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Research


February 28, 2024

80 mph speed record for glacier fracture helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse

drawing of glacier partly above and partly below water

New research documents the fastest-known large-scale breakage along an Antarctic ice shelf. In 2012, a 6.5-mile crack formed in about 5 and a half minutes, showing that ice shelves can effectively shatter, though the speed of breakage is reduced by seawater rushing in. These results can help improve ice-sheet models and projections for future sea level rise.


Vision Zero road safety projects in Seattle are unlikely to have negative impacts on local business sales, UW study finds

Two bicycle lanes painted on a strip of asphalt, with painted bicycle icons marking each lane.

An analysis of seven safety projects across Seattle found they had no negative impact on the annual revenues of nearby businesses for three years after construction began.


February 27, 2024

Q&A: Decline in condom use indicates need for further education, awareness

Two red condom wrappers on a light purple background

New research from Steven Goodreau, University of Washington professor of anthropology, shows that condom use has been trending downward among younger gay and bisexual men over the last decade, even when they aren’t taking pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.


February 16, 2024

Video: Bringing stars back to the sea 

A clear box suspended deep in the water holds a few sea stars and mussel shells.

Scientists at Friday Harbor Laboratories, a University of Washington facility in the San Juan Islands, are working to help sunflower stars — a type of sea star — grow and thrive once again after their populations along the West Coast were devastated by a mysterious disease called sea star wasting syndrome.


February 15, 2024

First-ever atomic freeze-frame of liquid water

In an experiment akin to stop-motion photography, an international team co-led by University of Washington scientists has isolated the energetic movement of an electron in a sample of liquid water — while “freezing” the motion of the much larger atom it orbits.


Q&A: What is the best route to fairer AI systems?

Two people's hands gesture to pieces of paper between two laptops on a desk.

Mike Teodorescu, a University of Washington assistant professor in the Information School, proposes that private enterprise standards for fairer machine learning systems would inform governmental regulation.


February 8, 2024

Foul fumes pose pollinator problems

Scientists at the University of Washington have discovered that nighttime air pollution — coming primarily from car exhaust and power plant emissions — is responsible for a major drop in nighttime pollinator activity. Nitrate radicals (NO3) in the air degrade the scent chemicals released by a common wildflower, drastically reducing the scent-based cues that its chief pollinators rely on to locate the flower. The findings, published Feb. 9 in Science, are the first to show how nighttime pollution creates a chain of chemical reactions that degrades scent cues, leaving flowers undetectable by smell. The researchers also determined that pollution likely has worldwide impacts on pollination.


February 7, 2024

Q&A: Helping robots identify objects in cluttered spaces

A shelf in a lab. The shelf contains the following items: a pitcher on its side, a bowl in front of a bottle of Soft Scrub, a mug on a plate and a spoon balanced on the plate. Everything except the plate has a green box around it. The plate has a red box around it.

Robots in warehouses and even around our houses struggle to identify and pick up objects if they are too close together, or if a space is cluttered. This is because robots lack what psychologists call “object unity,” or our ability to identify things even when we can’t see all of them. Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a way to teach robots this skill.


UW-developed smart earrings can monitor a person’s temperature

The temperature sensing earring is shown attached to a person’s ear. The portion touching the earlobe has a gemstone on it. Dangling a few centimeters below it is a small circular circuit board.

University of Washington researchers introduced the Thermal Earring, a wireless wearable that continuously monitors a user’s earlobe temperature. Potential applications include tracking signs of ovulation, stress, eating and exercise. The smart earring prototype is about the size and weight of a small paperclip and has a 28-day battery life.


February 6, 2024

Parents’ conversational approaches about Black Lives Matter differ by race

Signs and people marching for Black Lives Matter

A new study from the University of Washington professor Andrew Meltzoff and Northwestern University showed key differences in the language Black parents and white used to explain Black Lives Matter.


January 29, 2024

Q&A: How ‘slow slip’ earthquakes may be driven by deep hydraulic fracturing

gray rock with lines through it

New research confirms the cause of slow slip along the Cascadia Subduction Zone and other faults that is accompanied by intermittent tremors or “pops” at the surface. Co-authors Marine Denolle and Joan Gomberg discuss the role of fluid-driven fracturing deep underground.


January 22, 2024

Shallow soda lakes show promise as cradles of life on Earth

people walking across large white surface

Field observations from an unusual lake show that in environments known as “soda lakes” phosphate can concentrate at the very high levels needed for the basic molecules of life to emerge. A shallow, salty lake in western Canada gives new support to Charles Darwin’s idea that life could have emerged in a “warm little pond.”


January 16, 2024

UW research helps California forest managers assess smoke hazards from prescribed burns

Forest on fire with smoke billowing, as seen from a helicopter

An international team led by researchers at the University of Washington built a framework to help land managers assess the air quality implications of land management scenarios with different levels of prescribed burning.


