New images of cigar-shaped M82 galaxy capture millions of stars

The Messier 82 galaxy, known as M82 or the Cigar galaxy, has long fascinated researchers with its astronomical rate of star formation 鈥� approximately 10 times faster than the Milky Way. Researchers have pored over grainy, low-resolution, images taken by previous generations of telescopes, which weren鈥檛 powerful enough to see through the thick cloud of dust surrounding the galaxy. The , however, can pierce straight through with extremely sharp vision. That enabled a team of astronomers from multiple institutions, including NASA and the UW, to capture new high-resolution images. Posted June 23, the images include more than 16.5 million individual stars and provide the clearest look yet at M82鈥檚 , the flattened central hub that contains most of the galaxy鈥檚 stellar mass. That could help scientists understand how M82 formed and for how long it has been producing stars so prodigiously.

For more information, contact team member a UW research professor of astronomy, at benw1@uw.edu.

All images are included in NASA鈥檚

New study maps pollution disparities by state and sector across almost 20 years

Air quality in the United States has improved markedly since the landmark Clean Air Act passed in 1970. However, the gains have not been equally shared: Today, communities of color and low-income communities are exposed to disproportionately more air pollution than the overall population. In in Science Advances, UW researchers created the first comprehensive map cataloging how air quality inequity has changed per state and economic sector from 2002 to 2019. The study confirmed that, despite improvements in overall air quality, pollution tends to be concentrated in Black, Hispanic and low-income communities. The findings include specific state-level opportunities for improvement across 11 sectors 鈥� for example, disparities in construction-related emissions in Florida increased significantly during the study period. The findings and resulting database could help policymakers across the country prioritize environmental justice projects.

For more information, contact senior author , UW professor of civil and environmental engineering at jdmarsh@uw.edu.

The other UW co-authors are , , and . A full list of co-authors is .听

Researchers observe ultrafast chemistry happening in real time

Molecules are not static. Instead, they are having little dance parties 鈥� their atoms wiggle and twist around in space. Occasionally, upon receiving a burst of energy, the bonds holding atoms together in a molecule can break and reform with the atoms in a different configuration. While the number of atoms stays the same, the orientation of these atoms determines a molecule’s chemical properties 鈥� an important part of its identity. In , a UW-led team witnessed firsthand, and for the first time, a molecule turning into its “alter ego.” The researchers observed a hydrogen atom, also known as a proton, jump to a new position by bonding to a different atom in the same molecule. This process, which happens within a few millionths of billionths of a second, is important for various fundamental processes, including photosynthesis, and when DNA acquires mutations. To understand why, and how, this happens so fast, the researchers developed a new tool that probes molecular structure on an ultrafast timescale. They were able to use this technology to detect how the molecule’s wiggles allowed the proton transfer to happen. These findings will help researchers test existing theories about these ultrafast chemical dynamics and develop new molecules for clean energy processes.

For more information, contact senior author , UW professor of chemistry, at mkhalil@uw.edu.听听听

Co-authors , and completed this work while at the UW. Funding information is .

Random events leave lasting signature on the atmospheric methane record, new study shows

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with a complicated life cycle. It鈥檚 released into the atmosphere by both natural and industrial processes, and there are multiple pathways by which it鈥檚 broken down. Recently, atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs but the rate of accumulation has been somewhat inconsistent over time. To understand why, researchers are looking at climate records preceding the industrial era, via ice cores. These deep cylinders of glacial ice document slow swings in atmospheric methane levels spanning decades, or even centuries. This pattern is typically associated with gradual climate change, but in , UW researchers show that it doesn鈥檛 have to be. Instead, they reveal that short-term, random events, such as fires or changes in wetlands, can spark gradual shifts. Not only does this clarify the historical record, but it also adds nuance to modern trends.

For more information, contact senior author , UW doctoral student of atmospheric and climate science at emei@uw.edu.

The other UW co-authors are and . A full list of co-authors is .

Quantum materials are a class of exotic materials with special properties that are governed by rather than . Those properties 鈥� like , and unusual forms of magnetism 鈥� often originate in the tiny repeating patterns of atoms inside crystals, but through clever engineering they can be observed and controlled at a more human scale. Quantum materials are helping to power the quickly growing field of , and could find their way into future generations of energy-efficient electronics.听

Designing new materials from the atomic scale up, however, requires intense modeling and simulation. Some materials may appear ordinary when viewed as small clusters of atoms, yet reveal new and useful properties when their atomic building blocks repeat and interact over larger distances. Researchers must be able to accurately predict behaviors at large scales in order to find materials with practical applications 鈥� otherwise designing new materials is a slow and costly trial-and-error process.

