Research

September 18, 2024

Turning the tide

A UW mentorship program created in partnership with Black in Marine Science and The Nature Conservancy expands access to marine biology for underrepresented communities.


September 13, 2024

Novel approach

With new support of private equity, CoMotion is helping a UW professor's quest to diagnose Alzheimer's earlier.


September 12, 2024

In tune with babies

UW researchers note that music enhances the neural response to speech in infants. They also discover that families are not talking or singing directly to their children as much as they thought.


September 11, 2024

Learning from disaster

Along with Oregon State, Virginia Tech and the University of Florida, researchers from the UW are studying natural disaster data to better respond to these hazards.


Small town, big dreams

UW's Livable City Year program worked with the city of Snohomish to support their economic development. Next up: Granite Falls and Mukilteo.


June 6, 2024

Remote learning

UW field biologists flock to Tetiaroa, a bird lover's dream.


February 24, 2024

A man with a beard stares with determination in front of laboratory equipment

Clean energy urgency

The UW’s Clean Energy Institute is speeding the development of next-generation technology and supporting the experts who will create it.


February 23, 2024

A student wearing a hard hat and safety goggles smiles

Mix masters

At the Concrete Materials Lab, UW students are testing ways to bring concrete into a sustainable future.


Four men in construction uniforms walk near a large stadium construction site

Studying modern slavery

Professor Anita Ramasastry is part of a global commission investigating the rise of forced labor.


Collage of images featuring David Plunkert smiling, a green grassy field, a seascape, and a grid of animals and plants, including a bear, a goose, a bee and a tree.

The nature of nature

It’s no surprise that the federal government turned to the UW to head up an assessment of America's lands, waters and wildlife.


Several men stand fishing on a busy pier

Hope against peril

A team of University of Washington researchers and scientists is helping coastal communities prepare for a tsunami and other associated risks. 


November 25, 2023

1,100 years ago, double earthquake hit Seattle region, researchers prove

Solving a seismic mystery, researchers prove the Northwest was once hit with a double whammy.


November 24, 2023

Rousing research

UW leaders thought having students do research would prepare them to take on the future. It became a national model.


September 2, 2023

Compostable plastic

UW researchers have developed new bioplastics that degrade on the same timeline as a banana peel in a backyard compost bin.


May 29, 2023

Coastal meets celestial

While some universities boast of their land grants, the UW is where you’ll find cutting-edge research and education on sea and space.


May 28, 2023

Our part for the planet

A UW workshop showcases how climate change innovations on campuses can benefit surrounding communities and beyond.


February 26, 2023

Plant power

Doctoral student Natalia Guayazán Palacios works to understand how plants and microorganisms coexist.


February 25, 2023

Parasite paradox

Using specimens from the Burke Museum, a research team finds a worrisome decline.


November 3, 2022

At home on campus

Studies show that students who feel a sense of belonging are more likely to thrive in college and experience better personal wellbeing.


October 2, 2022

Turning the tide

Seattle’s waterfront is getting a major makeover — with a little help from the UW.


September 20, 2022

Let's do something about it

By supporting students, professors and research-based solutions to global problems, Leo Maddox Schneider's family is honoring his passion for learning and making a difference.


September 2, 2022

Hellish for shellfish

After an unprecedented Pacific Northwest heat wave, shellfish died at alarming rates. Tribal scientists and UW researchers figure out why.


May 29, 2022

Why we walk

We were bipedal before we were human. But science still has much to explore about how we evolved—body and brain—to be walkers.


Finishing the sequence

UW researchers are contributors to the groundbreaking work of the Human Genome Project.


March 5, 2022

Dinosaur dreams

Zeke Augustine, ’23, has sifted through soil for microscopic fossils and helped dig up a Triceratops. The Burke Museum has been at the heart of it all.


Power of innovation

A new UW facility will bring together scientists, engineers and students to develop clean-energy solutions for a healthy planet and a sustainable future.


Tech can be tricky

A pilot project will establish a public-interest technology clinic to serve local community organizations and governments.


December 4, 2021

Kelsie Abrams, wearing a bright pink shirt and khaki pants, uses a brush to uncover fossils at a dig site in Montana.

Fossil finds

A site in Montana yields a triceratops skull and other rare dinosaur fossils.


A black Labrador with amber eyes named Jasper lays in the grass with an orange and blue ball in his mouth.

Unleashing dogs’ power

The UW’s Conservation Canines calls on dogs’ noses to find answers to pressing environmental questions.


Ben Hall stands at a whiteboard holding a blue marker and wearing a light blue shirt.

License to innovate

The Washington Research Foundation was founded 40 years ago to capture the value of inventions coming out of the UW.


Illustration depicting a giant evil smartphone terrorizing Seattle.

Fighting the infodemic

Twisted facts, fake news and social media spoofs can turn society upside down. One UW team is working to help us through the infodemic.


September 11, 2021

Where stars are born

At the UW's Friday Harbor Laboratories, scientists give sunflower sea stars a chance to shine.


At a loss?

UW experts explain how to distinguish between memory loss and simple forgetfulness.


