Washington Sea Grant oversees the SoundToxins program, which monitors for harmful algal blooms in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and helps flag toxins before shellfish producers ship off their product.
Research
Permanent Daylight Saving Time would lead to darker mornings from November to March. This would mean darker commutes for everyone, but how much would it affect children going to school? University of Washington researchers did the math for 14 out of the 19 states that preapproved the change. Using school start times, enrollment data, and latitude and longitude measurements, the team calculated just how many days each child would be commuting to school in the dark and then added the trips together.
Explore recent research from the University of Washington: cells that organize DNA from outside the nucleus, smaller language models for smartwatches, rights for migrant fishers and burrowing shrimp on the move.
Using preliminary data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scientists have discovered a new dwarf planet candidate in our solar system. If confirmed, the distant world would join Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake as our system’s sixth official dwarf planet.
Since 2020, the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public has published “rapid research” during elections that aims to cut through the noise and confusion of online rumors that can undermine trust in election processes and voting procedures. These rumors are now so pervasive that CIP researchers have designed an interactive Rigged Election Bingo game where you can learn more about common election integrity tropes. This year the CIP’s work is focused on: Ensuring people have timely and accurate…
The 2026 midterm elections will take place on Nov. 3, and a ll 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 Senate seats are up for a vote. James Long and Mark Smith, professors of political science at the University of Washington, weigh in on critical contests, midterm trends, election security and more.
Researchers estimate that changes to how the Postal Service collects and processes mail could cause tens of thousands of otherwise valid ballots to be rejected. These mail delays disproportionately impact rural voters and those in outlying suburban communities.
Scientists and policymakers use scenarios called Shared Socioeconomic Pathways to project how today’s choices affect tomorrow’s world. But for complex subjects like public health, these intentionally simple scenarios don’t capture every complexity.
UW astronomer Emily Levesque will soon add a new role as editor-in-chief of the prestigious American Astronomical Society Journals to her ongoing work studying red supergiants and other stellar oddities.
A new University of Washington study shows that plunge-diving birds such as gannets and boobies have unique morphological adaptations that allow them to survive high speed, headfirst impact.
A group of 175 researchers, including eight from the University of Washington, co-authored a commentary published in Earth’s Future and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that provides a roadmap for future climate assessments in the U.S. by synthesizing the science and identifying research priorities based on existing gaps.
In three recent papers, UW researchers explore technologies used in prisons and to monitor people before incarceration and after release.
A University of Washington-led center for optoelectronics — technologies that combine light and electronics — brings researchers from 14 universities across the U.S. together with the mission to develop new materials to transform information technology with light. Founded in 2021, NSF IMOD has received a second round of funding from the NSF to continue its work for the next five years.
A NASA satellite originally designed to study large bodies of water may also be able to monitor most of the world’s irrigation canals, according to a new UW study. This capability could help farmers and water managers around the world manage resources, prepare for droughts and improve food security in their communities.
Lawrence Goldman, a teaching professor of chemistry at the University of Washington, has also been a member of the Lake Forest Park city council since 2022. While science came naturally to Goldman, his venture into civics was “more serendipitous.”
A new University of Washington study using improved methods for analyzing satellite data shows that the north pole of Mars contains less dust than scientists thought, which has implications for its climate and the search for life.
Explore recent research from the University of Washington: ancient capybara and palm fossils found in the desert, a window into the bottom of the food web, waves that go a different way, environmental advocacy in Colombia, the mechanics of blood clotting and a superconducting surprise.
New faculty books from the University of Washington include those from the Information School, bioengineering, mathematics, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and Earth and space sciences.
A new University of Washington study shows that past emissions from the top 178 oil, gas, coal and cement producers will prolong warming and increase the odds of extreme weather events occurring years into the future.
A new grasshopper-like robot from the UW Autonomous Insect Robotics Lab can hop high enough to clear a standard stair step, vary its jump height, right itself and reload for successive jumps.
Coral reefs provide protection for fish, and researchers are interested in how the health of the reef affects the ability of fish to communicate with each other. This fall, Jj Milan, a UW doctoral student in the biology department, and UW research scientist Bob Oxborrow are traveling to the Maldives to study how humbug damselfish communicate with each other.
