Research

December 1, 2008

Potential breakthrough

Aided by external wires that rerouted signals from their brains, two macaques regained control of their paralyzed wrists and played a simple video game.


Clean and green

If, in 15 years, you’re driving a car powered by pond scum, you’ll probably have Rose Ann Cattolico to thank. The UW biology professor thinks algae is the most promising source of alternative energy out there.


September 1, 2008

Sick from cleaning

According to a study by Anne Steinemann, a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs, many of today’s top-selling dryer sheets, detergents and plug-in deodorizers contain toxic chemicals.


Nature's calmer

When it comes to defeating stress, hi-def can’t hold a candle to the real thing, according to a study by the UW Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab.


Fish armor up

When Washingtonians initiated a lake cleanup and visibility jumped from about 30 inches to 25 feet, the stickleback had a challenge: Evolve or die. The fish’s solution? Revert to an earlier design.


School of Robofish

UW researchers have put a new spin on the fin: they’ve made a robotic fish that can communicate with its schoolmates.


March 1, 2008

Sea levels on the rise

Melting glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, combined with other effects of global climate change, are likely to raise sea levels in parts of Western Washington by the end of this century.


December 1, 2007

Obesity & economics

UW researchers found that the more affluent the neighborhood, the lower the obesity rate.


Soul searchers

If you kept changing your major and rethinking your career options while you were a UW student, you had lots of company, according to the first truly comprehensive study of undergraduate education in the nation—UW SOUL.


September 1, 2007

Genetics prize winner

According to the Gruber Foundation, the human genome would have been “an impossible jigsaw puzzle” without the work of UW Medicine and Genome Sciences Professor Maynard Olson.


Honoring a legend

The University will salute UW Genome Sciences and Biology Professor Benjamin Hall Oct. 17 when it dedicates its newest research facility in his honor.


Woes of Kilimanjaro

UW researchers say global warming has nothing to do with the decline of Kilimanjaro’s ice, and using the mountain in northern Tanzania as a “poster child” for climate change is simply inaccurate.


Record research funding

The University of Washington received over $1 billion in grant and contract research funding for 2006-07, marking the first time it has reached this level.


$1 billion for research

Word came in August that the University of Washington finally had hit an elusive target—last fiscal year, more than one billion dollars in research funding poured into the University.


June 1, 2007

Toddlers take a cue

For the first time, UW researchers have confirmed that toddlers engage in “emotional eavesdropping”—changing their own behavior in response to an emotional exchange that does not involve them.


March 1, 2007

Immigrant mental health

Immigrants from Asia have lower rates of psychiatric disorders than American-born Asians and other native-born Americans, according to the first national epidemiological survey of Asian Americans in the United States.


Burial at sea

Some people will go to great lengths to obtain a dead whale. That includes David Duggins, supervisor of marine operations at the UW's Friday Harbor Laboratories.


December 1, 2006

Cool idea

University of Washington researchers have succeeded in building a cooling device tiny enough to fit on a computer chip.


June 1, 2006

Funny papers

A map in The Daily seemed to be a helpful aid for campus newcomers. But those who followed it soon found themselves hopelessly lost—and miles from their intended destinations.


March 1, 2006

Mating dance

Scientists have been able to link skillful dancing to established measures of human desirability and attractiveness.