News releases
November 8, 2012
UW commemorates Veterans Day with ceremony, first-time award for alumni veteran

The University of Washington will commemorate Veterans Day with a ceremony at 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 11 near the Medal of Honor Memorial at the foot of Memorial Way.
Pamela Mitchell receives American Heart Association’s highest nursing award

Mitchell, honored for her work with stroke survivors, is involved in improving the lives of cardiovascular disease patients who have depression.
November 5, 2012
Home sales, median prices up in Washington; affordability slips

Washington state’s housing market continued to improve during the third quarter of 2012 as median selling prices and the number of homes sold both increased, according to the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington. Existing home sales increased 3.4 percent from the second quarter, to seasonally adjusted annual rate of…
October 29, 2012
Early autism intervention improves brain responses to social cues

An autism intervention program that emphasizes social interactions improves cognitive skills and brain responses to faces, the first demonstration that an intensive behavioral intervention can change brain function in toddlers with autism.
October 25, 2012
Students win $100K for 3-D printer to turn waste plastic into composting toilets, rainwater harvesting systems

Three undergraduates won $100,000 to form a company that will work with partners in Oaxaca, Mexico, to build machines that can transform waste plastic into composting toilets and pieces for rainwater harvesting systems.
October 22, 2012
Friendship 2.0: Teens’ technology use promotes sense of belonging, identity

A new study from the University of Washington shows that digital media helps teens reach developmental milestones, but raises questions about whether digital connectedness might hinder the development of an autonomous sense of self.
October 18, 2012
President Young launches new initiative to lead change in higher education and address major societal issues
University of Washington President Michael K. Young today announced a new initiative aimed at advancing the university’s teaching, research and service to meet the major challenges of the 21st century. The initiative, called “Tomorrow’s University Today,” will focus on three key areas: leading change in public higher education, addressing critical societal problems like sustainability, health…
2012 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Brian Kobilka will speak at UW Oct. 23

The Stanford University faculty member will talk about a group of cell membrane receptors that are crucial for emotion, behavior, memory, vision, motion and many other activities. About 40 percent of medications act via these receptors.
October 17, 2012
Scientists building crowdsourced encyclopedia to further Puget Sound recovery

Representatives of the Encyclopedia of Earth and the Encyclopedia of Life will be on the University of Washington campus Wednesday, Oct. 24, for the public launch of an encyclopedia unique to Puget Sound.
Living Voters Guide adds fact-checking by Seattle librarians for 2012 election

The Living Voters Guide, created by the UW and presented with Seattle’s CityClub, just won a regional award and has been updated for the 2012 election. This year the guide has expanded to include a California edition, and the Washington guide will include fact-checking of selected points by Seattle Public Library staff.
October 16, 2012
Marriage, education can help improve well-being of adults abused as children

Researchers investigating the long-term consequences of child abuse have identified some protective factors that can improve the health of victims during their adulthood.
October 11, 2012
UW research ranks fourth among world universities

Rankings released by National Taiwan University places the UW fourth among the world’s universities and first among American public universities in scientific research.
Mug handles could help hot plasma give lower-cost, controllable fusion energy

New hardware lets engineers maintain the plasma used in fusion reactors in an energy-efficient, stable manner, making the system potentially attractive for use in fusion power plants.
October 8, 2012
‘Food deserts’ abound in King County for those without cars, UW study shows

King County has no substantial food deserts, provided one has a car. Take away the car, however, and food deserts — areas where low-income people have limited access to low-cost, nutritious food — appear to fill the county map. New research from the University of Washington, published in the American Journal of Public Health, shows…
October 2, 2012
Sticky paper offers cheap, easy solution for paper-based diagnostics

Global health researchers are working on cheap systems like a home-based pregnancy test that might work for malaria, diabetes or other diseases. A new chemical technique makes medically interesting molecules stick to regular paper — a possible route to building such paper-based diagnostics from paper you could buy at an office-supply store.
UW scientists team with Coast Guard to explore ice-free Arctic Ocean

UW scientists are teaming with the U.S. Coast Guard to study the new frontier in the Arctic Ocean opened up with the melting ice.
‘A-game’ strategies for parents, coaches in youth sports

Parents typically are the biggest headaches for coaches in youth sports. In two new books, UW psychology professors share strategies to help parents and coaches work together to help kids get more out of sports.
October 1, 2012
Among voters lacking strong party preferences, Obama faces 20 percent handicap due to race bias

Race biases are having a strong anti-Obama effect among the least politically partisan voters, according to a study by Anthony Greenwald, a UW psychology professor.
UW composer fills arboretum byways with her ‘Music of Trees’

A UW doctoral student in musical composition uses sounds from the Washington Park Arboretum to create music that’s part natural, part imagined.
September 28, 2012
Duplex-sequencing method could lead to better cancer detection and treatment

