Micropantries 鈥� commonly called 鈥渓ittle free pantries鈥澨� 鈥� and community fridges are a frequent sight throughout Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region. One estimate suggests that they supply around 4 million pounds of food per year to neighbors in need in the Seattle area, more than the state鈥檚 largest food bank. The curbside cupboards are a decentralized, community-driven effort to fight food insecurity and reduce food waste at the neighborhood level, but their ad hoc nature limits their dependability 鈥� users don鈥檛 know when food is available without repeatedly checking, and donors don鈥檛 know what foods are needed most.

Now, anyone who interacts with micropantries or community fridges in the Seattle area can try out an experimental app, made by 天美影院 researchers, that brings a suite of new features to the micropantry network. , maps many local pantries across the region. The app also gives each pantry an activity feed where users can share food they鈥檝e donated, report on stock levels, add requests to a wish list, post photos and leave other notes. The research team also retrofitted some pantries with sensors that anonymously auto-report their usage and stock levels to the app in real time.

鈥淭his is an effort to document and quantify the phenomenon of micropantries,鈥� said , a senior research scientist at the 天美影院. 鈥淟ots of micropantries and community fridges popped up around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was curious about who uses them and how they are used.鈥�

The team was cognizant of privacy concerns and designed the smart pantry tech accordingly.

鈥淧utting cameras in the pantries could give us a lot of information about what specific foods are moving through the system, but that may also deter users who are concerned about privacy,鈥� said , a 天美影院doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering who designed and built the sensor suite. 鈥淚nstead, we settled on simpler sensors that measure weight and interactions like opening the door to measure stock levels while preserving everyone鈥檚 anonymity.鈥�

The researchers hope that neighbors will find new ways to connect and help one another through these tools. A user might see that stock levels are low in a nearby pantry, for example, and decide to add some food. Another user might request certain foods to accommodate their dietary restrictions.听

The sensor-equipped pantries are a small subset of the dozens of pantries throughout Seattle, but in addition to providing some neighborhoods with enhanced food tracking, they will generate aggregate data that will help Dalla Chiara鈥檚 team study donor and usage behavior. Dalla Chiara also plans to survey donors to learn more about what motivates people to provide food to pantries.

鈥淲e know that there is a lot of food insecurity in Seattle and in the United States in general,鈥� Dalla Chiara said. 鈥淏ut we know that there is also a lot of food waste 鈥� lots of people have a surplus of food. And we want to see how grassroots efforts like micropantries can address both food insecurity and waste at the same time.鈥�

Dalla Chiara and his team recently completed a refit on a cold, sleeting March day at a pantry owned by Saint Paul鈥檚 Episcopal Church near Seattle Center. The church keeps the pantry regularly stocked, and rector Stephen Crippen is curious about the data the new system will produce.

鈥淚t puts numbers on what we鈥檙e actually accomplishing,鈥� Crippen said. 鈥淚t helps us get in touch with what鈥檚 going on on this street.鈥�

The research team is also working with local businesses and nonprofits to encourage and track food distribution throughout the pantry network. In April, recycling company Ridwell ran a nonperishable food drive across Seattle and delivered 25,000 pounds of food to the ; from there, volunteers from the Cascade Bicycle Club鈥檚 distributed the food to micropantries around the city by bike, giving the network an infusion of both food and usage data. The and the nonprofit helped support the project鈥檚 community fridges effort.

Dalla Chiara recognizes that there are other grassroots online, and he doesn鈥檛 want his app to replace those services. Nor does he expect the smart pantry network to remain in service indefinitely 鈥� it costs about $150 to retrofit each pantry with sensors, and all that tech will be difficult to maintain after the study concludes in October of this year. At its core, the project is an effort to learn about micropantry usage and explore how technology might encourage sharing of resources and mutual aid systems.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to measure and quantify goodwill,鈥� Dalla Chiara said. 鈥淏ehind each little free pantry there is a whole system of behaviors 鈥� people trying to help one another. If we can understand that system better, we can support it better.鈥�

Other 天美影院collaborators include , professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Urban Freight Lab; , assistant teaching professor of environmental and occupational health sciences; , assistant professor of food systems, nutrition and health; and , assistant professor in the Allen School.

For more information, contact Dalla Chiara at giacomod@uw.edu.

Some Alaska cruises are to this year after a landslide-generated tsunami barreled through the narrow channel during peak season last August. A new analysis of the event from researchers at the University of Calgary and the 天美影院, , describes how glacial retreat caused by global warming primed the fjord for the colossal wave and what, if any, warning signs preceded it.

At 5:26 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2025, a piece of the mountainside one kilometer tall and 200 meters thick collapsed into the Tracy Arm Fjord, a scenic waterway south of Juneau. Rock crashed into the water, taking with it chunks of the South Sawyer glacier and producing a 481-meter high tsunami so powerful that it scraped surrounding hillsides bare.

The event would have been “unsurvivable for any ship of any size,鈥� said co-author a 天美影院professor of Earth and space sciences, but fortunately the tsunami occurred too early for tours and no one was harmed.

