An international team of researchers has made headway toward a comprehensive listing of all the working parts of the human genome. More than 30 scientific papers appear today, include major work by UW researchers. The London Museum of Science celebrates with ceiling banners and aerial dancers.
Scientists created comprehensive maps of elusive gene-controlling DNA and a dictionary of the human genome’s programming language
Most genetic changes linked to more than 400 common diseases affect regions of DNA that dictate when genes are switched on or off. Many of these changes affect circuits active during early human development.
Double flowers – though beautiful – are mutants. UW biologists have found the class of genes responsible in a plant lineage more ancient than the one previously studied, offering a glimpse even further back into the evolutionary development of flowers.
With the recent landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars, for the third time a timepiece assembled at the University of Washington has found a home on the Red Planet.
One well meant life, the other death by cholera. this Documents that Changed the World podcast is about a map used to unlock the mystery of plague contagion.
UW researchers have found that a low dose of the sedative clonazepam alleviated autistic-like behavior in mice with a mutation that causes Dravet syndrome in humans.
A new statistical model predicts that by 2100 the number of people older than 85 worldwide will increase more than previously estimated.
Researchers have discovered molecular and protein signatures that predict rapid onset of liver damage in hepatitis C patients following a liver transplant. The markers appeared soon after transplant and well before clinical evidence of liver damage. Such early detection of susceptibility to hepatitis C virus-induced liver injury could lead to more personalized monitoring and treatment options after a transplant. Also, because the markers stem from an underlying pathology occurring at a very basic level, they might reveal why hepatitis C…
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.
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.
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.
Forest searches using specially trained dogs improved the probability of finding spotted owls by nearly 30 percent over traditional vocalization surveys.
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” These podcasts are also available on iTunes. Transcripts and podcasts also available at the Information School website. More specifically, the Nineteenth Amendment, which was ratified…
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.
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 a nontoxic, safer alternative to space agency rockets that use hazardous liquid propellants such as hydrazine, nitrogen tetroxide and fuming nitric acid. Safe but powerful…
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 campaigns to pay for their research. Crowdsourcing uses the Internet to broadcast a question and pool the answers; crowd funding uses the Internet to post…
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 adjusted annual rate dropped 2.6 percent from the first quarter. “The market is clearly stronger than a year ago, but it eased off a bit…
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 study will be conducted at 12 Level I trauma centers across the United States, including UW Medicine’s Harborview Medical Center. Bulger and her team will…
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 as a heart attack). This finding from University of Washington-led research is reported in the Aug. 5 issue of Nature. The paper’s senior author, Dr….
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 in response to the questions about year-to-year changes in weight that were included in the most widespread public health survey in the country, on average,…
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 those shows effectively blended history and storytelling. Documents that Changed the World a podcast series by Joe Janes UW Information School An introduction “President Obama’s…
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 published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The article, “Integration of Deworming into HIV Care and Treatment: A Neglected Opportunity,” estimates that millions of…
The Washington State Academy of Sciences has named 35 new members, 25 of them from the University of Washington.
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 their other-worldly song as they cross the Fram Strait. Bowhead whale song 1 Bowhead whale song 2 Kate Stafford, an oceanographer with UW’s Applied Physics…
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 living organ tissues onto a transparent microchip. Ranging in size from a coin to a house key, the chips are lined with living cells and…
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, and the University of Munich, conducted the study. Their findings appear in the July 26th issue of the journal Neuron. The approach could eventually help those with…
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.
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 the U.K.’s National Environmental Research Council. “We couldn’t be happier that Tom will join us to lead the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Tom…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Four incoming faculty members promise to make the University of Washington a leading institution in machine learning and the science of “big data.”
Science and art intersect in an exhibit at the Kirkland Arts Center through July 6.
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.
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 shows that, contrary to popular belief, theres a positive association between higher neighborhood density and the value of single-family residential properties.