It鈥檚 a dizzyingly busy time for scientists searching for life on distant planets. To date, astronomers have and are searching the atmospheres of the most promising worlds for chemicals that might be byproducts of life. are particularly interested in atmospheres like Earth鈥檚 that trap enough heat to support liquid water on the planet鈥檚 surface, which scientists consider the key factor in determining whether a planet can support life as we know it. 

But scientists also want to distinguish between habitable and inhabited worlds. To do that, they need to know what sorts of atmospheric conditions on a planet can be explained without life, so that they can identify planets with atmospheres that can only be explained by life鈥檚 influence.

To provide that planetary baseline, 黑料老司机 researchers built a complex virtual Earth with one crucial tweak: no life.

in The Planetary Science Journal, the researchers simulated the Earth鈥檚 geochemical systems for 5 billion years 鈥� from its formation 4.5 billion years ago through roughly 500 million years in the future. The simulation modeled the exchange of chemicals between the core, mantle, crust, surface and atmosphere over time. It accurately predicted 19 planetary properties like heat flow through the mantle, but left out the influence of life on those systems. The simulation can be generalized to predict how an atmosphere might evolve on any rocky planet, and can help pinpoint evidence of life in atmospheres that don鈥檛 fit the model.

鈥淭his model can help us see how habitable but non-living planets might mimic living planets,鈥� said lead author , who completed this research as a UW doctoral student of astronomy and is now a postdoctoral fellow at UC Riverside. 鈥淲hen we interpret observations of an exoplanet’s atmosphere, this tool will help us determine the probability that what we observe indicates life on the surface.鈥�

Gilbert-Janizek鈥檚 work builds on a model developed in the lab of senior author , a UW associate professor of astronomy. Earlier versions of the model simulated the core, mantle, crust and stellar radiation, but did not include the surface or atmosphere. 

A planet鈥檚 atmosphere is shaped by many nonbiological factors, including heat and gases from the interior and from the planet鈥檚 star. But the atmosphere of a distant planet is also where astronomers hope to spot explicit evidence of life.

There are many ways that life might change an atmosphere: On Earth, plants and animals pump steady streams of oxygen and methane into the sky. Those two elements destroy each other when they mingle. Thus, an alien astronomer studying our planet might suspect that something alive is replenishing the supply of both gases.

That logic led human astronomer Gilbert-Janizek to add surface and atmosphere modeling to the existing Earth simulation, completing the picture of how chemicals move through all of the Earth鈥檚 systems. 

The result is a model that can be tuned to study any rocky exoplanet that astrobiologists find interesting. Researchers can plug in basic details about that planet and run the simulation to see whether the model can reproduce the observed atmosphere without the influence of life. If they can鈥檛 get a match, the planet in question gets even more interesting.

鈥淒r. Gilbert-Janizek’s work represents an exciting step toward understanding where life can exist in the universe,鈥� Barnes said. 鈥淎fter more than a decade of work by many scientists, Dr. Gilbert-Janizek has finally completed a model of the Earth that simultaneously reproduces properties of Earth’s core, mantle, surface and atmosphere. That calibration gives us confidence that future simulations of exoplanets will be accurate.鈥�  

Gilbert-Janizek says the new and improved model can also help inform the design of future telescopes built to study distant planets, like the proposed . 

鈥淩ealizing the ambitious goals of a telescope like the Habitable Worlds Observatory requires decades of work across many generations of scientists,鈥� Gilbert-Janizek said. 鈥淚鈥檓 so grateful to join this lineage and one day pass the torch to the next generation so that we can continue chipping away at this question of whether or not we are alone in the universe.鈥�

Other UW co-authors include former astronomy doctoral students , now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oklahoma and , now a high school teacher in the Seattle area.

A complete list of co-authors is .

This research was funded by NASA.

For more information, contact Gilbert-Janizek at sgilbert@ucr.edu or Barnes at rory@astro.washington.edu.

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Artificial intelligence and religion may appear disparate, even contradictory, pursuits. After all, AI hubs like San Francisco and Seattle are Yet AI and religions share a central line of inquiry: What does it mean to be human?

In 2019, this question was top of mind for . They鈥檇 finished a seminary degree and were then a 黑料老司机 doctoral student in the Information School. So they developed the question into a special topics class on AI, robots and religion, which they鈥檝e taught ever since and for which they received this year. In the class, King, now an assistant teaching professor, has students do things like analyze whether 鈥� a movement to use technology to transcend human limits 鈥� is a religion.听

This year, news events have brought King鈥檚 question back to the forefront, intertwining AI and religion. In May, Pope Leo XIV issued . Anthropic has met , and people . News stories began to explore whether AI companies are .听

To help make sense of this moment, UW News spoke with King about their class, the pope鈥檚 view of AI and finding hope.听

Lately, there鈥檚 been a lot of characterization of companies like Anthropic as either cults or techno-religions. Do you find it accurate?听

WEK: I don鈥檛 think these characterizations are far off. In the 1950s, Edward Fredkin was one of the early AI developers who said AI technologies are our only hope for salvation and for transcending our human limitations and our insanity. So this idea that we’re going to destroy ourselves was in the context of the Cold War. We were fearing annihilation, and that’s not gone just because we’re not in that era anymore. There are still wars and violence and destruction that permeate various aspects of our society. And there are still elements of doomsday cults in some parts of AI.听

I also agree that these are like techno-religions. Ideologies 鈥� such as transhumanism, or 鈥� motivate so many of these development communities. I met someone recently who’s a chief disciple of a religious community that’s organized around these technologies. These religious formations around them are emerging; it’s happening. But even small things 鈥� like these hashtags, “blessed by the algorithm” 鈥� really surface what we as a culture believe about our creations.听

How does that culture affect the technologies they’re making and how they’re presenting them to the world?

