While the majority of the world just wants to swat mosquitoes, three 天美影院 researchers find these insects fascinating. They told 天美影院News what it’s like to study mosquitoes and why these critters are actually really important.
Author: Sarah McQuate
Every summer, 天美影院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. 天美影院News asked a few team members to describe their plans for this summer.
天美影院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 天美影院: 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.
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 天美影院 offers a new, non-chemical approach to controlling shrimp populations in shellfish-growing areas.
Explore recent research from the 天美影院: how sunbirds sip nectar through straw-like tongues, why the Seattle Fault might not pose as great a risk as previously thought, how to gauge landslide dam risk in the PNW, what marine microbes use for making meals and when the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will spot small inbound asteroids.
A research team led by the 天美影院has identified a new species of an ancient rodent-like creature. The new species, named Cimolodon desosai, was about the size of a golden hamster, the researchers said. It likely scampered on the ground and in the trees and ate fruits and insects.
Explore recent research from the 天美影院: the habits and habitats of Nautilus and Allonautilus, how green clay tennis courts remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, why temperature dynamics matter to mussels and what prompts bacteria to attack diatoms.
Jennifer Ruesink, 天美影院 professor of biology, studies the relationship between the environment and marine organisms, including eelgrass, the primary species of seagrass that resides in the oceans surrounding Washington. In honor of World Seagrass Day, 天美影院News asked Ruesink to explain what seagrass is and what makes the seagrasses in Washington unique.
The peer review process in scientific publishing has reached a critical point where there are too many manuscript submissions and not enough peer reviewers. 天美影院News asked Carl Bergstrom, 天美影院 professor of biology, and Kevin Gross, North Carolina State University professor of statistics, to describe this self-perpetuating cycle and potential interventions.
Last December was the warmest on record for Washington, according to the Washington State Climate Office. Now many plants in our gardens are beginning to bud, even though it’s only February. 天美影院News asked Takato Imaizumi, 天美影院professor of biology, to talk about the mechanisms behind blooming and how warmer winters might impact flowering plants.
A recent documentary about the breeding habits of antelopes in India includes the story of how engaging with artists and local communities can help researchers share the importance of their work. 天美影院News asked Vivek Hari Sridhar, a 天美影院assistant professor of biology and one of the leaders of the project, for details about the project and the documentary.
天美影院News spoke with Lauren Buckley, 天美影院 professor of biology, to learn about “functional resurvey” experiments and what they can tell us about how organisms change over time.
New research led by the 天美影院 suggests that two different climate transitions millions of years ago fueled the diversification of carnivoran body plans.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Oct. 8 awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks,” or MOFs. Both Dianne Xiao, a 天美影院associate professor of chemistry, and Douglas Reed, a 天美影院assistant professor of chemistry, use MOFs in their research at the UW. 天美影院News reached out to them to learn more about the significance of these structures and how researchers use them.
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute on Monday awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Mary E. Brunkow 鈥� an alum of the 天美影院 鈥� along with Frederick J. Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the immune system from harming the body.” Brunkow received her bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from the 天美影院in 1983. 天美影院News spoke with Martha Bosma, professor and chair…
In a new study, a team of scientists determined the minimum natural habitat on agricultural land that will allow insect pollinators 鈥� including bumble bees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies 鈥� to thrive. 天美影院News reached out to co-author Berry Brosi, 天美影院professor of biology, to learn more about these results and how habitat is important to two types of bees native to Washington.
Quantum dots, which are 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, are unique materials that generate very specific colors of light. Researchers, including Brandi Cossairt, 天美影院professor of chemistry, hope that quantum dots can one day be useful for more than just illuminating TV screens. 天美影院News asked her to compare the quantum dots in QLED TVs with the ones her lab makes.
An international research effort, including scientists from the 天美影院, has finally revealed the cause of sea star wasting disease: a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida.
For Valentine’s Day, 天美影院News asked 12 天美影院 researchers to share their love stories: What made them decide to pursue their career paths?
Two 天美影院 researchers are developing treatments that aim to simultaneously treat cancer and improve patients’ quality of life. For World Cancer Day, 天美影院News asked them to discuss their novel materials and how these materials can treat both the cancer and the patient.
Alex Prybutok, 天美影院assistant teaching professor of chemical engineering, studies anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in engineering education.
A research team at 天美影院and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory examined the atomic composition of enamel samples from two human teeth.
Jie Xiao, 天美影院 professor of mechanical engineering, talks about batteries and how academia can help support the growing domestic battery manufacturing industry.
天美影院researchers collaborated with people at multiple institutions to collect pre-storm data and place sensors to measure storm surge levels and wave height during Hurricane Helene’s landfall.
The Remote Hub Lab allows students to access physical engineering equipment from anywhere in the world. A primary focus of the lab is to use a process called “digital twinning,” to create virtual models that mirror real-world systems, which enables students to experiment, learn and innovate in a risk-free, cost-effective environment.
天美影院researchers have developed a flexible, durable electronic prototype that can harvest energy from body heat and turn it into electricity that can be used to power small electronics, such as batteries, sensors or LEDs. This device is also resilient 鈥� it still functions even after being pierced several times and then stretched 2,000 times.
The Colorado River and its tributaries provide water for hydropower, irrigation and drinking water in seven U.S. states and Mexico. But since 2000, water managers have struggled to predict how much water will come from the snowpack. The problem lies with the lack of rainfall in the spring, according to new research from the UW.
Several common injuries seem to haunt women’s sports. Jenny Robinson, a 天美影院 assistant professor, is interested in designing better methods to help female athletes train to prevent and recover from injuries.
Two 天美影院 researchers are investigating how to mitigate the effects of climate change on common road pavements, such as asphalt and concrete.
天美影院doctoral student Joel Eklof has been investigating which environmental factors contribute to permafrost thaw and the release of methane into the atmosphere. For years, Eklof has traveled to a field site southwest of Fairbanks, Alaska.
This 天美影院 College of Engineering event brings thousands of elementary and middle school students from all over Washington to campus to be engineers for a day.
As researchers explore potential applications for AI, they have found scenarios where AI could be really useful but there’s not enough data to accurately train the algorithms. Jenq-Neng Hwang, 天美影院 professor of electrical and computer and engineering, specializes in these issues.
Alzheimer’s disease and Type 2 diabetes are part of a family of amyloid diseases that are characterized by having proteins that cluster together. 天美影院researchers have demonstrated more similarities between the two diseases.
Robots in warehouses and even around our houses struggle to identify and pick up objects if they are too close together, or if a space is cluttered. This is because robots lack what psychologists call “object unity,” or our ability to identify things even when we can’t see all of them. Researchers at the 天美影院 have developed a way to teach robots this skill.
New research led by the 天美影院demonstrates a new class of hydrogels that can form not just outside cells, but also inside of them. These hydrogels exhibited similar mechanical properties both inside and outside of cells, providing researchers with a new tool to group proteins together inside of cells.
Two 天美影院professors teamed up to study how climate change will affect predator-prey interactions in snowy landscapes. Together with a group of researchers, the two measured snow properties that led to a “danger zone,” where prey would sink but predators would not.
天美影院researchers found that people who live within 2 miles of an Amazon last-mile delivery station are exposed to more delivery-related air pollution despite ordering fewer packages.
天美影院researchers developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by “snapping” into a folded position during their descent.
Research led by the 天美影院found that, in some western states, the amount of snow already on the ground by the end of December is a good predictor of how much total snow that area will get.