UW News

News releases


December 31, 2012

Study shows naloxone kits cost-effective in preventing overdose deaths

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.


In rain and snow at home, Seahawks much more likely to win

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.


December 27, 2012

Academic medicine has major economic impact on the state and the nation

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


December 26, 2012

Piranha kin wielded dental weaponry even T. rex would have admired — with video

Head, teeth and ribs of a piranha skeleton

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.


For New Year’s resolutions to stick, plan ahead

List of resolutions

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!…


December 21, 2012

Training Xchange puts UW research advances into practitioners’ hands

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.


December 20, 2012

Mild brain cooling after head injury prevents epileptic seizures in lab study

EEG superimposed over images of a brain.

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.


December 19, 2012

American Academy of Pediatrics issues policy statement on pesticide exposure in children

A child picks and admires a flower during outdoor play.

Chronic low levels of pesticides are detrimental to children’s health: evidence suggests they may induce neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems, birth defects, asthma and cancer.


December 18, 2012

Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service gives $1.15 million to transform education of dentists

Dec. 14 Dentistry Retreat 2012

Under new dean Dr. Joel Berg the school has launched a plan to revamp its clinical education and curriculum.


December 17, 2012

Plumes across the Pacific deliver thousands of microbial species to West Coast

Mount Bachelor observatory.

Microorganisms – 99 percent more kinds than had been reported in findings published just four months ago – are hitching rides in the upper troposphere from Asia.


December 14, 2012

U-Village’s glassybaby assists UW Medical Center cancer patients

Art business owner created White Light Fund to defray incidental costs, like car fare, for people receiving cancer treatment.


December 13, 2012

Energy Dept. funds UW project to turn wasted natural gas into diesel

ARPA-E logo

The U.S. Department of Energy this month awarded $4 million to a team, led by UW chemical engineers, that aims to develop bacteria to turn the methane in natural gas into diesel fuel for transportation.


Dark Ages scourge enlightens modern struggle between man and microbes

Discoveries reported today help explain how the stealthy agent of Black Death avoids tripping a self-destruct mechanism inside germ-destroying cells.


December 12, 2012

Intracranial pressure monitoring for traumatic brain injury questioned

Researchers in United States and Latin America re-examine standard of care for severe head injury.


December 10, 2012

Do we live in a computer simulation? UW researchers say idea can be tested

A graphical representation of two theoretical views of our universe.

A British philosopher once suggested the possibility that our universe might be a computer simulation run by our descendants. A team of physicists at UW has devised a potential test to see if the idea has merit.


December 7, 2012

Crowdsourcing site compiles new sign language for math and science

Richard Ladner and students

The ASL-STEM Forum is a crowdsourcing project, similar to Wikipedia or the Urban Dictionary, that creates a new sign language for the latest scientific and technical terms.


Greenland ice sheet carries evidence of increased atmospheric acidity

Research suggests rising atmospheric acidity is probably why levels of the isotope nitrogen-15 in Greenland ice samples dropped around the time of the Industrial Revolution.


December 6, 2012

Moths wired two ways to take advantage of floral potluck

Moths are able to enjoy a pollinator’s buffet of flowers because of two distinct “channels” in their brains, scientists have discovered.


December 4, 2012

Crowdsourcing the cosmos: Astronomers welcome all to identify star clusters in Andromeda galaxy

Astronomers are inviting the public to search Hubble Space Telescope images of the Andromeda galaxy to help identify star clusters and increase understanding of how galaxies evolve. The new Andromeda Project, set to study thousands of high-resolution Hubble images, is a collaboration among scientists at the University of Washington, the University of Utah and several…


Scientists find oldest dinosaur – or closest relative yet

Artist's drawing of what Nyasasaurus parringtoni looked like

Researchers have discovered what may be the earliest dinosaur, a creature the size of a Labrador retriever, but with a five foot-long tail, that walked the Earth about 10 million years before more familiar dinosaurs.


December 3, 2012

Russian Far East holds seismic hazards that could threaten Pacific Basin

The 2009 eruption of Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands.

The Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands, long shrouded in secrecy by the Soviet government, are a seismic and volcanic hotbed with a potential to trigger tsunamis that pose a risk to the rest of the Pacific Basin.


November 30, 2012

Electrically spun fabric offers dual defense against pregnancy, HIV

Magnified image of fibers and sperm

Electrically spun cloth with nanometer-sized fibers show promise as a cheap, versatile platform to simultaneously offer contraception and prevent HIV. New funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will further test the system’s versatility and feasibility.


November 29, 2012

Rules devised for building ideal protein molecules from scratch

These principles could allow scientists to custom-make, rather than re-purpose, protein molecules for vaccines, drugs, and industrial and environmental uses.


International study provides more solid measure of shrinking in polar ice sheets

Channel through glacier

Climatologists have reconciled their measurements of ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland during the past two decades. A second article looks at how to monitor and understand accelerating losses from the planet’s two largest continental ice sheets.


November 28, 2012

Harmful protein-coding mutations in people arose largely in the past 5,000 to 10,000 years

Joshua Akey.

The spectrum of human genetic diversity today is vastly different than what it was only 200 to 400 generations ago.


Hungry salmon a problem for restoration efforts

Food webs needed by young salmon in the Columbia River basin are likely compromised in places, something that should be considered when prioritizing expensive restoration activities.


November 21, 2012

UW rates gold in sustainability assessment, strongest performer in Pac-12

Bins for recycling and compost on Red Square

The UW has the strongest sustainability performance in the Pac-12 according to a new rating system.


November 19, 2012

Mutations in genes that modify DNA packaging result in form of muscular dystrophy

Studying the molecular basis of progressive muscle weakness may lead to therapies to prevent or reduce symptoms.


November 14, 2012

Power, work struggles in Bangladesh households linked to domestic violence

A Bangladeshi woman.

In Bangladesh as elsewhere, women are empowered by working outside the home. But new research from the University of Washington shows such work can also increase the threat of domestic violence for some Bangladeshi wives. The study brings to light how the South Asian nation is seeing a change in relations within the household, with…


November 13, 2012

Roots of deadly 2010 India flood identified; findings could improve warnings

Leh, India, just a few days before a devastating 2010 flood.

UW researchers find the flash flood was set off by a string of unusual weather events similar to those that caused catastrophic U.S. floods in the 1970s.


November 9, 2012

UW Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics named for William E. Boeing

William E. Boeing and pilot Eddie Hubbard flew the first international mail flight to the U.S.

The UW Board of Regents yesterday approved a name change to the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, recognizing the shared history of UW aeronautics and The Boeing Company, and honoring the man who launched them both.


November 8, 2012

Extra chromosome 21 removed from Down syndrome cell line

The approach could lead to cell therapy treatments for some of the blood-forming disorders that accompany the common genetic condition.


UW commemorates Veterans Day with ceremony, first-time award for alumni veteran

Herbert Bridge.

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

A house for sale.

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

child in experiment wears electrodes on head

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

students winning the award

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

Two girls sit on a street curb while texting

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.



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