WEK: There’s something powerful about thinking that you might be developing something godlike, that might help us know things that we couldn’t otherwise know. That kind of faith in techno-power could lead to some really harmful effects 鈥� like treating AI as infallible and outsourcing our messiest moral dilemmas rather than confronting our complicity in systems of oppression and environmental crises. I’m concerned about these possibilities, and that’s one of the reasons I’m really interested in sticking with this research. How do we imagine a different future than the ones that these techno-powers are imagining for us?

What have you learned from teaching your class on AI, robots and religion?

WEK: There’s a common trope that religion and technology have nothing to do with each other, but these things are deeply connected. It feels like there鈥檚 currently a firehose of information about these connections and a firestorm of questions. With Enlightenment thinking, we鈥檝e wanted to disconnect from our religious thought. We want to say that no, we can’t be superstitious, because religions are often categorized as this mystery. But through science and technology, we can prove things. And now we’re coming to find that maybe we can’t prove so many things, including solving the hard problem of measuring 鈥� and understanding 鈥� consciousness.

Is there an assignment that鈥檚 really stood out to you?听

WEK: I have students write a creation narrative. We read ancient Near East creation narratives 鈥� the , the Abrahamic tradition archived in Genesis 鈥� alongside narratives from Daoism and Buddhism. Then I ask them to 鈥渨rite a brief creation narrative an AI or community of AIs might write about their origins if AI were to achieve consciousness in the future.鈥� The students’ responses are fascinating. One of my favorites, early on, was like, “Well, Siri and 鈥� IBM鈥檚 AI assistant 鈥斕� gave rise to this baby鈥�” and I thought, oh my gosh, the Adam and Eve narrative and the idea that heterosexuality is the default have clearly influenced students’ thinking. I see less of that now, which is really interesting, to see them turning away from some of these dominant narratives and imagining totally different things.

Leading AI labs are working to transcend human limitations with their AI models. This seems to clash with many religions鈥� values and beliefs. For instance, Pope Leo XIV wrote in his encyclical on AI that 鈥渉umanity 鈥� in all its grandeur and woundedness 鈥� must never be replaced or surpassed.鈥� How are you thinking about such contradictions?

WEK: In “,” David Noble shows that even the idea of transcending our human limitations is motivated by Christian theology. There’s a lot in the Christian tradition saying that we need to progress and become something different. Some people think about this as a holy-human hybrid, that the spirit of God animates us and allows us to become something different. So, with the influence of the Enlightenment, or the turn away from religion, those ideas were projected onto our technologies. This idea of transcending is also very much located in a Protestant worldview that humans are deeply flawed, born in sin, and so we have to transcend our imperfection through the use of technology.听

One of my biggest concerns with the Pope’s view that technology should not surpass humans is that it continues to center humans. I don’t know if we should think of humans as insurpassable, because that feels like a very dominating position, and the means of domination that we’ve experienced and continue to experience in our world harms so many non-dominant communities and our planet. And that’s only one interpretation of these religious texts, of the Abrahamic tradition. Feminist and queer theologians have interpreted these things differently, thinking about stewardship and symbiotic relationships, that the Earth as a whole is way more important than centering and focusing on humans as the most important thing.听

We shouldn鈥檛 be developing these technologies only for human flourishing. We should develop them for flourishing 鈥� period.

What did you think of the Pope’s encyclical overall?

WEK: I think he got a lot of things right. I like his analysis of problems with labor, problems with power 鈥� and he doesn’t outright critique capitalism, but I think there’s an embedded critique of capitalism and neoliberalism. I also think there are quite a few things he got wrong. One is centering humanity. Another is the view of what it means to be human within Catholic thought. It basically classifies queer and trans people as less than human, and if we base our morals and our ethics on a worldview that continues to assert dominance over a particular way of imagining what it means to be human 鈥� that our biology determines our existence 鈥� we’re going to continue to have problems with marginalization and domination and exclusion and exploitation.听

What do you want the public to know about the intersection of AI and religion?听

WEK: I think it’s important for us to recognize the connections between dominant religions and the development of technologies. Seeking moral guidance from dominant religious traditions 鈥� which helped shape the very inequities tech now replicates 鈥� is a dead end. Today鈥檚 tech practices reflect core beliefs in the power of capitalism and neoliberalism: that markets dictate morality, individualism outweighs collectivism, and the ultimate goal is expansion into a never-ending frontier that someone must dominate. It鈥檚 good Anthropic is meeting with religious leaders, but if tech leaders aren鈥檛 willing to acknowledge their existing beliefs and disrupt their own business models, no moral or religious tradition will save them or the AI models they are training.听

We need to pivot. The Pope ended the encyclical with some great thinking about privileging the marginalized, the oppressed, those who are being exploited, to imagine a different future.听 Voices within traditions and cultures that have been silenced 鈥� women, queer folks, Indigenous leaders, mystics,听 the Global South 鈥� offer hope. As a queer person who has often felt less than human, who is oppressed and harmed by dominant religious traditions, I find hope in imagining a future where I can flourish along with all of the beautiful diversity of creation on this planet. I think those are the kinds of hopes and the kinds of people we need to be thinking with 鈥� those at the margins, not those who are already dominating our thinking and our worldviews.

For more information, contact King at mxwe@uw.edu.

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The bivalve-rich beaches of Hood Canal were all summer after detection of a marine biotoxin that causes , a life-threatening foodborne illness that affects the nervous system.

Given that Washington鈥檚 commercial shellfish industry employs nearly 2,400 people and brings in more than $240 million each year, a monthslong closure during peak season had sweeping consequences.

Detecting harmful algal blooms early is critical for consumer safety and trust in the industry. The Washington State Department of Health oversees a that monitors toxin levels in shellfish tissue from various growing areas. The effort is supported by an unofficial partner: , a program launched by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2006 that migrated to Washington Sea Grant several years later.

