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The latest news from the UW

July 1, 1997

UW materials technology institute gives teachers new ways to turn students on to science and engineering

and recyclable.

Materials science and engineering, a fundamental but often low-profile part of manufacturing, is the subject of a new summer institute at the University of Washington that aims to give high school and community college teachers new tools for designing laboratory projects that turn their students on to science and engineering.

Rural physicians talk about the importance of evaluating the Internet’s potential in health care

Although the actual sites and test protocols for the “From Bench to Bedside and Beyond” project have not yet been chosen, two rural physicians participating in a separate but related University of Washington project, the WWAMI Rural Telemedicine Network, explained the importance of systematically evaluating the Internet as a clinical tool.

A professor’s lost butterfly collection is replaced with young children’s gift of words, color and caring

Joel Kingsolver thought he had lost his butterflies: 10,000 carefully preserved wings, representing nearly two decades of work, all apparently destroyed in a disastrous fire at the University of Washington’s zoology department last March. But within weeks his butterflies had “returned” — the heartfelt gift of a host of young children who had set about replacing the lost wings with colorful, imaginative and sometimes poignant butterfly pictures.

June 10, 1997

Families with two autistic children sought for new study that hopes to discover genetic, neurobiological causes of disorder

In a major effort to discover the genetic causes of autism and develop intervention programs to assist children with the severe developmental disorder, an interdisciplinary team of University of Washington researchers has begun a nationwide effort to recruit at least 200 families with two or more autistic children for a new $5.6 million study.

Enzymes targeted as key to understanding of drug interactions

Prevention of drug interactions, say researchers at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy, lies in learning how the human body processes each drug. The school has recently established a formal Program in Drug Interactions, tapping the expertise of 22 faculty members believed to be the largest group of experts in the world on drug interactions.

May 14, 1997

Beset by human competition, penguins have to take marathon food trips to avoid starvation, a UW researcher discovers

Starvation is a major cause of death for newly hatched penguins, the result of dwindling marine food reserves. To feed their families, adult birds are forced to forage great distances from their breeding colonies, says Dee Boersma, professor of zoology at the University of Washington .

Beset by human competition, penguins have to take marathon food trips to avoid starvation, a UW researcher discover

Starvation is a major cause of death for newly hatched penguins, the result of dwindling marine food reserves. To feed their families, adult birds are forced to forage great distances from their breeding colonies, says Dee Boersma, professor of zoology at the University of Washington and one of the world’s leading authorities on temperate-zone penguins.