News releases
December 9, 2013
Communities across U.S. reduce teen smoking, drinking, violence and crime
Fewer high school students across the U.S. started drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, committing crimes and engaging in violence before graduation when their towns used a prevention system developed by UW’s Social Development Research Group.
Astronomers solve temperature mystery of planetary atmospheres

An atmospheric peculiarity the Earth shares with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune is likely common to billions of planets, University of Washington astronomers have found, and knowing that may help in the search for potentially habitable worlds.
December 3, 2013
Signalers vs. strong silent types: Sparrows exude personalities during fights

Like humans, some song sparrows are more effusive than others, at least when it comes to defending their territories. New UW findings show that consistent individual differences exist not only for how aggressive individual song sparrows are but also for how much they use their signals to communicate their aggressive intentions.
New book ‘Going Viral’ explores nature, impact of Internet virality

Will we of the early 21th century be remembered for Internet memes like Grumpy Cat? “Going Viral,” a new book by Karine Nahon and Jeff Hemsley of the UW Information School explores the nature of virality and impacts of virality.
Project to gauge effects of Affordable Care Act in Washington state

The overall purpose of the project, called UW-SHARE, is to obtain a benchmark, pre-ACA picture of health-care use, health, health-related attitudes, and access to health insurance.
‘Spooky action’ builds a wormhole between ‘entangled’ particles

New research indicates that a phenomenon called “quantum entanglement” could be intrinsically linked with the creation of wormholes.
November 25, 2013
Study: Greenhouse gas might have warmed early Mars enough to allow liquid water

The mystery of how the surface of Mars, long dead and dry, could have flowed with water billions of years ago may have been solved by research that included a University of Washington astronomer.
November 24, 2013
How living cells solved a needle in a haystack problem to generate electrical signals

Filtered from a vast sodium sea, more than 1 million calcium ions per second gush through our cells’ pores to generate charges
November 20, 2013
Study shines light on what makes digital activism effective

Digital activism is usually nonviolent and tends to work best when social media tools are combined with street-level organization, according to new research from the University of Washington.
November 18, 2013
Post-shutdown, UW Arctic research flights resume

UW researchers this month are on missions to fly above the Arctic Ocean to measure glacier melt, polar storms and Arctic sea ice.
November 14, 2013
FDA-approved immune-modulating drug unexpectedly benefits mice with fatal mitochondrial defect

Rapamycin, an anti-rejection drug for organ transplant patients, has now been shown to increases survival in and delayed symptoms of Leigh’s syndrome. The drug appears to cause a metabolic switch that bypasses the mitochondrial deficiency.
A decline in creativity? It depends on how you look

Recent research suggests that young Americans might be less creative now than in decades past, even while their intelligence — as measured by IQ tests — continues to rise. But new research from the UW Information School and Harvard University hints that the dynamics of creativity may not break down as simply as that.
November 13, 2013
Snow melts faster under trees than in open areas in mild climates

University of Washington researchers have found that tree cover actually causes snow to melt more quickly in warm, Mediterranean-type climates. Alternatively, open, clear gaps in the forests tend to keep snow on the ground longer into the spring and summer. Their findings were published this fall in Water Resources Research.
November 12, 2013
Grant will support interdisciplinary, data-intensive research at UW

The UW, along with the University of California, Berkeley, and New York University, are partners in a new five-year, $37.8 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that aims to accelerate the growth of data-intensive discovery across many fields.
November 7, 2013
Cost-effective method accurately orders DNA sequencing along entire chromosomes

The method may help overcome a major obstacle that has delayed progress in designing rapid, low-cost — but still accurate — ways to assemble genomes from scratch. It also may validate certain types of chromosomal abnormalities in cancer.
November 6, 2013
Floods didn’t provide nitrogen ‘fix’ for earliest crops in frigid north

Floods didn’t make floodplains fertile during the dawn of human agriculture in the Earth’s far north. Turns out early human inhabitants can mainly thank cyanobacteria. It raises the question of whether modern farmers might reduce fertilizer use by taking advantage of cyanobacteria that occur, not just in the floodplains studied, but in soils around the world.
Washington home sales surged, affordability declined in third quarter

Washington state’s housing market continued to strengthen in the July-September quarter, registering the fifth consecutive quarterly improvement in home sales activity, according to the UW’s Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies.
A shot in the dark: Detector at UW on the hunt for dark matter

Physicists are using a detector at the UW to search for a particle called an axion, which would be the first physical evidence of the universe’s dark matter.
November 4, 2013
More wildfires, earlier snowmelt, coastal threats top Northwest climate risks

A new comprehensive report co-authored by the UW’s Climate Impacts Group looks at what climate change will mean for Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
UW Bothell prof, students present crowd-funded study of coal train emissions

