Natural Sciences in the News

Seattle's 'Mr. Sundial' takes his passion to next level: garage ceiling

Woody Sullivan is the UW astronomy professor known as "Mr. Sundial" for making Seattle the unlikely sundial capital of North America. Now he's recreated a Renaissance ceiling sundial in his home office. Learn more at UW Today.
5/17/2013

Symposium features undergraduate research

More than 1,000 undergraduates will showcase their contributions to innovative and groundbreaking research at the 16th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, May 17 in Mary Gates Hall. Learn more at UW Today.
5/17/2013

Portable planetarium offers night sky view in Forks

University of Washington astronomy students will offer residents a closer look into the sky with a their mobile planetarium -- a fully functional planetarium that offers many of the same images as the high-tech version at the UW. Learn more at Port Angeles Peninsula Daily News.
4/30/2013

Dinosaur predecessors gain ground in wake of world's biggest biodiversity crisis

Newly discovered fossils from 10 million years after the mass extinction reveal a lineage of animals thought to have led to dinosaurs taking hold in Tanzania and Zambia in the mid-Triassic period, many millions of years before dinosaur relatives were seen in the fossil record elsewhere on Earth. Learn more at UW Today.
4/29/2013

Astronomer studies far-off worlds through 'characterization by proxy'

UW astronomer Sarah Ballard is using Earth's interstellar neighbors to learn the nature of certain stars too far away to be directly measured or observed, and the planets they may host. Learn more at UW Today.
4/25/2013

UW astronomer finds planet that may hold life

A team of astronomers announced that they've identified two earth-like planets orbiting a star not too unlike our own. Eric Agol, associate professor of astronomy, is one of the paper's authors. Learn more at Geek Wire.
4/19/2013

Astronomers discover five-planet system with most Earthlike exoplanet yet

A University of Washington astronomer has discovered perhaps the most Earth-like planet yet found outside the solar system by the Kepler Space Telescope. Learn more at UW Today.
4/18/2013

Footage reveals how insects hover

Super-slow motion footage of a moth in flight has revealed how the insects use their bodies to hover. The UW researchers who carried out this study are examining insect flight in order to "distill the biological principles of flight control." Learn more at BBC News.
4/18/2013

Physicists for a Day

Through a national program, ten high school students spent a recent Saturday as physicists, analyzing real data from the world's largest particle accelerator and discussing their findings with scientists at a national lab. Learn more at Perspectives newsletter.
4/18/2013

A Leader in Physics Education

Lillian C. McDermott has dedicated her career to improving physics education using scientific research methods. The American Association of Physics Teachers is honoring her for her contributions to the field. Learn more at Perspectives newsletter.
4/18/2013

A key to mass extinctions could boost food, biofuel production

A substance implicated in several mass extinctions could greatly enhance plant growth, with implications for global food supplies and biofuels, new UW research shows. Learn more at UW Today.
4/17/2013

Arts & Sciences faculty among 2013 Guggenheim Fellows

Professors Tom Daniel (Biology) and Yomi Braester (Comparative Literature) are among a prestigious group of 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship recipients. Learn more at www.gf.org.
4/15/2013

Listening to the Big Bang

A UW physicist has used new satellite data to update his decade-old recreation of the sound of the Big Bang at the birth of the universe. Learn more at UW Today.
4/4/2013

Early detection of lysosomal diseases

Michael Gelb, professor of chemistry, talks with KUOW about the costs and benefits of early detection of lysosomal diseases. Learn more at KUOW.
4/3/2013

Book focuses on 1969 fight to save America's premier fossil beds

Estella Leopold, biology professor emeritus, is co-author of a recently released book "Saved in Time: The Fight to Establish Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado." The book chronicles one of the nation's first explicitly environmental legal cases in which Leopold was a key player. Learn more at UW Today.
4/2/2013

Infant test for debilitating diseases set for mainstream

Early newborn screening techniques developed by two UW chemistry professors are drawing interest from companies that could use them in tests distributed nationally and around the world. Learn more at UW Today.
4/1/2013

Blue Mussels 'Hang On' Along Rocky Shores: For How Long?

At high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide--levels in line with expected concentrations over the next century--a blue mussel's byssal threads become weaker, less able to stretch and less able to attach to rocks, found scientists Emily Carrington, Michael O'Donnell and Matthew George of the University of Washington. Learn more at NSF.gov.
3/22/2013

The endangered-species trade: On the way out

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Fauna and Flora added 343 species of plants and animals to its endangered species lists at a recent conference. Samuel Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology, is quoted. Learn more at The Economist.
3/16/2013

Before You Swat that Fruitfly...

In a recent TED talk at Caltech, Michael Dickinson—UW biology professor, A&S alumnus, and MacArthur Fellow—spoke passionately and with humor about his research into insect brains and flight. Learn more at Perspectives newsletter.
3/12/2013

Plastics Reconsidered

A century ago, plastic was an exciting new discovery. Now it is used everywhere, from toys to food containers to medical supplies. The Burke Museum's Plastics Unwrapped exhibit explores our complicated relationship with plastic. Learn more at Perspectives newsletter.
3/12/2013

UW nautilus expedition may have spied new species

A University of Washington research team has captured color photographs of what could be a previously undocumented species of chambered nautilus, a cephalopod mollusk often classified as a "living fossil," in the waters off American Samoa in the South Pacific. Learn more at UW Today.
3/6/2013

'True grit' erodes assumptions about evolution

New research led by the University of Washington challenges the 140-year-old assumption that prehistoric mammals such as horses, rhinos and gazelles lived in grasslands. Learn more at UW Today.
3/4/2013

Tusk tracking will tackle illegal trade

UW biologist Sam Wasser pushes for more forensic testing of seized ivory to help track down poachers, slow elephant slaughter. Learn more at Nature.com.
2/27/2013

Mutant champions save imperiled species from almost-certain extinction

UW assistant professor of biology Benjamin Kerr is corresponding author of a paper examining the importance of early and gradual mutations among bacteria populations when confronted with surviving would be extinction-causing conditions. Learn more at UW Today.
2/19/2013

Mussels cramped by environmental factors

Professor of biology Emily Carrington reported Saturday that the fibrous threads she calls "nature's bungee cords" become 60 percent weaker in water that was 15 degrees F above typical summer temperatures where the mussels were from. Learn more at UW Today.
2/18/2013


 

 

 

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