College of Arts & Sciences
June 30, 2015
UW team programs solitary yeast cells to say ‘hello’ to one another

UW researchers have produced cell-to-cell communication in baker’s yeast — a first step in learning to build multicellular organisms or artificial organs from scratch.
June 29, 2015
Researchers discover how petunias know when to smell good

A team of UW biologists has identified a key mechanism plants use to decide when to release their floral scents to attract pollinators.
June 19, 2015
Access to electricity is linked to reduced sleep

New research comparing traditional hunter-gatherer living conditions to a more modern setting shows that access to artificial light and electricity has shortened the amount of sleep humans get each night.
June 18, 2015
Evidence from ivory DNA identifies two main elephant poaching hotspots

University of Washington biologist Samuel Wasser uses DNA evidence to trace the origin of illegal ivory and help police an international trade that is decimating African elephant populations. New results show that over the past decade, ivory has largely come from just two areas in Africa.
June 17, 2015
Plants make big decisions with microscopic cellular competition

A team of University of Washington researchers has identified a mechanism that some plant cells use to receive complex and contradictory messages from their neighbors.
June 16, 2015
Study reveals surprising truths about caregivers

Caregiving is a part of daily life for millions of Americans, particularly the so-called sandwich generation balancing the needs of aging parents with looking after their own children. A new study looks at just who is doing that caregiving, and who they’re caring for — and some of the findings are surprising.
June 11, 2015
Nearly half of African-American women know someone in prison

African-American adults — particularly women — are much more likely to know or be related to someone behind bars than whites, according to the first national estimates of Americans’ ties to prisoners.
How the hawkmoth sees, hovers and tracks flowers in the dark

What researchers have discovered about the hummingbird-sized hawkmoth could help the next generation of small flying robots operate efficiently under a broad range of lighting conditions. The research is published in the June 12 edition of Science.
June 10, 2015
Arts Roundup: Art breaks, ArtVentures – and 80 days of summer

School may be out for summer, but the arts on campus are heating up. Art Breaks and ArtVentures abound at the Henry Art Gallery, and the Jacob Lawrence Gallery is buzzing with the work of recent grads. Kids and kids at heart will want to check out the daily activities offered at the Burke Museum…
June 4, 2015
Warmer, lower-oxygen oceans will shift marine habitats

Warming temperatures and decreasing levels of dissolved oxygen will act together to create metabolic stress for marine animals. Habitats will shift to places in the ocean where the oxygen supply can meet the animals’ increasing future needs.
June 3, 2015
‘Stable beams’ achieved: Large Hadron Collider at CERN research facility begins recording data

The Large Hadron Collider has started recording data from the highest-energy particle collisions ever achieved on Earth. This new data, the first recorded since 2012, will enable an international collaboration of researchers — including many from the UW — to study the Higgs boson, search for dark matter and develop a more complete understanding of the laws of nature.
Arts Roundup: Drama, design – and meditation

Don’t stress about upcoming finals this week. Instead, calm the mind and spirit at a Mindfulness Meditation class at Henry Art Gallery. Afterwards, browse the Willem De Rooij exhibit “Bouqet XI,” featuring beautiful floral sculptures that are a playful nod to Holland’s role as a major hub in the international flower trade; and stop by…
June 2, 2015
UW psychology professor Yuichi Shoda honored for famous long-term study on delayed gratification

University of Washington psychology professor Yuichi Shoda has been honored for his ongoing participation in a well-known — and perhaps slightly misunderstood — long-term study about delayed gratification.
May 28, 2015
Physicists conduct most precise measurement yet of interaction between atoms and carbon surfaces

UW physicists have conducted the most precise and controlled measurements yet of the interaction between the atoms and molecules that comprise air and the type of carbon surface used in battery electrodes and air filters — key information for improving those technologies.
May 22, 2015
Beach scene, text game, draping still life — and pie — in graduate student art show

A look at the annual exhibit for students graduating with master’s degrees in art and design, at the Henry Art Gallery.
May 6, 2015
Arts Roundup: Art, artifacts — and ‘The Magic Flute’

May starts strong, bursting with arts events for the community to enjoy. The School of Art + Art History + Design begins the month with the Painting + Drawing BFA graduation show, followed by the Kollar American Art Lecture featuring Kenneth Haltman. The School of Music starts its run of “The Magic Flute,” co-presented with Pacific MusicWorks, and the Burke Museum hosts the annual Artifact ID Day.
May 4, 2015
Puget Sound’s clingfish could inspire better medical devices, whale tags

Researchers at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories are looking at how the biomechanics of clingfish could be helpful in designing devices and instruments to be used in surgery and even to tag and track whales in the ocean.
April 30, 2015
Engineering a better solar cell: UW research pinpoints defects in popular perovskites

A new UW study demonstrates that perovskite materials — superefficient crystal structures that have recently taken the scientific community by storm — contain previously undiscovered flaws that can be engineered to improve solar cells and other devices even further.
April 28, 2015
UW apparatus measures single electron’s radiation to try to weigh a neutrino

UW researchers and their collaborators used an experiment in the physics building to measure the energy of a single electron emitted by radioactive decay, a key step in their strategy to measure the mass of the elusive neutrino.
April 24, 2015
Harmonic Canon? Quadrangularis Reversum? Wild musical world of Harry Partch comes to UW

