UW News

Research


April 1, 2013

Infant tests for debilitating diseases set for mainstream

Blood is drawn from the heel of a newborn for screening.

UW-developed screening for debilitating, often-fatal genetic conditions has drawn interest from companies that could use it in tests distributed nationally and around the world.


UW Medicine launches multi-media health and wellness initiative April 1

TV slate UW Medicine Health

In partnership with Fisher Communications, UW Medicine Health will provide information on healthy living and on the latest treatments and medical breakthroughs


March 29, 2013

Head-on collisions between DNA-code reading machineries accelerate gene evolution

Houra Merrikh Samuel Million-Weaver

Bacteria speed up their evolution by positioning specific genes along the route of expected traffic jams in DNA encoding. Collisions can result in mutations.


March 28, 2013

UW Medicine establishes Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases

Dr. Raghu and Dave Sherry

This week UW Medical Center’s pulmonary fibrosis support group celebrated its 25th anniversary and the establishment of the new center.


Volunteers use historic U.S. ship logbooks to uncover Arctic climate data

Photo of historic ship and dogs on ice

A volunteer project enlists citizen scientists to transcribe climate observations buried in historic logbooks of U.S. ships that spent time in the Arctic.


March 27, 2013

Federal ‘detainer requests’ for suspected immigration violators cause longer jail stays, increase cost, UW research shows

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests a suspect.

Jail stays and costs increase when federal immigration authorities request that inmates be held under what are called “detainer requests,” according to UW research.


March 26, 2013

Gene therapy may aid failing hearts

Alya Red heart model

Scientists come closer to boosting heart muscle by powering its contractile machinery.


Documents that Changed the World: The ‘Casablanca’ letters of transit

Claude Rains and Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 film "Casablanca"

The latest in the Documents that Changed the World podcast series is about a famous World War II-era document that never existed at all.


March 20, 2013

2013 Canada Gairdner Global Health Award goes to King Holmes for STD work

King K. Holmes

Holmes was honored for his groundbreaking work on sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, genital herpes, gonorrhea and human papilloma virus.


Some Alaskan trout use flexible guts for the ultimate binge diet

A dolly varden trout swims under dozens of sockeye salmon

The stomach and intestines of certain Dolly Varden trout double to quadruple in size during month-long, salmon-egg-eating binges in Alaska each August. It’s the first time researchers have documented such fish gut flexibility in the wild.


March 19, 2013

Jordanna Bailkin studies postwar Britain in new book ‘The Afterlife of Empire’

"The Afterlife of Empire" was published in November 2012 by the University of California Press.

UW History Professor Jordanna Bailkin discusses her new book “The Afterlife of Empire.”


Tenfold boost in ability to pinpoint proteins in cancer cells

Lab image of cells

New research offers a more comprehensive way to analyze a cell’s unique behavior, revealing patterns that could indicate why a cell will or won’t become cancerous.


Grieving parents find solace in remembrance photography – with photo gallery

baby hands

A UW anthropology student investigated how remembrance photography helps grieving parents, and how the practice’s resurgence could signal a change in the way death and dying are dealt with in our society.


March 18, 2013

UW students create, harvest fog in campus ‘hoop house’

Facutly members examines creen of green matting in haze of fog

University of Washington students have been testing low-cost materials capable of harvesting water from fog.


March 13, 2013

Innocence Project Northwest wins right to DNA testing for felons serving time in community

A gavel, law book and scales of justice.

Felons who serve part of their prison sentence in the community may now have the right to publicly funded DNA testing.


March 11, 2013

Long-term relationships, access to data drive sustainability institutions’ success

College of the Environment logo and Mount Rainier

Successful sustainability initiatives need to be grounded in long-standing relationships among scientists, local communities and decision-makers, UW’s Lisa Graumlich told a session on sustainability science at AAAS.


Remote clouds responsible for climate models’ glitch in tropical rainfall

photo of cloudy sea

One of the most persistent biases in global climate models is due to poor simulation of cloud cover thousands of miles to the south.


