research
March 1, 2010
Lightning listener
Call him the lightning listener. Robert Holzworth, UW professor of earth and space sciences, directs the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), a series of stations around the globe that monitor pulses of radio waves generated by lightning strokes.
Breast cancer detection
An inexpensive, noninvasive test can accurately detect breast cancer in younger women, and has the potential to spare thousands from unnecessary surgeries and biopsies, according to new UW research.
MRSA digs in
Dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria are gaining a foothold in the natural environment, suggests recent research from the UW School of Public Health.
Ingenuity reigns
The UW I find myself returning to is innovative, entrepreneurial, alive. I am lucky to be here, helping tell its stories.
December 1, 2009
Record grant
The University of Washington is slated to receive its largest-ever federal award—$126 million over 5+ years—to connect the ocean to the Internet.
Vision for contacts
Babak Parviz’s vision of the future can be summed up in one word: plastic. A circle of flexible plastic imprinted with tiny electronic circuits, that is.
Self-destructing data
“The Internet never forgets.” That’s Tadayoshi Kohno, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering, explaining the inspiration behind a new program called Vanish, which causes data posted online to self-destruct.
Tree power
Researchers at MIT discovered electrical currents in trees last year, and now a UW team has built an electronic circuit that runs on tree power.
September 1, 2009
Long look underseas
Seagliders, under development since 1995 at the UW’s School of Oceanography and Applied Physics Laboratory, have repeatedly set world endurance and range records for autonomous underwater vehicles.
Clues to autism
UW scientists contributed to two recent studies that are beginning to unlock the genetic underpinnings of autism and related disorders.
Responding to H1N1
When a new influenza virus, Influenza A H1N1, or “swine flu,” emerged last spring, Anne Marie Kimball, a professor of epidemiology and health services at UW School of Public Health, was on the front lines of the information response.
Tablets of mystery
An ancient mystery, a modern-day academic debate, and state-of-the-art computer science—these are the elements of recent research by Rajesh Rao, UW associate professor of computer science and engineering.
June 1, 2009
Sweet spot
Parents may be able to chalk up their children’s preference for the tooth-achingly sweet to growing pains. That’s the possibility raised by new research led by UW Professor of Dental Public Health Sciences Susan Coldwell.
Feeling the heat
A study commissioned by the state Legislature is the most comprehensive look yet at how climate change is likely to affect the state.
Orca's best friend
The best way to gauge a whale’s health is to study its scat, and that requires a little Lab work.
March 1, 2009
Songbirds' secrets
UW Professor of Psychology and Zoology Michael Beecher wanted to understand the social dimensions of learning how and from whom birds learn to sing in the wild. So he and his students began tramping through the thickets of Seattle's Discovery Park to find out.
Knowing the enemy
A little more than 10 years ago, Kristin Swanson, a graduate student in applied mathematics at the UW, began work on an audacious project: an equation to model the growth and spread of brain tumors in individual patients.
Missing shots
Childhood vaccination rates are increasing, but not as quickly as many governments around the world have claimed. That's the conclusion of a new study by researchers at the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
Lifelines and vital signs
Richard Ladner is developing a variety of accessibility technologies to help people who are blind or deaf use computers, communicate and — perhaps closest to his heart — learn.
Sneaker swim
Curtis Ebbesmeyer recalls the event that first turned him on to flotsam: the Great Sneaker Spill of 1990.