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It begins life as a miniature underwater jet engine and ends its days as an aerial dive bomber gathering up its prey in a highly developed “cow catcher.” If that sounds more like the Empire striking back than nature, don’t be fooled. It’s the green darner dragonfly, and it has just been named the official insect of the state of Washington.

Low-risk patients who choose nurse midwives for their obstetrical care have fewer Caesarean sections, receive less anesthesia, have a much lower rate of episiotomy and incur less expense, compared to similar women who choose physicians for their care.

The first patient to participate in a clinical trial of a new laser heart surgery technique at University of Washington Medical Center is now recovering at home. The technique, called transmyocardial revascularization (TMR), creates new pathways for blood to reach oxygen-starved heart tissue in patients with coronary artery disease.

Victor Mills, who graduated from the UW in 1926, helped build The Procter & Gamble Co. into a manufacturing giant by revolutionizing the process for making Ivory soap and developing consumer staples such as Jif peanut butter, Duncan Hines cake mixes, Pringles potato chips and, yes, Pampers disposable diapers. Retired since 1961, Mills lives in Tucson with his wife, Ruth, and will turn 100 on March 28.

Katheryn (Katy) Foreman of Portland, Ore., started as a Spanish language major, and now plans a career in radio astronomy. Scott Sullivan of Tacoma began as an electrical engineering major, and now hopes astronomy will prepare him for entry into NASA’s astronaut-training program. Jeffrey (Jeff) Balsley of Issaquah, Wash., was a percussionist studying music, and now his aim is to teach astrophysics. And Marcus Wright of Stanwood, Wash., has traded in his ambition to become a computer scientist, for a future in astronomy.All of these undergraduates clearly have been influenced by their University of Washington education in astronomy. And today they will get a rare hands-on look at the life of a real astronomer.

Top computer science students from Stanford, MIT and Harvard were no match for a team of three University of Washington students who were runners up at the Association for Computing Machinery’s annual International Collegiate Programming contest Sunday (Mar. 2) in San Jose.

On August 27, 1883, the volcano Krakatau in the Dutch East Indies erupted with the force of more than 10,000 Hiroshima-type hydrogen bombs, killing an estimated 30,000 people and leaving a wide swath of devastation. The recovery from that volcanic upheaval is providing scientists with glimpses of the renewal that can be expected after more recent eruptions, in particular that of Mount St. Helens in 1980.

The power of human imagination may be stronger than previously suspected, blurring the line between memory and imagination, a University of Washington psychologist reported today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.