New work in Argentina where scientists had previously thought Earth’s first grasslands emerged 38 million years ago, shows the area at the time covered with tropical forests rich with palms, bamboos and gingers. Grit and volcanic ash in those forests could have caused the evolution of teeth in horse-like animals that scientists mistakenly thought were adaptations in response to emerging grasslands.
People are exposed to these endocrine-disrupting chemicals even if they eat an organic diet and do not store, prepare or cook in plastic containers.
Michael B. Bragg, professor and interim engineering dean at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been selected as dean of the UW College of Engineering.
Do changes in the amount of fish caught necessarily reflect the number of fish in the sea? “No,” say UW researchers in a “Counterpoint” commentary in Nature.
Jeffrey Riedinger has been named vice provost for global affairs at the University of Washington
Species facing widespread and rapid environmental changes can sometimes evolve quickly enough to dodge the extinction bullet. UW scientists consider the genetic underpinnings of such evolutionary rescue.
Three faculty members named Sloan Research Fellows
The fibrous threads helping mussels stay anchored are more prone to snap when ocean temperatures climb higher than normal.
UW’s Field Research and Consultation Group in Environmental and Occupational Health assess ventilation systems and airborne lead levels in firing ranges, and offer advice on lowering exposure.
New satellite observations confirm a University of Washington analysis that for the past three years found accelerated declines in the volume of Arctic sea ice.
UW researchers have discovered a hierarchical warning scheme in which territorial song sparrows use increasingly threatening signals to ward off trespassing rivals.
A new report by a UW researcher showed about a 50 percent increase in speech comprehension in background noise when children with hearing impairments followed a three-week auditory training regimen.
Washington state’s housing market continued to improve during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the UW’s Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies.
Pediatrician Tao Kwan-Gett will head a center that provides training, research, evaluation and communication services to public health organizations across six states.
Atmospheric scientists are using pressure readings from some new smartphones and tablet computers to improve short-term thunderstorm forecasts. A weather station in every pocket would offer an unprecedented wealth of data.
Political science and law scholars from the UW and elsewhere file a brief saying the Supreme Court should fully uphold the Voting Rights Act in a case out of Shelby County, Alabama.
The new center will promote collaborations in dental research and education, including faculty and student exchanges, with partners around the world.
A huge Arctic cyclone in August was not responsible for the historic minimum seen soon after in Arctic sea-ice extent.
Married couples who divide chores in traditional ways have more sex than couples who share so-called men’s and women’s work.
A UW researcher has determined the precise configuration of substances derived from hops that give beer its distinctive flavor, a finding that could lead to important new pharmaceuticals.
The University of Washington astronomy department is readying a traveling planetarium to take to schools for outreach — and collaboration — in Seattle and beyond. It may look like a carnival bouncy house or an inflatable igloo, but the portable planetarium is in fact an innovative tool for teaching and spreading interest in astronomy. The circular fabric dome, made by GoDome, is about 10 feet tall and 20 feet across — big enough to hold a classroom of young astronomers…
A paper in Science describes an organic crystal that shows promise as a cheap, flexible, nontoxic material for the working parts of memory chips, sensors and energy-harvesting devices.
Hunting and habitat loss harm the critically endangered Sulawesi black macaque, but new research shows the population has stabilized in the past decade.
Researchers at UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences have found that the anatomy of certain brain areas – the hippocampus and cerebellum – can predict children’s language abilities at 1 year of age.
Researchers found little correlation between loss of consciousness and duration of concussion symptoms.
New laws in many states require school athletes to be taught about concussion, but education alone is ineffective if it does not translate into students reporting possible symptoms.
A new international assessment found that soot, or black carbon, is a major contributor to global warming — second only to carbon dioxide.
Salmon runs are notoriously variable: strong one year, and weak the next. New research shows that the same may be true from one century to the next.
Fisheries managers should sharpen their ability to spot environmental conditions that hamper or help fish stocks, and not assume that abundance translates to sustainable harvest.
Misguided killer T cells may be the missing link in sustained tissue damage in the brains and spines of people with multiple sclerosis, research in immunologist Joan Goverman’s lab suggests.
Exomoons, or moons orbiting planets outside the solar system, might be as good candidates for life as exoplanets, research shows.
Azita Emami, dean of the College of Nursing at Seattle University, will be the new dean of the UW School of Nursing.
Babies only hours old are able to differentiate between sounds from their native language and a foreign language, scientists have discovered. The study indicates that babies begin absorbing language while still in the womb, earlier than previously thought.
Giving heroin users kits with the overdose antidote naloxone can help save lives. Efforts are under way to make similar kits available for prescription opioid users.
The Seahawks win four times as many home games as they lose when the weather is inclement, compared to less than two to one when it’s not.
The Association of American Medical Colleges reports that its member medical schools and teaching hospitals had a combined economic impact of more than $587 billion in the United States in 2011
Taking into consideration size, an ancient relative of piranhas weighing about 20 pounds delivered a bite with more force than prehistoric whale-eating sharks or – even – Tyrannosaurus rex.
This year, for sure, you will lose weight, quit smoking, drink less, learn a new language, get a better job, and travel to exotic lands. And of course you’re going to eat better, stress less and create (and stick to) a household budget – all while spending more time with the family. It’s gonna happen! But according to at least one study, a third of us can’t keep these resolutions through the end of January, never mind an entire year,…
The UW is expanding its Training Xchange initiative to help researchers transmit innovations in healthcare and other fields to professionals locally and beyond the Northwest.
Traumatic head injury is the leading cause of acquired epilepsy in young adults, and at present there is no treatment to prevent or cure it.