In the past 50 years, supercomputers have helped materials scientists solve some of those thorny prediction problems, but two recent studies from the 天美影视传媒 demonstrate how newer computing techniques can help researchers sniff out promising quantum materials to pursue. , published June 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how researchers can use artificial intelligence to simulate dozens of sheets of atoms stacked in intricate patterns, a process that produces complex and potentially useful quantum behaviors. , published June 8 in Nature Communications, shows how quantum computers can create a self-improving design loop by discovering new materials that could themselves be components of future quantum computers.听

鈥淲hat is exciting is that AI and quantum computing are beginning to change not just what problems we can solve, but how we do research,鈥� said , a UW associate professor of materials science and engineering and the senior author of both studies.

These two new tools 鈥� AI and quantum computing 鈥� are complementary in that they each excel at a different kind of simulation problem. With the right training, an AI model can act as a fast and relatively inexpensive surrogate of a supercomputer, extrapolating the behavior of huge material systems from a relatively small dataset. Cao and collaborators used this approach to stack virtual sheets of atoms on top of one another over and over 鈥� a process that created completely new phenomena that were absent on a smaller scale, but would have been impractical to model by traditional supercomputing. From there, researchers can try to make the most promising materials in the lab to prove out the simulations.

Quantum computers, on the other hand, are essentially powered by the same quantum phenomena 鈥� like entanglement 鈥� that Cao and other materials researchers want to study. Such phenomena can be difficult to simulate using traditional computers or AI systems, but quantum computers are naturally suited to the task. In the study, Cao and his team used a quantum computer to study an exotic phase of matter known as a .听

Moving forward, Cao and his team plan to further build out their datasets and eventually develop models that can simulate a much wider range of materials. They also hope to combine their AI and quantum computing systems into a more powerful and flexible hybrid tool.

鈥淭he next step is to bring these tools together,鈥� Cao said. 鈥淲e can use AI to guide quantum simulations, and quantum computers to generate new data and insights that improve AI models.鈥�

鈥淲e are at the start of a new era,鈥� said , UW professor and chair of materials science and engineering and co-author of both studies. 鈥淥ur field is fundamentally changing. Things that were literally impossible a couple of years ago are now becoming routine. And we are only beginning to see what AI and quantum computing will make possible for quantum materials.鈥�

was led by , a UW doctoral student of materials science and engineering. was led by , a UW doctoral student of physics. A complete list of authors is included with the studies.

The authors acknowledge the support of Amazon and the Department of Energy.

For more information, contact Cao at tingcao@uw.edu.

Plants may not appear aggressive, but they can still defend themselves while under attack. When caterpillars chomp the leaves of bean plants, these plants release gases that lure predatory wasps. The wasps prey on the caterpillars, saving the plants from further destruction. In a paper , a UW-led team demonstrated that this defense strategy is run by a protein called INR, or inceptin receptor. The researchers grew bean plants with naturally occurring mutations in the INR gene alongside plants with functional INR in an experimental field in Oaxaca, Mexico. The knock-out plants didn’t emit gases and attracted far fewer wasps. This result helps explain a previous study by this team that first identified the biochemical pathway behind this defense mechanism. These results also showcase how the tiny actions of a single protein can affect the behavior of wasps and caterpillars, and in turn, protect the health of the plant. This could benefit nearby plants as well, the researchers said. Beans are often grown alongside “,” such as corn, with the idea that each plant provides a benefit for the others. Beans help make the soil richer for their companions, and, through the actions of INR, could also protect their neighbors from pests.

For more information, contact senior author , UW associate professor of biology, at astein10@uw.edu.听听

The other UW co-authors are , , , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is included .

Decades of satellite data show Himalayan rivers migrating rapidly in response to climate change

The movement of rivers is often described in terms of flowing water, but the path a river takes can also change. Some migration is normal, but in the Himalayas, rivers seem to be scrambling faster than scientists anticipated. In a study , researchers show that rivers in the Tibetan Plateau moved twice as much from 2000 to 2020 as they did from 1980 to 2000. As glaciers melt and frozen ground thaws in response to rising temperatures, rivers are inundated with silty meltwater from surrounding glaciers. The water picks the path of least resistance through softening ground. The 鈥渕ovement鈥� includes small lateral shifts, big swings that cut off entire sections of river and occasionally, . The international team attributes their observations to climate change, which is driving temperatures up faster here than many other places. More than 2 billion people rely on these rivers for fresh water and researchers are concerned about communities downstream, as well as the potential for similar patterns that may play out elsewhere.

For more information, contact co-author , UW professor of Earth and space sciences at bigdirt@uw.edu.听听

A full list of co-authors and funding is .