Unlike the DOH, SoundToxins screens the water for harmful algae, which can expedite detection. When SoundToxins monitors detected 听 鈥� a species of phytoplankton that produces the toxin that causes PSP 鈥� they quickly relayed the information to the DOH, which closed the impacted marine areas before anyone got sick.

Although this type of advance warning can save lives, the future funding of the program is uncertain. Washington Sea Grant relies on a patchwork of research grants and federal and state funds to operate SoundToxins. Recent cuts to research funding and the current state of Washington鈥檚 budget have illuminated the precariousness of funding for vital programs like this. Washington Sea Grant remains committed to working with state and federal partners to find the right funding pathway to keep SoundToxins running.

A quantified the value of SoundToxins with survey data. UW News spoke with program manager about the results and the program.

How is the monitoring program and the early detection of harmful algal blooms (HABs) valuable?

Michelle Lepori-Bui: Harmful algal blooms can be really detrimental to the shellfish industry as closures have a direct impact on revenue and because recalls and illnesses affect the reputation of shellfish as a safe and healthy food source. Robust monitoring programs and early warning of these events help protect public health and minimize these impacts. There are many benefits to early detection of HABs to the general public and recreational and commercial harvesters that can be hard to quantify. Farmers can benefit by modifying harvesting activities to minimize losses, avoiding recalls, and maintaining trust in the market, while shellfish consumers and coastal communities benefit from safe local food sources and working waterfronts.

How does the new study demonstrate the value of SoundToxins?

MLB: This survey sought to capture the many tangible and intangible benefits of the program and distill them into a single economic metric using an approach called 鈥榳illingness to pay.鈥� The study found that shellfish growers value the program with a willingness to pay $533/year for phytoplankton monitoring. With changing environmental conditions, shellfish mortality events, and heat waves, growers are facing an extremely challenging production environment. The finding that they are willing to pay this amount, even during these challenging economic times, shows how valuable this program is to coastal communities.

How does SoundToxins support the state-led effort?

MLB: The DOH鈥檚 biotoxin monitoring program is a series of steps in compliance with the National Shellfish Sanitation Program that starts with monitoring for biotoxins in mussel tissue. Mussels typically pick up toxins faster than other species, so they are a good indicator, but other species are tested as well. If toxins are detected, they can initiate recreational and commercial closures.

We鈥檙e not part of the official regulatory process, but our work can guide the DOH鈥檚 efforts through early warning. We maintain a database populated with volunteer data and a map that uses red, yellow and green color coding to report HAB presence on the coast and in Puget Sound and surrounding waters. We notify the DOH via email when something changes and it uses that information to prioritize certain samples or request additional samples.

Who collects the data?

MLB: SoundToxins is a very cost-effective program because we have really amazing monitors, partners and volunteers. A lot of different folks do the actual monitoring. We work with tribes, growers, environmental education groups and individuals at 35 different sites throughout the region. We provide them with equipment and training and support the database, and they collect and analyze the samples, posting everything online within 24 hours.

What happened this summer? How was it different from years past?

MLB: We got an alert from our monitor in early June that they found Alexandrium cells in a sample from Hoodsport, which is pretty far south in Hood Canal. That alert went straight to the DOH and it reacted quickly, requesting more samples from various parts of Hood Canal.

Historically, there haven鈥檛 been many incidents of PSP in south Hood Canal. There were a few blooms in the early 2000s and a big bloom in 2015 that went further south than usual, close to Hoodsport but not to the end of Hood Canal. That was considered unprecedented and this year surpassed that.

It鈥檚 understood globally that harmful algal blooms are increasing in frequency, severity and impact. This is partially related to changing climate conditions. Also, phytoplankton like Alexandrium respond to nutrients in the water. The input of nutrients from human activities can influence blooms. We have seen things showing up in places they haven鈥檛 been before and increasing in intensity.

A lot of people are working on models to predict harmful algal blooms, but it’s complicated, especially in our area where there are a lot of complex water bodies. We need to continue doing the research to try to understand things better, but in the meantime, monitoring is critical.

Co-authors include Michelle Lepori-Bui, marine water quality specialist at Washington Sea Grant; , water quality specialist at Washington Sea Grant; Vera Trainer, a UW research scientist in environmental and forest science and director of the Olympic Natural Resource Center; of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and of NOAA; and Jerry Borchert and Tracie Barry of WA DOH.听

This research was funded by the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Prevention, Control, and Mitigation of HABs.

For more information, contact Lepori-Bui at mdtlb@uw.edu.听

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The U.S. House of Representatives this past summer that would make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent in the United States 鈥� meaning there would be no turning back the clocks each fall. Nineteen states, including Washington, . If the bill is ultimately signed into law, the change would go into effect in those states.

The bill is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate. are a central issue because permanent DST would lead to darker mornings from November to March. This would mean darker commutes for everyone, but how much would it affect children going to school? 黑料老司机 researchers did the math for 14 out of the 19 states that preapproved the change. Using school start times, enrollment data, and latitude and longitude measurements, the team calculated just how many days each child would be commuting to school in the dark and then added the trips together.

In Washington, there would be almost 35 million more trips to school in the dark under permanent DST compared to the current system of switching between DST and Standard Time twice a year. The other 13 states followed a similar trend, with Georgia having the highest deviation from the current system 鈥� 71 million more trips. When the researchers extrapolated these results for the rest of the country, it added at least 2 billion more dark commutes to school.

The team also analyzed traffic collision data from the U.S. and found that it was roughly twice as likely for a fatal crash involving a school-aged pedestrian to occur during dark mornings than after sunrise.

The researchers Oct. 29 in Current Biology.

