Environment
December 19, 2011
Upper atmosphere facilitates changes that let mercury enter food chain — with video
New research shows that the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere work to transform elemental mercury into oxidized mercury, which can easily be deposited into aquatic ecosystems and ultimately enter the food chain.
December 15, 2011
Nitrogen from humans pollutes remote lakes for more than a century
Nitrogen derived from human activities has polluted lakes throughout the Northern Hemisphere for more than a century and the fingerprint of these changes is evident even in remote lakes thousands of miles from the nearest city, industrial area or farm.
December 12, 2011
Fisheries lands a Ray Troll – with slideshow
Some 99 species of fishes glide and snake across a supersized 15-foot mural by Alaskan artist and confessed fish groupie Ray Troll, unveiled last month at the University of Washington.
December 6, 2011
Tropical sea temperatures influence melting in Antarctica
New research shows accelerated melting of two fast-moving glaciers that drain Antarctic ice into the Amundsen Sea Embayment is likely in part the result of an increase in sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
November 9, 2011
Carbon mitigation strategy uses wood for buildings first, bioenergy second
Pacific Northwest trees grown and harvested sustainably can both remove existing carbon dioxide from the air and help keep the gas from entering the atmosphere in the first place. Thats provided wood is used primarily for such things as building materials, instead of cement and steel, and secondarily that wood wastes are used for biofuels.
November 2, 2011
Wavechasers condemn gummy bears to crushing ocean depths
Follow the serious science – and the development of novel “Will it crush?” segments inspired by the YouTube hit “Will it blend?” – as University of Washington Wavechasers work in the South Pacific near Samoa.
October 19, 2011
Beyond ecological insubordination: Speaker urges us to rethink invasive species
Ignoring the potential beneficial roles of non-native species is no longer a valid option, says UWs Julian Olden. His public talk Oct. 25, “Invasive Species: Exonerating Crimes to Envision a New Global Future,” is the annual deans lecture from the College of the Environment.
October 13, 2011
Improving the physics of grocery store display cases to save energy
Aeronautical engineers are devising ways to boost the efficiency of open-air refrigerated cases, which are increasingly common in supermarkets. Results could lower the energy use of existing cases by up to 15 percent — potentially saving $100 million in electricity costs each year.
October 12, 2011
Bioblitz volunteers to catalog living things in arboretum Oct. 21-22
Naturalists, kayakers and other volunteers – including University of Washington students, faculty and staff – are needed to look for as many birds, plants, insects, mammals and fungi as possible during the 24-hour Bioblitz 2011 at the Washington Park Arboretum.
October 10, 2011
Summit helps mark first anniversary of Campus Sustainability Fund
Learn about some of the inaugural projects by students, faculty and staff using money from the student-funded Campus Sustainability Fund as part of the second annual Sustainability Summit on campus Oct. 26.
September 28, 2011
NW biofuels coming of age with $80 million in separate projects led by UW, WSU
The University of Washington and Washington State University are leads for two separate grants of $40 million each that will use Pacific Northwest woody biomass to expand whats been a Midwest-centric biofuels industry into Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and northern California.
September 26, 2011
Is your office green enough to be certified?
The Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability (ESS) office has created a Green Office Certification Program.
September 14, 2011
Salmon and other fish predators rely on ‘no guts, no glory survival tactic
The phrase “no guts, no glory” doesnt just apply to athletes who are striving to excel. Salmon and other fish predators take the adage literally.
August 25, 2011
Ocean acidification science, societal needs meld in new training program
Students already knowledgeable about the science behind ocean acidification and warming will learn more about the challenges those ocean changes pose for tribes, shellfish growers and other sectors of society – as well as helping seek solutions ¬– under a just-announced National Science Foundation grant of $3 million.
August 24, 2011
Scented laundry products emit hazardous chemicals through dryer vents
The researcher who used chemical sleuthing to uncover whats in scented products now has turned her attention to the air wafting from household laundry vents. Air from laundry machines using the top-selling scented liquid detergent and dryer sheet contains hazardous chemicals, including two that are classified as carcinogens.
August 8, 2011
An abnormally warm decade is part of the new ‘normal’
On July 1, the 30-year average temperatures used to determine “normal” changed, dropping the decade of the 1970s and adding the decade of 2001 through 2010. As a result, normal temperatures are now a bit warmer.
July 22, 2011
The cable has landed: Ocean science history in the making — with slideshow
Submarine cables for the nations first regional cabled ocean observatory, a project led by the University of Washington, made landfall last week on the Oregon coast.
July 13, 2011
Wood products part of winning carbon-emissions equation, researchers say
Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to grow, so forests have long been proposed as a way to offset climate change. But rather than just letting the forest sit there for a hundred or more years, the amount of carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere could be quadrupled in 100 years by harvesting regularly and using the wood in place of fossil-fuel intensive steel and concrete.
