UW News
The latest news from the UW
January 16, 2014
UW commits to White House plan to help more students afford college
The University of Washington will participate in a federal initiative announced by President Obama to help more students afford and graduate from college.
Improvisation gives inspiration to Dance Faculty Concert
The UW Dance Program presents an eclectic evening in its annual Faculty Dance Concert, where faculty members choreograph pieces that students perform. This year features pieces created by Jennifer Salk, Jürg Koch and new faculty member Rachael Lincoln.
Tag(s): ArtsUW • Jennifer Salk • Jürg Koch • Rachael Lincoln
Soil production breaks geologic speed record
Samples from steep mountaintops in New Zealand shows that rock can transform into soil more than twice as fast as previously believed possible.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • David Montgomery • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • geologyJanuary 15, 2014
Arts Roundup: Student music recitals, A Far Cry — and ‘Theater from the Inside Out’
This week enjoy a variety of events happening across campus with a highlight being an inside look at the “Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia” at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.
Tag(s): Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture • Jacob Lawrence Gallery • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • School of Drama • School of Music • Undergraduate Theater Society
Data suggest new class of drug may be potent against genital herpes
A new drug, called pritelivir, may offer a new treatment option for patients with genital herpes, a new industry-sponsored – study led by University of Washington researchers has found.
Tag(s): Anna Wald • microbes and viruses
DNA detectives able to ‘count’ thousands of fish using as little as a glass of water
A mere glass full of water from a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium tank is all scientists really needed to identify most of the 13,000 fish swimming there.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • genetics & DNA • Ryan Kelly • School of Marine and Environmental Affairs
News Digest: Free 12th Man earplugs, MLK Day of Service
Clinic offers free Seahawk 12th Man earplugs || Volunteer for MLK Day of Service
Glaciers, streamflow changes are focus of new Columbia River study
University of Washington environmental engineers are launching a new study to try to understand how climate change will affect streamflow patterns in the Columbia River Basin. The team will look at the impact of glaciers on the river system, the range of possible streamflow changes and how much water will flow in the river at hundreds of locations in future years.
Tag(s): Bart Nijssen • College of Engineering • Dennis Lettenmaier • Department of Civil & Environmental EngineeringJanuary 13, 2014
UW President Michael K. Young’s statement on proposed boycott of Israeli universities
As provost and president of the University of Washington, Ana Mari Cauce and I fully endorse the statement from the Association of American Universities, the 62 leading public and private universities in North America and of which the University of Washington is a member, opposing a proposed boycott by American higher education institutions of universities…
DeLap studies urban birds, sketches for book ‘Subirdia’ due out in 2014
Slideshow includes with images sketched by Jack DeLap, UW doctoral candidate in environmental and forestry sciences.
Cognitive training shows some lasting effects in healthy older adults
The national, decade-long ACTIVE study showed that cognitive training can help the elderly maintain certain thinking and reasoning skills useful in everyday life.
Tag(s): aging • Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences • neuroscience & brain science • School of Medicine • Sherry L. WillisJanuary 10, 2014
Trial to test using ultrasound to move kidney stones
A clinical trial in Seattle is testing a technique developed at the UW that uses low-power ultrasound to reposition kidney stones.
Tag(s): Applied Physics Laboratory • Department of Urology • Michael Bailey • School of MedicineJanuary 9, 2014
Scientists to observe seismic energy from Seahawks’ ’12th man’ quakes
University of Washington seismologists this week installed two strong-motion seismometers at CenturyLink Field in Seattle to augment an existing station in recording shaking from “earthquakes” expected on Saturday during the NFC divisional game between the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints. The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is preparing a special website at www.pnsn.org/seahawks for the…
Tag(s): Pacific Northwest Seismic Network
Big is not bad: Scientists call for preservation of large carnivores
Despite their scary reputation, carnivores deserve credit for all kinds of ecological services when they eat grazing animals that gobble down young trees and other vegetation that could be holding carbon and protecting streams.
