Ang茅lica Amezcua never thought she鈥檇 achieve a doctoral degree, never mind landing a tenure-track job at the 天美影视传媒. Raised in Mexico, she moved to California when she was 11, and she鈥檚 the first in her family to earn a Ph. D. She once believed that a career in academia was unattainable due to the obstacles placed in society for people of color.
As the green crab invasion in the state worsens, a new analysis method developed by 天美影视传媒 and Washington Sea Grant scientists could help contain future invasions and prevent new outbreaks using water testing and genetic analysis. The results show that the DNA-based technique works as well in detecting the presence of green crabs as setting traps to catch the live animals, which is a more laborious process. Results suggest these two methods could complement each other as approaches to learn where the species鈥� range is expanding.
A team led by scientists at the 天美影视传媒 and special agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has used genetic testing of ivory shipments seized by law enforcement to uncover the international criminal networks behind ivory trafficking out of Africa. The genetic connections across shipments that they鈥檝e uncovered exposes an even higher degree of organization among ivory smuggling networks than previously known. The paper, published Feb. 14 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, incorporates results from DNA testing of more than 4,000 African elephant tusks from 49 different ivory seizures made in 12 African nations over a 17-year period.
Researchers at the UW have developed a new blood-clotting test that uses a single drop of blood and a smartphone vibration motor and camera.
The International Astronomical Union has launched the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference to coordinate collaborative multidisciplinary international efforts with institutions and individuals 鈥� including researchers at the 天美影视传媒鈥檚 DiRAC Institute 鈥� to help mitigate the negative impacts of satellite constellations on ground-based optical and radio astronomy observations as well as humanity鈥檚 enjoyment of the night sky.
Across the globe, endangered species are at risk for illegal poaching. African elephants are sought out for their ivory, rhinoceros for their singular horns, and armadillo-like pangolins for their protective, brittle scales. Add to that list valuable and environmentally sensitive trees illegally harvested throughout the world where entire ecosystems are being deforested and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing that is devastating oceans. These illicit markets, estimated at $1 trillion annually, cause enormous environmental impacts and have the potential to unleash new, deadly pathogens.
The 天美影视传媒 and Amazon today announced the Science Hub, an effort that deepens the relationship between the two organizations and will advance innovation in core robotics, artificial intelligence technologies and their applications.
New research led by scientists at the 天美影视传媒 indicates that a common mosquito species 鈥� after detecting a telltale gas that we exhale 鈥� flies toward specific colors, including red, orange, black and cyan. The mosquitoes ignore other colors, such as green, purple, blue and white. The researchers believe these findings help explain how mosquitoes find hosts, since human skin, regardless of overall pigmentation, emits a strong red-orange 鈥渟ignal鈥� to their eyes.
The UW Custodian Project is advocating for custodians, lifting their voices and raising awareness about their important roles on campus. As part of the project, an art exhibit called 鈥�(in)Visibility鈥� is hanging in UW Tower through March. It features photos taken by 16 custodians, paired with their testimonials.
New research from the 天美影视传媒 shows that people in states with higher medical debt and lower rates of insurance coverage are more likely to try to raise money but less likely to succeed.
天美影视传媒 researchers report that yeast cells can actively regulate a process called phase separation in one of their membranes. During phase separation, the membrane remains intact but partitions into multiple, distinct zones or domains that segregate lipids and proteins. The new findings show for the first time that, in response to environmental conditions, yeast cells precisely regulate the temperature at which their membrane undergoes phase separation.
Researchers at the 天美影视传媒 have developed a new test for COVID-19 that combines the speed of over-the-counter antigen tests with the accuracy of PCR tests that are processed in medical labs and hospitals. The Harmony COVID-19 test is a diagnostic test that, like PCR tests for COVID-19, detects genetic material from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But whereas conventional PCR tests can take several hours, the Harmony kit can provide results in less than 20 minutes for some samples and with similar accuracy.