Researchers shrink eye-catching structure down to the nano scale听

made using a network of freestanding bars suspended by a web of thin, tense cables. The organization of the bars and cables allows the network of tension and compression forces to lock everything into place, creating a lightweight yet stiff structure. Tensegrities of different sizes are common in nature 鈥� examples include and the that help living cells maintain their shape 鈥� as well as in diverse manmade structures like , and . Now, a team of engineers at the UW have found a way to create tensegrities as small as five micrometers across 鈥� roughly a tenth of the width of a human hair. in the aptly-named journal Small, researchers used a specialized and a resin compound to print bar-and-cable structures about 30 micrometers across. They then heated the materials to 900 degrees celsius, causing the structures to shrink by over 80%. As they shrank, the thinner cables constricted more than the bars, resulting in nanostructures with specific, locked-in levels of stress that were up to 250% stiffer than the starting structures. The team is now working on ways to build larger materials composed of tiny tensegrities, which could eventually usher in a new class of stiff, light and impact-resistant materials.

For more information, contact lead author , a UW doctoral student of mechanical engineering.

Other UW co-authors are , , Zainab S. Patel, , and . Funding information is included .听

Scientists find a key water source for atmospheric rivers

In December 2025, brought a seemingly endless onslaught of precipitation to Washington that caused and washed away roads and homes. In published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, UW researchers help explain where all that water came from. They describe a link between the , a weather pattern that brings moisture east across the Pacific, and atmospheric rivers. Hypotheses about this connection have emerged from previous studies, but researchers couldn鈥檛 physically draw it until now. By tracking precipitation and wind patterns from 2000 to 2024, the UW researchers show that heavy rainfall and flooding are more likely when MJO is active, which happens several times a year. By identifying the MJO as a key moisture source for powerful atmospheric rivers, the researchers hope to improve forecast accuracy and give people more lead time to prepare for incoming storms.

For more information, contact co-author , UW professor of atmospheric and climate science at shuyic@uw.edu.

Other UW co-authors are and . Funding information is .

Micropantries 鈥� commonly called 鈥渓ittle free pantries鈥澨� 鈥� and community fridges are a frequent sight throughout Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region. One estimate suggests that they supply around 4 million pounds of food per year to neighbors in need in the Seattle area, more than the state鈥檚 largest food bank. The curbside cupboards are a decentralized, community-driven effort to fight food insecurity and reduce food waste at the neighborhood level, but their ad hoc nature limits their dependability 鈥� users don鈥檛 know when food is available without repeatedly checking, and donors don鈥檛 know what foods are needed most.

Now, anyone who interacts with micropantries or community fridges in the Seattle area can try out an experimental app, made by 天美影视传媒 researchers, that brings a suite of new features to the micropantry network. , maps many local pantries across the region. The app also gives each pantry an activity feed where users can share food they鈥檝e donated, report on stock levels, add requests to a wish list, post photos and leave other notes. The research team also retrofitted some pantries with sensors that anonymously auto-report their usage and stock levels to the app in real time.

鈥淭his is an effort to document and quantify the phenomenon of micropantries,鈥� said , a senior research scientist at the UW . 鈥淟ots of micropantries and community fridges popped up around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was curious about who uses them and how they are used.鈥�

The team was cognizant of privacy concerns and designed the smart pantry tech accordingly.

鈥淧utting cameras in the pantries could give us a lot of information about what specific foods are moving through the system, but that may also deter users who are concerned about privacy,鈥� said , a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering who designed and built the sensor suite. 鈥淚nstead, we settled on simpler sensors that measure weight and interactions like opening the door to measure stock levels while preserving everyone鈥檚 anonymity.鈥�

The researchers hope that neighbors will find new ways to connect and help one another through these tools. A user might see that stock levels are low in a nearby pantry, for example, and decide to add some food. Another user might request certain foods to accommodate their dietary restrictions.听

The sensor-equipped pantries are a small subset of the dozens of pantries throughout Seattle, but in addition to providing some neighborhoods with enhanced food tracking, they will generate aggregate data that will help Dalla Chiara鈥檚 team study donor and usage behavior. Dalla Chiara also plans to survey donors to learn more about what motivates people to provide food to pantries.

鈥淲e know that there is a lot of food insecurity in Seattle and in the United States in general,鈥� Dalla Chiara said. 鈥淏ut we know that there is also a lot of food waste 鈥� lots of people have a surplus of food. And we want to see how grassroots efforts like micropantries can address both food insecurity and waste at the same time.鈥�

Dalla Chiara and his team recently completed a refit on a cold, sleeting March day at a pantry owned by Saint Paul鈥檚 Episcopal Church near Seattle Center. The church keeps the pantry regularly stocked, and rector Stephen Crippen is curious about the data the new system will produce.