“It’s called the ‘Sunshine Protection Act’ because you get an extra hour of light at the end of the day. But you will take that hour from the morning. You could call it the Sunshine Destruction Act,” said senior author , UW professor of biology. “These dark mornings will inequitably affect children who have to go to school at a certain time. It’s a very tangible metric that anybody from any state or socioeconomic background can relate to. Nobody wants their kids to go to school in the dark.”

Dark mornings affect everyone. Exposure to bright light in the morning helps set our circadian clock, which helps regulate many facets of our lives, such as our mood, sleep and appetite. Without that morning light, our bodies struggle to regulate these key functions.

“When we send kids to school in the dark, we are depriving them from an opportunity to get that morning daylight,” said lead author , a UW postdoctoral scholar in biology. “We were asking what’s the cost for these children. We wanted actual numbers, a real number of kids based on the geographic location of each school.”

The study revealed the areas that would be the hardest hit by the switch: communities on the western edge of their time zones, such as Forks, Washington, and communities with early school start times. For example, Mississippi and Alabama schools have an average start time of earlier than 8 a.m. and both balloon from about 2 million dark trips for each state under the current system to more than 20 million dark trips for each state under permanent DST.

“Some districts probably never experience a dark commute under the current system, and, if this passes, suddenly they will wake up to this new reality that their kids are going to school in the dark,” Rodr铆guez Ferrante said. “Keep in mind that we used the actual start time listed for each school, and a lot of schools offer breakfast or other things before school, so the kids could be getting there even earlier.”

The researchers argue that permanent DST would also undo the benefits of having a delayed start time for high school students, which is intended to account for teenagers鈥� shifted circadian clock compared to kids and adults.

“I’ve heard the argument, ‘If we’re in permanent DST, we can just delay the school start time to address these issues,'” de la Iglesia said. “Well, if we do that, you will end up going to work later. And everything is going to get delayed. You will get out of work an hour later, and you will miss the opportunity to enjoy your evening light. And essentially, we’re just going to be realigning everybody to solar time. That, by definition, is Standard Time.”

Daniel Zhang, a high school student, and UW biology undergraduate students , , Jessie Lu, , Elena Kully-Rivera, , are also co-authors on this paper.

For more information, contact de la Iglesia at horaciod@uw.edu and Rodr铆guez Ferrante at guadarf@uw.edu.

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Pulling the strings: How stem cells in the developing fruit fly brain organize their DNA from outside the nucleus

Cells are very particular about the proper locations of their contents. For example, DNA is packaged in the nucleus in a highly specific way, but researchers are still trying to understand how this happens. For stem cells in the brain of a larval fruit fly 鈥� model organisms used to study processes such as early development 鈥� the DNA is organized so that the center of each strand, called the centromere, is at the top of the nucleus. In a paper in the Journal of Cell Biology, UW researchers describe how proteins outside the nucleus work alongside proteins inside the nucleus to control the position of centromeres. The researchers observed this mechanism by imaging stem cells within larval fruit fly brains and then using machine learning to measure how centromere locations change when specific proteins are removed. The research team also followed the locations of two specific genes that are far away from the centromeres. Both genes lost their usual positions in the nucleus when the centromeres strayed from their normal location, suggesting that proper centromere positioning may be important for orienting the rest of the DNA in the nucleus. Studying how and why DNA is organized in these stem cells can help researchers better understand how stem cells are regulated and how brains develop.

For more information, contact lead author Jennifer Taylor, UW postdoc in biology, at jatay@uw.edu.听听听听听听听

The other UW co-author is . A full list of funding is .

Micro language models let AI run instantly on small devices like smartwatches

Though artificial intelligence can refer to many technologies, the current AI boom has been driven by large language models, or LLMs. They power chatbots and AI agents by running predictions based on ever-increasing amounts of variables called 鈥減arameters.鈥� Current cutting-edge models are estimated to have several trillion parameters, making them far too large to run on slower phones or small devices like smartwatches. In a paper at EMNLP 2026, UW researchers introduced 鈥渕icro language models,鈥� which run with 8-30 million parameters. These models are small enough to run on devices with limited computing power and give users instant responses that fill the lag before the device can access an LLM through the cloud. For instance, a user could ask their smartwatch a question and the micro language model would start responding instantly; then after four to eight words, the LLM would complete the response. The micro language model made mistakes in 4% to 8% of responses that the other model corrected seamlessly before continuing. In a user study, nine out of 10 participants preferred the paired system to the lagging responses from only a cloud model.

For more information, contact ulm@cs.washington.edu or visit .

The UW co-authors are , , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is in .

Policy gaps impact migrant fishers in Washington state

The commercial fishing industry is key to Washington鈥檚 maritime economy, but there are concerns about exploitation and forced labor among fishers. While much of industry is regulated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, exemptions in U.S. law mean some vessels aren鈥檛 subject to the same citizenship requirements. A research team from the UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies recently focused on understanding the experiences of migrant fishers pursuing albacore tuna, a highly migratory species, who dock or unload at ports in Washington state. Researchers found the exemptions allow migrant fishers to work without authorization or visas, leaving them vulnerable to forced labor and exploitation. Meanwhile, complicated policy and regulatory frameworks make it difficult to address workers鈥� rights violations. The researchers gathered information from 15 migrant fishers, 14 U.S. citizen fishers, and more than 35 subject matter experts. Every migrant fisher interviewed by the team reported experiences aligned with the International Labour Organization鈥檚 indicators of forced labor, and both migrant and U.S. citizen fishers reported difficult living and working conditions. Approaches to combating forced labor are varied and uneven, the researchers found, and additional work is needed to better understand and support the needs of Washington鈥檚 fishers. Along with the full report, the team also published .

For more information, contact , research director at the Bridges Center, at rerstad@uw.edu.

The other UW co-authors are , and .

