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.
Research
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 panel discussion Monday on “Broader Impacts: What do Funders Really Want?” is the first of six presentations on sharing University of Washington research with the general public.
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.

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.
Decades of wild swings in crab populations dramatize the myriad issues surrounding questions of sustainable fisheries, said David Armstrong, director of aquatic and fishery sciences, in his talk “Claws, causes, climate and corps: A cavalcade of true crab sagas.”
Ethiopia is the only African country not defeated in the period of empire and Raymond Jonas new book “The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire” describes the key battle.

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.
Some 99 species of fishes glide and snake across a supersized 15-foot mural by Alaskan artist and confessed fish groupie Ray Troll, unveiled last month at the University of Washington.
A new study from the University of Washingtons Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) finds that charter school collective bargaining agreements tend to be more streamlined and provide for greater flexibility than the typical district contract.

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

A new plasma pencil promises to give nutrition status in minutes that used to take 24 hours, and could improve health in developing world.

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.

To accelerate genome sequencing applications for patient care, the National Human Genome Research Institute today, Tuesday, Dec. 6, announced the establishment of two major programs at the University of Washington.

The world is sailing into some killer storms and its leaders have done almost nothing to protect its boat. Thats the view of UW Philosophy Professor Steve Gardiner, who likens climate change to a perfect storm — a convergence of three difficult problems that so far weve found ourselves unable to face, much less solve.

Scientists are developing PET scan agents that characterize each patient’s cancer. This helps clinicians weigh treatment options and measure effectiveness.

The UW’s new Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescents and Children (Global WACh) wants to help researchers overcome a daunting task – seeking solutions across generations. Global WACh officially launches Dec. 8 with a campus event featuring speaker Leslie Mancuso, CEO of the health advocacy group Jhpiego.

A grant to the University of Washington from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation could pave the way for a system to provide a warning seconds to minutes in advance of a major offshore earthquake in the Northwest.

UW researchers found that suicidal behavior begins sooner than previously thought and is linked to higher scores of depression at the time of the attempts.

Daniel Hoffman, a UW associate professor of anthropology, describes his new book “The War Machines” about lasting violence from civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. He says that the same could be true in other war-torn regions, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bionic eye steps closer to reality.
Seattle is host this week to the major international meeting about high-performance computing, giving UW scientists and computer specialists an opportunity to see over the horizon at developments that will influence how research is conducted for years to come.

Bacteria living in clusters warn each other to enter a self-protective mode when nutrients are low. This state shields them from antibiotics. Interfering with the starvation alert super-charged the infection-fighting power of antibiotics.
Nano discovery could lead to lower-power memory in the future

Paul Yager, chair of the Bioengineering Department at the University of Washington, leads several subcontractors in two major grants totaling up to $26 million pushing the envelope on paper-based diagnostics. Their hope is that in two to three years, people miles from a lab will be able to cough, spit or urinate on a piece of paper, upload the image on a cell phone and get lab-quality results for a range of illnesses.

Aging and health issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender baby boomers face higher rates of disability, physical and mental distress and a lack of access to services, according to a new study by researchers in the School of Social Work

Years later participants reap the benefits of good blood sugar control in reducing slow-progressing complications. This finding comes from more than two decades of research on preventing life-shortening consequences of type 1 diabetes.

A UW-based alert system using real-time data on lightning flashes around the world is helping to keep tabs on erupting volcanoes.
Pacific Northwest trees grown and harvested sustainably can both remove existing carbon dioxide from the air and help keep the gas from entering the atmosphere in the first place. Thats provided wood is used primarily for such things as building materials, instead of cement and steel, and secondarily that wood wastes are used for biofuels.
Studying gamers who use Foldit helps researchers study the power of their strategies