鈥淚t puts numbers on what we鈥檙e actually accomplishing,鈥� Crippen said. 鈥淚t helps us get in touch with what鈥檚 going on on this street.鈥�

The research team is also working with local businesses and nonprofits to encourage and track food distribution throughout the pantry network. In April, Seattle-based recycling startup ran a nonperishable food drive across Seattle and delivered 25,000 pounds of food to the ; from there, volunteers from the Cascade Bicycle Club鈥檚 distributed the food to micropantries around the city by bike, giving the network an infusion of both food and usage data. The and the nonprofit helped support the project鈥檚 community fridges effort.

Dalla Chiara recognizes that there are other grassroots online, and he doesn鈥檛 want his app to replace those services. Nor does he expect the smart pantry network to remain in service indefinitely 鈥� it costs about $150 to retrofit each pantry with sensors, and all that tech will be difficult to maintain after the study concludes in October of this year. At its core, the project is an effort to learn about micropantry usage and explore how technology might encourage sharing of resources and mutual aid systems.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to measure and quantify goodwill,鈥� Dalla Chiara said. 鈥淏ehind each little free pantry there is a whole system of behaviors 鈥� people trying to help one another. If we can understand that system better, we can support it better.鈥�

Other UW collaborators include , professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Urban Freight Lab; , assistant teaching professor of environmental and occupational health sciences; , assistant professor of food systems, nutrition and health; and , assistant professor in the Allen School.

For more information, contact Dalla Chiara at giacomod@uw.edu.

Discovery Days returns!

On April 30 and May 1, thousands of elementary and middle school students from across Washington state will arrive on the 天美影视传媒鈥檚 Seattle campus to explore more than . Hosted by the UW College of Engineering, Discovery Days gives students a chance to experience science and engineering concepts for themselves by building batteries, designing videogames, firing air vortex cannons and controlling plasma with their fingertips.听

This year, more than 9,000 students from 109 schools registered to attend.

For more information, contact William Poor at wpoor@uw.edu.

Sunbirds may look similar to hummingbirds 鈥� small, iridescent birds with thin bills 鈥� but it turns out the two are only distantly related. Sunbirds live primarily in Africa, Asia and Australia, and have a unique way to slurp up nectar. Unlike hummingbirds, which use minute movements in their bills to sip nectar, sunbirds use their tongues as a straw. published in Current Biology, a team led by researchers at the 天美影视传媒 showed that these long-billed birds can change the pressure at the base of their tongues to create suction that moves nectar through their tongues and into their mouths, a novel mechanism never before seen in vertebrates. The researchers used multiple techniques 鈥� including high-speed video of sunbirds drinking red-dyed nectar from transparent artificial flowers 鈥� to demonstrate this phenomenon across multiple sunbird species as well as build a mathematical model that describes how it works. Sunbirds pollinate the flowers they drink from, and researchers are interested in understanding how different sunbird species’ plant preferences affect the plant-pollinator networks across continents.

For more information, contact lead author , who completed this research as a UW doctoral student in biology, at david_cuban@brown.edu.听听

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is included . Related stories in and .听

Seattle Fault gets 5,000 more years of sleep听

Just over 1,100 years ago an on the Seattle fault rocked 鈥� and reshaped 鈥� the Puget Sound region. It lifted the sea floor and sent a powerful tsunami through the sound. Researchers have estimated that this fault, which runs east to west beneath the middle of the city, will produce a large earthquake every 5,000 years or so. However, , recently published in Geology, pushes that estimate back to 11,000 years. The researchers extended this window by scouring submerged shorelines for evidence of significant elevation changes. The geological record at these sites dates back 11,000 years, but they only found evidence of one major earthquake. This information could be useful to those making seismic hazard maps, which help people understand the risks associated with different regions. Although other regional faults and the imposing pose more imminent risks to residents, the main Seattle fault doesn鈥檛 appear to be ready for rupture anytime soon.

For more information, contact lead author , UW research scientist of Earth and space sciences, at edav@uw.edu.

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is included in the paper. Related story in .

The PNW has many rivers, but no system for gauging landslide dam risk

Scientists have a new tool for estimating lesser known hazards in the Pacific Northwest: and outburst floods. Landslides along rivers can block the flow of water downstream, creating a lake just above the slide area. Most landslide dams fail within 10 days, releasing trapped water in an outburst flood, which can be devastating. Last fall, 20 people died after in Taiwan. published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, UW researchers debut a mathematical approach to mapping landslide dam hazards based on valley width and projected slide size. When they applied the tool to a mountain range in Oregon, they found that roughly one-third of rivers in the study area were susceptible to landslide dams, with risk increasing in mountainous areas. If a landslide dam does form, alleviating pressure by for water to escape can help prevent flooding. Identifying high risk areas can help guide emergency response efforts following storms, earthquakes and other events that increase landslide risk.

