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August 20, 2012

God as a drug: The rise of American megachurches

American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington.


Experiment would test cloud geoengineering as way to slow warming

unusual water craft with three large sprayers shooting water into the sky

A University of Washington scientist has proposed an experiment to test cloud brightening, a geoengineering concept that alters clouds in an effort to counter global warming.


August 17, 2012

Longer time to find new job, less pay for moms laid off during recession

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

A 2010 national survey of laid-off workers shows married moms spent more time between jobs, were less likely to find new jobs and eventually were paid less than married dads.


August 15, 2012

Detection dogs spot northern spotted owls, even those alarmed by barred owls

Northern spotted owl and detection dog in forest

Forest searches using specially trained dogs improved the probability of finding spotted owls by nearly 30 percent over traditional vocalization surveys.


Documents that Changed the World: The Nineteenth Amendment

19th Amendment

For the second podcast in his “Documents that Changed the World” series, Joe Janes explores aspects of a document Americans may not know as well as they think: The United States Constitution. Documents that Changed the World A podcast series by Joe Janes UW Information School An introduction “President Obama’s Birth Certificate” “The Nineteenth Amendment”…


August 14, 2012

New book explores Noah’s Flood; says Bible and science can get along

The cover of "The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood."

David Montgomery, a University of Washington geologist, is the author of a new book that explores the long history of religious thinking on matters of geological discovery, particularly flood stories such as the biblical account of Noah’s ark.


August 10, 2012

Student-built rocket with experimental motor blasts to 1st-place finish

Sounding Rocket team

A team of University of Washington students designed a unique rocket motor and launched it 5 miles up to claim first prize this summer in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition. The UW students built a new type of motor powered by a combination of solid paraffin and liquid nitrous oxide. So-called hybrid propulsion systems are…


August 9, 2012

Crowd funding on campus: UW scientists raise money for research online

Video of Lauren Kuehne's campaign

When Rachel Aronson travels this month to Alaska, she and a local research assistant will interview people who are in danger of being displaced by climate change. She will also send about 100 postcards to her funders. Aronson is among a growing number of University of Washington students, faculty and staff who are using online…


Housing market improving despite second-quarter dip in home sales

A home with a for-sale sign in front. Story says: Washington state's housing market remained strong in the second quarter of 2016.

Washington state’s housing market continued to improve during the second quarter of 2012 despite a slight drop in existing home sales, according to the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington. Existing home sales during the second quarter of 2012 increased 10.4 percent compared with a year ago, however the seasonally…


August 7, 2012

Study to identify best blood transfusion practices for trauma patients

UW medical researchers are launching a study to help determine which of the two most common blood product combinations provide the best outcomes for trauma patients who require massive blood transfusions. Dr. Eileen Bulger, UW professor of surgery and chief of trauma at Harborview Medical Center, is the principal investigator for the clinical study. The…


August 5, 2012

Muscle cell grafts keep broken hearts from breaking rhythm

Researchers have made a major advance in efforts to regenerate damaged hearts. They discovered that transplanted heart muscle cells, grown from stem cells, electrically couple and beat in sync with the heart’s own mucle. The grafts also reduced the incidence of arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms) in a guinea pig model of myocardial infarction (commonly known…


August 3, 2012

Americans gaining more weight than they say

Despite the increasing awareness of the problem of obesity in the United States, most Americans don’t know whether they are gaining or losing weight, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, also known at IHME, at the University of Washington. Obesity increased in the U.S. between 2008 and 2009, but…


August 2, 2012

‘Documents that Changed the World’: A podcast series from Joe Janes

The phrase occurred to Joe Janes out of the blue one day and immediately appealed to him. From there, ideas began to flow quickly. Janes, associate professor in the University of Washington Information School, had been a fan of the British Broadcasting Corp. radio series “A History of the World in 100 Objects” and thought…


August 1, 2012

UW researchers urge integrating deworming into HIV care in Africa

HIV care centers are an important and highly accessed point of care for HIV-infected children and their families in sub-Saharan Africa, but opportunities to address other health issues are being missed. Proven interventions, including routine deworming among children, could be effectively integrated into HIV care according to a new paper by University of Washington researchers…


26 from UW selected for state Academy of Sciences

A large 'W' is at the north entrance to the UW campus.

The Washington State Academy of Sciences has named 35 new members, 25 of them from the University of Washington.


July 31, 2012

Critically endangered whales sing like birds; new recordings hint at rebound — with audio

When a University of Washington researcher listened to the audio picked up by a recording device that spent a year in the icy waters off the east coast of Greenland, she was stunned at what she heard: whales singing a remarkable variety of songs nearly constantly for five wintertime months. Listen to the bowheads repeat…


July 27, 2012

Seattle researchers to engineer kidney tissue chip for predicting drug safety

Seattle researchers will be part of the new federal initiative to engineer 3-dimensional chips containing living cells and tissues that imitate the structure and function of human organs.  These tissue chips will be used for drug safety testing. Tissue chips merge techniques from the computer industry with those from bioengineering by combining miniature models of…


July 26, 2012

Chemical makes blind mice see

A chemical that temporarily restores some vision to blind mice has been discovered.  Its discoverers are working on  an  improved compound that may someday allow people with degenerative blindness to see again. Read the paper in Neuron News release on earlier study A team of UW Medicine researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the University of California, Berkeley,…


July 23, 2012

President Obama honors UW biologist

Jay Parrish

Jay Z. Parrish, University of Washington assistant professor of biology, has been named a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.