Later that day, as many as 20 boats, including large cruise ships, may have visited the fjord. Tourist vessels often draw near the fjord wall to get the best vantage point for photographs of towering glaciers and mountains. The slope that failed was only recently exposed to the water below it due to glacial retreat.

鈥淚t was only in the last few years that the glacier retreated back past the bottom of where the hillside failed,鈥� Roe said.

Tracy Arm Fjord hosts two glaciers, the Sawyer and South Sawyer, which both stem from the , a frozen expanse spanning the Alaska-British Columbia border. The larger South Sawyer glacier terminates in the water, making it a tidewater glacier, while the Sawyer retreated onto land in 2023.

Satellite observations indicate that the ice has retreated nearly 10 kilometers since the beginning of the industrial era, with the pace accelerating after 2000.

Mapping the change in position and mass of a tidewater glacier can be difficult because they shrink in multiple directions. Exposed ice melts in the sun and chunks break off and fall into the water at the glacial front. Glaciers around the world have been retreating in response to global warming, but tidewater glaciers don鈥檛 always follow general trends.

To understand the link between global warming and the 2025 tsunami, researchers used a computational method developed by Roe and , a 天美影院research scientist in Earth and space sciences. Their approach combines hundreds of simulations from various computer models to estimate how different certain climates would look without human influence.

鈥淲ith these data, we can quantify how unusual the observations are compared to the expected natural variability in the climate had we not been burning fossil fuels,鈥� Berdahl said.

In the study, they conclude that 100% of the industrial-era warming in this region of Alaska is human-caused. As it gets warmer, less snow accumulates and the ice retreats.

鈥淪nowline elevations are rising, ice is thinning, and the ice cap is shrinking. Even though tidewater glaciers can be more complicated to study, we are fully confident that the retreat is primarily due to the changing environment, and we are the cause of the changing environment,鈥� Roe said.

It is possible that glacial retreat destabilized the slope that failed, but specific landslide triggers are notoriously difficult to discern. Either way, if the surface beneath the slope had been glacial ice, the slide wouldn鈥檛 have produced such a massive tsunami.

Although no one was harmed by the wave, those nearby raised the alarm. Kayakers awoke early in the morning to water flowing past their tents and carrying away some of their gear. A cruise ship anchored near the mouth of the fjord described large waves rolling through and shifting currents. These reports allowed researchers to triangulate the landslide, but the authors say there were very few advance warning signs.

鈥淣ormally with these gigantic rock avalanches, they often give some sort of warning signs in the weeks, months or years prior when the slope is slowly moving down the mountain. It鈥檚 sagging and then it catastrophically gives way in a rock avalanche,鈥� said lead author , associate professor of Earth, energy and environment at the University of Calgary. 鈥淚n this case, that didn鈥檛 happen.鈥�

The researchers did note an increase in low frequency seismic noise before the landslide.

鈥淭he long precursory phase of seismic activity before the landslide is fascinating, and to my knowledge, rarely observed,鈥� said , a 天美影院professor of Earth and space sciences. 鈥淕iven its duration and the relative ease of detection, this type of signal could conceivably provide advance warning of large slides if enough seismic monitoring can be deployed.鈥�

Until that happens though, it will be difficult to predict the behavior of changing terrain.

The unexpected event presents challenges when it comes to disaster reduction in high-risk areas, Shugar said. Cruise ship companies, captains and other stakeholders should pay close attention, particularly in areas on the West Coast and in polar regions where glaciers are thinning due to the changing climate.

This study was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Alberta Innovates, Canadian Space Agency, U.S. Geological Survey Landslide Hazards Program, the U.S. National Science Foundation, NERC, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Foundation, and the Carlsberg Foundation.

This story was adapted from

For more information, contact Roe at groe@uw.edu.听

Biodiversity loss is directly threatening human health and welfare, according to new research by a multi-institution team including the 天美影院. The study, , reveals for the first time how the decline of insect pollinators undermines essential ecosystem services that support human nutrition and livelihoods.

It鈥檚 been long known that insect pollinators are vital for producing many of the fruits, vegetables and legumes that supply essential vitamins and minerals in our diets, yet clear evidence of how their decline affects people has been limited.

Working in 10 smallholder farming villages and their surrounding landscapes in Nepal, researchers traced the full chain of connections between wild pollinators, crop yields and the nutrients families rely on. By tracking diets, crop nutrients and the insects visiting those crops over a year, the research team showed how pollinators directly support both nutrition and livelihoods.

鈥淭his study directly connects the crops that local pollinators visit with people鈥檚 diets, nutrition and income,鈥� said , a research scientist in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the UW. 鈥淚t was a real collaborative effort across many partners to collect and analyze a large body of data, making it possible to explore these links.鈥�

The study found insect pollinators were responsible for 44% of people鈥檚 farming income and contributed more than 20% of their intake of vitamin A, folate and vitamin E. When pollinators decline, families risk poorer nutrition leading to higher vulnerability to illness and infections, and deeper cycles of poverty and poor health. One quarter of the global population currently suffer from this 鈥渉idden hunger.鈥�

The research shows there is real potential for positive change 鈥� nutrition and income can improve when communities support pollinators. Simple steps like planting wildflowers, using fewer pesticides or keeping native bees can help boost pollinator numbers, strengthening both nature and people鈥檚 wellbeing.

