusses his new book, “Bound to Read: Compilations, Collections, and the Making of Renaissance Literature.”


July 30, 2013

Fifty years of ecological insights earn UW biologist international award

Several many-legged starfish in water at base of kelp covered boulder

Biologist Robert Paine has been awarded this year’s International Cosmos Prize that carries a cash award of about $408,000 and has previously gone to well-known conservationists such as David Attenborough and the leaders behind the Census of Marine Life project.


July 29, 2013

Natural affinities – unrecognized until now – may have set stage for life to ignite

Strands in blue and red, twisted together

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

"We Can Do It!" poster for Westinghouse, closely associated with Rosie the Riveter.

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

A young woman working with a computer.

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

Bird sits on brach had red chili pepper in beak

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

Karo Batak women at work

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

Cover of "Change They Can't Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politcs in America"

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 of the University of Washington died on May 3.

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

statue of George Washington on UW campus

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation names 173 fellows for 2013.


May 1, 2013

National Academy of Sciences selects Mary Lidstrom, David Kaplan

A large 'W' is at the north entrance to the UW campus.

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

Lizard-like animal with stripes stands in forested area

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 hydrogen sulfide-treated dwarf wheat seed next to an untreated seed.

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

Harry Truman speaks.

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

Black and white hands clasped.

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

Five people gather around the base of a large petrified stump twice as tall as they are

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’

"The Afterlife of Empire" was published in November 2012 by the University of California Press.

UW History Professor Jordanna Bailkin discusses her new book “The Afterlife of Empire.”


Grieving parents find solace in remembrance photography – with photo gallery

baby hands

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

Large cliff of white ashy material surrounded by rock cliffs when two researchers working the face

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

Plants, stone walkway and face of stone in garden

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

Gloved had holds plate with dozes of tiny wells of reddish orange hue

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

Drawing of wave with menancing face and startled mussels on shore

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

Poster for the 2013 psychology lecture series

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

Song sparrow singing in his territory.

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’

Part of the cover of "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

Voters cast ballots in the 2012 election.

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.



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