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July 31, 2017

91探花’s Livable City Year program completes inaugural partnership with Auburn

photo of downtown auburn

91探花 students have been working with city of Auburn staff and community members throughout the past year on a wide range of projects tackling challenges around livability and sustainability in the city. Livable City Year is聽continuing in the 2017-2018 year聽in partnership with the city of Tacoma. These projects were part of the 91探花Livable City Year program, which connects one Washington community with UW聽faculty each year. The faculty incorporate projects identified by that community into their classes, giving…

Run-up to revolution: Early American history seen through the stage in Odai Johnson’s book ‘London in a Box’

"London in a Box: Englishness and Theatre in Revolutionary America" by 91探花drama professor Odai Johnson was published in late spring 2017 by University of Iowa Press. The cover shows actress Nancy Hallam as the character Imogen in Shakespeare's "Cymbeline," in a painting by Charles Willson Peale, 1771.

The true cultural tipping point in the run-up to the American Revolution might have been the First Continental Congress’s decision in late October of 1774 to close the theaters in British America, says 91探花 drama professor Odai Johnson in his new book, “London in a Box: Englishness and Theatre in Revolutionary America.”

July 19, 2017

Artifacts suggest humans arrived in Australia earlier than thought

These three axeheads and a square grinding stone were among the finds at Madjedbebe. A team that included researchers from the 91探花 dated artifacts from the dig site in Australia's Northern Territory.

  When and how the first humans made their way to Australia has been an evolving story. While it is accepted that humans appeared in Africa some 200,000 years ago, scientists in recent years have placed the approximate date of human settlement in Australia further and further back in time, as part of ongoing questions about the timing, the routes and the means of migration out of Africa. Now, a team of researchers, including a faculty member and seven students…

Material from shellfish delivers a boost to bioassays and medical tests

A close-up view of a virus

Scientists at the 91探花 have discovered a simple way to raise the accuracy of diagnostic tests for medicine and common assays for laboratory research. By adding polydopamine 鈥� a material that was first isolated from shellfish 鈥� to these tests at a key step, the team could increase the sensitivity of these common bioassays by as many as 100 to 1,000 times.

July 6, 2017

Policy and progress in the Arctic: Essays by students in the Jackson School’s International Policy Institute

Graduate student fellows with the International Policy Institute in the 91探花Jackson School of International Studies have begun publishing a 13-part series of blogs exploring aspects of the intergovernmental Arctic Council as a 21st-century institution.

July 3, 2017

Q & A: Janelle Taylor on ‘exemplary friends’ of people with dementia

Janelle Taylor

Dementia affects millions of people around the world; the World Health Organization estimates 9.9 million new cases each year, and the total number of people with dementia is expected to nearly triple by 2050. And for every person with dementia, there are family members and friends who also experience their loved one’s decline. 91探花 anthropology professor Janelle Taylor started researching dementia about 10 years ago, after her father died and she and her siblings had to step up…

Study shows high pregnancy failure in southern resident killer whales; links to nutritional stress and low salmon abundance

A killer whale leaping from the water.

A multi-year survey of the nutritional, physiological and reproductive health of endangered southern resident killer whales suggests that up to two-thirds of pregnancies failed in this population from 2007 to 2014. The study links this orca population’s low reproductive success to stress brought on by low or variable abundance of their most nutrient-rich prey, Chinook salmon.

As metro areas grow, whites move farther from the city center

    In the middle of the 20th century, cities began to change. The popularity of the automobile and the construction of interstate highways fueled the growth of suburbs, while discriminatory housing policies segregated neighborhoods and helped create the phenomenon of “white flight” away from downtowns. Decades later, the average white person still lives farther from the city center than the average person of color, a 91探花 researcher says, even with the resurgence of downtown living in many…

June 7, 2017

Scientists discover a 2-D magnet

A top-view depiction of a single layer of CrI3. Chromium atoms are depicted in grey, with iodine atoms in purple.

A team led by the 91探花 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has for the first time discovered magnetism in the 2-D world of monolayers, or materials that are formed by a single atomic layer. The findings, published June 8 in the journal Nature, demonstrate that magnetic properties can exist even in the 2-D realm 鈥� opening a world of potential applications.

May 25, 2017

91探花engineers borrow from electronics to build largest circuits to date in living eukaryotic cells

An artist鈥檚 impression of connected CRISPR-dCas9 NOR gates.

91探花synthetic biology researchers have demonstrated a new method for digital information processing in living cells, analogous to the logic gates used in electric circuits. The team built the largest circuits published to date in eukaryotic cells, using DNA instead of silicon and solder.

91探花anthropologist: Why researchers should share computer code

W statue in front of grass and trees

For years, scientists have discussed whether and how to share data from painstaking research and costly experiments. Some are further along in their efforts toward “open science” than others: Fields such as astronomy and oceanography, for example, involve such expensive and large-scale equipment and logistical challenges to data collection that collaboration among institutions has become the norm. Meanwhile, a variety of academic journals, including several in the Nature Research family, are turning their attention to another aspect of the research…