March 8, 2013

Spring move-in slated for new UW Medicine South Lake Union research building

Occupying the seven-story facility will be labs for kidney research, vision sciences, immunology, rheumatology, and infectious disease investigations.


March 7, 2013

Tracking sediments’ fate in largest-ever dam removal

aerial photo of plume

Any day now, the world’s largest dam-removal project will release a century’s worth of sediment . For geologists, it’s a unique opportunity to study natural and engineered river systems.


March 6, 2013

UW nautilus expedition may have spied new species

A University of Washington research team has captured color photographs of what could be a previously undocumented species of chambered nautilus, a cephalopod mollusk often classified as a “living fossil,” in the waters off American Samoa in the South Pacific. “This is certainly a new taxon, but we are not sure if it is a…


March 4, 2013

United States lags behind many developed countries on key health measures

Dr. Christopher Murray in Tanzania

A public symposium on the Global Burden of Diseases study will be held on campus Monday, March 11.


‘True grit’ erodes assumptions about evolution

Large cliff of white ashy material surrounded by rock cliffs when two researchers working the face

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.


February 28, 2013

Changes in cloud distribution explain some weather patterns

A cumulonimbus cloud formation.

Regional cloud changes may be as important for climate change as the overall amount of cloud cover.


February 27, 2013

Contaminated diet contributes to phthalate and bisphenol A exposure

The 3D chemical structure of bisphenol A.

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.


February 25, 2013

Eric Ames’ new book focuses on filmmaker Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog making Encounters at the End of the World.

Eric Ames, UW associate professor of Germanics, discusses his new book about filmmaker Werner Herzog.


February 21, 2013

Drugs to slow aging are a matter of when, not if

A 94-year-old woman reads.

Evidence suggests it will someday be possible to slow down aging and delay the onset of diseases common in the elderly.


Using amount of fish caught as measure of fisheries health is misleading

An illustration of the fish population argument in Nature.

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.


Documents that Changed the World: A papal resignation

Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square, Rome, in 2007.

A new episode in the podcast series about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and other famous resignations.


February 19, 2013

Mutant champions save imperiled species from almost-certain extinction

Gloved had holds plate with dozes of tiny wells of reddish orange hue

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

Three faculty members named Sloan Research Fellows


February 18, 2013

Mussels cramped by environmental factors

Drawing of wave with menancing face and startled mussels on shore

The fibrous threads helping mussels stay anchored are more prone to snap when ocean temperatures climb higher than normal.


February 15, 2013

Firing range lead exposure reduced with UW workplace health expertise

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.


February 13, 2013

European satellite confirms UW numbers: Arctic Ocean is on thin ice

Chuchki Sea ice

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.


February 12, 2013

Get off my lawn: Song sparrows escalate territorial threats – with video

Song sparrow singing in his territory.

UW researchers have discovered a hierarchical warning scheme in which territorial song sparrows use increasingly threatening signals to ward off trespassing rivals.


February 7, 2013

Washington housing recovery strengthened in fourth quarter 2012

A house for sale.

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.


February 6, 2013

Smartphones, tablets help UW researchers improve storm forecasts

pressurenet_barometer

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.


February 5, 2013

Scholars urge Supreme Court to keep Voting Rights Act provisions ensuring equal access

Voters cast ballots in the 2012 election.

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.


February 4, 2013

Ralina Joseph studies multiraciality in new book ‘Transcending Blackness’

"Transcending Blackness," by Ralina L. Joseph.

Ralina Joseph, UW associate professor of communications, discusses her book, “Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial.”


February 1, 2013

School of Dentistry launches Center for Global Oral Health

Dental tools on board the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The new center will promote collaborations in dental research and education, including faculty and student exchanges, with partners around the world.


January 29, 2013

More sex for married couples with traditional divisions of housework

Photo of husband and wife sharing chores

Married couples who divide chores in traditional ways have more sex than couples who share so-called men’s and women’s work.



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