For more information, contact lead author , UW doctoral student of Earth and space sciences, at pmmorgan@uw.edu.

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

Rubin observatory expected to spot many 鈥榠mminent impactor鈥� asteroids

Small asteroids 鈥� those 1 to 20 meters in diameter 鈥斕� hit the Earth 35-40 times per year, though they鈥檙e very rarely spotted by telescopes before impact. That could soon change: published in The Astrophysical Journal, UW astronomers calculate that the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory could discover one to two Earth-impacting asteroids annually , roughly doubling the number currently logged. The researchers expect Rubin to discover these asteroids an average of 1.5 days before impact, which is more warning time than ever before. Advance notice is extremely valuable in the case of larger asteroids that could be a threat to people or infrastructure. Because the Rubin Observatory is located in the Southern Hemisphere, it will likely discover many Earth impactors that existing asteroid surveys 鈥� concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere 鈥� miss.

For more information, contact lead author Ian Chow, a UW graduate student of astronomy, at chowian@uw.edu.

Other UW co-authors are Mario Juri膰, Joachim Moeyens, Aren N. Heinze and Jacob A. Kurlander. A full list of co-authors is included .

Many marine microbes share a genetic toolbox for fixing supper at sea

Researchers have now identified a set of genes that allow some bacteria to process a compound, called homarine, that is abundant in the ocean and appears to play a key role in nutrient cycling. Phytoplankton produce loads of homarine, but scientists weren鈥檛 sure what became of it until now. In a recent study published in Nature Microbiology, researchers found a set of genes present in common and far-flung bacteria that convert homarine into glutamic acid, an essential building block for life. This suggests that homarine may be a vital and overlooked resource and highlights the importance of bacteria in stabilizing marine ecosystems. Previous studies also found that homarine serves as and helps small crabs . The UW team will continue studying homarine to better understand how it fits into the broader ecological landscape.

For more information, contact senior author , a UW professor of oceanography, at aingalls@uw.edu.听

The other UW co-authors are , , , , , and 听 A full list of co-authors and funding is

As far as research subjects go, it鈥檚 not always easy to find common ground with a single-celled bacterium. Yet the more studies his model bacteria, , the more he sees surprising commonalities between their behavior and our own as humans.

鈥淚t was mortifying to be stumped for so long by what appeared to be completely counterintuitive behavior only to realize that I engage in exactly the same behavior everyday,鈥� said Wiggins, an associate professor of both physics and bioengineering at the 天美影视传媒.听

Scientists in use experiments and modeling to understand the global principles that govern gene expression, and protein abundance in particular. In in Science Advances, Wiggins鈥� team discovered that A. baylyi cells amass huge surpluses of essential proteins, rather than taking the seemingly more efficient approach of making just enough to survive. UW News chatted with Wiggins to learn about the remarkably relatable reason for this puzzling behavior.

This work grew out of a mystery you and your team uncovered. Tell us about that mystery.

Paul Wiggins: Genes are the blueprints for proteins 鈥� we say they 鈥渃ode for proteins.鈥� A. baylyi has a number of genes that code for proteins that we know are essential for cell growth. But we didn’t know exactly what each of these proteins do. In 2016, we were attempting to uncover these proteins’ specific functions in collaboration with the . To do this we disrupted each gene so that the cells couldn’t make any more protein 鈥� they were left with a now dwindling supply of whatever they鈥檇 previously made. Then we would watch the cells under a microscope to determine when and how cellular processes would fail.听

As an example, we knocked out a gene that coded for a protein that we found was responsible for cell wall synthesis 鈥� it makes the protein-sugar chainmail that prevents the cells from rupturing, or lysing. And you can watch the video we recorded to see what happened: The cells grew and divided for a while, but then all of a sudden they inflated and just popped.

In that example, something strange happened. We would expect the cell walls to start to fail almost immediately after the disruption happened because every time the cells divide, the remaining protein is divided among the offspring cells, so pretty quickly there wouldn鈥檛 be enough to sustain the new cell walls. However, growth continued, one generation after another, before the cells finally failed after four rounds of division!

Why did it take so long? Gene after gene showed the same pattern. We realized that each cell must have made a ton of extra proteins 鈥� far more than it needed. So after we knocked out that essential gene, the cell was able to run on fumes for a while 鈥� and was even able to pass stores of that protein on to its offspring. That finding was initially a huge surprise. We all expected, naively, that if a cell only needed a few copies of a protein to function, it would only make a few 鈥� anything more would be a waste of resources and energy. It鈥檇 be like taking a seven-day trip and packing 30 pairs of socks. And yet, this behavior seemed to be common for lots of essential genes.听

What do you think is the cause of this protein overabundance?