August 31, 2021

Land of fire and smoke

Ernesto Alvarado will be the first to tell you: You can’t suppress all of a region’s fires when they’re as much a part of the ecology as its flora and fauna.


June 10, 2021

Green goblins

The invasive European green crab is spreading, and Washington fisheries are in danger.


June 7, 2021

New law of physics

UW researchers have discovered a new law of fluid mechanics, a branch of physics, that will affect the future of aircraft design.


May 11, 2021

Evictions continue

Washington landlords are finding ways around the pandemic-related moratoriums on evictions, and this is disproportionately affecting people of color.


March 4, 2021

Floating robots

The UW will soon be deploying a fleet of floating robots in oceans around the world.


September 16, 2020

Mapping landslide risk

UW engineers are developing a new mapping system to quantify landslide risk in the prone areas of Seattle


September 11, 2020

For our health

The UW is putting its combined brainpower into population health, improving lives around the world.


June 24, 2020

IHME in the spotlight

As the pandemic expanded across the country, IHME projections became a resource for local, regional and national leaders as they responded.


June 10, 2020

The ultimate puzzle

Doctoral student Emily Rabe loves puzzles. Now she's working on one with high stakes—one that could have a significant impact on our planet’s health.


June 4, 2020

Her work spans oceans

Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño studies issues such as global environmental change, ocean acidification and microplastics in the ocean.


March 30, 2020

Eye on baby's breath

A UW team has used hardware similar to an Amazon Echo to create a smart speaker that detects the breathing motions of an infant’s chest.


March 12, 2020

Fishing for arsenic

Researchers study the movement of water and heavy metals’ impact on aquatic life in lakes near Tacoma.


March 10, 2020

Under the influence

What effect does a parent's marijuana use have on kids? We asked a UW researcher.


For an informed public

The UW's Center for an Informed Public is a response to the rise in disinformation and erosion of trust in our most basic societal institutions.


December 1, 2019

A tern for the worse

Feeding the wrong food to chicks could spell disaster for several species of terns.


November 24, 2019

Calling all dogs

A UW-led study is recruiting 10,000 canines and their companions for a study of dogs’ health as they age.


September 10, 2019

Protecting life in Cambodia

Climate change threatens fish runs and the livelihood and food resources for millions of Cambodians.


September 2, 2019

Warming sea

A die-off points to a larger-scale, longer-term problem with the food supply caused by warming seas.


June 3, 2019

Energy’s new wave

Converting ocean waves into electricity poses challenges—and promise.


November 30, 2018

Tech for mental health

UW Medicine researchers are exploring how a smartphone might help someone manage a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.


August 26, 2018

Sharks spin a tale

Great white sharks dive deep into the Atlantic’s clockwise-spinning warm-water whirlpools.


June 4, 2018

Rethinking drugs

Ingrid Walker wants to change the way media and government frame our perceptions about illicit drugs, and the people who use them.


No easy tusk

Marine biologist Kristin Laidre is living her dream of studying narwhals, the mysterious 2,000-pound mammals that are notoriously tricky to find.


December 15, 2017

The puzzle of aging

Building on decades of research and outreach, UW experts are piecing together new ways to live longer and better.


June 16, 2017

elephant art wolfe, sam wasser

Animal instinct

Biology professor Sam Wasser fights to save endangered species.


May 25, 2017

microaggressions, john crowley

Micro-damaging

Overt racism has long been linked to health disparities, but what about subtle slights?


March 1, 2017

population health, global health, health care

Tending to the world

Scientists, doctors and data collectors join forces for population health.


February 28, 2017

Birds’ brains

An over-the-counter health supplement can be linked linked to aggression in songbirds, suggesting health implications for people who may be using the DHEA hormone.


musicnet, machine learning

Note-worthy

STEM researchers at the UW have arranged a dataset to understand classical music.


September 1, 2016

Deep data

In April 2015, the Axial Seamount, an active underwater volcano about 300 miles off the coast of Oregon, erupted. For the first time ever, scientists, engineers and students from the UW and around the world could watch it in real time thanks to an elaborate array of sensors they installed a year earlier.


June 1, 2016

Nordic Noir

Scandinavian Studies Professor Andy Nestingen shares his research into the genre and how it contrasts with American Noir’s heroes and villains.


Urban evolution

The UW's Urban Ecology Research Lab studies how species change in response to cities.


March 1, 2016

Test driven

Here, we present the tales of two clinical trials of technology that one day could alleviate suffering and improve lives for the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from severe heart problems and kidney failure.


December 1, 2015

'Scarface' found

A team of scientists has identified a new species of “pre-mammal” based on fossils unearthed in Zambia’s Luangwa Basin in 2009. Its discoverers include Christian Sidor, UW professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum.


Sweet gratitude

Gratitude is universally considered a social good—the warm feeling that results from a kindness received. But it can have a dark side: It can impel us to eat more sweets, according to new research by Ann Schlosser, professor of marketing at the Foster School of Business.


Swim record

UW fisheries expert puts a number on Bristol Bay's annual sockeye salmon run.