Burrowing shrimp are on the move in a mudflat near you

Burrowing shrimp are a pest well known to shellfish growers. These pale-bodied creatures excavate mud as they dig into the ground, creating piles of sediment that suffocate oysters and clams growing on the surface. In estuaries on the west coast, shrimp beds reach densities of hundreds of shrimp per square meter, but the boundaries of beds change. in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science shows that shrimp beds move up to 100 feet each year. The study took place at Willapa Bay over the course of three years and is the first to quantify how rapidly the boundaries of these beds shift over time. Researchers still don鈥檛 know why the shrimp move, but they observed a clear pattern in the ecosystem. Shrimp change the texture of sediment by eating organic matter and releasing finer particles, so sediment becomes muddier and more compact once they leave. After several years, these abandoned beds were colonized by eelgrass, a marker of ecosystem health. This 鈥渆ngineering鈥� effect was less evident in areas where moving water keeps mud from settling. Studying these rapid shifts and the types of sediment left behind could ultimately help shellfish growers better protect their product.

For more information, contact co-author Jennifer Ruesink, a UW professor of biology, at ruesink@uw.edu.听听听听听听听

The other UW co-authors are Wesley Hull, Haleh Mawson, and . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

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Scientists may add a new dwarf planet to the official roster of our solar system.

The distant, icy body, provisionally dubbed 2026 ED138, orbits our system beyond Pluto. It was spotted earlier this month by a scientist combing through data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the . Initial measurements place ED138 among the largest dwarf planet candidates ever discovered beyond Neptune; if confirmed, it would join the five dwarf planets recognized by the : Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake.

The results were presented at a press conference today by , a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and by , a 黑料老司机 professor of astronomy and leader of Rubin鈥檚 solar system team. Holman first spotted the candidate and Juri膰 contributed additional observations.

鈥淚f confirmed as a dwarf planet, ED138 would join a very small family of worlds,鈥� Holman said. 鈥淩ubin will image the whole southern sky again and again for 10 years, so any others hiding in the places earlier surveys skipped are now within reach.鈥�

鈥淔inding an object this big, roughly 1,000 kilometers across, is something that happens maybe once in a generation,鈥� Juri膰 said. 鈥淚t’s the largest trans-Neptunian object found in about 20 years, and Rubin turned it up while we were still commissioning the telescope.”

On the evening of Oct. 13, Holman was running data collected by Rubin earlier in 2026 through a search code he developed with colleague Kevin Napier. The code is built to look at billions of detections of moving objects, compare them and find the detections that correspond to the same object. Using this method, Holman uncovered ED138, and he immediately noticed that its brightness and distance indicated that it is unusually large.

鈥淢y first reaction was one of excited disbelief,鈥� Holman said. 鈥淥bjects like this are very rare, so I immediately started checking whether I or the code had done something wrong.鈥�

To remove any doubt, Juri膰 searched through Rubin鈥檚 catalogs and images and found 20 more observations, going back to March 2026. The team also spotted ED138 in archival images from other surveys going all the way back to 2016, allowing the team to trace more than ten years of ED138’s orbit. 

ED138 is currently at a distance of about 46 astronomical units (), where 1 au is the average distance between the Earth and the sun. For reference, dwarf planet Pluto orbits at an average distance of 40 au. This classifies ED138 as a trans-Neptunian object () 鈥� objects that orbit the sun at a distance greater than Neptune鈥檚.

Scientists study the size, composition and orbital trajectories of TNOs to understand how the solar system formed, how the giant planets migrated over time and how smaller objects have been scattered throughout this evolution. 

Not all TNOs are considered dwarf planet candidates, with the distinction being in the size and shape of the object. To be a dwarf planet an object needs to be massive enough for its own gravity to pull it into a round shape. Based on ED138鈥檚 distance, brightness and estimated surface reflectivity, the team estimates that its size is between 600 and 1,500 kilometers; icy bodies this large are expected to be round. Further observations are needed to measure its exact size and confirm its nature as a dwarf planet. 

ED138 was found in a region of sky close to the plane of the Milky Way 鈥� a crowded area filled with millions of stars. To most telescopes, ED138 has been lost among the myriad background sources, which is likely why it was not discovered until now. Rubin Observatory鈥檚 regular and continuous monitoring of the entire Southern Hemisphere sky, combined with powerful algorithms that sift through millions to billions of points of light to identify those corresponding to small moving objects, enabled the team to spot ED138 within the crowded field.

ED138 joins the rapidly growing sample of solar system objects discovered by Rubin since it began collecting early data in preparation for the (LSST), which began in June 2026. In April, before LSST formally began, the Rubin solar system team announced observations of over , which included roughly 380 new TNOs. At the time, the team called this large submission 鈥渢he tip of the iceberg鈥� and expressed their excitement for the discoveries to come once LSST began. With the discovery of ED138, those hopes are coming to fruition.

鈥淩ubin is giving us an unprecedented capacity to explore the sky through a combination of speed, depth, and precision,鈥� Juri膰 said. 鈥淎nd the discovery is just the beginning: Once we identify a new object, we can search back months, and sometimes even decades, finding it in images where nobody knew to look. This ability to both discover and 鈥榩recover鈥� objects is transforming how quickly and accurately we can determine their orbits and understand the distant solar system.鈥�

The public can interact with this discovery on , an interactive web-based app that provides an intuitive way to explore the structure of our cosmic backyard in three dimensions and in real time.

Operations of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory are funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy鈥檚 Office of Science.

For more information, contact Mario Juri膰 at mjuric@uw.edu.

This story was adapted from a press release by NOIRlab. More images and video clips are available on the .