Even though smallholder farmers are highly vulnerable to biodiversity loss, these practical local actions could enhance their food security and economic resilience. The findings could also help improve the health and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers around the world.

鈥淥ur study shows that biodiversity is not a luxury 鈥� it is fundamental to our health, nutrition and livelihoods,鈥� said lead author who completed the research while at the University of Bristol and is now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of York, both in the United Kingdom. 鈥淏y revealing how species like pollinators support the food we eat, we highlight both the risks of biodiversity loss for human health and the powerful opportunities to improve human lives by working with nature.鈥�

The research shows that human health is deeply tied to the health of nature. By tracking how pollinators support food production and diets, the study reveals that biodiversity loss isn鈥檛 just an environmental problem, it threatens public health and economic stability 鈥� as highlighted in the recent U.K. government.

With around 2 billion people relying on smallholder farming and with many facing vitamin deficiencies, protecting the ecosystems that support nutritious food is essential and crucial for sustainable development.

The study鈥檚 findings offer a practical framework to help policymakers and farmers design more nature鈥憄ositive farming systems. Although the research is focused on Nepal, the same connections shape food systems everywhere. Diets, even in industrialized countries, still depend on the pollinators and ecosystems that sustain global agriculture.

The researchers 鈥� spanning universities and non-governmental organizations across Nepal, the U.K., the U.S. and Finland 鈥� are now putting their findings into action across Nepal to tackle pollinator declines and repair the pollination systems that support food production. Working with farmers, local organizations, researchers and government partners, they are helping people understand the value of pollinators and how to support them in everyday farming.

By demonstrating why pollinators matter, and sharing simple, practical techniques to support them, the researchers are already seeing farmers adopt changes that boost crop yields, nutrition and income.

鈥淎 鈥榳in-win鈥� scenario exists where we can simultaneously improve conditions for both biodiversity and people,鈥� said co-author , professor of ecology at the University of Bristol. 鈥淚t takes ecological understanding, but it costs remarkably little and there are significant gains for both parties.鈥�

This story was adapted from a

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

Artificial intelligence has swept into American schools, and more is sure to come. This year, both Google and Microsoft 鈥� the two biggest companies at the forefront of the AI boom 鈥� in AI training for teachers.听

But what do teachers think of this transformation of their work?

Katie Davis, a 天美影院 professor in the Information School and co-director of the Center for Digital Youth, studies how technology affects young people鈥檚 learning and development. Davis has also been teaching for over two decades 鈥� first as an elementary school teacher and now as a professor 鈥� so she鈥檚 acutely aware of how earlier technological revolutions in teaching have not always played out as hoped.

Davis and a UW-led team of researchers interviewed 22 teachers in in Colorado 鈥� a district that鈥檚 investing heavily in AI through systems like Google鈥檚 Gemini and , an AI tool that helps teachers plan. Overall, teachers were ambivalent about the technology. They liked that it could reduce workload, especially for rote tasks, but worried that it could erode the social aspects of teaching.

The team April 15 at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Barcelona.

天美影院News talked with Davis about the study and how ostensibly democratizing technologies can widen disparities in schools.听

Why did you want to study AI adoption by schools?

Katie Davis: At least since the introduction of the radio, every new technological invention has been hyped for how it will change teaching and learning. Computers are the prototypical example. They were pushed into schools only to start collecting dust, because they didn’t really change anything. We saw it with , too. Ten or 15 years ago, these courses were supposed to transform education and put colleges and universities out of business. But that hasn’t happened.

Often the hype centers on closing educational inequities. But these new technologies actually tend to aggravate existing inequities. The schools serving the most affluent students have the resources to think carefully about how to incorporate technologies into their curriculum so that they’re supporting student learning goals and outcomes, whereas more under-resourced schools don’t have the resources or the time to do that kind of work. So they end up incorporating technologies in ways that don鈥檛 necessarily help students learn; instead, they make things more efficient or keep track of students.

When AI started being intensely pushed into schools, I thought here we go again. AI is here and it’s not going anywhere, so I would love for us to understand how it’s being taken up in schools and, ideally, to prevent this recurring pattern.

What did you hear from teachers about AI?

KD: Teachers expressed a deep ambivalence toward AI. It wasn’t as if any one teacher said it’s all great or it’s all terrible. I think the single strongest driver for teachers to use AI was to prevent burnout. Teachers are being asked to do more and more 鈥� not just teach, but care for students’ entire emotional, cognitive and academic lives. It really weighs on them. So a lot of them talked about turning to AI to be a thought partner, to help them brainstorm lesson ideas, create assessments and differentiate lessons for different learners.

Another really big benefit for this particular school district was multilingual support. The district serves students who speak more than 160 languages. One teacher we spoke with said she had four main languages represented in her classroom but she only spoke English, so she was turning to AI to help her translate materials for her students and for their families so that she could communicate with them.听

I think it’s really important to note that this district is going all in on AI. They’re encouraging teachers to use it and providing professional development, and teachers are talking among themselves and sharing ideas. This kind of institutional support and more informal teacher conversations are also encouraging teachers to use AI and explore how they might incorporate it into their teaching practice.

