The latest news from the UW

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine, DuPont and the University of Campinas in Brazil, with partial funding from the National Science Foundation, have sequenced the genome of an important organism, Agrobacterium, and made it freely available on the Internet.

About three quarters of the water pouring into the Pacific Ocean from the West Coast comes from the Columbia River.

The University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will hold their first nanoscience workshop since joining forces in the spring to form the Joint Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

The 2001 Harborview Classic golf tournament is set for Monday, September 10

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates announced today that the company has given $7.2 million toward a new building to house the University of Washington’s nationally ranked Department of Computer Science & Engineering.

If marriage counselors made predictions like weather forecasters they might describe the impact of a new baby on a marriage this way: The arrival of a little bundle of sunshine to be followed by stormy weather and frequent declining marital satisfaction.

Jason Emhoff, the firefighter burned in the Thirty Mile Fire in Okanogan County last month, was upgraded yesterday afternoon to satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Emhoff was transferred out of the Burn Intensive Care Unit to the Acute Burn Center patient floor. If all goes as planned, his next surgery by Harborview surgeons will involve removing his left hand from the abdominal pocket and applying allograft, and autografting his ears and neck.

Two of the Northwest’s largest research institutions, the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, have agreed to jointly study the biological process that could hold the key to longer and better life.

Dr. Stephen H. Petersdorf, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington (UW), has been named the first holder of the Endowed Chair in Cancer Care.

An astrobiology conference is being hosted by the University of Washington’s Center for Astrobiology and Early Evolution.

A brief non-confrontational intervention program administered to high-risk college-age drinkers when they entered college had long-lasting effects that persisted over four years in reducing the number of alcohol-related problems.

The Parent-Child Assistance Program (P-CAP) at the University of Washington has received funding from the March of Dimes Washington State Chapter for a project called “Prevent Double Jeopardy” that will provide services to women who have a birth defect. The goal is to protect the next generation of children from this same debilitating birth defect.

A team of robot dogs programmed by University of Washington computer science students to kick, pass and head-bump their way to victory on a small-scale soccer field is undergoing final preparations for an international competition in Seattle that begins at the end of the week.

Some Seattle-area middle school and high school students and their science teachers soon will be assisting University of Washington scientists in a major effort aimed at solving one of the most vexing puzzles in physics.

A new cross-campus center at the University of Washington Business School will provide research faculty and students with the opportunity to study the real-world problems involved in turning leading-edge technology into viable companies.

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.