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Since 2020, the 黑料老司机鈥檚 Center for an Informed Public has published 鈥渞apid research鈥� during elections that aims to cut through the noise and confusion of online rumors that can undermine trust in election processes and voting procedures. These rumors are now so pervasive that CIP researchers have designed an interactive game where you can learn more about common election integrity tropes.听

This year the CIP鈥檚 work is focused on:听

• Ensuring people have timely and accurate information about when, where and how to vote safely
• Surfacing and diagnosing rumors that could delegitimize election results
• Exposing the tactics and strategies behind production and amplification of election rumors

Below are the CIP鈥檚 rapid research pieces this season. UW News will update this post as the CIP publishes research related to the 2026 election. You can also follow the CIP鈥檚 on Substack or join its for other CIP updates.听

For more information, contact Michael Grass, the CIP鈥檚 assistant director for communications, at megrass@uw.edu.听

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UPDATE October 28, 2026: This story has been updated to correct when Marie Gluesenkamp Perez flipped District 3.

Ballots have been mailed to Washington residents, and the will take place on Nov. 3.听

Between critical contests across the country, prominent gubernatorial races and divisive ballot initiatives, there will be plenty to watch on Election Day. All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 Senate seats are up for a vote. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the House and four seats in the Senate to overturn the Republican majorities in both.

UW News spoke with and , professors of political science at the 黑料老司机, about midterm election trends, what they鈥檙e watching statewide and nationally, and more.

What will you be watching most closely in Washington state and/or nationally?

James Long: On the state level, is very competitive. Incumbent Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat, won the district by about 4 points in 2024, having flipped it from Republican to Democrat control in 2022. This year, she is running against a Republican candidate, state senator John Braun. While all congressional races have a certain degree of localism and variation in candidate quality with respect to what matters in close races, should Gluesenkamp Perez hold onto the seat 鈥� and by a healthy margin 鈥� that could be a bellwether for how Democrats expect to perform in close House races nationwide. Similarly, if Braun flips the district back to Republican control, it could suggest that Republican losses across the country may not be as bad as many expect.

There are in Washington, all of which are controversial and speak to some current “culture war” divisions between the left and the right. I don’t have a sense of which of these initiatives will succeed or fail 鈥� polling on them is notoriously difficult. Voters may change their minds due to exposure to a variety of ads. They may also decide by reverting to how they view national conversations around parents’ involvement in educational curriculum, trans athletes in K-12 schools, and greater taxation of the wealthy in terms of whether and how they vote on these measures.

Mark Smith: In Washington, I鈥檓 particularly interested in the three ballot initiatives, especially . The state legislature is counting on the revenue from this tax in 2028. If the tax is repealed, the legislature will need to make major changes in their projected budget, with downstream effects for the UW.听

Nationally, I鈥檓 closely watching the competitive , partly because that鈥檚 where I鈥檓 from, but also because Ohio tells the tale of the changing geography of American politics. Ohio used to be considered a bellwether state, and it was the tipping-point state as recently as 2004. If John Kerry won Ohio, which he lost by only 2.1%, he would have been elected president. Since then, Ohio has trended strongly red. If Democrats win the Senate and governor鈥檚 races there, and polls have them favored in both, that would be a noteworthy result. If Democrats can win Senate seats in other red states such as Kansas, Iowa, Alaska and Texas, that would also grab my attention.听

What are the factors likely to impact voter behavior in these midterms?

JL: For Congressional races nationwide, this election really seems to be a referendum on Donald Trump and Republican control of Congress. It’s been a period of single party control across the executive and legislative branches, so it’s not unusual for the incumbent president and party to be the main focal point in a midterm election. Moreover, Trump’s and the Republicans’ policies are deeply unpopular with the American people, including the war with Iran, tariffs and the inability to tackle affordability.

MS: At the risk of sounding pedantic, it鈥檚 highly variable from person to person. Who people vote for, and whether they vote at all, is driven by a complicated combination of factors. Still, we can parse out some systematic effects that apply more generally. One of them is the dropoff in voter turnout of about 20% between presidential and midterm years. Twenty years ago, the kinds of people who always vote in midterm years were disproportionately voting Republican. Now they are disproportionately voting Democratic. Another way of saying that 鈥� based on the off-year elections in 2025 and the polling we have this year 鈥� is there will be more people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 and don鈥檛 vote in 2026. That鈥檚 opposed to people who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 and will stay home in 2026.

What patterns tend to emerge historically in midterm elections, and do you predict those patterns will hold this year?

MS: Since the time of World War II, the president鈥檚 party has lost an average of about 26 seats in the House and four seats in the Senate. But now regional polarization and gerrymandering have reduced the number of competitive House races, so it鈥檚 unlikely that Democrats will reach that average of 26 seats. But they only need to gain four to take the majority of the House. In the Senate, curiously, they need the same net gain of four seats to reach a majority. Current polling and prediction markets indicate that Democrats are likely to get there for both the House and Senate 鈥� though it鈥檚 somewhat less likely with the Senate. The fact that Republican PACs and committees are redirecting money toward states and districts they would normally win handily suggests that they fear a blue wave.

JL: It’s not just about whether there is a 鈥渂lue wave鈥� in Congress, which many observers are predicting. The margin of that seat gain and the margins of victory within districts also helps measure the depth of pro-Democratic Party support, or anti-Republican sentiment, which I believe will inform candidates from both parties who are thinking of running in the 2028 presidential cycle.

What issues currently appear to be most important to voters?

JL: Affordability, affordability, affordability. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democrats were unpopular in 2024 because inflation had not declined enough according to voters. Two years later, inflation is now growing at a higher rate than it was when Trump took office. A host of other policies, such as oil prices resulting from the U.S. attack on Iran and Trump’s tariffs, have hit the pocketbooks of every American, including those in rural areas who supported Trump and Republicans in 2024.听

It’s not so much that the Democrats have provided an alternative set of policies that voters find popular as it is that Trump and the Republicans are the focal point and it’s a brand whose stock has been declining of late.听

Moreover, candidates like Jon Ossoff 鈥� who is running for Senate reelection in Georgia and is a 2028 presidential candidate contender 鈥� have gained popularity by tying the affordability crisis to Trump and those in his orbit. While everyday Americans have seen wages flatten and costs rise, Trump, his family and his allies have grown enormously wealthy at the same time.