AI is often presented as a democratizing technology, but a recently showed that higher wage earners are using AI more than lower wage earners in the same industry 鈥� possibly increasing disparities. Are you seeing anything like that playing out in education?

KD: The way that manifests in education is in the kinds of support that students have access to. It’s more likely that better-resourced schools are also going to provide some form of AI literacy instruction 鈥� to really engage students in thoughtful reflection about what AI is, how it may or may not be useful for their learning, and to actually get them to think about these issues in a deep way. Whereas in under-resourced schools, the easiest thing to do is to just block AI. That’s not going to prevent students from using it, but they will end up using it in a communication vacuum, without any adult guidance. You can see how that would create disparities in how well students can use it.

I was really interested in the finding that teachers are concerned that students will know they鈥檙e using AI.

KD: That is one of the most interesting findings for me. Teachers are definitely aware that if their students think they’ve used AI, students and their parents will feel that their teachers are cheating them out of a proper education. Teachers are very worried about both students and their more AI-resistant colleagues seeing them that way. I don’t think this is unique to teachers 鈥� I feel it in university jobs, too. Many people have this perception that using AI is cheating or taking the easy way out.听

But there’s another layer: Teachers are personally worried about their own authentic voice and professional identity. They鈥檙e asking, 鈥淚f I am using AI, at what point am I no longer a teacher? Where’s that line between using AI as a thought partner to augment my professional practice versus it now replacing my professional practice?鈥澨�

What are ways schools might amplify the positive parts of using AI while mitigating some of these negative effects?

KD: One of the first things is to bring AI out of the shadows and talk about it. Since we published this piece, I’ve been engaging with groups of teachers around the country in professional development experiences around AI, and they really enjoy having a community of practice. They feel that those spaces don’t necessarily exist in their schools. It’s like there’s this vacuum of communication 鈥� students don’t talk about it because they’re implicitly getting the message that it’s not OK to use it, and it鈥檚 the same with teachers.

Professional development is also very important. But a lot of professional development for teachers is just one-off PowerPoint presentations. It doesn’t really connect to whatever is going on in the classroom. Professional development needs to be done in a sustained way that meaningfully connects AI to teachers’ immediate classroom experiences.

School leaders need to be able to communicate AI policies, so that teachers are aware of them and understand how they apply in their specific schools. If you take Washington state as an example, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has a really great blueprint and guidance for using AI. But my sense is that not many teachers are aware of it, or even if they are, there hasn’t been any concerted effort to say, “OK, this is what that means in our school.” We need to be working at many levels to make sure that AI is integrated into education well.听

Is there anything you want to add?

KD: Something I hold very dear as a teacher is that teaching is relational. Kids don’t learn in isolation. The gave saying the ideal vision is for every kid on the planet to have their own personal AI tutor and for every teacher to have their own personal AI teaching assistant. Maybe that would be great, but I worry that this push toward AI will erode the relationships between teachers and students. Teaching and learning are social processes. It’s not just about putting information into a student鈥檚 brain. Students learn through dialog, through participation in cultural practices. To remove that element of learning really concerns me.

Co-authors include, a 天美影院doctoral student in human centered design and engineering; of Artech and of Rutgers University, both of whom contributed to this research as 天美影院graduate students in the Information School; of Columbia University; of Aurora Public Schools;, a 天美影院associate professor in the Information School;, a 天美影院professor and chair of human centered design and engineering; of Lahore University of Management Sciences; of the University of Colorado Boulder; and of Boston College. This research was supported by a Spencer Foundation Vision Grant and the AI Research Institutes program by the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences.

For more information, contact Davis at kdavis78@uw.edu.

Sunbirds may look similar to hummingbirds 鈥� small, iridescent birds with thin bills 鈥� but it turns out the two are only distantly related. Sunbirds live primarily in Africa, Asia and Australia, and have a unique way to slurp up nectar. Unlike hummingbirds, which use minute movements in their bills to sip nectar, sunbirds use their tongues as a straw. published in Current Biology, a team led by researchers at the 天美影院 showed that these long-billed birds can change the pressure at the base of their tongues to create suction that moves nectar through their tongues and into their mouths, a novel mechanism never before seen in vertebrates. The researchers used multiple techniques 鈥� including high-speed video of sunbirds drinking red-dyed nectar from transparent artificial flowers 鈥� to demonstrate this phenomenon across multiple sunbird species as well as build a mathematical model that describes how it works. Sunbirds pollinate the flowers they drink from, and researchers are interested in understanding how different sunbird species’ plant preferences affect the plant-pollinator networks across continents.

For more information, contact lead author , who completed this research as a 天美影院doctoral student in biology, at david_cuban@brown.edu.听听

The other 天美影院co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is included . Related stories in and .听

Seattle Fault gets 5,000 more years of sleep听

Just over 1,100 years ago an on the Seattle fault rocked 鈥� and reshaped 鈥� the Puget Sound region. It lifted the sea floor and sent a powerful tsunami through the sound. Researchers have estimated that this fault, which runs east to west beneath the middle of the city, will produce a large earthquake every 5,000 years or so. However, , recently published in Geology, pushes that estimate back to 11,000 years. The researchers extended this window by scouring submerged shorelines for evidence of significant elevation changes. The geological record at these sites dates back 11,000 years, but they only found evidence of one major earthquake. This information could be useful to those making seismic hazard maps, which help people understand the risks associated with different regions. Although other regional faults and the imposing pose more imminent risks to residents, the main Seattle fault doesn鈥檛 appear to be ready for rupture anytime soon.