The bass marimba, big as a desk and twice as tall, uses an organ pipe as a resonator and answers the mallet with a musically wooden plonk. The Chromelodeon II, a retuned reed organ, wheezes a trio of soft tones with the press of a key. And the elaborate Cloud-Chamber Bowls deliver tones ranging…
April 20, 2015
Study shows early environment has a lasting impact on stress response systems

New University of Washington research finds that children’s early environments have a lasting impact on their responses to stress later in life, and that the negative effects of deprived early environments can be mitigated — but only if that happens before age 2. Published April 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,…
April 15, 2015
3-D printed blossoms a growing tool for ecology

3-D printing has been used to make everything from cars to medical implants. Now, University of Washington ecologists are using the technology to make artificial flowers, which they say could revolutionize our understanding of plant-pollinator interactions.
Man with restored sight provides new insight into how vision develops

California man Mike May made international headlines in 2000 when his sight was restored by a pioneering stem cell procedure after 40 years of blindness. But a study published three years after the operation found that the then-49-year-old could see colors, motion and some simple two-dimensional shapes, but was incapable of more complex visual processing….
April 14, 2015
UW among select universities to use investigational Medtronic device, advance research into brain activity

Researchers from the University of Washington have teamed up with medical device manufacturer Medtronic to use the Activa® PC+S Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) system with people who have essential tremor.
April 2, 2015
‘Fu-Go’ explores World War II Japanese balloon attacks on US

Ross Coen, UW doctoral student in history, discusses his book “Fu-Go: The Curious History of Japan’s Balloon Bomb Attack on America.”
March 23, 2015
UW scientists build a nanolaser using a single atomic sheet

University of Washington scientists have built a new nanometer-sized laser using a semiconductor that’s only three atoms thick. It could help open the door to next-generation computing that uses light, rather than electrons, to transfer information.
Author Charles Johnson discusses new work — and the return of Emery Jones

Charles Johnson, English professor emeritus discusses three new books out, including the second children’s book in the Adventures of Emery Jones series, “The Hard Problem,” illustrated by Johnson himself.
March 18, 2015
New Air Force center at UW learns from animals for better flight

A new center at the University of Washington funded by the U.S. Air Force will focus on how elements in nature can help solve challenging engineering and technological problems related to building small, remotely operated aircraft.
February 11, 2015
How to interest girls in computer science and engineering? Shift the stereotypes

Women have long been underrepresented among undergraduates in computer science and engineering for a complex variety of reasons. A new study by University of Washington researchers identifies a main culprit for that disparity: inaccurate stereotypes depicting computer scientists and engineers as geeky, brilliant and socially awkward males. And they say broadening those stereotypes is key to…
February 9, 2015
3-D printing with custom molecules creates low-cost mechanical sensor

A UW chemistry lab teamed up with UW engineers studying 3-D printing to create 3-D printed objects with new capabilities.
January 15, 2015
Tiny plant fossils a window into Earth’s landscape millions of years ago

An international team led by the University of Washington has discovered a way to determine the tree cover and density of trees, shrubs and bushes in locations over time based on clues in the cells of plant fossils preserved in rocks and soil.
January 6, 2015
New David Shields book a collaboration, an argument — and a movie, too

Two men, four days, one cabin and an epic discussion of life and art, while James Franco makes a movie of it all. That’s the setup for the latest book by UW English Professor David Shields, working this time with former student Caleb Powell.
December 3, 2014
Music meets history in three-concert series on World War I

The creative spirit “does not hunker down or hide” in difficult times, Robin McCabe, UW professor of piano, was reminded as she researched the three-concert series she organized, “Music from the War to End All Wars.” The School of Music presents this series starting Dec. 7 and continuing March 8 and May 3, 2015.
November 24, 2014
Study: US attracting fewer educated, highly skilled migrants

The U.S. economy has long been powered in part by the nation’s ability to attract the world’s most educated and skilled people to its shores. But a new study of the worldwide migration of professionals to the U.S. shows a sharp drop-off in its proportional share of those workers – raising the question of whether…
November 6, 2014
Zebrafish stripped of stripes

Within weeks of publishing surprising new insights about how zebrafish get their stripes, University of Washington researchers now explain how to “erase” them.
November 5, 2014
Incorporate more voices to loosen conservation gridlock, scientists urge

More diverse voices could help break a deadlock gripping the conservation community, say 238 co-signatories – including a dozen from the University of Washington.
UW study shows direct brain interface between humans

University of Washington researchers have successfully replicated a direct brain-to-brain connection between pairs of people as part of a scientific study following the team’s initial demonstration a year ago.
October 24, 2014
Large X-ray scanner to produce 3-D images for labs across campus

A state-of-the-art imaging machine is coming to the University of Washington for use by researchers in a variety of disciplines.
October 22, 2014
Traditional, tea party conservatives seem split on foreign policy

Foreign policy looms large as the 2014 midterm elections approach. But traditional conservatives and their tea party counterparts may bring different concerns and motivations to the November ballot, according to a University of Washington political scientist. While traditional conservatives seem most motivated by concern over American security, Christopher Parker, UW professor of political science, suggests…
October 14, 2014
Orphanage care linked to thinner brain tissue in regions related to ADHD

Psychological studies of children who began life in Romanian orphanages shows that institutionalization is linked to physical changes in brain structure. The thinning of the cortex leaves a lasting legacy that can explain impulsivity and inattention years later.
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