Atmospheric scientist Dan Jaffe tonight will present the first results of a crowd-funded study of train emissions, conducted with four undergraduates from the Seattle and Bothell campuses and funded by public donations.
November 1, 2013
UW surgical robot featured in 2013 movie ‘Ender’s Game’

A University of Washington surgical research robot appears in the sci-fi movie “Ender’s Game” starring Harrison Ford. Two UW students operated the robot during the filming of the movie, which opens Nov. 1 in theaters across the country.
October 31, 2013
Epilepsy film to be screened Nov. 9 at Harborview Medical Center

Independent film producer Louis Stanislaw will present “Living on the Edge” at 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 9, in the Harborview Medical Center Research & Training Building. The showing will be followed by a panel discussion of individuals living with epilepsy and UW Medicine professionals who treat seizure disorders.
October 30, 2013
A first step in learning by imitation, baby brains respond to another’s actions

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery for adults, but for babies it’s their foremost tool for learning. Now researchers from the University of Washington and Temple University have found the first evidence revealing a key aspect of the brain processing that occurs in babies to allow this learning by observation.
October 29, 2013
Crashing rockets could lead to novel sample-return technology

This year, in an annual trek to the Nevada desert, UW students deliberately launched rockets from altitude directly into a dry lakebed. These were early tests of a concept that eventually could be used to collect and return samples from an erupting volcano, a melting nuclear reactor or even an asteroid in space.
John Schaufelberger appointed dean of the UW College of Built Environments

University of Washington President Michael K. Young and Provost Ana Mari Cauce have announced that they are appointing interim dean John E. Schaufelberger to be the next dean of the UW College of Built Environments.
Redwood trees reveal history of West Coast rain, fog, ocean conditions

Scientists found a way to use coastal redwood trees as a window into historic climate, using oxygen and carbon atoms in the wood to detect fog and rainfall in previous seasons.
October 28, 2013
UW hosts series of events for Veterans Appreciation Week Nov. 5 to 11

The University of Washington is planning a number of events that will be held during the week preceding Veterans Day.
October 21, 2013
‘Pushback’: Resisting the life of constant connectivity

Researchers at the University of Washington have studied and named a trend lots of people can identify with: the desire to resist constant connectivity and step back from the online world.
Three UW faculty members elected to Institute of Medicine

Blood disease specialist Dr. Janis Abkowitz and drug safety expert Dr, Bruce Psaty today were named new members of the prestigious Institute of Medicine, an honorary and national advisory group.
October 20, 2013
Global ocean currents explain why Northern Hemisphere is the soggier one

A new study in Nature Geoscience explains a major feature of global precipitation, and shows how a current originating from the poles influences tropical rainfall in Africa and southern India.
October 18, 2013
UW receives grant from attorney general’s office for pain management

The University of Washington has received an 18-month grant of $110,299 from the state Attorney General’s Office to provide training and education for health professionals and the general public on the subject of chronic pain management and cannabis use.
October 17, 2013
Yoga accessible for the blind with new Microsoft Kinect-based program

A team of University of Washington computer scientists has created a software program that watches a user’s movements and gives spoken feedback using a Microsoft Kinect on what to change to accurately complete a yoga pose.
October 15, 2013
Study: Nearly 500,000 perished in Iraq war

A new study estimates nearly a half-million people died from causes attributable to the war in Iraq from 2003 through 2011. The results come from the first population-based survey since 2006 to estimate war-related deaths in Iraq, and the first study covering the conflict’s full timespan.
Nanopore sequencing technology lands licensing deal

A San Diego company has licensed UW-developed technology capable of reading the sequence of a single DNA molecule.
October 9, 2013
New strategy lets cochlear implant users hear music

University of Washington scientists have developed a new way of processing the signals in cochlear implants to help users hear music better. The technique lets users perceive differences between musical instruments, a significant improvement from what standard cochlear implants can offer.
October 8, 2013
UW, local company building innovative deep-sea manned submarine

The UW, Boeing and an Everett company are building a carbon-fiber submersible that will carry five passengers almost 2 miles deep.
October 3, 2013
My HeartMap Seattle Challenge enlists the public to locate city’s life-saving devices

If you witness a heart attack, would you know where the nearest AED is? A Seattle contest will help pre-hospital emergency care leaders locate the city’s automatic external defibrillators, which can help restore normal heart rhythms and coach in CPR.
October 1, 2013
Estrogen pills for menopause symptoms vary in blood clot risk

A recent observational study comparing the safety of estradiol and conjugated equine estrogen associated estradiol with a lower risk of leg vein and lung clots.
September 30, 2013
3 UW professors honored by NIH for innovative biomedical research

Three University of Washington faculty members are among those honored with a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s High Risk-High Reward program.
UW researchers helped draft international assessment of climate change

UW faculty members were among international researchers who compiled the fifth climate-change assessment report. The UW will host a seminar Tuesday, Oct. 1 with some of the Seattle-area authors.
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