For more information, contact lead author , 天美影院research scientist of Earth and space sciences, at edav@uw.edu.

The other 天美影院co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is included in the paper. Related story in .

The PNW has many rivers, but no system for gauging landslide dam risk

Scientists have a new tool for estimating lesser known hazards in the Pacific Northwest: and outburst floods. Landslides along rivers can block the flow of water downstream, creating a lake just above the slide area. Most landslide dams fail within 10 days, releasing trapped water in an outburst flood, which can be devastating. Last fall, 20 people died after in Taiwan. published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 天美影院researchers debut a mathematical approach to mapping landslide dam hazards based on valley width and projected slide size. When they applied the tool to a mountain range in Oregon, they found that roughly one-third of rivers in the study area were susceptible to landslide dams, with risk increasing in mountainous areas. If a landslide dam does form, alleviating pressure by for water to escape can help prevent flooding. Identifying high risk areas can help guide emergency response efforts following storms, earthquakes and other events that increase landslide risk.

For more information, contact lead author , 天美影院doctoral student of Earth and space sciences, at pmmorgan@uw.edu.

The other 天美影院co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

Rubin observatory expected to spot many 鈥榠mminent impactor鈥� asteroids

Small asteroids 鈥� those 1 to 20 meters in diameter 鈥斕� hit the Earth 35-40 times per year, though they鈥檙e very rarely spotted by telescopes before impact. That could soon change: published in The Astrophysical Journal, 天美影院astronomers calculate that the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory could discover one to two Earth-impacting asteroids annually , roughly doubling the number currently logged. The researchers expect Rubin to discover these asteroids an average of 1.5 days before impact, which is more warning time than ever before. Advance notice is extremely valuable in the case of larger asteroids that could be a threat to people or infrastructure. Because the Rubin Observatory is located in the Southern Hemisphere, it will likely discover many Earth impactors that existing asteroid surveys 鈥� concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere 鈥� miss.

For more information, contact lead author Ian Chow, a 天美影院graduate student of astronomy, at chowian@uw.edu.

Other 天美影院co-authors are Mario Juri膰, Joachim Moeyens, Aren N. Heinze and Jacob A. Kurlander. A full list of co-authors is included .

Many marine microbes share a genetic toolbox for fixing supper at sea

Researchers have now identified a set of genes that allow some bacteria to process a compound, called homarine, that is abundant in the ocean and appears to play a key role in nutrient cycling. Phytoplankton produce loads of homarine, but scientists weren鈥檛 sure what became of it until now. In a recent study published in Nature Microbiology, researchers found a set of genes present in common and far-flung bacteria that convert homarine into glutamic acid, an essential building block for life. This suggests that homarine may be a vital and overlooked resource and highlights the importance of bacteria in stabilizing marine ecosystems. Previous studies also found that homarine serves as and helps small crabs . The 天美影院team will continue studying homarine to better understand how it fits into the broader ecological landscape.

For more information, contact senior author , a 天美影院professor of oceanography, at aingalls@uw.edu.听

The other 天美影院co-authors are , , , , , and 听 A full list of co-authors and funding is

Even though he wanted to bike commute from his Capitol Hill home to the 天美影院, Jared Hwang often took transit because he struggled to find a good bike route. Apps like Google Maps and Strava might suggest hilly, busy streets simply because they have bike lanes. He even headed to Reddit to crowdsource ideas.听

鈥淚 was like, surely, this cannot be the best way to do things,鈥� said , a 天美影院doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. 鈥淭his data is out there. We know where bike lanes are, what the roads are like, what the speed limits are. We should be able to easily access all this information at once.鈥�

So Hwang and a team of 天美影院researchers built , a demo web app that lets users find personalized bike routes in Seattle. Cyclists plug in their origin and destination 鈥� just like in other mapping apps 鈥� and can then create personalized routes by adjusting eight sliders.听听

Researchers initially worked with four participants to understand how cyclists tend to plan their routes. Based on that, they built a prototype of BikeButler. For the basic street layout and other info, they pulled data from OpenStreetMap and government data sets. But those didn鈥檛 have information on more subjective qualities.听

For those, researchers turned to Google Street View. They used a visual language model, or VLM 鈥� a type of artificial intelligence 鈥� to analyze street images and rate subjective attributes like greenery and pavement quality. The team had the VLM rate the level of greenery on streets and then compared this with two researchers鈥� ratings. The humans agreed with each other about as much as they agreed with the VLM 鈥� about 60% of the time. Future research might try to gather individual users鈥� greenery preferences to offset this discrepancy.听

Once they鈥檇 mapped most of Seattle, the team tested the prototype with 16 participants.听

鈥淥verall the response was really positive,鈥� Hwang said. 鈥淲e found that people do, in fact, have contextual preferences. A cyclist riding for fun on a Saturday might want a safer, greener route compared with their fast work commute. People intuitively know this, but it hadn鈥檛 been established through research.鈥澨�

Researchers say future work might integrate feedback from the user study, such as the ability to drag routes to change them slightly and an option to take fewer turns. The team is currently studying how to quantify cyclists鈥� preferences around intersections and turns.