January 9, 2024

Q&A: UW researchers answer common questions about language models like ChatGPT

A cellphone running ChatGPT sits on a textbook that's slightly out of focus.

A team University of Washington researchers have published a guide explaining language models, the technology that underlies chatbots.


January 5, 2024

Husky football players take their skills from the field to the classroom and beyond

Holly Barker, a University of Washington teaching professor of anthropology, and three current members of the UW football team — Ulumoo Ale, Makell Esteen and Faatui Tuitele — are studying how the skills they develop to maximize their chances of victory on the field have applications outside the stadium. Their work, which is ongoing, is showing that the research methods and analytical abilities of student-athletes are applicable in academic and research settings, as well as jobs in a variety of fields.


December 19, 2023

How will climate change affect how predators hunt prey? Two UW professors teamed up to find out

A hand wearing a glove next to a paw print in the snow

Two UW professors teamed up to study how climate change will affect predator-prey interactions in snowy landscapes. Together with a group of researchers, the two measured snow properties that led to a “danger zone,” where prey would sink but predators would not.


Scientists reveal superconductor with on/off switches

Researchers led by Jiun-Haw Chu, a University of Washington associate professor of physics, and Philip Ryan, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, have found a superconducting material that is uniquely sensitive to outside stimuli, enabling the superconducting properties to be enhanced or suppressed at will. This discovery could enable new opportunities for switchable, energy-efficient superconducting circuits.


December 14, 2023

Seattle metro residents near Amazon delivery stations face more pollution but order fewer packages

An Amazon cargo van parked in front of two houses in Seattle.

UW researchers found that people who live within 2 miles of an Amazon last-mile delivery station are exposed to more delivery-related air pollution despite ordering fewer packages.


December 11, 2023

Beluga whales’ calls may get drowned out by shipping noise in Alaska’s Cook Inlet

pod of beluga whales with shoreline in background

Around Anchorage, communications among the critically endangered population of Cook Inlet beluga whales may be masked by ship noise in their core critical habitat, accordingly to the first repertoire of their calls.


December 5, 2023

Sleep experts, physicians address effects of increased travel on student-athletes, offer recommendations

A view of an airplane wing out the window during sunset.

With several university athletic programs around the country — including the University of Washington — announcing moves to new conferences that will likely increase travel for student-athletes, a group of sleep and circadian scientists and physicians have published a white paper describing the significance of repeated, chronic jet lag on student-athlete health and performance — both in academics and in sports, and suggesting strategies to reduce the consequences of travel across time zones.


November 28, 2023

Authentic or ethical? UW study shows best leadership style for inclusive hiring depends on manager’s racial identity

Three cartoon resumes on a blue background

New research from Andrew Hafenbrack, associate professor of management and organization in the University of Washington School of Business, and other institutions examines the impact of leadership style on prospective Black employees who apply for jobs in less-diverse companies.


UW research finds that mailing HPV test kits directly to patients increases cervical cancer screening rates

Currently, more than half of all cervical cancers diagnosed in the United States are in people who are overdue for screening or have never been screened. In a new study, researchers report that mailing HPV test kits significantly increased cervical cancer screening rates.


November 27, 2023

Breathing highway air increases blood pressure, UW research finds 

A new study from the UW found that unfiltered air from rush-hour traffic significantly increased passengers’ blood pressure, both while in the car and up to 24 hours later. 


November 16, 2023

In the Field: Tracking seismic clues in one of the driest places on Earth

researcher bends over using rock hammer with desert in background

Two University of Washington geophysicists will travel to the Atacama Desert in Chile this month to study a fault system that’s similar to the Seattle Fault in Puget Sound, but in a much different climate that makes it easier to monitor its effects on the landscape.


Q&A: How an assistive-feeding robot went from picking up fruit salads to whole meals

An assistive-feeding robotic arm attached to a wheelchair uses a fork to stab a piece of fruit on a plate among other fruits.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed 11 actions a robotic arm can make to pick up nearly any food attainable by fork. This allows the system to learn to pick up new foods during one meal.


November 15, 2023

WhaleVis turns more than a century of whaling data into an interactive map

A humpback whale breaches in the Pacific Ocean.

A team at the University of Washington has created an interactive dashboard called WhaleVis, which lets users map data on global whale catches and whaling routes from 1880 to 1986. Scientists can compare this historical data and its trends with current information to better understand whale populations over time.


November 14, 2023

5th National Climate Assessment authors include UW climate experts

Three UW experts are among the authors of the newly released Fifth National Climate Assessment, an overview of climate trends, impacts and efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change across the nation.


