Plants, like people, have a circadian clock and they sense seasonal changes to light and temperature. Plants that bloom in the spring use the longer days and warmer temperatures as seasonal cues that it鈥檚 time to bloom.
Author: Kiyomi Taguchi
Spring is here, which in Seattle, means cherry blossoms. The UW鈥檚 iconic display 鈥� featuring 29 Yoshino cherry trees 鈥� is set to peak around March 20 this year. Check out the cherry blossom visitors鈥� website to learn more.
New research from the 91探花and the Toyota Research Institute explores how drivers trade off between cognitive tasks, driving and using the vehicle’s touch screen. Researchers placed participants in a driving simulator and had them complete memory tests while interacting with the simulator鈥檚 touch screen.
Choosing highlights from 2025 for a video roundup is a tough task. 91探花video producers meet students, faculty and community members during some of the most exciting moments of their lives 鈥� from earning a degree to finding answers that will impact the world.
Stephen Price, artist in residence and head of organ studies at the 91探花, will be joined by students and colleagues on Friday, Oct. 31, to perform a concert of spooky organ classics and Halloween fun.
Bee experts wouldn鈥檛 have previously expected to find the likes of Osmia cyaneonitens, Dufourea dilatipes and Stelis heronae in Washington. But this year, while collecting pollinators in Chelan County to study how climate and wildfires affect native bee populations, Autumn Maust, a 91探花 research scientist of biology, discovered eight bee species never recorded in Washington.
A UW-led project aimed to test the viability of seaweed as a soil amendment, and, if successful, develop a market for sea-based farmers to sell excess seaweed to their counterparts on land. The USDA froze the project’s funding, and for now, a solution remains just out of reach.
The 91探花 has for years been instrumental in the state鈥檚 efforts to keep workers safe. But those efforts are now under threat.
Bound in calfskin and detailed in gold, a rare 1544 edition of Dante鈥檚 Divine Comedy was added to 91探花Libraries鈥� collection this year. The book is nearly 500 years old, and has likely lasted so long because its pages are made of durable linen fiber, not wood pulp. The handmade leather cover and sturdy binding also helped preserve the book. When librarian Julie Tanaka handles the book today, she knows that there is something here to pique anyone’s interest.
Magical moments and memorable events 鈥� from a baby sea stars to a cherry trees blooming 鈥� happen all year round at the 91探花, and our videos help people understand what it looked like, what happened and who was involved. Here鈥檚 a glimpse at 2024 from around the 91探花 and beyond.
From a base at the southwest corner of the UW’s Seattle campus, the Office of the Washington State Climatologist’s Guillaume Mauger and Karin Bumbaco provide expertise, tools and resources on 鈥渁ll things climate鈥� to partners and communities across the state.
An analysis of the health care records of 1.2 million Southern California residents found that higher long-term smoke exposure was associated with a significant increase in the odds that a person would be diagnosed with dementia.聽Exposure to non-wildfire PM2.5 also increased a person鈥檚 risk of dementia, but to a much lesser degree.聽聽
James Long, 91探花 professor of political science, launched a new course this quarter. “How to Steal an Election” highlights the types of politicians who try to steal elections, and how and what can be done to secure them.
91探花researchers have developed a flexible, durable electronic prototype that can harvest energy from body heat and turn it into electricity that can be used to power small electronics, such as batteries, sensors or LEDs. This device is also resilient 鈥� it still functions even after being pierced several times and then stretched 2,000 times.
Jeffrey Riffell, a 91探花 professor of biology, wants to understand how female mosquitoes find find a host to bite for a bloody meal. His research has shown that hungry mosquitoes find us by following a trail of scent cues, including chemicals exuded by our skin and sweat, as well as the carbon dioxide gas we exhale with each breath. Mosquitoes also like colors, at least certain ones. His team is closing in on how the sense of smell and vision work together to help a mosquito zero in for the final strike and get her blood meal.
More than 7,000 91探花graduates of the Class of 2024 plan to participate in the June 8 ceremony for 91探花Seattle. Officials expect about 40,000 family and friends to cheer the graduates from the Husky Stadium grandstands. 91探花Tacoma will hold its commencement June 7; 91探花Bothell鈥檚 graduation ceremonies are June 9. 91探花President Ana Mari Cauce will present 18,006 degrees to the Class of 2024 across all three 91探花campuses鈥� ceremonies.
A 91探花 team has developed an artificial intelligence system that lets someone wearing headphones look at a person speaking for three to five seconds to 鈥渆nroll鈥� them. The system then plays just the enrolled speaker鈥檚 voice in real time, even as the pair move around in noisy environments.
As often as four days a week, Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island fly loops overhead as pilots practice touch-and-go landings. The noise is immense. New research from the 91探花 shows that the noise isn鈥檛 just disruptive 鈥� it presents a substantial risk to public health.
This 91探花 College of Engineering event brings thousands of elementary and middle school students from all over Washington to campus to be engineers for a day.