The researchers note that the quality of BikeButler鈥檚 recommendations is constrained by the recency and accuracy of the data it uses. For instance, a new bike lane might not yet appear on a map, or it could appear in OpenStreetMap but not Google Street View. Also, since the team planned this as a proof of concept, BikeButler is limited to Seattle, though it could be expanded to other areas.听

鈥淚鈥檓 a lifelong biker and bike commuter,鈥� said senior author , a 天美影院professor in the Allen School. 鈥淲hat excites me most about Jared鈥檚 work is how it points to a future where we receive route choices individualized to our preferences. So whether I鈥檓 biking with my two young children, or riding for groceries, I can find a route for that context.鈥�

Co-authors include , a student at Issaquah High School and intern in the Allen School; , a 天美影院doctoral student in urban design and planning; and , a 天美影院student in the Allen School. This study was supported by the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Hwang at jaredhwa@cs.washington.edu.

Mammals and dinosaurs coexisted on Earth until . Despite the devastation, some animals survived, including rodent-like mammals in the Cimolodon genus. These creatures are part of , a group that arose during the Jurassic Period and survived over 100 million years before going extinct. Studying these animals helps researchers better understand how mammals survived the mass extinction event and then diversified into the variety of mammals around today.

A research team led by the 天美影院 has identified a new species in the Cimolodon genus from a fossil the team discovered at a research site in Baja California. The researchers estimate that this fossil is about 75 million years old. 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 trees and ate fruits and insects.

The researchers April 22 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

“The genus Cimolodon was a pretty common mammal during the Late Cretaceous, the last epoch of the Age of Dinosaurs. Cimolodon fossils have been found throughout western North America, from western Canada down through Mexico,” said senior author , a 天美影院professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum. “This new species, Cimolodon desosai, was ancestral to the species that survived the extinction event. It and its descendants were relatively small and omnivorous 鈥� two traits that were advantageous for surviving.”

When Wilson Mantilla and his team discovered the fossil in 2009, they found teeth, a skull, jaws and parts of the skeleton, including a femur and an ulna.

“It’s very hard to find fossils at this site compared to other areas,” Wilson Mantilla said. “At first, my field assistant found just a little tooth poking out. If he had just found that, I would have been over the moon. But then when we looked inside the crack of the rock, we could see there was more bone.”

The fact that the researchers uncovered more than just teeth for C. desosai means that they can better understand its size and shape and how it likely moved. It also helps fill out the picture of this genus and the habitat in which it lived, and contributes to a better understanding of the multituberculate group in general.

The researchers used digital imaging and a tool called micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT, to get high resolution images of the fossil. Then the team compared the teeth of C. desosai to those of its cousins in the Cimolodon genus to establish it as a new species.

“That far back in time everything is named based on their tooth characteristics,” Wilson Mantilla said. “If you find a skeleton that’s missing teeth, sometimes it’s hard to attach it to a name.”

The team named this species after Michael de Sosa VI, the field assistant who first found it, because de Sosa died while they were still analyzing the fossil.

“He was a great field assistant, and he was like a little brother to me,” Wilson Mantilla said. “It’s a great specimen to be associated with.”

Additional co-authors are , 天美影院doctoral student in biology, at the University of Rhode Island; Yue Zhang, who completed this research as a 天美影院postdoctoral fellow in biology; Meng Chen, who completed this research as a 天美影院doctoral student in biology; and and at the Universidad Nacional Aut贸noma de M茅xico.

This research was funded by UC MEXUS-CONACYT, Direcci贸n General de Asuntos del Personal Acad茅mico PAPIIT IN111209-2, the 天美影院College of Arts and Sciences, the 天美影院Department of Biology and the American Philosophical Society.

For more information, contact Wilson Mantilla at gpwilson@uw.edu.

As far as research subjects go, it鈥檚 not always easy to find common ground with a single-celled bacterium. Yet the more studies his model bacteria, , the more he sees surprising commonalities between their behavior and our own as humans.

鈥淚t was mortifying to be stumped for so long by what appeared to be completely counterintuitive behavior only to realize that I engage in exactly the same behavior everyday,鈥� said Wiggins, an associate professor of both physics and bioengineering at the 天美影院.听

Scientists in use experiments and modeling to understand the global principles that govern gene expression, and protein abundance in particular. In in Science Advances, Wiggins鈥� team discovered that A. baylyi cells amass huge surpluses of essential proteins, rather than taking the seemingly more efficient approach of making just enough to survive. 天美影院News chatted with Wiggins to learn about the remarkably relatable reason for this puzzling behavior.

This work grew out of a mystery you and your team uncovered. Tell us about that mystery.