PW: Baking is a good analogy. If you want to make an apple pie, you probably only buy as many apples as you need for that recipe. But you keep a large quantity of salt in your pantry. You might only need a teaspoon of salt to make any given meal, but none of us go to the store and buy salt a teaspoon at a time. Salt is so cheap and easy to store that, relative to the cost of other ingredients in your meal, it鈥檚 basically free to keep in large quantities. And critically, you don鈥檛 want to run out of salt when you鈥檙e cooking.听

We demonstrated that something analogous is happening in A. baylyi cells for most of the essential genes. Only about 30% of a cell鈥檚 essential genes code for proteins that are “expensive” in that the cells need these proteins in large numbers. It would be very costly to, say, double an already large number. These are the apples in our apple pie analogy 鈥� the cell makes just enough of those proteins to get by.听

The remaining 70% of essential genes, however, code for proteins that the cell does not need in large numbers. In fact, relative to that other 30%, the cell needs so few of these proteins that it鈥檚 basically free to produce a bunch of extras. Doubling the production of those proteins, say from 30 to 60 copies, is a drop in the bucket if the cell鈥檚 overall budget is three million proteins. So the cell says, 鈥淪crew it, it鈥檚 virtually free. Let鈥檚 make extra so we don鈥檛 run out.鈥� In some cases a cell might make 10 times more protein than it will ever need.

Why is this strategy useful for the cells?

PW: This overabundance strategy is important because otherwise a cell might fail to produce enough of something critical. Protein synthesis is an imprecise process 鈥� cells sometimes make a little more or a little less of things than they鈥檙e programmed to make. Some essential proteins are made at such low numbers that any deviation from the plan could leave a cell with zero copies of that protein. This is less of a problem for essential proteins that are made in much higher numbers.听

How do these findings support or challenge previous ideas about how cells function?

PW: Depending on who you talk to, this is either definitely wrong or completely obvious. On the one hand, it鈥檚 a really ingrained idea that organisms are always optimizing everything, which would naively suggest that cells should make exactly what they need 鈥� no more, no less. However, this is clearly not the case. Other studies have observed these kinds of protein surpluses in cells before, but it wasn鈥檛 appreciated quite how wide-spread this phenomenon was. Previously researchers proposed that overabundance might be a hedge against changing conditions 鈥� maybe cells are stockpiling proteins in case times get tough. We鈥檙e suggesting that it鈥檚 a hedge against the cells failing to make the right number of essential proteins.

Co-authors include , a UW postdoctoral researcher of physics; Teresa W. Lo and , former UW doctoral students of physics; , a UW graduate student of physics; and , a UW postdoctoral researcher of laboratory medicine and pathology.

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, contact Wiggins at pwiggins@uw.edu.听

天美影视传媒 professor of physics and UW research professor emeritus are part of an international team that won the 2026 . The $3 million award is shared among roughly 400 scientists, including 18 other researchers from the UW team. It celebrates decades of work to better understand the muon 鈥� a subatomic particle with anomalous properties. This collaborative effort could ultimately lead to the discovery of entirely new particles.

鈥淎 remarkable aspect of these experiments is that it took the collective talents and experience of scientists and engineers from particle, nuclear, atomic, optical, accelerator and theoretical physics communities to work coherently toward one single goal,鈥� Hertzog said. 鈥淭ogether, we measured a property of the muon that encapsulates almost everything we know about modern physics from relativity to quantum mechanics to the zoo of particles that govern the fundamental forces that shape our world.鈥�

The were established in 2012 to recognize research achievements in life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics.听

Muons, short-lived subatomic particles, are created for experiments by particle accelerators. They exist for a fraction of a second before decaying into electrons and even tinier particles called neutrinos. During their short life, muons exhibit magnetic properties that deviate slightly from the 鈥� the leading theory that describes the particles and forces that make up the universe, along with anything that exists that has not yet been discovered.

The experiments recognized by the Breakthrough Prize represent 60-plus years of work to find out exactly how far the muon鈥檚 magnetism strays from Standard Model predictions. The first experiments began in 1959 at the, also called CERN.听

Hertzog鈥檚 group at the University of Illinois was involved in a later experiment at the in the mid-1990s. He joined the faculty at UW in 2010 and helped develop a new experiment at (Fermilab) that in 2025 with record-setting precision.听

While Hertzog and others have now completed their experimental measurements, theorists听 continue to refine the predictions of the Standard Model. In time, the gap between theory and experiment 鈥� where the muon currently hovers 鈥� may vanish or persist. If the muon鈥檚 properties never fit the Standard Model, physicists may need to explore entirely new theories.听

鈥淣o matter where the final theory settles, the comparison with our experiment will have important consequences and give us deep insight into the heart of matter,鈥� Hertzog said.