Cherry trees on the 91探花鈥檚 Seattle campus are waking up and getting ready to say hello. For the 29 iconic Yoshino cherry trees in the 91探花Quad, peak bloom will likely begin after March 20.
Scientists at Friday Harbor Laboratories, a 91探花 facility in the San Juan Islands, are working to help sunflower stars 鈥� a type of sea star 鈥� grow and thrive once again after their populations along the West Coast were devastated by a mysterious disease called sea star wasting syndrome.
At the 91探花 Rorrer Lab, Julie Rorrer, assistant professor of chemical engineering, is teaching students to explore ways to transform plastics into useful chemicals to make new plastic or fuel, shifting away from fossil fuel consumption and reducing waste plastics.
Two 91探花professors teamed up to study how climate change will affect predator-prey interactions in snowy landscapes. Together with a group of researchers, the two measured snow properties that led to a “danger zone,” where prey would sink but predators would not.
Milla Titova, assistant teaching professor of psychology and director of the Happiness and Well-Being Lab at the UW, offers strategies for joy this holiday season.
A project in the 91探花College of Built Environments, led by researcher Judy Bowes, is examining how building architecture contributes to bird collisions, and the ways bird-safe glass and other designs can help address the problem.
Unfamiliar foods can get in the way of following a recommended diet. For the Afghan community seeking health care in the U.S., a nutrition handbook created by 91探花School of Public Health graduate student Priyasha Maharjan works to solve this problem, using Afghan food examples to educate patients and care providers on the nutritional content of their meals.
About 8,500 students, including 78% of this year鈥檚 freshman class, are expected to move into 91探花residence halls and apartments this week. 聽
The 91探花Farm welcomed an addition this spring: two bee hives in an apiary on the south side of the Center for Urban Horticulture. The hives will serve as a teaching tool for students who want to know more about agriculture and the function of pollinators in the ecosystem.
Inside Hutchinson Hall, home of the 91探花 School of Drama, students work at tables as they learn to assemble patterns based on costume designs. They鈥檙e surrounded by dress forms, bolts of cloth, sewing machines and costumes in progress. This is the Costume Shop, the domain of Val Mayse, master dressmaker for the School of Drama.
In 91探花Architecture’s Making and Meaning class, students built benches to learn about design and construction, and to create community.
Around the world, people begin each day by deciding what clothes to put on their bodies. A yearlong exhibit in the Allen Library explores a history of clothing and fashion, featuring a rotating selection of prints, books and artwork inspired by dress from the early 19th century to the present.
Many of us are familiar with the hummingbirds that visit feeders, plants and gardens around us. But these small creatures are unusual in the ways they push the limits of biology, says Alejandro Rico-Guevara, 91探花assistant professor biology and curator of ornithology at the Burke Museum. He and his students study hummingbirds and other birds that drink nectar.聽 鈥淚 think what really caught my attention is their personality 鈥� how they can be so fierce and so bold despite being…
Member of the 91探花 Canoe Family have spent months carving traditional paddles using only hand tools, all in preparation for this summer’s Tribal Canoe Journey.
Leaders from Washington higher education institutions met with national policymakers April 4 to discuss opportunities provided by the CHIPS and Science Act. U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene and National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan visited the 91探花 campus to talk about the legislation, which provides more than $100 billion to fund scientific research and workforce training. The 91探花and other Washington colleges and universities are poised to receive funds from the CHIPS and Science Act to invest in chip…
The cherry blossoms at the 91探花 campus are a seasonal tradition and celebration for the entire region. This year鈥檚 colder-than-usual spring is demanding a little more patience. Mark your calendars and plan your visit for a peak bloom expected in early April.
Students from the Lummi Nation School visited the 91探花 in earlh February for a real-time Q&A with astronaut Josh Cassada aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Cassada helped do space research on a plant science experiment the students sent to the ISS.
It鈥檚 ski season and cold sunny days fill outdoor enthusiasts with delight, but ski areas usually come with stairs, crowds and an infrastructure generally built for skiers and snowboarders who ride solo and on two legs.聽聽聽
Observing this winter activity through a lens of accessibility and disability justice is the point of a new class developed by 91探花Bothell associate teaching professor Jason Naranjo. His course, 鈥淒isability & Society 鈥� A Focus on Community and the Outdoors,鈥� pairs 91探花students with skiers from Outdoors for All, an organization that provides adaptive outdoor activities for people who, for cognitive or physical reasons, can’t simply pop on skis and hit the slopes.
The year 2022 saw the 91探花community coming together again with in-person classes, events and fascinating research that make videographers excited to hit 鈥渞ecord鈥� and share these scenes with you.
91探花 political science professor Anthony Gill explains the social and economic value of gift-giving 鈥� and how even unwanted gifts help promote trust and build relationships.
The 91探花’s new Sisterhood Initiative aims to support young women of color through a cohort-based program, building on the success of the UW’s Brotherhood Initiative, which focuses on young men of color.