天美影院News spoke with Paul Wiggins, a 天美影院 associate professor of both physics and bioengineering, to learn about a surprisingly relatable behavior prompting bacteria to stockpile huge reserves of essential proteins.
Research
David Hertzog, a 天美影院 professor of physics, is a recipient of the 2026 Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics. The award is shared among roughly 400 scientists and celebrates decades of work to better understand the muon 鈥� a subatomic particle with anomalous properties.
A directive signed by former Gov. Jay Inslee in 2018 aimed to eliminate hepatitis C from Washington state by 2030. A new study led by the 天美影院 found that the plan not only expanded access to tests and treatment, but may save money in the long run.
The Ecological Society of America named the UW鈥檚 Claire Willing a 2026 Early Career Fellow. Willing, an assistant professor of environmental and forest science, studies fungal ecology, looking at how fungi are evolving and supporting plant communities as the climate changes.
In a new study, 天美影院 researchers show that an Earth-sized planet likely needs at least 20 to 50% of the water in Earth鈥檚 oceans to maintain a critical natural cycle that keeps water on the surface. These new parameters could exclude many exoplanets in the so-called habitable zone.
天美影院 researchers developed a system called VueBuds that uses tiny cameras in off-the-shelf wireless earbuds to allow users to talk with an AI model about the scene in front of them. For instance, a user might look at a Korean food package and say, 鈥淗ey VueBuds, translate this for me.鈥� They鈥檇 then hear an AI voice say, 鈥淭he visible text translates to 鈥楥old Noodles鈥� in English.
A new study doubles the evolutionary history of the weasel family. Researchers, including Chris Law, a 天美影院principal research scientist in the biology department, have determined that a fossil that was discovered in Spain belongs to a new species dating back to around 6.5 million years ago. This new species was likely similar in size to the smallest living weasel species today, the least weasel.
At the brand-new Quantum Technologies Training and Testbed lab, researchers from across the 天美影院probe the 鈥渟pooky鈥� mysteries of quantum phenomena.
New evidence suggests that a disease-causing tapeworm that has been spreading across the United States and Canada has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. The tapeworm, called Echinococcus multilocularis, was found in one-third of coyotes surveyed from the Puget Sound region.
Using preliminary data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF鈥揇OE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scientists have discovered over 11,000 new asteroids in our solar system. The findings include hundreds of distant worlds beyond Neptune as well as 33 previously unknown near-Earth objects.
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.
A team of 170 scientists and experts 鈥� led by Phil Levin, interim executive director of the UW鈥檚 EarthLab 鈥� has published a draft of a report detailing the health of U.S. nature. While some of the resulting statistics are grim, the report highlights many areas of opportunity. Researchers welcome public comment through May 30.
New research shows that as winters get warmer, more icy crusts may form within snowpacks in much of the Pacific Northwest, increasing the risk of avalanche in some areas and changing the behavior of wildlife across the region.
In a new study, 天美影院 researchers examine the impact of tilling on soil moisture and water retention using methods designed for monitoring earthquakes. They show that tilling disrupts important soil microstructures and highlight the potential utility of this method for precision agriculture and more.
Plants, like people, have a circadian clock and they sense seasonal changes to light and temperature. Plants that bloom in the spring use the longer days and warmer temperatures as seasonal cues that it鈥檚 time to bloom.
Indigenous people in the United States are at higher risk of fatal police violence in and around American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) reservations, according to the first comprehensive national study on the subject from researchers at the 天美影院 and Drexel University. The researchers found that roughly 73% AIAN people killed by police violence were on or within 10 miles of a reservation.
Mosquitoes are increasingly becoming resistant to current insecticides, leading to a pressing need for new methods to prevent mosquito bites 鈥� and the potential transmission of disease. New research by an international team, including researchers at the UW, reveals that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes use a specific sensory receptor to detect and avoid borneol (pronounced “bor-nee-ohl”), an organic compound found in several aromatic plants, including camphor trees, rosemary and other aromatic herbs.
