Coral reefs provide protection for fish, and researchers are interested in how the health of the reef affects the ability of fish to communicate with each other. This fall, Jj Milan, a UW doctoral student in the biology department, and UW research scientist Bob Oxborrow are traveling to the Maldives to study how humbug damselfish communicate with each other.
Recent news about AI safety is fueling a new wave of political and societal fear.聽Five UW AI researchers discuss the real risks of AI and what to do about them.
A UW-led research team has discovered the best-preserved fossil feathers from the Mesozoic era 鈥� in fossilized dinosaur poop. Some of these feathers have features that look like modern birds鈥� feathers. This finding can help researchers better understand why and how some birds survived the catastrophic event 66 million years ago that killed 75% of life on the planet.
American public health agencies don鈥檛 routinely test wastewater for sexually transmitted infections, but new research led by the 黑料老司机 and the Washington State Department of Health found that such methods could be used to effectively identify Chlamydia trachomatis, the bacteria that causes chlamydia.
A new UW study shows a nine-fold increase in coyote density in Seattle compared to natural areas of Washington state. Coyotes in urban environments have fewer predators and more prey, which may help explain the national trend.
Melinda Webster, a research scientist at the UW鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory, is the lead author on a new study that catalogs changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice over the past 50-plus years. She spoke with UW News about the story behind the numbers.
黑料老司机 researchers gathered eight kids on campus to explore how they played with AI toys. The kids initially were curious, asking introductory questions, such as 鈥淲hat is your name?鈥� But after communication breakdowns, the kids turned to antagonizing the toys, calling them 鈥渦gly鈥� and 鈥渆vil鈥� and joking about throwing them in the ocean.
Explore recent research from the 黑料老司机: nectar-stealing Hawaiian honeycreepers, ChatGPT and anxious attachment, the cost of nursing for marine mammals, new magnetic nanomaterials, and a new strategy to subdue finicky plasma.
Astronomers at the 黑料老司机 simulated four Milky Way-sized galaxies for five billion (virtual) years to test a leading theory about how dark matter might influence streams of orbiting stars. The results could help researchers separate true evidence of dark matter from false positives.
Dominic Muren, UW teaching professor of design, and Adrienne Russell, UW professor of communication, examine environmental problems from a perspective beyond the hard sciences. They spoke to UW News about what today鈥檚 energy crises reveal about contemporary societies鈥� dependence on fossil fuels and how we can create a 鈥渟olar-powered system.鈥�
A new study attributes Antarctica’s brief stabilization to a short term climatic shift that increased precipitation over east Antarctica between 2021 and 2023, adding enough snow to temporarily balance ice loss at the continent鈥檚 edges.
Hossein Naghavi, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UW, explores new applications for an underused segment of the electromagnetic spectrum known as the 鈥渢erahertz band.鈥� Naghavi recently received a grant from the Department of Energy to create powerful yet lightweight sensors using terahertz waves, which could aid emergency responders, autonomous vehicles, security systems and more.
After tracking birds in the Puget Sound lowlands for 12 years, researchers conclude that birds respond better to some development configurations than others, highlighting measures developers can take to protect native species while still meeting the region鈥檚 growing demands.
AI systems such as Google鈥檚 Gemini Storybook now let parents or teachers conjure illustrated, personalized kids stories. UW researchers found that when six leading AI models made stories about talking animals, 57% of characters were either gender neutral or ungendered, 41% were male, and just 2% were female.
As fires rage and smoke smothers the Pacific Northwest, UW News sat down with five UW experts in fire science, forestry, air pollution and more to ask how they manage wildfire season.聽
A new study using data from NASA鈥檚 Hubble Space Telescope found that star formation in the nearby Andromeda galaxy has undergone a 500-million-year decline, with an even steeper drop in the last 40 million years.
Explore recent research from the 黑料老司机: a new AI framework for developing advanced materials, a test of climate models鈥� ability to predict temperature trends, and the role of paternal body odor in brain-to-brain synchrony with infants.
黑料老司机 researchers created the Landslide Exposure Database, the first resource that maps per-building landslide vulnerability across the United States. The study estimates that roughly 6.5 million U.S. residents are highly vulnerable to landslides, and overturns the conventional picture of landslide risk in the U.S. by identifying high concentrations of exposure in Appalachia as well as a surprising urban-rural divide.
Researchers at the 黑料老司机 are investigating how genetic changes impact the severity of schizophrenia symptoms. A new study supports the idea that deletions in genes that regulate early brain and neuron development are associated with more severe features of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, particularly lower cognitive abilities.
