The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has named the 91探花’s Brandi Cossairt, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, as one of 18 Packard Fellows for 2015.
Tag: College of Arts & Sciences
At 2:45 a.m. on Oct. 6, bleary-eyed Nobel Prize enthusiasts on the West Coast were treated to an unexpected lesson about fundamental particles and forces in our universe. Across the globe in Stockholm, a panel of scientists announced that the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics would honor two scientists who led international collaborations to understand mysterious particles called neutrinos. The prize recipients, Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald, respectively led the Super-Kamiokande Collaboration in Japan and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Collaboration…
Academics and policymakers will gather at the UW’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Oct. 16 for a conference to address cybersecurity and geopolitical concerns from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic and even outer space.
A team of scientists at the 91探花 and the biotechnology company Illumina have created an innovative tool to directly detect the delicate, single-molecule interactions between DNA and enzymatic proteins. Their approach provides a new platform to view and record these nanoscale interactions in real time. As they report Sept. 28 in Nature Biotechnology, this tool should provide fast and reliable characterization of the different mechanisms cellular proteins use to bind to DNA strands 鈥� information that could shed new light on the atomic-scale interactions within our cells and help design new drug therapies against pathogens by targeting enzymes that interact with DNA.
The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory 鈥� or Fermilab 鈥� announced that a 680-ton superconducting magnet is secure in its new home and nearly ready for a new era of discovery in particle physics. This achievement follows the delicate, 3,200-mile transport of the magnet’s 17-ton, 50-foot-wide housing ring to the U.S. Department of Energy facility outside Chicago two years ago. The fully assembled magnet will drive high-energy particle experiments as part of an international partnership among 34 institutions, of which the 91探花 is a leading contributor.
New research from the 91探花’s Friday Harbor Laboratories shows that a more acidic ocean can weaken the protective shell of a delicate alga. The findings, published Sept. 9 in the journal Biology Letters, come at a time when global climate change may increase ocean acidification.
Faculty members from several departments at the 91探花 will share $2.25 million in research funds from the National Science Foundation to study and apply the principles of evolution “in real time.” Their studies are a part of the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. Founded in 2010, this NSF science and technology center is a partnership among five universities to better understand evolutionary processes and apply concepts such as adaptation and selection to new and…
Polly Myers is a lecturer in the 91探花Department of History and author of the book “Capitalist Family Values: Gender, Work, and Corporate Culture at Boeing,” published by University of Nebraska Press.
Two professors from the 91探花 and Oklahoma State University have been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to bring six Native American undergraduate students to their first scientific meeting. The students will attend the Jan. 2016 annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Portland, Oregon. Known commonly by its acronym, SICB, this broad scientific research society of 3,500 members promotes research and collaboration on diverse topics within biology such as evolution, developmental…
In early August, biologist Peter Ward returned from the South Pacific with news that he encountered an old friend, one he hadn’t seen in over three decades. The 91探花 professor had seen what he considers one of the world’s rarest animals, a remote encounter that may become even more infrequent if illegal fishing practices continue. The creature in question is Allonautilus scrobiculatus, a species of nautilus that Ward and a colleague had previously discovered off of Ndrova Island…
The public sector has long served as an equalizer in American society, a place where minority workers could find stable employment that offered advancement and a reliable path to a middle-class life. But the Great Recession wiped out many of those jobs, as tax revenues declined and anti-government sentiment added to a contraction that continued long after the recession ended in 2008. Those job cuts disproportionately hurt African-American workers and increased racial disparity in the public sector, a new study…
Children who have been abused or exposed to other types of trauma typically experience more intense emotions than their peers, a byproduct of living in volatile, dangerous environments. But what if those kids could regulate their emotions? Could that better help them cope with difficult situations? Would it impact how effective therapy might be for them? A 91探花-led team of researchers sought to address those questions by studying what happens in the brains of maltreated adolescents when they…
Recent press and social media coverage have reminded residents of the Pacific Northwest that they live in a seismically active region. Stretching offshore from northern California to British Columbia, the Cascadia subduction zone could slip at any time, causing a powerful earthquake and triggering a tsunami that would impact communities along the coast. Scientists from multiple disciplines at the 91探花 and other institutions are learning more about this hazard. Dozens of 91探花scientists are part of the M9…
William Rorabaugh, 91探花professor of history, looks at the flower power culture of the 1960s in his latest book, “American Hippies.”
A team of scientists has identified a new species of “pre-mammal” based on fossils unearthed in Zambia’s Luangwa Basin in 2009. The ancient, Dachshund-sized creature lived some 255 million years ago, in a time just before the largest mass extinction in Earth’s history. Its discoverers include Christian Sidor, professor of biology at the 91探花 and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Sidor and his colleagues, who announced their finding in July…
Crystals play an important role in the formation of substances from skeletons and shells to soils and semiconductor materials. But many aspects of their formation are shrouded in mystery. Scientists have long worked to understand how crystals grow into complex shapes. Now, an international group of researchers has shown how nature uses a variety of pathways to grow crystals beyond the classical, one-piece-at-a-time route. “Because crystallization is a ubiquitous phenomenon across a wide range of scientific disciplines, a shift in…
Various sight recovery therapies are being developed by companies around the world, offering new hope for people who are blind. But little is known about what the world will look like to patients who undergo those procedures. A new 91探花 study seeks to answer that question and offers visual simulations of what someone with restored vision might see. The study concludes that while important advancements have been made in the field, the vision provided by sight recovery technologies…
91探花astronomers were recently reminded that the diplomatic axiom to “trust, but verify” also applies to scientific inquiry when they analyzed fresh data from a distant galaxy. As they reported in July in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a puzzling stellar phenomenon may not be what other astronomers had reported. They studied a binary star system called NGC 300 X-1, nestled within a far-flung galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. Starting in 2007, scientists reported that this system…
91探花professor Philip Howard discusses his new book, “Pax Technica: How the Internet of Things May Set us Free or Lock Us Up,” published this spring by Yale University Press.