Many UW physicists have been recognized by Breakthrough Prizes since the prizes鈥� inception, including a banner year in 2021 that also featured a win in the life sciences category by Nobel Prize laureate , a UW professor of biochemistry.

鈥淭he Breakthrough Prize has previously recognized UW physicists for work that deepened our understanding of gravity, dark energy and dark matter,鈥� said , UW divisional dean of natural sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. 鈥淭his latest recognition is a testament to the value of large-scale collaborative physics research and we are very proud of the accomplishments of all of the UW faculty, postdocs and students who contributed to this effort.鈥�

A full list of current UW researchers recognized by the 2026 prize . Learn about other UW wins at the Breakthrough Prize here.听

For more information, contact Victor Balta at balta@uw.edu.

Even on a campus like the 天美影视传媒鈥檚 鈥� home to particle accelerators, wave tanks and countless other bespoke pieces of equipment 鈥� the machinery in the stands out. Take the dilution fridge, a large, white, cylindrical device that can cool a small chamber to one hundredth of a kelvin above absolute zero 鈥� the coldest possible temperature in the universe.听

鈥淭his is the coldest fridge money can buy,鈥� said , a UW assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the former director of the lab, which goes by the nickname QT3. 鈥淲hen it鈥檚 running, the chamber inside this device is about 100 times colder than outer space. At that temperature, it鈥檚 much easier to study and manipulate a material鈥檚 quantum properties.鈥�

The lab also houses a photon qubit tabletop lab: a nondescript set of boxes, lasers and lenses that can demonstrate the 鈥渟pooky鈥� 鈥� a term scientists actually use 鈥� phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, where two particles appear to communicate instantaneously with each other despite being physically apart.

Or there鈥檚 the lab鈥檚 latest acquisition, the scanning tunneling microscope, which can image individual atoms within a solid material, allowing researchers to study the structure of materials at the smallest scales.

An interdisciplinary group of researchers has been marshalling resources and expertise to create QT3 for three years, and now, the lab is opening its doors as a unique one-stop shop resource for quantum researchers and educators at the UW.

鈥淭he idea of this lab is to improve access to quantum hardware,鈥� Parsons said. 鈥淚t’s rather hard to acquire equipment like this. And there are a lot of researchers that may have good ideas that they want to test, but don鈥檛 have the resources yet for their own equipment. So we鈥檙e inviting researchers, initially from across campus, but also from other universities and from industry, to come in and test their ideas. This can be a hub for quantum experts to share their ideas and collaborate.鈥�

The lab also boasts hardware that can demonstrate known quantum principles and techniques, making it useful for students in quantum fields. In addition to the entanglement device, Parsons鈥� students developed a machine that can suspend charged particles 鈥� in this case, tiny grains of pollen 鈥� in midair using electric fields. Researchers use the same technique to trap single atoms and manipulate their quantum properties, making the lab鈥檚 ion-trapping machine good practice for more complex work.

Some students even work at the lab through an undergraduate staffing program, and have helped install instrumentation, write code to power equipment and build parts for custom microscopes. The program provides yet another avenue for students to get hands-on experience with unusual machinery and techniques.听

鈥淨uantum mechanics is inherently counterintuitive, and that makes it a powerful teaching tool,鈥� Parsons said. 鈥淚n the QT3 lab, students will encounter systems where their everyday intuition breaks down, and they must rely on careful reasoning and experimentation instead. They learn how to debug when results don鈥檛 match expectations, how to test simple cases and how to build understanding about hardware step by step.鈥�

The cosmically cold dilution fridge remains something of a centerpiece, even as the lab fills up with specialized equipment. The extreme environment within the device strips heat, light and other stray energy away from materials, allowing researchers to observe the peculiar quantum properties that remain. One such property is superposition, or the ability of a particle like an electron to maintain multiple mutually exclusive properties at the same time. Scientists use superposition to create a powerful, tiny piece of technology: a quantum bit, or qubit.听

鈥淭raditional computers use bits, which can only be one or zero. A qubit, on the other hand, we can make one plus zero,鈥� Parsons said. 鈥淚t’s both at the same time, and only when we measure it do we find out which one it is. We can use this unusual property to build a new class of computers that excel at tasks like communications and encryption.鈥�

QT3 is part of a collaborative effort to solidify UW as a leader in quantum research and applications. Most of the lab hardware was funded by a congressional earmark championed by Senator Maria Cantwell鈥檚 office. Departmental funding from across the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences helped rehab the lab space. The National Science Foundation provided seed funding for the instructional lab equipment.

The UW has also spent the past decade investing heavily in faculty with quantum expertise.