Two young UW researchers sought to reduce the error rate in DNA sequencing to better pinpoint cells that are mutating.
September 27, 2012
Dynamics of DNA packaging helps regulate heart formation

Findings suggest new ways to study controls of early human development, causes of birth defects, and regeneration of damaged tissue.
Browser plug-in helps people balance their political news reading habits

As the U.S. presidential election approaches, many voters become voracious consumers of online political news. A new tool tracks whether all those articles really provide a balanced view of the debate – and, if not, suggests some sites that offer opinions from the other side of the political spectrum.
September 23, 2012
Large bacterial population colonized land 2.75 billion years ago

New University of Washington research suggests that early microbes might have been widespread on land, producing oxygen before the atmosphere was oxygen-rich.
September 20, 2012
The original Twitter? Tiny electronic tags monitor birds’ social networks

A tiny digital tag developed at the UW can for the first time see when birds meet in the wild, offering a window into animal social networks. A study in Current Biology used the tags to track the social habits of New Caledonian crows, and found a surprising amount of interaction among the tool-using birds.
September 18, 2012
Center for Chemical Innovation receives NSF reauthorization of $20 million

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $20 million grant over five years in reauthorizing the Center for Enabling New Technologies Through Catalysis based at the University of Washington.
Local scientists chosen for NIH High Risk High Rewards program

The scientists were selected for their inventive ideas to transform their field of research and improve the health of the public.
App lets you monitor lung health using only a smartphone

Feeling wheezy? You could call the doctor. Or soon you could use your smartphone to diagnose your lung health, with a new app that uses the frequencies in the breath to determine how much and how fast you can exhale.
September 17, 2012
Shrinking snow depth on Arctic sea ice threatens ringed seal habitat

Scientists found that the habitat required for ringed seals — animals under consideration for the threatened species list — to rear their young will drastically shrink this century.
September 14, 2012
Researchers come a step closer to finding HIV vaccine

Finding that the failed vaccine RV144 did offer some protection against certain HIV viruses suggests a more potent vaccine might be possible.
September 12, 2012
Official U.S. poverty rate remains high, middle class incomes decline

Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau today show that, after increasing since 2008, the poverty rate for the U.S. remained stable at 15 percent between 2010 and 2011. In Washington state, the estimated poverty rate increased from 11.5 percent (774,000 residents) to 12.5 percent (854,000 residents) between 2010 and 2011.
September 11, 2012
Freshman Convocation marks opening of UW’s school year

University of Washington President Michael Young will be the featured speaker at the UW’s 29th annual Freshman Convocation, which begins at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 23 in the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. About 4,800 people are expected to attend this event, which welcomes the entering class. Convocation officially marks the beginning of…
September 10, 2012
Crows react to threats in human-like way

Crows and humans share the ability to recognize faces and associate them with negative and positive feelings. The way the brain activates during that process is something the two species also appear to share.
September 6, 2012
Hospitals that make longer attempts at resuscitation have higher survival rates

Findings challenge the assumption that, if a pulse is not restored soon, continuing resuscitation efforts is futile.
September 5, 2012
Dinosaur die out might have been second of two closely timed extinctions

New UW research indicates that shortly before an asteroid impact spelled doom for the dinosaurs, a separate extinction triggered by volcanic eruptions killed life on the ocean floor.
Encyclopedia of DNA elements compiled; UW a key force in Project ENCODE

An international team of researchers has made headway toward a comprehensive listing of all the working parts of the human genome. More than 30 scientific papers appear today, include major work by UW researchers. The London Museum of Science celebrates with ceiling banners and aerial dancers.
Millions of DNA switches that power human genome’s operating system are discovered

Scientists created comprehensive maps of elusive gene-controlling DNA and a dictionary of the human genome’s programming language
Researchers unlock disease information hidden in genome’s control circuitry

Most genetic changes linked to more than 400 common diseases affect regions of DNA that dictate when genes are switched on or off. Many of these changes affect circuits active during early human development.
September 4, 2012
Rocket science coming to the Yakama Nation

Middle school and high school students from the Yakama Nation will have a chance this weekend to peer into space or learn the basics of rocket flight during a daylong festival with scientists from UW and other institutions.
Gardener’s delight offers glimpse into the evolution of flowering plants

Double flowers – though beautiful – are mutants. UW biologists have found the class of genes responsible in a plant lineage more ancient than the one previously studied, offering a glimpse even further back into the evolutionary development of flowers.
August 22, 2012
Low-dose sedative alleviates autistic-like behavior in mice with Dravet syndrome mutation

UW researchers have found that a low dose of the sedative clonazepam alleviated autistic-like behavior in mice with a mutation that causes Dravet syndrome in humans.
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