A team of biologists from the 91探花 and the California Institute of Technology has cracked the cues mosquitoes use to find us.
An international team of scientists 鈥� led by researchers from the 91探花 and two other institutions 鈥� has announced that a new compound to fight malaria is ready for human trials.
The UW-based Conservation magazine has won a gold award in a national competition sponsored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, or CASE. Conservation shares this top honor with a magazine from Stanford Medicine. The award recognizes magazines produced by universities or colleges for special external constituencies, including publications affiliated with individual colleges or devoted exclusively to an institution’s scholarly research. CASE judges noted Conservation’s dedication to stories of the “highest caliber,” as well as an “outstanding” layout…
Stricter state sentencing laws in Washington have swelled the ranks of inmates serving life sentences to nearly one in five. And some lifers who opted to go to trial are serving much longer sentences than others who committed the same crimes and plea-bargained 鈥� raising questions about equitable treatment of prisoners. Those are among the findings in a new analysis by undergraduate honors students in the 91探花鈥檚 Law, Societies & Justice program, who sought to determine the number…
On July 6, a team of astronomers proposed a new type of mission to crack some of the universe鈥檚 most intriguing mysteries and search for life on distant worlds.
The concepts of freedom, equality, evolution and democracy lie at the heart of “The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How they Changed the World,” by Scott L. Montgomery and Daniel Chirot of the UW’s Jackson School of International Studies.
91探花researchers have produced cell-to-cell communication in baker’s yeast — a first step in learning to build multicellular organisms or artificial organs from scratch.
A team of 91探花biologists has identified a key mechanism plants use to decide when to release their floral scents to attract pollinators.
New research comparing traditional hunter-gatherer living conditions to a more modern setting shows that access to artificial light and electricity has shortened the amount of sleep humans get each night.
91探花 biologist Samuel Wasser uses DNA evidence to trace the origin of illegal ivory and help police an international trade that is decimating African elephant populations. New results show that over the past decade, ivory has largely come from just two areas in Africa.
A team of 91探花 researchers has identified a mechanism that some plant cells use to receive complex and contradictory messages from their neighbors.
Caregiving is a part of daily life for millions of Americans, particularly the so-called sandwich generation balancing the needs of aging parents with looking after their own children. A new study looks at just who is doing that caregiving, and who they’re caring for 鈥� and some of the findings are surprising.
African-American adults 鈥� particularly women 鈥� are much more likely to know or be related to someone behind bars than whites, according to the first national estimates of Americans’ ties to prisoners.
What researchers have discovered about the hummingbird-sized hawkmoth could help the next generation of small flying robots operate efficiently under a broad range of lighting conditions. The research is published in the June 12 edition of Science.
School may be out for summer, but the arts on campus are heating up. Art Breaks and ArtVentures abound at the Henry Art Gallery, and the Jacob Lawrence Gallery is buzzing with the work of recent grads. Kids and kids at heart will want to check out the daily activities offered at the Burke Museum – crafts, scavenger hunts, and adventures await. Art Breaks: Coley Mixan 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., June 13 |聽Henry Art Gallery Coley Mixan, MFA candidate…
Warming temperatures and decreasing levels of dissolved oxygen will act together to create metabolic stress for marine animals. Habitats will shift to places in the ocean where the oxygen supply can meet the animals’ increasing future needs.
The Large Hadron Collider has started recording data from the highest-energy particle collisions ever achieved on Earth. This new data, the first recorded since 2012, will enable an international collaboration of researchers 鈥� including many from the 91探花鈥� to study the Higgs boson, search for dark matter and develop a more complete understanding of the laws of nature.
Don’t stress about upcoming finals this week. Instead, calm the mind and spirit at a Mindfulness Meditation class at Henry Art Gallery. Afterwards, browse the Willem De Rooij exhibit “Bouqet XI,” featuring beautiful floral sculptures that are a playful nod to Holland鈥檚 role as a major hub in the international flower trade; and stop by the Jacob Lawrence Gallery for the 2015 91探花Design Show, featuring the work of graduates in聽Industrial Design, Interaction Design, and Visual Communication Design. 91探花Symphony…
91探花 psychology professor Yuichi Shoda has been honored for his ongoing participation in a well-known 鈥� and perhaps slightly misunderstood 鈥� long-term study about delayed gratification.
91探花physicists have conducted the most precise and controlled measurements yet of the interaction between the atoms and molecules that comprise air and the type of carbon surface used in battery electrodes and air filters 鈥� key information for improving those technologies.
A look at the annual exhibit for students graduating with master’s degrees in art and design, at the Henry Art Gallery.