Many nations are calling for protection of 30% of the world鈥檚 oceans by 2030 from some or all types of exploitation, including fishing. Building off this proposal, a new analysis led by the 天美影视传媒 looks at how effective fishing closures are at reducing accidental catch. Researchers found that permanent marine protected areas are a relatively inefficient way to protect marine biodiversity that is accidentally caught in fisheries. Dynamic ocean management 鈥� changing the pattern of closures as accidental catch hotspots shift 鈥� is much more effective.
Like humans, wild animals often return to the same places to eat, walk on the same paths to travel and use the same places to raise their young. A team led by researchers at the 天美影视传媒 and the University of Wyoming has reviewed the scientific literature and found that, while 鈥渃onsistent鈥� behavior may be beneficial when environmental conditions don鈥檛 change very fast, those benefits may not be realized in the ever-changing world dominated by humans.
In 2019, 天美影视传媒 researchers witnessed the consequences of an extreme heat event in Argentina at one of the world鈥檚 largest breeding colonies for Magellanic penguins. On Jan. 19, temperatures at the site in Punta Tombo, on Argentina鈥檚 southern coast, spiked in the shade to 44 C, or 111.2 F. As the team reports in a paper published Jan. 4 in the journal Ornithological Applications, the extreme heat wave killed at least 354 penguins, based on a search for bodies by UW researchers in the days following the record high temperature. Nearly three-quarters of the penguins that died 鈥� 264 鈥� were adults, many of which likely died of dehydration, based on postmortem analyses.
UW researchers investigated disparities in exposure to six major air pollutants in 1990, 2000 and 2010 by comparing models of air pollution levels to census data. While overall pollutant concentrations have decreased since 1990, people of color are still more likely to be exposed to all six pollutants than white people, regardless of income level, across the continental United States.
A new study from the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the 天美影视传媒 explores not only how the pandemic economy impacted donations to, and the operations of, charitable organizations, but also how nonprofits responded to the simultaneous call for racial justice.
New research shows that machine learning 鈥� computer algorithms that improve themselves without direct programming by humans 鈥� can be used to improve forecasts for lightning, one of the most destructive forces of nature.
A team led by the UW has developed a new, non-destructive method that images entire 3D biopsies instead of a slice for determining prostate cancer aggressiveness. The 3D images provided more information than a 2D image 鈥� specifically, details about the tree-like structure of the glands throughout the tissue.
A team at the 天美影视传媒 and the University of Bern has computationally simulated more than 200,000 hypothetical Earth-like worlds all in orbit of stars like our sun. As they report in a paper accepted to the Planetary Science Journal and submitted Dec. 6 to the preprint site arXiv, on these simulated exoplanets, one common feature of present-day Earth was often lacking: partial ice coverage. About 90% of these potentially habitable hypothetical worlds lacked partial surface ice like polar caps.
Seismologists used 30 detailed simulations of magnitude-9 slips on the Cascadia Subduction Zone to evaluate how the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system would perform in these events. Results show the alerts generally work well, but suggest that lower alert thresholds provide more timely warnings over the full area that will feel the shaking.
Children as young as age 6 develop stereotypes that girls aren’t interested in computer science and engineering, according to new research from the 天美影视传媒 and the University of Houston.
Not long after the 2016 general election, faculty at the 天美影视传媒鈥檚 Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity (CCDE) recognized a need for students, especially BIPOC students, to talk about their experience of race.
Arriving at the 天美影视传媒鈥檚 Seattle campus, Brandon Green had a familiar feeling of disorientation.
Green, 33, who transferred to the UW from Everett Community College after spending seven years as a U.S. Army medic, had travelled the U.S. and the globe, including two tours in Afghanistan. He鈥檇 undergone rigorous training and knew what it was like to deploy to foreign, often dangerous places.
Even with all that experience, college life was different.
天美影视传媒 researchers looked at almost 56,000 political ads from almost 750 news sites between September 2020 and January 2021.