Tag(s): Aaron Wirsing • College of the Environment • School of Environmental and Forest SciencesJanuary 8, 2014
Astronomers measure far-off galaxies to 1 percent precision
University of Washington astronomers and colleagues have measured the distance to galaxies six billion light-years away — about halfway back to the Big Bang — to an accuracy of just 1 percent.
Tag(s): astronomy & astrophysics • Department of Astronomy • Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Arts Roundup: Juried open, Garrick Ohlsson — and the Littlefield Organ Series
With the new year come new events to entertain and inspire you. From the School of Music’s Littlefield Organ concert to a piano performance by Garrick Ohlsson presented by the UW World Series, discover what’s happening this coming week in the arts. VIVA! Exhibit: “Celebrating Latino/a Art, Activism & Life” Jan. 6-April 18 | First…
Tag(s): Jacob Lawrence Gallery • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • School of Music
Despite declines in smoking rates, number of smokers and cigarettes rises
Population growth since 1980 drives increases in the number of smokers in countries including China and Russia, while Canada, Mexico, and the United States see strong declines
Tag(s): Christopher Murray • Department of Global Health • Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation • School of Medicine • School of Public Health • smokingJanuary 7, 2014
‘Sharecropper’s Troubadour’: The life of singer, union organizer John Handcox
UW historian Michael Honey talks about his latest book, “Sharecropper’s Troubadour: John L. Handcox, the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, and the African American Song Tradition.”
Tag(s): history • Michael Honey • UW Tacoma
On-demand vaccines possible with engineered nanoparticles
University of Washington engineers hope a new type of vaccine they have shown to work in mice will one day make it cheaper and easy to manufacture on-demand vaccines for humans. Immunizations could be administered within minutes where and when a disease is breaking out.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Department of Chemical Engineering • Francois BaneyxJanuary 6, 2014
Babbling babies – responding to one-on-one ‘baby talk’ – master more words
Common advice to new parents is that the more words babies hear the faster their vocabulary grows. Now new findings show that what spurs early language development isn’t so much the quantity of words as the style of speech and social context in which speech occurs.
Tag(s): I-LABS
‘Future of Ice’ initiative marks new era for UW polar research
The UW’s new “Future of Ice” initiative includes several new research hires, a new minor in Arctic studies and a free winter lecture series.
Tag(s): Applied Physics Laboratory • Ben Fitzhugh • College of the Environment • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • Eric Steig • Lisa Graumlich • Nadine Fabbi • polar science
Book explains astrobiology for a general audience
David Catling’s new book, part of an Oxford University Press series, aims to explain astrobiology to a general audience.
January 3, 2014
Board of Regents — Jan. 9 Meeting Announcement
The Board of Regents will hold a Regular Meeting on Thursday, Jan. 9, at 12:15 p.m. in the Petersen Room of the Allen Library. The full agenda is available online.
January 2, 2014
El Niño tied to melting of Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier
A new study in Science, co-authored by the British Antarctic Survey and UW authors, shows that melting of the floating Pine Island ice shelf is tied to global atmospheric patterns associated with El Niño.
Tag(s): climate change • College of the Environment • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • Eric Steig • glaciers • polar scienceDecember 31, 2013
Genetically identical bacteria can behave in radically different ways
When a bacterial cell divides into two daughter cells there can be an uneven distribution of cellular organelles. The resulting cells can behave differently from each other, giving them an evolutionary advantage.
Tag(s): microbes and virusesDecember 30, 2013
Recap of 2013: Top 10 most-viewed stories on UW Today
For us writers in the UW News office, the year’s end gives us some time to think about the big research news stories of the year. Those that drove up page views, flooded our servers (thank you UW web team for keeping us afloat!), and generated interesting reader responses in the comments section. We…
David Shields acts, James Franco directs: A report from the set
An English professor turned actor? David Shields answers a few questions about “playing himself” in a film directed by James Franco based on Shields’ forthcoming book with colleague Caleb Powell, “I Think You’re Totally Wrong: A Quarrel.”