Paul Wiggins: Genes are the blueprints for proteins 鈥� we say they 鈥渃ode for proteins.鈥� A. baylyi has a number of genes that code for proteins that we know are essential for cell growth. But we didn’t know exactly what each of these proteins do. In 2016, we were attempting to uncover these proteins’ specific functions in collaboration with the . To do this we disrupted each gene so that the cells couldn’t make any more protein 鈥� they were left with a now dwindling supply of whatever they鈥檇 previously made. Then we would watch the cells under a microscope to determine when and how cellular processes would fail.听

As an example, we knocked out a gene that coded for a protein that we found was responsible for cell wall synthesis 鈥� it makes the protein-sugar chainmail that prevents the cells from rupturing, or lysing. And you can watch the video we recorded to see what happened: The cells grew and divided for a while, but then all of a sudden they inflated and just popped.

In that example, something strange happened. We would expect the cell walls to start to fail almost immediately after the disruption happened because every time the cells divide, the remaining protein is divided among the offspring cells, so pretty quickly there wouldn鈥檛 be enough to sustain the new cell walls. However, growth continued, one generation after another, before the cells finally failed after four rounds of division!

Why did it take so long? Gene after gene showed the same pattern. We realized that each cell must have made a ton of extra proteins 鈥� far more than it needed. So after we knocked out that essential gene, the cell was able to run on fumes for a while 鈥� and was even able to pass stores of that protein on to its offspring. That finding was initially a huge surprise. We all expected, naively, that if a cell only needed a few copies of a protein to function, it would only make a few 鈥� anything more would be a waste of resources and energy. It鈥檇 be like taking a seven-day trip and packing 30 pairs of socks. And yet, this behavior seemed to be common for lots of essential genes.听

What do you think is the cause of this protein overabundance?

PW: Baking is a good analogy. If you want to make an apple pie, you probably only buy as many apples as you need for that recipe. But you keep a large quantity of salt in your pantry. You might only need a teaspoon of salt to make any given meal, but none of us go to the store and buy salt a teaspoon at a time. Salt is so cheap and easy to store that, relative to the cost of other ingredients in your meal, it鈥檚 basically free to keep in large quantities. And critically, you don鈥檛 want to run out of salt when you鈥檙e cooking.听

We demonstrated that something analogous is happening in A. baylyi cells for most of the essential genes. Only about 30% of a cell鈥檚 essential genes code for proteins that are “expensive” in that the cells need these proteins in large numbers. It would be very costly to, say, double an already large number. These are the apples in our apple pie analogy 鈥� the cell makes just enough of those proteins to get by.听

The remaining 70% of essential genes, however, code for proteins that the cell does not need in large numbers. In fact, relative to that other 30%, the cell needs so few of these proteins that it鈥檚 basically free to produce a bunch of extras. Doubling the production of those proteins, say from 30 to 60 copies, is a drop in the bucket if the cell鈥檚 overall budget is three million proteins. So the cell says, 鈥淪crew it, it鈥檚 virtually free. Let鈥檚 make extra so we don鈥檛 run out.鈥� In some cases a cell might make 10 times more protein than it will ever need.

Why is this strategy useful for the cells?

PW: This overabundance strategy is important because otherwise a cell might fail to produce enough of something critical. Protein synthesis is an imprecise process 鈥� cells sometimes make a little more or a little less of things than they鈥檙e programmed to make. Some essential proteins are made at such low numbers that any deviation from the plan could leave a cell with zero copies of that protein. This is less of a problem for essential proteins that are made in much higher numbers.听

How do these findings support or challenge previous ideas about how cells function?

PW: Depending on who you talk to, this is either definitely wrong or completely obvious. On the one hand, it鈥檚 a really ingrained idea that organisms are always optimizing everything, which would naively suggest that cells should make exactly what they need 鈥� no more, no less. However, this is clearly not the case. Other studies have observed these kinds of protein surpluses in cells before, but it wasn鈥檛 appreciated quite how wide-spread this phenomenon was. Previously researchers proposed that overabundance might be a hedge against changing conditions 鈥� maybe cells are stockpiling proteins in case times get tough. We鈥檙e suggesting that it鈥檚 a hedge against the cells failing to make the right number of essential proteins.

Co-authors include , a 天美影院postdoctoral researcher of physics; Teresa W. Lo and , former 天美影院doctoral students of physics; , a 天美影院graduate student of physics; and , a 天美影院postdoctoral researcher of laboratory medicine and pathology.

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, contact Wiggins at pwiggins@uw.edu.听

天美影院 professor of physics and 天美影院research professor emeritus are part of an international team that won the 2026 . The $3 million award is shared among roughly 400 scientists, including 18 other researchers from the 天美影院team. It celebrates decades of work to better understand the muon 鈥� a subatomic particle with anomalous properties. This collaborative effort could ultimately lead to the discovery of entirely new particles.

鈥淎 remarkable aspect of these experiments is that it took the collective talents and experience of scientists and engineers from particle, nuclear, atomic, optical, accelerator and theoretical physics communities to work coherently toward one single goal,鈥� Hertzog said. 鈥淭ogether, we measured a property of the muon that encapsulates almost everything we know about modern physics from relativity to quantum mechanics to the zoo of particles that govern the fundamental forces that shape our world.鈥�

The were established in 2012 to recognize research achievements in life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics.听

Muons, short-lived subatomic particles, are created for experiments by particle accelerators. They exist for a fraction of a second before decaying into electrons and even tinier particles called neutrinos. During their short life, muons exhibit magnetic properties that deviate slightly from the 鈥� the leading theory that describes the particles and forces that make up the universe, along with anything that exists that has not yet been discovered.

