Research

Many bird enthusiasts like to hang bright red feeders filled with homemade sugar water to attract hummingbirds to their gardens. Now, new research suggests this common practice may be driving rapid evolutionary change in one species in California. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, assistant professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is quoted.

A new study suggests that Anna's Hummingbirds in the western United States are not only keeping up with human influence on their habitat, they're thriving. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, assistant professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is quoted.

From campus to wherever you call home, we welcome you to learn from and connect with the College of Arts & Sciences community through public events spanning the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. We hope to see you this June.

If you're reaching for a chatbot instead of a search engine or a trusted source, think twice before acting on the information it gives you. Katy Pearce, associate professor of communication at the UW, is interviewed.

Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture.

Communication professor Benjamin Mako Hill studies why successful peer-produced websites (like Wikipedia) eventually struggle to maintain their openness to new contributors.

Researchers in natural language processing tried to tame human language. Then came the transformer. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

In a global ranking of research productivity of political scientists, UW Professor Christopher Adolph was ranked first globally for recent impact, thanks to his research on COVID-19 policies.

As researchers at American universities face an uncertain future, other countries are doing their best to lure scientists away.Is the US set to face a brain drain as top talent moves overseas or into other fields? Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

These birds have evolved to withstand the equatorial sun and shelter in volcanic rocks along a subtropical coastline. After 50 years, biologist Dee Boersma, professor of biology at the UW, continues to learn new things about the species.

Autism rates are rising, but RFK Jr. is wrong about the reasons. Heres what the science says. Annette Estes, director of the UW Autism Center and a research professor of speech and hearing sciences, is quoted.

Biologists Benneth Obitte and Inoro Tanshi are exploring Nigerias bat diversity and trying to save it. Tanshi, postdoctoral researcher in the UW Department of Biology, is quoted.

Archaeologists previously assumed that East Asia did not see considerable tool development during the Middle Paleolithic, but new findings might change that widely held idea. Ben Marwick, professor of anthropology at the UW, is quoted.

Bonobos grunts, peeps and whistles may share an advanced linguistic property with human language. Shane Steinert-Threlkeld, assistant professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

Tony Greenwald, professor emeritus of psychology, is among those honored with a Frontiers of Knowledge Award for developing the Implicit Association Test, an online test that explores our implicit biases.