Greenroads, a rating system developed at the University of Washington to promote sustainable roadway construction, awarded its first official certification to a Bellingham project that incorporates porcelain from recycled toilets.


Greenroads, a rating system developed at the University of Washington to promote sustainable roadway construction, awarded its first official certification to a Bellingham project that incorporates porcelain from recycled toilets.
Installing a gun cabinet dramatically reduces unlocked guns and ammunition in the home, according to a study in rural Alaska villages.

On the one-year anniversary of Japan’s great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, UW scientists said the devastating event has some important lessons for the Pacific Northwest – most notably, that a similar event will happen here, and this region is much less prepared than Japan.

From Seattle to Japan, University of Washington faculty had an important role in providing information about the aftermath of the March 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
Environmental health researchers will assess the effects of the proposed cleanup on people who use or live on South Seattle’s polluted Duwamish River.
Researchers are seeking to improve public health outcomes at a time of diminished funding and program reductions.
Chinas growing cities are considered a boon for the consumer goods market, but a UW geographer presents evidence that new city dwellers will unlikely have much disposable income.
The UW School of Dentistry wants to make dental care affordable to people affected by state cutbacks in coverage.

The Design Help Desk offers scientists a chance to meet with a student who can help them create more effective figures, tables and graphs. This visual equivalent of a Writing Help Desk is also a study on how to teach data visualization.

Climate warming caused by greenhouse gases is very likely to increase summer temperature variability around the world by the end of this century, new UW research shows. The findings have major implications for food production.

David Stahl, a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Also elected are UW affiliate professor Henrique Malvar and UW alumnus Peter Farrell.
Emerging cephalosporin resistance and treatment failures reported in other countries signal a need for urgent U.S. action to control the spread of gonorrhea.
A gene that influences the inflammatory response to infection also predicts drug treatment effectiveness for a deadly form of TB.

University of Washington scientists have advanced a method that allowed them to single out a marine microorganism and map its genome even though the organism made up less than 10 percent of a water sample teeming with many millions of individuals from dozens of identifiable groups of microbes.
Diabetes risk is increased in men and women who eat a diet high in processed meats, according to a study published online this week in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Processed meats include hot dogs, lunch meat, sausages and canned meats.
National parks help preserve species native to a particular region, but it appears that some species preservation is more successful if a significant portion of land adjacent to a park also is left as natural habitat.

The walls of the aorta, the largest blood vessel carrying blood from the heart, exhibits a response to electric fields known to exist in inorganic and synthetic materials. The discovery could have implications for treating human heart disease.

The economic pain of a flattening oil supply will trump the environment as a reason to curb the use of fossil fuels, say two scientists, one from the University of Washington and one from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Nature.

New UW research demonstrates that one suggested method of geoengineering the atmosphere to deal with climate change probably would have limited success.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a grant of $3.5 million to a multi-university, regional transportation center led by the University of Washington. The newly established Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium, or PacTrans, will focus on safe and sustainable transportation systems.
UW’s College of Education has been awarded an $8.1 million, five-year federal grant to study how best to teach writing and reading to both learning-disabled and typically achieving children.
A study of a housing project that allows chronically homeless people with severe alcohol problems to drink in their apartments found that residents cut their heavy drinking by 35 percent.
An oral history of the career of William D. Ruckelshaus, the first and fifth administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, whose career parallels the growth of the environmental movement in the United States, is now available in three locations in the state of Washington.
New research demonstrates that fruit flies keep their bearings by using the polarization pattern of natural skylight, bolstering the belief that many, if not all, insects have that capability.

Seven identical robots created and built at the UW will be flown to campuses across the country, where they will provide the first common research platform to develop the future of surgical robotics. The robots will be display Friday at an open house.
A UW-led team has peered deep into the neighboring Andromeda galaxy to find unusual ultra-blue stars.
Harborview Medical Center and the UW Health Sciences have each scheduled events and service activities to honor the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The ceremonies are open to all.

For the first time, researchers have analyzed the multitude of microorganisms residing in the human gut as a complex, integrated biological system, rather than a set of separate species. Their approach has revealed patterns that correspond with excess body weight.

A powerful combination of data from NASA satellites and traditional sampling has led to the discovery of a new pathway of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean. Jamie Morison, Applied Physics Laboratory, is lead author of paper in this weeks Nature.
UW scientists report today, Dec. 27, the first evidence of structural changes in the brains of rodents and people with diet-induced obesity. The findings may lead to a better understanding of body weight control problems.

Hot chilies growing wild in dry environments produce substantially fewer seeds than non-pungent plants, but they are better protected against a seed-attacking fungus that is more prevalent in moist regions.

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.
A survey reported today gauged baseline interest among patients and doctors in sharing physicians after an office visit. The survey was conducted at Harborview and two other sites before the one-year OpenNotes trial.

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.

A lamotrigine/valproate treatment regimen significantly reduced seizure frequency, according to a retrospective study of records at Fircrest and Rainier Habilitation Centers. UW Medicine neurologist Dr. Nicholas Poolos of the Regional Epilepsy Center led the project.
Sub-Saharan African countries that invest in training doctors lose billions of dollars when those clinicians leave to work in developed nations, finds research recently published on bmj.com with the help of seven universities, including UW.
UW undergrads can propose solutions to the worlds pressing health challenges in preparation for the 50th anniversary of the World’s Fair. Applications due Jan. 13.

To swim or not to swim? The biological control that makes this choice for genetically identical Salmonella impacts the bacteria’s ability to cause infection.

Dr. Shiu-Lok Hu and his colleagues are looking to generate protective antibodies targeting a part of the HIV virus that binds to immune cells. This segment is widely considered to be the Achilles heel of the virus

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.