The experiments recognized by the Breakthrough Prize represent 60-plus years of work to find out exactly how far the muon鈥檚 magnetism strays from Standard Model predictions. The first experiments began in 1959 at the, also called CERN.听

Hertzog鈥檚 group at the University of Illinois was involved in a later experiment at the in the mid-1990s. He joined the faculty at 天美影院in 2010 and helped develop a new experiment at (Fermilab) that in 2025 with record-setting precision.听

While Hertzog and others have now completed their experimental measurements, theorists听 continue to refine the predictions of the Standard Model. In time, the gap between theory and experiment 鈥� where the muon currently hovers 鈥� may vanish or persist. If the muon鈥檚 properties never fit the Standard Model, physicists may need to explore entirely new theories.听

鈥淣o matter where the final theory settles, the comparison with our experiment will have important consequences and give us deep insight into the heart of matter,鈥� Hertzog said.

Many 天美影院physicists have been recognized by Breakthrough Prizes since the prizes鈥� inception, including a banner year in 2021 that also featured a win in the life sciences category by Nobel Prize laureate , a 天美影院professor of biochemistry.

鈥淭he Breakthrough Prize has previously recognized 天美影院physicists for work that deepened our understanding of gravity, dark energy and dark matter,鈥� said , 天美影院divisional dean of natural sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. 鈥淭his latest recognition is a testament to the value of large-scale collaborative physics research and we are very proud of the accomplishments of all of the 天美影院faculty, postdocs and students who contributed to this effort.鈥�

A full list of current 天美影院researchers recognized by the 2026 prize . Learn about other 天美影院wins at the Breakthrough Prize here.听

For more information, contact Victor Balta at balta@uw.edu.

It took less than 22 years after the discovery of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) for a fast-acting, highly effective treatment to become available. at curing hepatitis C infection, yet the virus remains a critical public health problem. It鈥檚 the most common bloodborne illness in the United States, and disproportionately impacts low-income people and marginalized communities.听

A directive aimed to eliminate the disease from Washington state by 2030. The first-in-the-nation plan called for coordination between public health agencies, increased screening, removal of barriers to care and a new approach to purchasing antiviral medications at a discount.听

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 study found that total costs for hepatitis C-related care rose when the program was first implemented but have declined since, even as increased screening identifies more cases.听

“Comprehensive health insurance claims data can help us see how patterns in testing, treatment and healthcare costs are changing over time across a large population,鈥� said lead author , who worked on the study while completing a doctoral degree at the UW. 鈥淭hat kind of information can help states better understand how initiatives to expand access to care may affect both patients and the healthcare system.鈥�

Working in collaboration with the Washington State Health Care Authority and the Washington State Department of Health, researchers analyzed medical claims data between January 2017 and September 2022. Records included medical and pharmacy claims collected from both private insurance companies and public payers. The data represented about 70% of Washington residents, approximately 6-8 million individuals per year.听

Researchers found that the number of HCV tests administered increased sharply after Washington implemented the elimination initiative. There was a median of 28,375 tests per month at the end of 2017, peaking at 99,161 by July 2020. The number of tests then leveled off at a median of 55,844 per month throughout 2021. Researchers noted that these shifts also aligned with new national guidelines that recommended all adults receive at least one HCV test. Consistent with increased screening, the study observed an initial increase in the total number of HCV cases, followed by a significant decline over time as more people received treatment.

The study also found that total HCV-related costs spiked immediately after implementation of the initiative, but then dropped closer to initial levels. Total monthly costs rose from $45.6 million in 2017 to $70.8 million in 2019, an increase the researchers attributed to expanded screening, which identified more cases to treat. Monthly costs then declined to $56.8 million in 2021.听

While total HCV care costs rose, costs per patient declined by more than 45%. Researchers said the decline may be due to increased screening catching more infections in otherwise healthy people, which would likely improve treatment outcomes and reduce associated risks over time.听

鈥淎s an observational study, we cannot directly attribute the changes over time to the state initiative,鈥� said co-author , a professor of global health and of child, family and population health nursing at the UW. 鈥淗owever, it does support the idea that investing in screening and treatment of healthy people without symptoms is more cost-effective than waiting until they become sick.鈥澨�

Other authors include , professor of health economics and director of the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy and Economics (CHOICE) Institute at the UW; , teaching professor of biobehavioral nursing and health informatics in the 天美影院School of Nursing; , assistant professor of child, family and population health nursing and of allergy and infectious diseases at the 天美影院School of Medicine; , research coordinator in the Department of Child, Family and Population Health Nursing at the UW; Judy Zerzan-Thul, Leta Evaskus, Donna Sullivan, Stella Chang and JoEllen Colson of the Washington State Health Care Authority; and Emalie Huriaux and Jon Stockton of the Washington State Department of Health.

This study was funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.