Researchers at the 黑料老司机 and partners at Carnegie Mellon University are collaborating on a new project to help scientists use artificial intelligence to better understand the universe.
A new 黑料老司机 study maps how the 2001 roadless rule protects U.S. rivers, and how rescinding the rule could impact access to clean drinking water, biodiversity, outdoor recreation and more.
A new study from Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, UW associate professor of anthropology, warns that the future of rice 鈥� arguably the most important crop on Earth 鈥� is in danger. Due to rising temperatures driven by climate change, projections show that Asia鈥檚 major rice-producing regions may soon pass the thermal limits that have remained consistent throughout the crop鈥檚 history. This would create unparalleled challenges in a region where more than a billion people rely on rice cultivation for their livelihoods.
The Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF鈥揇OE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially begun its ten-year survey of the southern sky, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.
Explore recent research from the 黑料老司机: low-income communities and communities of color disproportionately impacted by air pollution, an unfathomably fast chemical reaction, ups and downs in the methane record, and the cigar galaxy pictured at high resolution.
The prevalence of Bigg鈥檚 killer whales is increasing in Puget Sound, while the chances of sighting the southern residents remains slim, and pod-specific.
A 黑料老司机-led research team created GovScape, an efficient search system for PDFs from the End of Term Web Archive. Users can look up exact keywords, like 鈥淔AFSA,鈥� or use semantic search, which finds documents on a topic even if the exact search terms don鈥檛 appear on the page. Because researchers used highly efficient artificial intelligence models, processing the 10 million PDFs hosted online during Donald Trump鈥檚 first term costs less than $1,500, or about $1 per 47,000 pages.
While the majority of the world just wants to swat mosquitoes, three 黑料老司机 researchers find these insects fascinating. They told UW News what it’s like to study mosquitoes and why these critters are actually really important.
黑料老司机 researchers developed an artificial intelligence system that automatically estimates the environmental impacts of making different electronic devices. The system takes only a minute to run and achieves estimates with accuracy similar to human experts鈥�.
New computing techniques 鈥� including AI and quantum computing 鈥� are enabling UW researchers to design unique and complex quantum materials.
Every summer, UW researchers head to northern Botswana to study how large predators, such as lions and African wild dogs, are affected by climate change and other shifts in their environment. UW News asked a few team members to describe their plans for this summer.
New research from Abhinav Gupta, professor of management at the 黑料老司机, shows the increased public attention on racial injustice after the murder of George Floyd influenced how Black and white employees interacted at work. The study examines how major societal events tied to race and injustice can shape workplace behavior.
Researchers have completed all planned seismic monitoring station installations for the regional ShakeAlert early warning system. They are now turning their attention to offshore seismic monitoring, which could improve detection and warning time for the much-anticipated Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.
Efforts to restore fish passage are cropping up across the country, but these projects come with hefty price tags. In a new study, 黑料老司机 researchers explore different approaches to improving the benefits from investments in salmon recovery.
UW researchers examined almost 3,000 science guidelines and assessment questions for any connections to society. Of the approximately 200 elements that had real-world implications, many discussed ethics and public health issues.
Explore recent research from the 黑料老司机: how climate change is redirecting rivers, what bean plants use to protect themselves from pests, where the water in an atmospheric river comes from and how researchers are making tensegrities tiny.
Marina Alberti, a 黑料老司机 professor of urban design and planning, studies how cities and natural ecosystems influence one another. UW News spoke to Alberti about how climate change is triggering evolutionary change within nature-based infrastructure projects 鈥� and what urban planners can do about it.
Burrowing shrimp, native to Washington, create problems for shellfish farmers. As their name suggests, these creatures burrow in marine sediments, and the excavated material piles up on the surface, which can smother oysters and clams growing there. State-funded research led by the 黑料老司机 offers a new, non-chemical approach to controlling shrimp populations in shellfish-growing areas.
In a new study, 黑料老司机 scientists eavesdropped on Cook Inlet belugas to better understand the context of their calls and how human noise is impacting their ability to communicate with each other.
Super Typhoon Sinlaku caused widespread damage on the Mariana islands in April, leaving many people without power, tearing roofs off homes and destroying vital infrastructure. Several ongoing UW research projects focused on native birds and plants were disrupted.
黑料老司机 researchers launched a pilot app that maps 鈥榣ittle free pantries鈥� throughout the Seattle area and gives pantry users and donors new tools to communicate with and help one another.