September 1, 2015

High volume

Recordings by current and former UW researchers in fjords show that melting at glacier edges in the narrow rock-edged canyons are some of the noisiest places in the sea.


Cling like a fish

Scooting around in the shallow, coastal waters of Puget Sound is one of the world’s best suction cups. It’s called the Northern clingfish, and its small, finger-sized body uses suction forces to hold up to 150 times its own body weight.


Space explorers

Fifty years is no time at all for a universe that dates back 13.8 billion. But for those who study the sky, the past five decades have changed everything.


June 1, 2015

Blood stancher

An injectable polymer could keep soldiers and trauma patients from bleeding to death.


Mindfulness

Whether it’s coping with college or taming an addiction, mindfulness has real medical and practical benefits, and it’s something UW researchers have been exploring for decades.


A startling find

Since she was a student in pharmacy school, Shelly Gray has felt a strong connection to the situation many elderly patients find themselves in: “I was struck by how many different medications older adults are taking, as well as their struggle with trying to keep those medications straight,” she recalls.


Hazy on the law

More than two years after Washington legalized marijuana, parents and teens may be hazy on the specifics of the law.


Leaves tell a story

Miniscule, fossilized pieces of plants could tell a detailed story of what the Earth looked like 50 million years ago.


March 1, 2015

Brain discovery

A couple of years ago a scientist looking at dozens of MRI scans of human brains noticed something surprising: a large fiber pathway that seemed to be part of the network of connections that process visual information.


Mirage Earths

Planets orbiting close to low-mass stars—the most common stars in the universe—are prime targets in the search for extraterrestrial life. But new research led by an astronomy graduate student at the UW indicates some such planets may have long since lost their chance at hosting life.


Baby face

It’s a game parents like to play: What will my child look like when she grows up? A computer could now answer the question in less than a minute.


Brain spotting

Football concussions get a lot of attention, but UW researchers want to know how a single brain injury can affect an ordinary person decades down the line.


December 1, 2014

Clues from bird brains

Brain cells that multiply to help birds sing their best during breeding season are known to die back naturally later in the year. For the first time, researchers have described the series of events that cue new neuron growth each spring.


Phone training

Mobile phones have become second-nature for most people. What’s coming next, say UW researchers, is the ability to interact with our devices not just with touchscreens, but through gestures in the space around the phone.


Toddler logic

Researchers have found that children as young as 2 intuitively use mathematical concepts such as probability to help make sense of the world.


September 1, 2014

Tide turner

Tidal power holds tremendous potential, especially here in the Evergreen State, because of the sheer volume of water moving in and out of Puget Sound each day.


Robot response

UW electrical engineers have developed telerobotics technology that could make disaster response faster and more efficient.


June 1, 2014

Robot observers

This fall the UW will complete installation of a massive digital ocean observatory. Dozens of instruments will connect to power and Internet cables on the sea floor, but the observatory also includes a new generation of ocean explorers: robots that will zoom up and down through almost two miles of ocean to monitor the water conditions and marine life above.


March 1, 2014

Lake Mars

The mystery of how the surface of Mars, long dead and dry, could have flowed with water billions of years ago may have been solved by research that included a University of Washington astronomer.


Brain sugar

A growing body of evidence suggests that the brain plays a key role in glucose regulation and the development of type 2 diabetes.


Genetic echo

Researchers led by Dr. John Stamatoyannopoulos have discovered a second code hiding within DNA. This second code contains information that changes how scientists read the instructions contained in DNA and interpret mutations to make sense of health and disease.


Got data. Now what?

At the UW, the best minds are collaborating to ask questions and harness the power of “Big Data” to find answers and seek solutions to advance the common good.


December 1, 2013

Autism onset

Between ages 3 and 10, children with autism spectrum disorder exhibit distinct brain chemical changes that differ from children with developmental delays and those with typical development, according to a new study led by UW researchers.


Distracted drivers

In Washington state’s first study to examine driver use of electronic devices, UW investigators saw that more than 8 percent of drivers were engaging with such devices behind the wheel, higher than previously estimated.


Brain bonding

UW researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.


Robot bonds

Julie Carpenter, who earned her doctorate in education from the UW in June, isn’t interested in fantasy movie robots. She wants to know something more serious: the social relationship between robots and their operators in the military.


September 1, 2013

The inspiration inquiry

Expanding the boundaries of knowledge in dance, theater and other performing arts requires research of a different stripe.


Wi-Fi lifestyle

Thanks to gesture-recognition technology developed by University of Washington computer scientists, you may soon be able to brew a pot of coffee, shut off your computer, and turn up the stereo with just a few waves of your hands.


Pollution pall

For years, scientists regarded the decades of drought in Central Africa that reached an apex in the 1980s as the result of poor agricultural practices and overgrazing. New University of Washington research, however, shows that the drought was caused at least in part by Northern Hemisphere air pollution.


Finding phosphorous

Life on Earth may have never come to exist if not for some meteorites that pelted the planet billions of years ago.


Keeping kids clean and sober

An answer to teen drug use isn’t quite as simple as “just say no.” Many teenagers know they are supposed to say no to tobacco, alcohol and other drugs but they don’t know why.