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SEATTLE — Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), the University of Washington (UW), and Targeted Genetics Corp.

If you are like many Americans, somewhere in the next week you’ll draw up a list of New Year’s resolutions. You’ll pledge to start on a diet, vow to exercise three times a week, promise to stop smoking or maybe try to cut back on your alcohol consumption. Then you’ll spend hours wondering how you can keep your resolutions and why you made them in the first place. But those resolutions aren’t necessarily doomed to fail.

Two University of Washington astronomy professors and two UW graduate students were among dozens of scientists on two teams who this year showed that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating, a discovery lauded by the journal “Science” in its Dec. 18 edition as the most important science advance of the year.

Recent satellite measurements by University of Washington seismologists indicate the “locked zone” between the Juan de Fuca and North America plates is wider in the Seattle area than previously believed. That means the Puget Sound lowlands are likely to experience significantly greater motion during a subduction-zone earthquake than scientists earlier thought.

Science is still a long way from understanding why some people are more prone to alcoholism and alcohol abuse than others, but University of Washington researchers have discovered that concentrations of a neurotransmitter in the brains of mice are directly related to alcohol consumption and resistance to the sedative effects of alcohol.

Adopting a child can bring special joys as well as special challenges. Unique medical, social and developmental issues arise in both domestic and international adoptions. To help parents prepare and care for the special needs of adopted children, University of Washington Medical Center has established the Center for Adoption Medicine at the Pediatric Care Center.