Public health messages such as in the image below 鈥� designed to reduce parents鈥� purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages marketed as fruit drinks for children 鈥� convinced a significant percentage of parents to avoid those drinks, according to a study by researchers at the 天美影视传媒 and the University of Pennsylvania. The UW-led study set out to assess the effect of culturally tailored countermarketing messages on drink choices, similar to stark anti-smoking campaigns, and involved more than 1,600 Latinx parents…
Results show that by the end of this century, lower-oxygen water on the Pacific Northwest coast will pose the biggest threat to Dungeness crabs. And while these crabs start as tiny, free-floating larvae, it鈥檚 the sharp-clawed adults that will be most vulnerable.
In a rare stroke of luck, researchers from the 天美影视传媒, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, were able to track a group of black-tailed deer during and after California鈥檚 third-largest wildfire, the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire. The megafire, which torched more than 450,000 acres in northern California, burned across half of an established study site, making it possible to record the movements and feeding patterns of deer before, during and after the fire.
Many animals have tusks, from elephants to walruses to hyraxes. But one thing tusked animals have in common is that they鈥檙e all mammals 鈥� no known fish, reptiles or birds have them. But that was not always the case. In a study published Oct. 27 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of paleontologists at Harvard University, the Field Museum, the 天美影视传媒 and Idaho State University traced the first tusks back to dicynodonts 鈥� ancient mammal relatives that lived before the dinosaurs.
The 天美影视传媒 climbed one spot to No. 7 on the聽U.S. News & World Report鈥檚 Best Global Universities rankings, released on Oct. 26. The UW maintained its No. 2 ranking among U.S. public institutions.
The 天美影视传媒鈥檚 newest class of undergraduate students is robust and diverse, according to the finalized fall 2021 census of enrolled students.
Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ed Taylor chats with Director of the UW Resilience Lab Megan Kennedy about how students, faculty and staff can create a more supportive, compassionate environment in which to learn and discover as the 天美影视传媒 community comes back to the campuses and recovers from the traumas of the last two years.
A 天美影视传媒 researcher is part of an international team that has used modern tools to explain repeating patterns of stones that form in frost-prone landscapes.
To better identify and prevent future pandemics, the 天美影视传媒 has become a partner in a five-year global, collaborative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The newly launched Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens – Viral Zoonoses, or DEEP VZN project, has approximately $125 million in anticipated funding and will be led by Washington State University. The effort will build scientific capacity in partner countries to safely detect and characterize viruses which have the potential to spill…
When you get into the car of the app-based driver you just tapped up on your phone, you expect and hope the driver and the car are safe and capable of getting you where you need to go. Apps rate drivers, which you can see. But what if the driver is sick? What if the car has a mechanical problem? What if the driver has simply had a bad day? What you may not have realized is that the driver…
New research by the 天美影视传媒 shows that states聽eased聽pandemic restrictions, such as gathering limits and business closures,聽based on politics as much as聽COVID-19聽death rates聽or聽case counts.聽
A new study has found that recent bigleaf maple die-off in Washington is linked to hotter, drier summers that predispose this species to decline. These conditions essentially weaken the tree鈥檚 immune system, making it easier to succumb to other stressors and diseases.
For researchers around the world working to understand and treat Alzheimer鈥檚 and eventually find a cure, data from clinical exams of patients suffering from this complex neurodegenerative disease needs to be standardized and accessible. Since 1999, that鈥檚 what the National Alzheimer鈥檚 Coordinating Center (NACC), housed in the UW School of Public Health鈥檚 Department of Epidemiology, has been doing. With funding from the NIH鈥檚 National Institute on Aging, the UW center began collecting data from another set of centers housed in…
On Sept. 28, the National Science Foundation announced $15 million, five-year grant to integrate AI tools into the scientific research and discovery process. The award will fund the Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery Institute 鈥� or A3D3 Institute 鈥� a partnership of nine universities, led by the 天美影视传媒.
天美影视传媒 Associate Professor Wendy Barrington will be the featured speaker at the university鈥檚 38th annual New Student Convocation. Barrington has joint appointments in the Department of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing in the School of Nursing and the departments of Epidemiology and of Health Systems and Population Health in the School of Public Health.