The latest news from the UW

One of the scientists leading the effort to understand exactly how infants go about learning language told a White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development today that the fundamental steps in language acquisition later play a critical role in the ability to read.

Descendants of Takuji Yamashita yesterday donated $65,000 to endow a University of Washington School of Law scholarship in international law and human rights, a century after the start of Yamashita’s own quest for justice.

Today, Monday, July 23, Jason Emhoff underwent his second surgery to skin graft the majority of his burns and evaluate his hands to see if further skin grafts are needed.

A summer camp of a different stripe will begin later this month at the University of Washington. More than 40 college-bound high school students with disabilities from Washington and other states will gather at the UW campus in Seattle for the summer study sessions of the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology (DO-IT) Program.

One of the joys of summer is finding a great new book to read. But it’s a pleasure that eludes millions of children and adults who have difficulty reading because of dyslexia. Because so many children have trouble reading, as well as with spelling or handwriting, researchers at the University of Washington’s Learning Disabilities Center have launched a major effort designed to find a genetic marker that will allow for the early identification of youngsters with dyslexia and specific writing disability.

New kinds of instruments and experiments — made possible with a just announced $5 million award from the W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles — could give scientists the best way yet to study the rich microbial life that flourishes wherever the seafloor twists and buckles, and which is part of a biosphere beneath the Earth’s surface that may dwarf all life on land or in the sea.

Dr. Robert F. Rushmer, a pioneer in applying engineering advances to the creation of new instruments for medical research and patient care, died in Redmond, Wash., Friday, July 13, after a long illness. He was 86.

University of Washington Medical Center moved up a notch in its ranking among the top hospitals in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2001 annual guide to “America’s Best Hospitals,” which was updated in its July 23 issue, available July 16.

The remarkable hydrothermal vent structures serendipitously discovered last December in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, including a massive 18-story vent taller than any seen before, are formed in a very different way than ocean-floor vents studied since the 1970s, according to findings published July 12 in the journal Nature.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s controversial “Reg FD,” or fair-disclosure regulation, may be closing the gap in fair trading between large and small investors, a University of Washington Business School researcher reports.

The number of teaching assistants who struck at the University of Washington June 1 through 15 was about 235. There were approximately 1,322 TAs Spring Quarter.

The Arctic Oscillation has been linked to wide-ranging climate effects in the Northern Hemisphere, but new evidence shows that in recent decades it has been the key in preventing freezing temperatures from extending as far south as they had previously.

Women who’ve had a Caesarean and who later attempt to deliver by labor are more likely to suffer a uterine rupture than women who go on to have a repeat Caesarean delivery, according to a University of Washington study published in the July 5 New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Paul E. Strandjord, who founded the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, died Friday, June 29, 2001, at age 70. The cause of death was a stroke.

A giant “corpse flower,” native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra, is inching closer to blooming in the University of Washington botany greenhouse. The event is expected to occur within the next several days.

The following statement is for attribution to Dr. David Eschenbach, professor and acting chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine:

Condom use helps to prevent the spread of genital herpes, particularly from a man with HSV-2 to a susceptible woman, according to a study in the upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Condom use might help slow the epidemic of genital herpes, which now infects about one in five Americans.

President George Bush has named University of Washington Professor Marc Hershman — an expert on protecting and using coastal areas, developing seaports and the laws and policies governing U.S. ocean resources — and William Ruckelshaus as initial members of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. The announcement from the White House Friday said the two Washington state residents were selected for the 16-member commission from nearly 30 finalists.

The removal of a regulator gene that allows the tuberculosis bacterium to remain dormant in laboratory studies could point the way to new treatments for many tuberculosis patients. Research at the University of Washington by Dr. David Sherman, assistant professor of pathobiology in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and his colleagues shows that by interrupting the function of this gene, the tuberculosis bacterium is unable to mount the appropriate genetic response. It thus may be unable to become dormant.

University of Washington researchers on Monday will discuss the first scientific results from Canada’s Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) — findings that will bolster the understanding of neutrinos from the sun, of the sun itself and of the effect of neutrinos on the evolution of the universe.

