Researchers at the University of Washington have created a material they say would make LEDs cheaper and greener to manufacture, driving down costs to consumers.
Technology
University of Washington researchers have shown it’s possible to leverage Wi-Fi signals around us to detect specific movements without needing sensors on the human body or cameras.
UW Seaglider technology is licensed commercially; Richard Whitney, emeritus professor of fisheries, will deliver a talk about the Boldt decision; U. of Minnesota president and former UW faculty member Eric Kaler will deliver a talk about challenges facing research institutions.
The maternal genetic information passed down through many generations of mitochondria is still present in modern-day residents of the Lassithi plateau of Crete.
University of Washington engineers have created a synthetic substance that fully resists the body’s natural attack response to foreign objects. Medical devices such as artificial heart valves, prostheses and breast implants could be coated with this polymer to prevent the body from rejecting an implanted object.
The University of Washington in collaboration with Washington State University is developing an “academic redshirt” program that will bring dozens of low-income, Washington state high school graduates to the two universities to study engineering in a five-year bachelor’s program.
Dr. Alisa Hideg, who teaches UW medical students, is grateful for the chance to move science forward toward a future with more options for other patients.
A new device will give hospitals and research labs a much easier way to separate DNA from human fluid samples to help with genome sequencing, disease diagnosis and forensic investigations.
The Erasmus virus resets 207 genes in lung cells to hamper the cells’ ability to launch an antiviral reaction. Available drugs might correct this sabotage.
Engineering Discovery Days is April 26-27 at the UW campus and will feature exhibits and demonstrations from engineering departments and student groups.
Engineers at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory are under pressure to build and test parts for installation this summer in the world’s largest deep-ocean observatory off the Washington and Oregon coasts.
A new procedure that thickens and thins fluid at the micron level could save consumers and manufacturers money, particularly for some soap products.
A UW physicist has used new satellite data to update his decade-old recreation of the sound of the Big Bang at the birth of the universe.
Astronauts could be a step closer to a fast journey to Mars using a unique manipulation of nuclear fusion devised by UW scientists and those at a Redmond company.
The genetic variants disturb the functioning of the same brain signal receptors affected by hallucinogenic drugs.
In partnership with Fisher Communications, UW Medicine Health will provide information on healthy living and on the latest treatments and medical breakthroughs
Bacteria speed up their evolution by positioning specific genes along the route of expected traffic jams in DNA encoding. Collisions can result in mutations.
Scientists come closer to boosting heart muscle by powering its contractile machinery.
UW Botanic Gardens is digitizing 55 years of handwritten plant records and creating an interactive GIS map for the Washington Park Arboretum.
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.
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.
A paper in Science describes an organic crystal that shows promise as a cheap, flexible, nontoxic material for the working parts of memory chips, sensors and energy-harvesting devices.
The University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have formed the Northwest Institute for Advanced Computing, a joint institute based at the UW that will foster collaborative computing research.
Daniela Witten named one of Forbes’ rising stars
The new procedure may improve the quality of life for men with spinal cord lesions or injuries.
The Association of American Medical Colleges reports that its member medical schools and teaching hospitals had a combined economic impact of more than $587 billion in the United States in 2011
The UW is expanding its Training Xchange initiative to help researchers transmit innovations in healthcare and other fields to professionals locally and beyond the Northwest.
Traumatic head injury is the leading cause of acquired epilepsy in young adults, and at present there is no treatment to prevent or cure it.
The ASL-STEM Forum is a crowdsourcing project, similar to Wikipedia or the Urban Dictionary, that creates a new sign language for the latest scientific and technical terms.
Electrically spun cloth with nanometer-sized fibers show promise as a cheap, versatile platform to simultaneously offer contraception and prevent HIV. New funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will further test the system’s versatility and feasibility.
These principles could allow scientists to custom-make, rather than re-purpose, protein molecules for vaccines, drugs, and industrial and environmental uses.
The approach could lead to cell therapy treatments for some of the blood-forming disorders that accompany the common genetic condition.
Three undergraduates won $100,000 to form a company that will work with partners in Oaxaca, Mexico, to build machines that can transform waste plastic into composting toilets and pieces for rainwater harvesting systems.
The Living Voters Guide, created by the UW and presented with Seattle’s CityClub, just won a regional award and has been updated for the 2012 election. This year the guide has expanded to include a California edition, and the Washington guide will include fact-checking of selected points by Seattle Public Library staff.
New hardware lets engineers maintain the plasma used in fusion reactors in an energy-efficient, stable manner, making the system potentially attractive for use in fusion power plants.
Global health researchers are working on cheap systems like a home-based pregnancy test that might work for malaria, diabetes or other diseases. A new chemical technique makes medically interesting molecules stick to regular paper — a possible route to building such paper-based diagnostics from paper you could buy at an office-supply store.
Two young UW researchers sought to reduce the error rate in DNA sequencing to better pinpoint cells that are mutating.
As the U.S. presidential election approaches, many voters become voracious consumers of online political news. A new tool tracks whether all those articles really provide a balanced view of the debate – and, if not, suggests some sites that offer opinions from the other side of the political spectrum.
A tiny digital tag developed at the UW can for the first time see when birds meet in the wild, offering a window into animal social networks. A study in Current Biology used the tags to track the social habits of New Caledonian crows, and found a surprising amount of interaction among the tool-using birds.
The scientists were selected for their inventive ideas to transform their field of research and improve the health of the public.