Recent news about AI safety is fueling a new wave of political and societal fear. Five UW AI researchers discuss the real risks of AI and what to do about them.
A UW-led research team has discovered the best-preserved fossil feathers from the Mesozoic era — in fossilized dinosaur poop. Some of these feathers have features that look like modern birds’ feathers. This finding can help researchers better understand why and how some birds survived the catastrophic event 66 million years ago that killed 75% of life on the planet.
American public health agencies don’t routinely test wastewater for sexually transmitted infections, but new research led by the University of Washington and the Washington State Department of Health found that such methods could be used to effectively identify Chlamydia trachomatis, the bacteria that causes chlamydia.
A new UW study shows a nine-fold increase in coyote density in Seattle compared to natural areas of Washington state. Coyotes in urban environments have fewer predators and more prey, which may help explain the national trend.
Melinda Webster, a research scientist at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory, is the lead author on a new study that catalogs changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice over the past 50-plus years. She spoke with UW News about the story behind the numbers.
University of Washington researchers gathered eight kids on campus to explore how they played with AI toys. The kids initially were curious, asking introductory questions, such as “What is your name?” But after communication breakdowns, the kids turned to antagonizing the toys, calling them “ugly” and “evil” and joking about throwing them in the ocean.
Explore recent research from the University of Washington: nectar-stealing Hawaiian honeycreepers, ChatGPT and anxious attachment, the cost of nursing for marine mammals, new magnetic nanomaterials, and a new strategy to subdue finicky plasma.
Astronomers at the University of Washington simulated four Milky Way-sized galaxies for five billion (virtual) years to test a leading theory about how dark matter might influence streams of orbiting stars. The results could help researchers separate true evidence of dark matter from false positives.
Dominic Muren, UW teaching professor of design, and Adrienne Russell, UW professor of communication, examine environmental problems from a perspective beyond the hard sciences. They spoke to UW News about what today’s energy crises reveal about contemporary societies’ dependence on fossil fuels and how we can create a “solar-powered system.”
A new study attributes Antarctica’s brief stabilization to a short term climatic shift that increased precipitation over east Antarctica between 2021 and 2023, adding enough snow to temporarily balance ice loss at the continent’s edges.
Hossein Naghavi, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UW, explores new applications for an underused segment of the electromagnetic spectrum known as the “terahertz band.” Naghavi recently received a grant from the Department of Energy to create powerful yet lightweight sensors using terahertz waves, which could aid emergency responders, autonomous vehicles, security systems and more.
After tracking birds in the Puget Sound lowlands for 12 years, researchers conclude that birds respond better to some development configurations than others, highlighting measures developers can take to protect native species while still meeting the region’s growing demands.
AI systems such as Google’s Gemini Storybook now let parents or teachers conjure illustrated, personalized kids stories. UW researchers found that when six leading AI models made stories about talking animals, 57% of characters were either gender neutral or ungendered, 41% were male, and just 2% were female.
As fires rage and smoke smothers the Pacific Northwest, UW News sat down with five UW experts in fire science, forestry, air pollution and more to ask how they manage wildfire season.
A new study using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope found that star formation in the nearby Andromeda galaxy has undergone a 500-million-year decline, with an even steeper drop in the last 40 million years.
Explore recent research from the University of Washington: a new AI framework for developing advanced materials, a test of climate models’ ability to predict temperature trends, and the role of paternal body odor in brain-to-brain synchrony with infants.
University of Washington researchers created the Landslide Exposure Database, the first resource that maps per-building landslide vulnerability across the United States. The study estimates that roughly 6.5 million U.S. residents are highly vulnerable to landslides, and overturns the conventional picture of landslide risk in the U.S. by identifying high concentrations of exposure in Appalachia as well as a surprising urban-rural divide.
Researchers at the University of Washington are investigating how genetic changes impact the severity of schizophrenia symptoms. A new study supports the idea that deletions in genes that regulate early brain and neuron development are associated with more severe features of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, particularly lower cognitive abilities.
Researchers at the University of Washington and partners at Carnegie Mellon University are collaborating on a new project to help scientists use artificial intelligence to better understand the universe.