November 13, 2023

North Atlantic’s marine productivity may not be declining, according to new study of older ice cores

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of declining phytoplankton in the North Atlantic may have been greatly exaggerated. Analysis of a Greenland ice core going back 800 years shows that atmospheric chemistry, not dwindling phytoplankton populations, explains the recent ice core trends.


November 9, 2023

New AI noise-canceling headphone technology lets wearers pick which sounds they hear

A man wearing a surgical mask and headphones walks through the University of Washington campus while holding a smartphone. People walk behind him.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed deep-learning algorithms that let users pick which sounds filter through their headphones in real time. Either through voice commands or a smartphone app, headphone wearers can select which sounds they want to include from 20 classes, such as sirens, baby cries, speech, vacuum cleaners and bird chirps.


November 2, 2023

Can AI help boost accessibility? These researchers tested it for themselves

Four AI-generated images show different interpretations of a doll-sized “crocheted lavender husky wearing ski goggles,” including two pictured outdoors and one against a white background.

Seven researchers at the University of Washington conducted a three-month autoethnographic study — drawing on their own experiences as people with and without disabilities — to test AI tools’ utility for accessibility. Though researchers found cases in which the tools were helpful, they also found significant problems.


October 30, 2023

A Google Slides extension can make presentation software more accessible for blind users

A user demonstrates creating a presentation slide with A11yBoard on a touchscreen tablet and computer screen.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created A11yBoard for Google Slides, a browser extension and phone or tablet app that allows blind users to navigate through complex slide layouts, objects, images and text.


October 26, 2023

Fruit, nectar, bugs and blood: How bat teeth and jaws evolved for a diverse dinnertime

There are more than 200 species of noctilionoid bats, mostly in the American tropics. And despite being close relatives, their jaws evolved in wildly divergent shapes and sizes to exploit different food sources. A paper published Aug. 22 in Nature Communications shows those adaptations include dramatic, but also consistent, modifications to tooth number, size, shape and position. For example, bats with short snouts lack certain teeth, presumably due to a lack of space. Species with longer jaws have room for more teeth — and, like humans, their total tooth complement is closer to what the ancestor of placental mammals had.


October 19, 2023

Q&A: UW expert on rise of younger, less experienced bosses in the workplace

Empty meeting room with table and brown chairs

Supervisors are traditionally associated with higher status markers such as age, education and tenure than their subordinates. But it’s increasingly common to see those dynamics reversed, which is the focus of a new study from Jessica Huisi Li, University of Washington assistant professor of management and organization.


October 18, 2023

DNA shows where Washington culvert replacements helped spawning salmon

Two researchers by a stream seen from inside a culvert

A project led by the UW used genetic sleuthing to study how salmon were affected by two major culvert replacements near the city of Bellingham. One project, a major upgrade under Interstate-5, had a big impact, while the other old culvert may have been less of a barrier to fish. Authors from the UW and NOAA are studying the use of eDNA in future environmental impact reporting.


October 17, 2023

UW announces four non-compliant items in recent USDA inspection of animal facilities in Seattle

text reads "Statement"

The University of Washington’s animal facilities on the Seattle campus underwent a routine, unannounced inspection by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) between Sept. 12 and 14. The inspection identified four non-compliant items, all of which had previously been self-reported by the UW and rectified before the inspection took place.


Closing in on the elusive neutrino

In a paper published Sept. 6 in Physical Review Letters, an international team of researchers in the United States, Germany and France reported that a distinctive strategy they have used shows real promise to be the first approach to measure the mass of the neutrino. Once fully scaled up, their collaboration — Project 8 — could also reveal how neutrinos influenced the early evolution of the universe as we know it.


Q&A: Researchers aim to improve accessibility with augmented reality

A drawing of a phone labeling accessibility problems in a kitchen.

This month, University of Washington researchers will introduce multiple projects that deploy augmented reality — through headsets and phone apps — with the aim of making the world more accessible for people with disabilities.


October 9, 2023

Prescription opioid companies increased marketing after Purdue Pharma lawsuit, UW study shows

Three orange pill bottles in front of a grey background. One is tipped over.

Public scrutiny of Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis increased sharply in the years after the state of Kentucky filed a lawsuit against the company. New research from David Tan, University of Washington associate professor of management, examines the ensuing behavior of competing prescription opioid companies.


Three UW faculty members elected to National Academy of Medicine

A large block W on a grass lawn. In the background is the University of Washington campus.

Among the most prestigious scientific organizations in the country, the Academy recognizes excellence in the fields of health and medicine, along with a commitment to volunteer service. 


October 3, 2023

Group seeks to understand how a new type of satellite will impact Earth-based astronomy

Astronomers with the International Astronomical Union are trying to understand how the brightness and transmissions of the BlueWalker3 satellite will interfere with Earth-based observations of the universe — and what can be done to minimize these effects as more of these satellites are launched.



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