MS: One good source of data is the Gallup organization, which regularly asks Americans, 鈥淲hat do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?鈥� , the answers in order were the government/poor leadership (30%), high cost of living/inflation (13%), economy in general (11%), immigration (10%) and war in the Middle East (7%). The first three of those and the fifth clearly favor Democrats, with the fourth 鈥� immigration 鈥� hard to discern without more information. You don鈥檛 want to be the party in power when the government is perceived to be performing poorly and high prices are making even the essentials unaffordable for many people.

There have been as President Donald Trump has expressed his desire to exert more control. How serious are these potential threats?

MS: He on his biggest chance to exert more control, through restricting voting by mail. Some version of that proposal could come back, because the Supreme Court did not foreclose it entirely, but not in 2026. Anyone who lived through Jan. 6, however, would be foolish to say, 鈥淚t can鈥檛 happen here.鈥澨�

There has been speculation about President Trump sending federal law enforcement agents to polling places, or asserting widespread fraud and confiscating ballots or polling equipment after the election is held. Such an outcome becomes more likely if the election overall, or in certain important places, is very close. However, I would not rule it out even for a wave election. He could also take other, harder-to-predict actions to affect the results.

JL: I think explicit threats, and Trump has historically and in this cycle made them, should always be taken seriously. Whether or not they are successful is another matter. Trump and some Republican allies have attempted measures to restrict voting, suppress turnout, control mail-in ballots, and more, but have mostly been stopped so far by the courts, and the strategies don’t seem to be working. It mostly seems half-baked, but so did the “fake elector” scheme in 2020 that led to the riot, so protecting electoral integrity always requires eternal vigilance.

No doubt should Trump and the Republicans receive a “” 鈥� as President Barack Obama famously admitted when the Democrats suffered heavy losses in Congress in 2010 鈥� he will call the result “rigged” and likely spread misinformation about the election’s integrity. He appears ready to contest results, as . He has learned this is a costless way to avoid admitting defeat and it remains popular among his MAGA base. That said, evidence of any vote tampering should be investigated and, if it comes to it, adjudicated by the relevant judicial authority.

For more information, contact Lauren Kirschman at lkirsc@uw.edu.

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There鈥檚 still time to return your ballot for the 2026 general election, but if you鈥檙e planning to vote by mail, you may want to hurry. That鈥檚 according to a research brief 听by a team led by the 黑料老司机, which found that ongoing changes to U.S. Postal Service mail processes could double the percentage of ballots that arrive too late to be counted.听

Researchers estimate the mail delays could cause tens of thousands of otherwise valid ballots to be rejected. These mail delays disproportionately impact rural voters and those in outlying suburban communities.听

鈥淭his could affect 20,000 or more voters who put their ballots in the mail ahead of election day,鈥� said research lead , professor of public policy and governance at the UW. 鈥淭hat may sound like a small number of voters in the grand scheme of things, but it could be really consequential, particularly in rural and outer suburban communities.鈥�

The research brief 鈥� part of a led by the UW Evans School of Public Policy and Governance 鈥� has not yet been peer-reviewed. Researchers plan to submit it to an academic journal in the coming months.听

State law requires every ballot postmarked by Election Day to be counted. That system relied on the Postal Service鈥檚 practice of postmarking mail on the date it鈥檚 received. But new policies first rolled out in October 2023 shifted how the agency collects and processes mail.

Under the program 鈥� part of an 鈥� mail in ZIP codes more than 50 miles from a regional center is collected only once a day. That mail may not be postmarked until it reaches a processing facility, which could be the next day or even later.

RTO was implemented in about two dozen Washington ZIP codes in February 2024 and has since been expanded to . Rural voters are particularly likely to live in an RTO ZIP code, including over 90% of rural voters who voted in the 2024 general election.

To project the delays鈥� effects on ballot rejection rates, researchers analyzed voter-level ballot data and county-level rejection data from the Washington Secretary of State. They found that between 2020 and 2025, about 11% of primary ballots and nearly 5% of general ballots were postmarked before Election Day, but not received until after. While counted in past elections, these last-minute ballots are those most likely to be impacted this year.

Researchers also found that the late ballot rejection rate has risen significantly since RTO was implemented in 2024. Across Washington, the county average late ballot rejection rate was 1.1% in the 2025 general election 鈥� about twice as high as the typical rate in general elections. In that election, the ballot rejection rate for voters in RTO ZIP codes was 3.2%, more than double the rate for those in urban areas.听

It鈥檚 difficult to project exactly how many voters are at risk of having their ballots rejected in 2026, but Allard said he expected the number to rise.

鈥淚 think we鈥檙e at risk of having 1% to maybe even 1.5% of all ballots rejected for being late due to postal service delays, which would be unprecedented statewide,鈥� said Allard, who is the Daniel J. Evans Endowed Professor of Social Policy.

He encouraged voters to consider using or putting their ballots in the mail at least a week before Election Day, which this year is Tuesday, November 3. Voters taking ballots to the post office also can ask their postal worker to postmark their ballot envelope on the spot.