July 6, 2011
Sarah Reichard becomes director of UW Botanic Gardens
A forest resources professor whos an expert on invasive species and rare plants became director of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens July 1.
June 21, 2011
Ocean measurements by UW will be part of just-launched satellite mission
With the launch earlier this month of NASAs satellite Aquarius, more than half a dozen University of Washington researchers are involved in projects to calibrate data from space with actual measurements of ocean salinity.
June 16, 2011
Boost for plant scientists, including UW prof, comes at critical time
Keiko Torii, professor of biology, is among 15 of the “nations most innovative plant scientists” selected to share $75 million for fundamental plant science research.
June 9, 2011
Scientists find recent snowpack declines in the West nearly unprecedented
The snowpack decline of the last 50 years in the Rocky Mountains is highly unusual in context of the past 800 years, according to findings published June 10 in “Science.”
May 31, 2011
Code green: Energy-efficient programming to curb computers power use
A new system called EnerJ helps computer programmers go green, allowing them to cut a program’s energy consumption by as much as 50 percent.
May 10, 2011
Razing Seattles viaduct doesnt guarantee nightmare commutes, model says
University of Washington statisticians used a computer model to study the effect of replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct on commuter travel times. They found that relying on surface streets would likely have less impact on travel times than previously reported, and that effects on commute times are not well known.
April 27, 2011
Era of canopy crane ending; certain research and education activities remain – view slideshow
The 25-story construction crane used since 1995 to investigate such things as how Pacific Northwest forests absorb carbon dioxide, obtain sufficient water and resist attacks by pests and diseases is being pruned back to just the tower.
Essington wins Pew fellowship to evaluate trade-offs in fisheries
Timothy Essington, UW associate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, is one of four Pew fellows in marine conservation in the world this year.
April 14, 2011
Data catches up with theory: Ocean front is energetic contributor to mixing
For more than two decades scientists have suspected theres a substantial source of energy for ocean mixing at ocean fronts. Researchers with the Applied Physics Laboratory are the first to devise a way to prove it.
March 30, 2011
Exxon Valdez to Deepwater Horizon – event looks at spills, shifting media landscape
This Saturday, join local and nationally known speakers as they compare the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spills and look in particular at how people and organizations told stories about the two events.
March 15, 2011
Controlling a single molecules reaction with light could improve solar cells
In new research published in “Science,” engineers at UW and UCLA used nanotechnology to control and observe how molecules react. They plan to use their method to develop more efficient solar molecules.
March 2, 2011
Algal antifreeze makes inroads into ice
Sea-ice algae – the important first rung of the food web each spring in places like the Arctic Ocean – can engineer ice to its advantage, according to the first published findings about this ability.
February 23, 2011
Dimmable windows with solar panels could power zero-energy buildings
UW engineers and architects are collaborating on smart windows that can change transparency depending on conditions and actually harvest energy from the suns rays.
February 8, 2011
Follow the field work: researcher blogging about fishing tech and turtles
On her plane trip to Ecuador Wednesday, UWs Kiki Jenkins will write her first entry for the “New York Times” blog “Scientist at work: Notes from the Field.”
January 25, 2011
Rogue storm system caused Pakistan floods that left millions homeless
Last summers disastrous and deadly Pakistan floods were caused by a rogue weather system that wandered hundreds of miles farther west than is normal for such systems, new UW research shows.
January 12, 2011
Iceberg snaps, produces strange song
Want to hear one of the biggest icebergs of the last decade crack up? UW researchers compressed a five-hour event in Antarctica into a two-minute audio file that you can listen to.
December 15, 2010
Polar bears still on thin ice, but cutting greenhouse gases now can avert extinction
New research indicates that if humans reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly in the next decade or two, enough Arctic ice is likely to remain intact during late summer and early autumn for polar bears to survive.
December 13, 2010
Assessing the environmental effects of tidal turbines
UW scientists are helping to prepare for a tidal energy project in Puget Sound. Researchers say this pilot project will have the most comprehensive environmental monitoring of any tidal energy installation to date.
Calculating tidal energy turbines effects on sediments and fish
Engineers are developing computer models to study how changes in water pressure and current speed around tidal turbines affect sediment buildup and fish health.
Decline of West Coast fog brought higher coastal temperatures last 60 years
Summertime fog, a common feature along the West Coast, has declined since 1950 while coastal temperatures have increased slightly, new research shows.
‘Array of arrays coaxing secrets from unfelt seismic tremor events
New technology is letting UW researchers get a much better picture of how episodic tremor events relate to potentially catastrophic earthquakes every 300 to 500 years in the Cascadia subduction zone.
December 6, 2010
New research shows rivers cut deep notches in the Alps broad glacial valleys
New research shows that notches carved by rivers at the bottom of glacial valleys in the Swiss Alps survive from one glacial episode to the next, protected in part by the glaciers themselves.
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