As the Earth’s average temperature has risen in the last half-century with the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, many scientists have come to see clouds as the biggest puzzle in interpreting the planet’s changing climate picture because they reflect so much of the sun’s heat into space.

Well-documented gender differences in people’s ability to navigate and orient themselves in the real world are vastly exaggerated in computer-simulated virtual environments, according to studies conducted by University of Washington researchers.

About one-third of the people who were exposed to a fake print advertisement that described a visit to Disneyland and how they met and shook hands with Bugs Bunny later said they remembered or knew the event happened to them.

At a time when many small businesses are beginning to feel the sting of the slowing economy, more than 60 University of Washington business students have helped several Seattle inner-city and Yakima Valley small businesses expand, develop and increase profits.

Dr. Constance H. Kravas, currently vice chancellor for university advancement at University of California, Riverside, has been selected as vice president for development and alumni relations at the University of Washington, President Richard L. McCormick announced. The appointment will be effective Aug. 16, 2001, subject to approval by the Board of Regents.

Like a collage of photographs showing a human being from infancy to old age, a striking new picture unveiled today by a University of Washington astronomer shows various stages in the life cycle of stars, all occurring at one time.

For years, scientists have known that Eurasian weather turns on the whim of a climate phenomenon called the North Atlantic oscillation. But two University of Washington researchers contend that the condition is just a part of a hemisphere-wide cycle they call the Arctic oscillation, which also has far-reaching impact in North America.

Poplar research conducted at Center for Urban Horticulture since late ’80s

Popular wisdom reminds people not to bite the hand that feeds them. But now a University of Washington researcher has found a species of social wasp that bites its fellow workers, prompting them to leave the nest and forage for the colony.

Today University of Washington administrators and friends in the Legislature pledged to rebuild the Center for Urban Horticulture, torched May 21 in an arson attack that burned the center’s main hall and destroyed or damaged years of research on ecosystem health and plant science.

The University of Washington’s Husky Marching Band will perform in China this month in what is believed to be that ancient civilization’s first exposure to an American collegiate tradition.

Some women who have sex with other women may be risking their health because they may not have Pap smears as often as other women, according to a University of Washington study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Researchers have made an important scientific advance by describing the regulatory mechanisms for two members of a new family of ion channels found in non-excitable cells.

Chemicals trapped in ancient glacial or polar ice can move substantial distances within the ice, according to new evidence from University of Washington researchers. That means past analyses of historic climate changes, gleaned from ice core samples, might not be entirely accurate.

The UW Population Center for Research in Reproduction has received a $5.3 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development(NICHD) to continue its program of basic research and clinical studies in male reproductive processes.

The world apparently sounds very different to infants than it does to adults. Sometimes it’s filled with a cacophony of sounds that makes it difficult for babies to distinguish a single sound from all the surrounding noise, says a University of Washington scientist.

Today’s economic slowdown and capital crunch isn’t all that bad. In fact the climate resembles the economic downturn that followed the PC hype in the late 1970s and early 1980s, says Richard Karlgaard, Forbes magazine publisher and keynote speaker at an upcoming University of Washington Business School conference on e-business.

A high school student struggles to decide whether to undergo genetic testing for a gene that causes blindness. This dilemma, presented in a play called The Cutting Edge, will be viewed by local high school students and teachers at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30, at the Shoreline Center.

The University of Washington condemns this senseless act of arson that has destroyed decades of scientific inquiry aimed at improving the overall health of urban ecosystems. This misguided act has set back research concerning endangered plants in Washington, rehabilitation of degraded wetlands and even assistance for home gardeners. It is a vicious blow to some very gifted and dedicated faculty and students at the University of Washington. We abhor the violence and destructiveness of this act, and the potential risk to human safety. We hope the perpetrators are found and brought to justice.

The University of Washington Health Sciences Library has been awarded a new five-year contract by the National Library of Medicine to serve as the Regional Medical Library for the Pacific Northwest Region, as part of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.