鈥淚t shouldn鈥檛 fall only on the voters to solve this problem,鈥� Allard said, 鈥渂ut there are steps we can all take to ensure our ballots are received on time.鈥澨�

Co-authors include , UW doctoral student of sociology; , UW doctoral student of public policy and governance; and of the University of California, Berkeley.听

For more information or to reach the researchers, contact Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.听

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About a decade ago, a group of climate scientists described. Called the (SSPs), these scenarios suggest how socioeconomic development could evolve in worlds with differing challenges to climate adaptation and mitigation.听

One SSP, 鈥淪ustainability,鈥� envisions a collective shift toward green energy, reducing economic inequities and investments in research and development. Another, 鈥淩egional Rivalry,鈥� paints a picture of a world riven by nationalism and fighting over resources. In that future, high levels of conflict stifle economic development. Rich countries see slower population growth, while birth rates increase in poorer nations.听

Scientists and policymakers use SSPs to project how today鈥檚 choices affect tomorrow鈥檚 world. But for complex subjects like public health, these intentionally simple scenarios don鈥檛 capture every complexity. Under the SSP 鈥淔ossil-Fueled Development,鈥� for example, the world doubles down on fossil fuels, spurring rapid economic growth. That growth, according to the scenario, would spur investments in education and health. But at the same time, increased emissions would degrade the environment, exacerbating health risks.

That description leaves many public health questions unanswered: Would hospital systems be better prepared to handle the increased volume? Could more frequent heat waves lead people to spend more time inside, amplifying mental health burdens?听

Last year, a group of 63 experts in climate change and health met in Vienna to extend the SSPs to better reflect the dynamic nature of public health over the course of the century. Their expanded narratives, published , provide comprehensive visions of possible population health and health system development and explore how communities might better prepare for shifting future health risks.

, a UW doctoral student in environmental and occupational health sciences, attended the workshop and is lead author of the accompanying paper. UW News sat down with Green to talk about where previous climate scenarios fell short, the conference鈥檚 work and how we can better prepare to keep each other safe in an uncertain future.听

What are the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, and how do we use them?听

Carole Green: Shared Socioeconomic Pathways are a narrative framework that can be used in conjunction with pathways of greenhouse gas emissions to project future climate impacts to 2100. The SSPs are basically descriptions of the societal choices that affect the magnitude and pattern of interventions to protect human health and well-being.

The SSPs are essentially five possible alternatives for our future world. These pathways have been expanded to incorporate a wide range of issues of relevance for public health, and have been downscaled to describe what the future might look like in different countries and regions.

SSPs are featured in global processes like United Nations, where negotiators come from around the world to debate and agree on approaches to build resilience and sustainability to climate changes. The models help us understand how those choices interact and what the effects might be.听

We also use the SSPs in health research to understand the possible magnitude and geographic pattern of health impacts from climate change over the course of this century. Many projects at UW use future warming levels to analyze things like future wildfire impacts on Washington residents (research done by UW鈥檚 Climate Impacts Group).听

What do the SSPs leave out?听

CG: SSPs assume that humans will make socioeconomic changes in the future. The changes described in the pathways originally quantified GDP and population changes. Our work adds complexity, specifically to understand how the future of public health could evolve under these five pathways.

A lot of people are interested in heat waves, for example. Climate modeling alone can capture the planet鈥檚 warming, but doesn鈥檛 consider issues like how access to hospitals and healthcare could change by 2100. Current heat wave modeling looks at the climate interactions that shape health impacts but don鈥檛 explore how concurrent changes in society could interact with climate change to impact people鈥檚 well-being.听

Once you added complexity into the SSPs, what changed in your understanding of possible futures? Did you learn anything new or surprising?

CG: We learned that the drivers of health impacts are complex, and many are neither entirely good nor bad. Prioritizing sustainability, mitigation and adaptation will not necessarily lead to the best world for each future health outcome, but it definitely affects the future of health and well-being. Health futures we face globally are not predetermined. Different pathways could lead to vastly different health outcomes, with governance, health-system capacity, resources, equity, and cross-sectoral factors such as water and energy playing critical roles.

For example, under one of the scenarios, people don鈥檛 prioritize reducing greenhouse emissions, focusing instead on adapting to the changing climate. Strong investment in technology leads to quite a lot of wealth, which can benefit some health outcomes. But it鈥檚 not ideal, because people would also have to spend more time indoors because of the growing heat burden and would have to reduce connection to the outdoors and nature. You really don鈥檛 want to live in that scenario.

It鈥檚 very much a mix, which is challenging.听

Now that we have these fleshed-out scenarios, what does that allow us to do?听

CG: It allows us to have a more complex understanding of future health risks from climate change. Now we can add a layer of understanding and think about more variables than just warming levels and population numbers. It鈥檚 made of a lot of complexities that affect health, and those have their own effects.

In future climate scenarios, what does access to healthcare look like? What is the extent of food insecurity? How are we making sure people have access to clean air and water? When we have some understanding of those interactions, then it can motivate decision-makers to develop appropriate policies.听

What comes next?听

CG: We will apply these narratives to six different countries where there has been limited research using the SSPs. We鈥檙e working in Brazil, Senegal, South Africa, India, Vietnam and the Solomon Islands. We鈥檝e started identifying key leads across these countries, where there is quite an appetite for this research. All countries are required to develop national health adaptation plans and to conduct vulnerability and adaptation assessments. They are also interested in modeling future health risks. We want to explore the extent to which the SSP narratives apply in their country鈥檚 context. Do they fit? How would they look different? There鈥檚 a lot of interest in building on local knowledge and bringing local experts together to talk about possible futures.听

We鈥檙e also quantifying specific disease burdens, universal healthcare access, water and sanitation infrastructure and digital health. Some quantifications will look at pairing SSPs with certain warming levels to project impacts.听

Last question: This group 鈥� including dozens of the world鈥檚 leading experts on climate and health 鈥� chose you to write the paper. How did that happen?听

CG: I am definitely not the leading expert in that room, so it was very much an honor to work on this and lead the writing. A lot of it comes from my advisor, , who is very supportive of me and my work. That鈥檚 been really meaningful. She encouraged me to take this on.

I often tell people that my job is to listen to experts and write down what they say. It was very meaningful to get to make those connections.听

For more information or to reach the researchers, contact Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu. Other UW authors include , professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, of global health, and of emergency medicine in the UW School of Medicine; and , research associate professor of urban design and planning.

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