July 18, 2012

UW names DeLuca director of School of Environmental and Forest Sciences

Thomas H. DeLuca

A soils and ecosystem scientist who studies natural resources sustainability has been named the director of the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Thomas H. DeLuca is currently professor of natural resources and geography at Bangor University, Wales, where he holds the chair in environmental sciences sponsored jointly by the university and…


July 16, 2012

UW study plays pivotal role in todays FDA approval of HIV prevention drug

In evaluating whether to allow Truvada® to be prescribed for HIV prevention the FDA reviewed evidence from two studies. The largest was conducted by the UWs International Clinical Research Center.


July 11, 2012

Groundbreaking research paves way for HIV prevention drug approval

The UW International Clinical Research Center played a key role in examining Truvada’s effectiveness for HIV prevention. The center’s director Connie Celum talks about the impact of the findings in a Q & A.


Got milk? Climate change means stressed cows in southern U.S. may have less

UW researchers found that the decline in milk production due to climate change will vary across the U.S., since there are significant differences in humidity and how much the temperature swings between night and day across the country.


July 9, 2012

NIH award advances Institute of Translational Health Sciences groundbreaking work

ITHS helps scientists accelerate the translation of their discoveries into applications for improving the health of the public. The latest award is for $65 million.


July 6, 2012

UW physicists played significant role in discovery of Higgs boson

As scientists around the world celebrated the detection of what appears to be the long-sought Higgs boson, University of Washington physicists took satisfaction in knowing they played a significant part in it.


July 5, 2012

Eddies, not sunlight, spur annual bloom of tiny plants in North Atlantic

Researchers have long believed that the longer days and calmer seas of spring set off an annual bloom of plants in the North Atlantic, but UW scientists discovered that warm eddies fuel the growth three weeks before the sun does.


June 28, 2012

New hires catapult UW's expertise in machine learning and 'big data'

Four incoming faculty members promise to make the University of Washington a leading institution in machine learning and the science of “big data.”


Chromosome Painting: Discovering beauty in DNA

Science and art intersect in an exhibit at the Kirkland Arts Center through July 6.


Plasma startup creates high-energy light to make smaller microchips

In one of the twists of scientific discovery, a UW duo working on fusion energy — harnessing the energy-generating mechanism of the sun — may have found a way to etch the next generation of microchips.


June 26, 2012

UW deploying seismic sensors in hope of getting to bottom of Spokane quakes

It’s been a decade since a swarm of relatively mild earthquakes shook up parts of Spokane. Now, armed with the right tools, scientists want to find out what was at fault.


Research suggests denser development is good for single-family home values

Research shows that, contrary to popular belief, theres a positive association between higher neighborhood density and the value of single-family residential properties.


June 21, 2012

Astronomers spy two planets in tight quarters as they orbit a distant star

A research team led by the University of Washington and Harvard University has discovered a bigger version of Earth locked in an orbital tug-of-war with a much larger, Neptune-sized planet as they orbit very close to each other around the same star.


Sediment core shows Arctic has gone through intense warm periods

New research from an international team that includes a UW professor emeritus confirms that the Arctic has gone through intensely warm periods, warmer than scientists thought was possible, during the last 2.8 million years.


June 20, 2012

From the mouths of monkeys: New technique detects TB

Tuberculosis can be a serious threat to monkeys and apes. A test to spot infection might help protect the world’s primate populations.


June 14, 2012

Geographers seek stories of Seattle's pre-AIDS gay communities

Two UW geographers are piecing together how policies relating to alcohol and public health shaped how gays and lesbians in Seattle carried out their lives during the pre-AIDS era, before 1983.


June 13, 2012

Mindful multitasking: Meditation first can calm stress, aid concentration

Need to do some serious multitasking? Some training in meditation beforehand could make the work smoother and less stressful, new research from the UW Information School shows.


June 11, 2012

New research to help scientists better predict underwater volcanic eruptions

Axial Seamount, an undersea volcano, gave warning signals hours before its eruption, scientists say in three papers published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.


Offspring of older fathers may live longer

Study suggests life-extending benefits of longer telomeres if recent male ancestors reproduced at older ages.


June 7, 2012

New twist on old chemical process could boost energy efficiency

An unappreciated aspect of chemical reactions on the surface of metal oxides could be key in developing more efficient energy systems, including more productive solar cells or hydrogen fuel cells efficient enough for automobiles.


June 6, 2012

Too few salmon is far worse than too many boats for killer whales – with slide show

Not having enough Chinook salmon to eat stresses out southern resident killer whales more than having boatloads of whale watchers nearby, according to hormone levels of whales summering in the Salish Sea. In lean times, however, the stress normally associated with boats becomes more pronounced, further underscoring the importance of having enough prey.



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