January 12, 2017
Using big data to address human services ― including health, foster care and the challenges of homelessness ― will be the focus of a workshop next week at Seattle City Hall hosted by the University of Washington and City of Seattle along with MetroLab Network, a recent White House initiative to improve cities through university-city partnerships.
The acidification of the ocean expected as seawater absorbs increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will reverberate through the West Coast’s marine food web, but not necessarily in the ways you might expect, new research shows.
A new national program at the UW — LATTICE — aims to diversify the national engineering faculty population by building supportive communities during the critical transition from graduate studies to permanent tenure-track positions.
January 11, 2017
This week, two new exhibits featuring local artists are on display in the UW Tower through March, a lecture-recital at Brechemin Auditorium, and a UW vocal performance highlighting scenes from Mozart’s operas. UW Tower Exhibit: Don Silverstein January through March 2017 | UW Tower The illustrative work and abstract paintings of prolific artist Donald Silverstein will be on display on the Mezzanine Level of the UW Tower this quarter. More info. Lecture-Recital: Dainius Vaicekonis, Piano 7:30 p.m., January 12 | Brechemin Auditorium UW alumnus and…
Autonomous floating sensors built at the UW are being deployed to track conditions in the waters surrounding Antarctica.
January 10, 2017
Two University of Washington professors have received the 2017 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to early career scientists and engineers.
Ice core records from the two poles show that during the last ice age, sharp spikes in Arctic temperatures triggered shifts in the winds around Antarctica.
Zillow Group, the Seattle-based company that houses real estate and home-related brands on mobile and web, has committed $5 million toward the development of a second Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) building on the UW Seattle campus.
January 5, 2017
UW President Ana Mari Cauce, the first Cuban-born president of a major American university, was on board the first West Coast commercial flight to Havana on Thursday. Cauce left Cuba with her family when she was 3 years old. “I’m thrilled at this new spirit of openness and the opportunity for us to build greater ties with the people of Cuba,” said Cauce. “We have much to share and learn about the Cuban people’s work in health care and education. This…
A new study led by the University of Washington finds the annual migration of some beluga whales in Alaska is altered by sea ice changes in the Arctic, while other belugas do not appear to be affected.
January 4, 2017
This week, bring the whole family for an ArtVenture at Henry Art Gallery to discover how Paul McCarthy transformed small objects into giant sculptures, or catch performances from JACK Quartet and pianist Louis Lortie. ArtVenture: Toy Transformation! With Michelle Hagewood 1 p.m., January 8 | Henry Art Gallery How do toys reflect who we are? Bring a toy or dig through a collection of oddities to build a new doll, vehicle, or inventive plaything. We will explore how artist Paul McCarthy transformed…
Eelgrass, a marine plant crucial to the success of migrating juvenile salmon and spawning Pacific herring, is stable and flourishing in Puget Sound, despite a doubling of the region’s human population and significant shoreline development over the past several decades.
January 3, 2017
New research finds that for some songbirds, urban sprawl is kicking them out of their territory, forcing divorce and stunting their ability to find new mates and reproduce successfully, even after relocating.
A new multi-institution study led by the UW shows more clearly than ever that urbanization is affecting the genetic makeup of species that are crucial to ecosystem health and success.
December 27, 2016
The research happening here at the University of Washington — across all three campuses — is exceptional and selecting only a handful of stories to feature from the hundreds, if not thousands, that came out this year is a monumental task. Using UW Today’s page view data, social media reach and news coverage, we have narrowed it down to these highlights showcasing the impact and ambition of the UW’s work regionally and around the world — listed here in chronological order.
December 22, 2016
Donald Trump’s promises on the campaign trail have generated confusion and consternation around the country, as many wonder not only what the president-elect actually intends to do, but what is within his power to accomplish. Will Trump follow through on his threat to deport millions of undocumented immigrants? Could he pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement? And what of Trump’s promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act? Such questions will be the focus of new…
December 21, 2016
Joe Janes’ latest Documents that Changed the World podcast is about Sir Ronald Fisher, the man who set the mark of “statistical significance” for ages afterward at 5 percent, no more no less.
Most conscientious adults tend to avoid making biased or discriminatory comments in the presence of children. But new research from the University of Washington suggests that preschool-aged children can learn bias even through nonverbal signals displayed by adults, such as a condescending tone of voice or a disapproving look. Published Dec. 21 in the journal Psychological Science, the research found that children can “catch” social bias by seeing negative signals expressed by adults and are likely to generalize that learned…
December 20, 2016
In an article published Dec. 20 in the journal eLife, researchers present a mathematical model that explores whether “publication bias” — the tendency of journals to publish mostly positive experimental results — influences how scientists canonize facts. Their results offer a warning that sharing positive results comes with the risk that a false claim could be canonized as fact. But their findings also offer hope by suggesting that simple changes to publication practices can minimize the risk of false canonization.