Researchers tracked ravens and wolves in Yellowstone National Park for two and half years to show that ravens do not follow wolves to scavenge their prey but instead remember where wolves often kill and monitor these sites for fresh meat.
An oddly-behaving star led two 天美影院astronomers to capture rare evidence of a collision between two planets in a distant solar system. The discovery could aid scientists in their search for worlds similar to our own.
Spring is here, which in Seattle, means cherry blossoms. The UW鈥檚 iconic display 鈥� featuring 29 Yoshino cherry trees 鈥� is set to peak around March 20 this year. Check out the cherry blossom visitors鈥� website to learn more.
Researchers at 天美影院and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are simulating something in the lab that they hope will rarely happen in the wild: a collision between underwater turbines and marine animals.
Forest managers in the eastern Cascades selectively thin forests to promote wildfire resilience. New research from the 天美影院shows that the same process can also increase seasonal snowpack, providing some relief to drought-prone areas throughout central Washington.
A new study examining 13 years of ground motion data from sites near the Cascadia Subduction Zone shows that the entirety of the fault may not be as tightly locked as researchers thought, which could change our understanding of how a big earthquake might hit the Pacific Northwest.
A team led by 天美影院 researchers has created DopFone, a system that uses an off-the-shelf smartphone鈥檚 existing speaker and microphone to accurately estimate fetal heart rate. The phone mimics a Doppler ultrasound, emitting a tone and listening for the subtle variations in its echo caused by fetal heart beats. A machine learning model then estimates the heart rate.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has issued its first real-time alerts of changes in the night sky. The ultrafast alerting system, developed at the UW, will eventually detect up to seven million changes in the cosmos every night and notify scientists around the world.
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.
NASA announced on Thursday last week that both the 天美影院 STRIVE team and the UW-affiliated EDGE team were selected to lead satellite missions to better understand Earth and improve capabilities to foresee environmental events and mitigate disasters.
A 天美影院 study shows that existing models underestimate methane loss in the stratosphere and generate uncertainty in the global methane budget 鈥� a key metric for tracking climate change.
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.
A 天美影院and Ai2 research team built OpenScholar, an open-source AI model designed specifically to synthesize current scientific research. In tests, OpenScholar cited sources as accurately as human experts, and 16 scientists preferred its response to those written by subject experts 51% of the time.
New research supported by Yingjie Cheng, a 天美影院 postdoctoral researcher in astronomy, uncovered a contender for one of the earliest observed spiral galaxies containing a stellar bar 鈥� a notable visual feature that can play an important role in the evolution of a galaxy.
A new smart glove from the 天美影院Wearable Intelligence Lab could help physical therapy patients track progress and train robotic hands to grasp.
A team led by 天美影院 astronomers has discovered the fastest-ever spinning asteroid with a diameter over half a kilometer.
Lucas Meza, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the 天美影院, started his lab to build a new generation of tough and light nanomaterials inspired by natural materials like wood, shell and bone. Instead, he discovered 鈥渂ig gaps鈥� in our basic understanding of what makes a material tough or brittle. Meza spoke to 天美影院News about his strange and surprising journey into the nano realm.
天美影院 researchers show that wildfire is increasingly impacting lands managed under the Northwest Forest Plan, a seminal measure enacted in 1994 to preserve habitat for endangered species.
Rivers cover more than 4 million miles of the U.S., but protections for rivers are piecemeal, accounting for less than 20% of total river length and varying widely by region, shows a new study co-led by the 天美影院.
天美影院researchers analyzed the checkout data from the last 20 years of the 93 authors included in the post-1945 volume of 鈥淭he Norton Anthology of American Literature,鈥� which is assigned in U.S. English classes more than any other anthology. Sci-fi was especially popular.
The American Geophysical Union honored five 天美影院 faculty and researchers from the departments of Earth and space sciences and atmospheric and climate science this week for their valuable researcher contributions.