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • David Shields • Department of English • Q&ADecember 27, 2013
News digest: Fight hunger site, MyPlan extension, Energy Star rating, lecture nominations due
Check out Huskies Fight Hunger site || UW online academic planner to be extended to community, technical college students || UW Tower data center now Energy Star certified || Nominations due Jan. 31 for graduate school public lectures
December 26, 2013
Psychiatry’s Jeremy J. Clark receives Presidential Early Career Award
Clark was recognized for his work in the neurobiology of motivated behavior. His award will support investigations of how alcohol exposure during the teen years might lead to chronic alcoholism in adults.
Tag(s): alcohol use & abuse • child & adolescent development • health care and mental health • neuroscience & brain scienceDecember 23, 2013
UW Medicine Memory and Brain Wellness Center opens at Harborview
The new center at Harborview will link clinical evaluation and care of patients with research programs in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, latent degenerative disease detection and treatment, and care delivery.
December 19, 2013
Sinuous skeletons, glowing blue and crimson, leap from lab to art world
Fish “stripped” to their skeletons and stained for UW research are now part of an art exhibit at the Seattle Aquarium.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of the Environment • Department of Biology • Friday Harbor Laboratories
TB bacteria mask their identity to intrude into deeper regions of lungs
Cell surface lipids hide molecular patterns that infection-killing cells might recognize as dangerous.
Tag(s): Department of Immunology • Department of Microbiology • infectious disease • Lalita RamakrishnanDecember 18, 2013
Home dialysis gains momentum through UW research
Of the 400,000 kidney disease patients on dialysis in the United States only 6 percent to 7 percent are treated with home dialysis, largely because the choice is not often given to them as an option.
Tag(s): Department of Medicine • Harborview Medical Center • School of Medicine • UW Medicine
Single bacterial super-clone behind world epidemic of drug-resistant E. coli
Virulent, drug-resistant forms of E. coli that recently have spread around the world emerged from a single strain of the bacteria, not many different strains, as has been widely supposed.
December 17, 2013
UWMC grants wish for seriously ill teen interested in NICU nursing
Samantha’s dream career is Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nursing. One day last week the nurses in the UW Medical Center NICU warmly welcomed her to their world of caring for babies and their families.
Tag(s): nursing
The move’s on us: Students leave Terry, will return to new Lander Hall
Students living in the University of Washington’s Terry Hall will get a new home after the holidays without doing any moving – that part’s on the house, you might say.
Tag(s): Capital Projects • Terry Hall • UW Housing & Food Services
Hack the planet? Geoengineering research, ethics, governance explored
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.
Tag(s): climate change • College of Arts & Sciences • College of the Environment • Department of Atmospheric Sciences • geoengineering • philosophy • Rob Wood • Stephen GardinerDecember 16, 2013
5 effective parenting programs to reduce problem behaviors in children
UW researchers evaluated about 20 parenting programs and found five that are especially effective at helping parents and children at all risk levels avoid adolescent behavior problems that affect not only individuals, but entire communities.
Tag(s): Kevin Haggerty • School of Social Work • Social Development Research GroupDecember 12, 2013
New state-funded Clean Energy Institute will focus on solar, battery technologies
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.
Tag(s): clean or renewable energy • College of Arts & Sciences • College of Engineering • Daniel Schwartz • David Ginger • Department of Chemical Engineering • Department of Chemistry • Department of Materials Science & Engineering • Michael K. Young
Scientists discover double meaning in genetic code
Finding a second code hiding in the genome casts new light on how changes to DNA impact health and disease.
Tag(s): Department of Genome Sciences • genetics & DNA • genomics • School of Medicine« Previous Page Next Page »