鈥淰ery few places have expertise across the full quantum stack, from materials up to algorithms,鈥� said , a UW professor of physics and founder of QT3. 鈥淭he UW has quantum faculty in electrical and mechanical engineering, physics, computer science, materials science and chemistry. Our faculty work on superconducting qubits, spin defects, photons, trapped ions, neutral atoms and topological qubits. Our advantage is the breadth of our investment.鈥�

The lab is now available to researchers and students across the UW, and private companies are encouraged to reach out about partnering. Parsons has already used the lab to teach a graduate-level class in electrical and computer engineering for students who included employees from Boeing, Microsoft and quantum computing company IonQ. The lab is hiring for a full-time manager to maintain the equipment and help users make the most of the facility.听

鈥淗ere in academia, we can improve the building blocks for applied technologies like quantum computing, and then transfer those learnings to industry for further scaling,鈥� Parsons said.

For more information, contact Parsons at mfpars@uw.edu.

This winter was ; as a result, many snowy, alpine areas have seen bouts of winter rainfall where there would ordinarily only be snow. These unusual weather patterns have contributed to an abysmal ski season, but they can also set the stage for dangerous avalanches. At temperatures close to freezing, precipitation can fall as rain but freeze when it hits the snow, forming an icy crust. Snow that accumulates on top of that crust is unstable and prone to abrupt slides, causing an avalanche that can close down a major highway in moments, endanger backcountry skiers and more.

Avalanche experts in Western Washington know how to manage the risks associated with rain-on-snow events, but many of their counterparts in colder regions like Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana are less familiar with these dynamics. New research from the 天美影视传媒 shows that as winters in these regions warm, their snowpacks may come to resemble those of maritime areas, with more rain-on-snow events, icy crusts and complex avalanche forecasting.听

The findings in ARC Geophysical Research.

鈥淭his winter鈥檚 warmth is a harbinger,鈥� said lead author , a UW graduate student of civil and environmental engineering. 鈥淲e know that temperatures will keep rising, and our work is a red flag for cooler regions of the greater Pacific Northwest, such as Idaho and Western Montana, that aren鈥檛 used to dealing with ice crusts and their resulting avalanche problems.鈥�

The study is part of a larger effort to understand the structure of snow as it accumulates, which has implications for weather and avalanche forecasting, wildlife dynamics and more.听

鈥淪now scientists are pretty good at measuring snow depth and volume,鈥� said senior author , a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also pretty good at figuring out how much water you get if all that snow melts. But our models aren鈥檛 as good at representing snow structure, such as layers of different densities and crystal types that increase avalanche risks. And we really want to know how the structure of snow changes as the climate changes. That鈥檚 a tricky question that no one has tackled, particularly for rain-on-snow conditions.鈥�

To dig into that question, the researchers studied how warming influences ice layer formation in seasonal snowpacks. First, they collected temperature and precipitation data captured by 53 monitoring stations across the Pacific Northwest for the past 25 years. They used a computer model to identify days when ice layers likely formed at each location. They then checked the model against real-world measurements at one of the locations 鈥� a station at Snoqualmie Pass 鈥� and found that the model matched the measurements with 74% accuracy.

Finally, they used the same model to simulate those same 25 winters at 2 C and 4 C warmer than they were, and looked for changes to the number of ice crusts across the region. , the Pacific Northwest is expected to warm by 2 C to 5 C by 2050 as compared to pre-2000 temperatures.

The results were split regionally by the Cascade mountains. In colder, inland parts of the Pacific Northwest 鈥� places like Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana 鈥� higher temperatures created more rain-on-snow days and more avalanche-prone ice layers. Locations in the warmer, maritime Cascades saw the opposite effect: Higher temperatures created slush instead of ice, potentially reducing the avalanche risk associated with ice crusts.听

The predicted snowpack changes may also impact wildlife behavior. Some foraging mammals, such as reindeer, dig down into the snow in search of food and may have a hard time breaking through an icy crust. Conversely, firm ice might provide a better running surface for animals fleeing predators. Specific regional effects will require additional study.

What鈥檚 clear now is that those who work or play in avalanche terrain in broad swaths of the Pacific Northwest 鈥� and even beyond 鈥� may need to adjust to a new set of risk factors.

鈥淚鈥檇 love to see this shared with avalanche forecasters widely, both as a call to action and as a way to help them understand what their snowpack might look like in the future,鈥� Alden said.

, the director of geospatial science at Audubon Alaska and former doctoral student of environmental and forest sciences at the UW, is a co-author.

This research was funded by the NASA Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science program and the UW Program on Climate Change鈥檚 Graubard Fellowship.

For more information, contact Alden at cdalden@uw.edu.