The latest news from the UW

The world’s oldest known fossil of a toothless whale, a previously unknown genus and species, has yielded clues about the evolution of the ocean-going giants. Now, after five years of study and preparation, it is on public display at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington.

An experiment to devise a new method for tracking large-scale changes in ocean temperature associated with events such as El Niño and with global warming indicates that scientists can successfully use low-frequency sound transmissions to measure the temperature of vast expanses of ocean.

The University of Washington received $170.3 million in private gifts and grants during the 1997-98 fiscal year, a new record. Gifts alone were $84.8 million, the second highest total in University history.

At least two thousand freshmen, their parents and guests are expected to attend the 1998 UW Freshman Convocation, to be held at noon, Sunday, Sept. 27 in Meany Hall for the Performing Arts.

With an assist from Latvia’s lady luck, the third time was
Third time’s the charm for an Aerosonde miniature robotic airplane and its developers in their bid to complete the first trans-Atlantic crossing by an autonomous aircraft.

This week Wyoming opened its first two community clinical sites for training third-year University of Washington (UW) medical students.

Dr. Susan G. Marshall, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington (UW), has been named assistant dean for curriculum at the UW medical school.

Competition makes faith grow stronger and encourages church innovation, according to a new study exploring the composition of all 171 Roman Catholic dioceses in the contiguous 48 states.

The renewed controversy over the value of student evaluations of college professors will be debated by six researchers from the United States, Canada and Australia at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association.

The Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS) is trying to find individuals who may have participated in the program, either as a students or as host families, during the organization’s 50 years of existence.

Hemochromatosis — also called iron overload syndrome — is the most common genetic disease in the United States, affecting approximately 1 in 300 people. If caught at an early stage, patients with hemochromatosis can live a normal, healthy life. A new clinic to help identify and treat hemochromatosis has opened at University of Washington Medical Center.

It turns out that people’s preference for salt may have been imprinted while they were still in their mother’s womb, according to University of Washington psychologists.

There’s no denying July was unbearably, deadly hot in Texas. But when it came to higher-than-normal mercury readings, Eastern Washington ranked well ahead of most of the Southwest.

http://admin.urel.washington.edu/newsinfo/archives/1998archive/08-98archive/k081298.html

Aviation authorities from the United Kingdom have given final regulatory approval to The Insitu Group of Bingen, Wash., and the University of Washington to attempt the first transatlantic crossing by an autonomous aircraft.

As the gap widens between industry’s demand for a diverse, well-trained work force and the available labor supply, mentoring is becoming an increasingly important bridge to success for women pursuing science and engineering careers.

University of Washington astronomers, with an assist from local amateur astronomical societies, are preparing to head into Puget Sound-area schools for the second year to bring hands-on science experience to K-12 students.

Surgical Dynamics today announced that it will establish the Surgical Dynamics Endowed Chair for Spine Research at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Unusual sulfide structures shed light on origins of life on earth and possibility of life on other planetary bodies

Sulfide chimneys are pinnacle-shaped structures that form when super-heated seawater, richly charged with metals and volcanic gases, rises into the bitterly cold deep ocean from hot regions below the seafloor.

Both specially designed apparatus and off-the-shelf equipment – including three women’s regulation softballs – were part of a suite of devices used successfully to cage and lift four sulfide chimneys from the seafloor off the coast of Washington and British Columbia.

The University of Washington Board of Regents today approved a budget request for 1999 to 2001 that would allow the University to transform education, building on the strengths and quality of its human resources.

Two University of Washington faculty members in the Department of Medicine have received Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Awards, the first ever awarded.

University of Washington Medical Center is again ranked among the top hospitals in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 1998 annual guide to “America’s Best Hospitals,” available on newsstands July 20.

The University of Washington School of Nursing has named Dr. Linda Teri director of its de Tornyay Center on Healthy Aging. She will also be a tenured professor in the school’s Department of Psychosocial and Community Health.

Following Charles Lindbergh and the Concorde on the well-traveled, trans-Atlantic path to aviation history, researchers next month will attempt the first Atlantic Ocean crossing by an autonomous, civilian aircraft.

Press briefing to announce results of “black smoker” expedition

The Human Interface Technology (HIT) Laboratory at the University of Washington has received the 1998 Discover Magazine Award for Technological Innovation in the sight category.

Eight University of Washington (UW) health sciences students, representing a variety of health-care fields, will visit Othello, Wash., Thursday, July 23, and Friday, July 24, to participate in several local health information and public service projects.

Almost five years to the day after receiving a double-lung transplant at University of Washington Medical Center, cystic fibrosis patient Ken Price plans to ride in the annual Seattle-to-Portland bicycle trek this weekend.

Boys, who just completed grades 3 through 6, are eligible to volunteer as subjects for a study investigating dyslexia. Those selected can describe what happened as their brains were imaged while they played sound and meaning games and listened to sound tones.

The “Leonardo Lives” exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum last fall and winter generated $15.5 million in business activity in King County, supported 314 jobs and created $5 million in labor income, according to an economic impact study conducted by a University of Washington researcher.

University of Washington researchers on a scientific genealogical hunt are looking for 100 families in the Puget Sound area that have a history of dyslexia.

It might sound like something from a popular science fiction movie, but a University of Washington astronomy professor’s nearly two-decade dream of launching an unmanned spacecraft to collect interstellar dust from a comet is close to coming true.

STARDUST MISSION TIMELINE

1929: Hoagy Carmichael publishes the song “Stardust.

Treating older men with testosterone may help improve spatial and verbal memory, according to a small study conducted at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Researchers probing people’s memories of sexual abuse report two ordinary mechanisms may be responsible for temporarily forgetting and later remembering genuine instances of childhood sexual abuse. Their findings suggest that it is possible to explain such forgetting without repression.

Dr. Judith Olson and Dr. Wesley Wilson, who practice adult medicine in Missoula, Mont., have been honored by the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine for their outstanding contributions to teaching medical students at the WWAMI community clinical training unit in internal medicine in Missoula.

Dr. George Novan will be honored by the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine for his outstanding contributions to teaching medical students at the WWAMI community clinical training unit in internal medicine in Spokane.

A six-week camp in the rugged Montana backcountry promises to transform 20 University of Washington undergraduates into full-fledged geologists.