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.
Expert quotes
The U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, which triggered hundreds of retaliatory missiles from Iran. The war is now entering its third week, with Iran reporting more than 1,200 civilians have been killed. Aria Fani, a professor of Persian and Iranian studies at the UW, researches modern Iranian and Afghan histories. He spoke with 天美影院News about the U.S.-Israeli strikes, the impact on Iranians and more.
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…
天美影院researchers discuss their study which surveyed 166 gamers about how video games sparked meaningful changes in their lives.
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.
In her new book, Katharina Reinecke explores how “digital culture shock” manifests in the world, in ways innocuous and sometimes harmful.聽
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.
天美影院doctoral student Brett Halperin interviewed picketing film workers about AI during the 2023 strikes.
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.
天美影院 researchers created a method for training AI systems 鈥� both for large language models like ChatGPT and for robots 鈥� that can better reflect users鈥� diverse values. It predicts users鈥� preferences as they interact with it, then tailors its outputs accordingly.
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assistant professor Sheng Wang discusses BiomedParse, an AI medical image analysis model that works across nine types of medical images to better predict systemic diseases. Medical professionals can load images into the system and ask the AI tool questions about them in plain English.
Before the results of the 2024 election start rolling in, 天美影院News asked three 天美影院 professors of political science to discuss what鈥檚 on their minds heading into the final hours.
America鈥檚 homeless services system relies on a massive amount of data, and at first glance, that data is exacting. Federal reports describe the country鈥檚 unhoused population in granular detail, listing precisely how many people are experiencing homelessness in each city along with detailed demographic data. Want to know how many people ages 55-64 slept outside in Spokane last year? A spreadsheet confidently provides the answer: just one.聽 That data influences decisions at every level of government, from how the U.S….
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.
Niloofar Mireshghallah, a 天美影院postdoctoral scholar, discusses why math and reasoning have so challenged artificial intelligence models and what the public should know about OpenAI鈥檚 new release.
Young adults with psychosis tend to use cannabis at extremely high rates, and their symptoms can be exacerbated by long-term marijuana use. A team of 天美影院 researchers is focused on this particular group.聽
A study led by 天美影院researcher Diana Ceballos is most comprehensive study to date of the specific fragrance chemical mixtures found in nail salon air, and will allow researchers to further study the potential health risks. 聽
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.
A major outbreak of a new strain of bird flu 鈥� formally named Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 鈥� has killed millions of wild birds and infected poultry, dairy cattle, domestic cats and a small number of humans.聽天美影院experts explain how bird flu evolves and what it could mean for humans.
But in her new book 鈥淟og Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix,鈥� Katherine Cross, a 天美影院doctoral student in the Information School, argues that social media has limited political value.
Franziska Roesner, a 天美影院 associate professor, and collaborators will present two papers that mine real-world data to help understand TikTok’s personalized its recommendation algorithm and its impact.
New research from the 天美影院 shows the brain鈥檚 response to viewing errors in both the syntax (form) and semantics (meaning) of code appeared identical to those that occur when fluent readers process sentences on a word-by-word basis, supporting a resemblance between how people learn computer and natural languages.
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.
Sandy Littletree, a 天美影院assistant professor in the Information School, discusses the importance of working Indigenous ways of knowing into libraries, archives and data repositories.
New research from the 天美影院examines how three wellness Instagram influencers profited from anti-vaccine misinformation.
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.
Mike Teodorescu, a 天美影院 assistant professor in the Information School, proposes that private enterprise standards for fairer machine learning systems would inform governmental regulation.
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.
A team 天美影院 researchers have published a guide explaining language models, the technology that underlies chatbots.
A team led by researchers at the 天美影院 developed 11 actions a robotic arm can make to pick up nearly any food attainable by fork. This allows the system to learn to pick up new foods during one meal.
Five 天美影院 experts comment on the current El Ni帽o, its effect on Pacific Northwest winter weather, as well as on regional and global ocean temperature trends.