December 19, 2016
Miqin Zhang, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Washington, is looking for ways to help the body heal itself when injury, disease or surgery cause large-scale damage to one type of tissue in particular: skeletal muscle. Her goal is to create a synthetic, porous, biologically compatible “scaffold” that mimics the normal extracellular environment of skeletal muscle — onto which human cells could migrate and grow new replacement fibers.
Research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that successful fisheries management can be best achieved by implementing and enforcing science-based catch or effort limits.
Technology developed at the University of Washington to improve service delivery in child welfare, foster care and homeless youth systems will soon be expanded to other states through $5 million in new funding. The grant will allow Oliver — a social service management solution developed by Partners for Our Children, an organization in the UW School of Social Work — to be expanded to five communities in Washington, Oregon, and California. The funds include a $2.4 million grant from the…
December 16, 2016
Researchers from the University of Washington have found that scientific papers written in a more narrative style were more influential among peer-reviewed studies in the climate change literature. Their results were published Dec. 15 in the journal PLOS ONE.
December 15, 2016
The cracking, bulging and shaking from the eruption of a mile-high volcano where two tectonic plates separate has been captured in more detail than ever before. A University of Washington study published this week shows how the volcano behaved during its spring 2015 eruption, revealing new clues about the behavior of volcanoes where two ocean plates are moving apart. “The new network allowed us to see in incredible detail where the faults are, and which were active during the eruption,”…
December 14, 2016
On Dec. 10 in Stockholm, David James Thouless, University of Washington professor emeritus of physics, received the Nobel Prize in Physics from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Provost Jerry Baldasty kicked off the Transforming Administration Program in Spring 2015 with a key goal of creating one administration, one university with an enhanced culture of service ultimately serving faculty and staff to achieve the University of Washington’s teaching, research and service missions. The program aims to make administrative departments more efficient and effective, and eliminate silos.
The furor over the 2010 Citizens United decision drew intense scrutiny to the role of corporate money in U.S. politics and raised questions about the influence of businesses in American lawmaking. But corporate interests also play a powerful role in international legal processes, sometimes by covertly creating or co-opting non-governmental organizations to lobby lawmakers on their behalf — creating a type of “astroturf activism” that masquerades as grassroots efforts. That’s the conclusion of a new paper by Melissa Durkee, an…
December 13, 2016
In a paper published online Dec. 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Washington researchers report on a statistical approach called “tree bootstrapping” can help social scientists study hard-to-reach populations like drug users.
The University of Washington joins 30 of the nation’s most respected colleges and universities Tuesday in a new initiative to substantially expand the number of talented low- and moderate-income students at America’s top-performing undergraduate institutions with the highest graduation rates.
December 12, 2016
The University of Washington announced staffing changes in the Office of State Relations on Monday, naming Joe Dacca director of state relations.
Charles Johnson, University of Washington professor emeritus of English, discusses his latest book, “The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling.”
A University of Washington study addresses controversies over the cause of mountain glacier retreat, and finds that for most glaciers the observed retreat is more than 99 percent likely due to climate change.
December 8, 2016
A new study by paleontologists at the Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture and the University of Washington describes an early marsupial relative called Didelphodon vorax that lived alongside dinosaurs and had, pound-for-pound, the strongest bite force of any mammal ever recorded.
Answers to frequently asked questions about a 255-year-old tumor in a ‘pre-mammal.’
University of Washington paleontologists have discovered a benign tumor made up of miniature, tooth-like structures embedded in the jaw of an extinct ‘mammal-like’ gorgonopsian. Known as a compound odontoma, this type of tumor is common to mammals today. But this animal lived 255 million years ago, before mammals even existed.
December 7, 2016
The quarter ends with performances of classical piano, jazz and Appalachian holiday music. The School of Drama concludes its final production of the quarter. Visit the Jacob Lawrence Gallery for the final days of Utopia Neighborhood Club and join Henry Art Gallery’s Luis Croquer for a curator talk at the Henry. Jazz Innovations Part II 7:30 p.m., December 8 | Brechemin Auditorium Student jazz ensembles from the School of Music pay homage to the icons of jazz and break new…
At the Hack for Access: Holiday Toy event on Dec. 11 and the UW, community volunteers will disassemble and rewire toys to make them more accessible for children with disabilities.
December 6, 2016
People must be part of the equation in conservation projects to increase local support and effectiveness, according to a new study by the University of Washington and other institutions.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded approximately $14 million over five years to a multi-university, regional transportation center led by the University of Washington to fund research aimed at improving the mobility of people and goods across the Pacific Northwest.
December 5, 2016
UW researchers have published the first demonstration of humans playing a simple, two-dimensional computer game using only input from direct brain stimulation — without relying on any usual sensory cues from sight, hearing or touch.