Research

Researchers from UW’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences discovered that drinking your morning coffee and then an alcoholic beverage before bed cancels the negative effects on your sleep. Frank Song, a doctoral student of psychology at the UW, is quoted.

Hunting later at night may force the big cats to surrender their prey to larger carnivores, such as lions and leopards. Kasim Rafiq, a UW postdoctoral researcher in biology, is quoted.

Even the fastest animal in the world can't outrun the effects of climate change, according to experts. Cheetah populations are especially vulnerable to rising temperatures because hotter days are forcing them to behave more nocturnally, putting them in greater competition with other predators such as lions and African wild dogs, according to a study published in the journal Biological Sciences on Wednesday. Kasim Rafiq, postdoctoral scholar of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Tweens growing up with social media are inundated with rapidly changing beauty standards and the social pressure to conform to them. Lucía Magis-Weinberg, assistant professor of psychology at the UW, is interviewed.

Cheetahs are usually daytime hunters, but the speedy big cats will shift their activity toward dawn and dusk hours during warmer weather, a new study finds. The UW's Briana Abrahms, assistant professor of biology, and Kasim Rafiq, postdoctoral scholar of biology, are quoted.

The first week of November brings the end of Daylight Saving Time and return of Standard Time. Reporter Corey Olson sat down with UW Biology professor Horacio de la Iglesia to discuss the health benefits of staying in Standard Time permanently.

Over the course of some 44,000 years, humans occupying the island of Timor-Leste, just north of Australia, changed their methods of making stone tools in lockstep with climate change, according to a recent study in Quaternary Science Reviews. Ben Marwick, professor of anthropology at the UW, is quoted.

An interview with Dr. Loma Pendergraft on crow vocalization. Pendergraft — a current psychology lecturer in animal behavior-related classes — found interest in the noises the crows on the south side of the UW campus made as he fed them. This curiosity led to the experiment that comprised his master’s degree. 

A recent study reveals the fascinating evolutionary journey of bat teeth and jaws. With over 200 species mostly found in the American tropics, noctilionoid bats possess a wide variety of jaw structures that have adapted to different diets. Sharlene Santana, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Some are stubborn optimists. Others struggle with despair. Their faces show the weight they carry as they witness the impact of climate change. Kristin Laidre, associate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the UW and principal scientist at the Applied Physics Laboratory, and P. Dee Boersma, professor of biology at the UW, are featured.

There are more than 200 species of noctilionoid bats, mostly in the American tropics. And despite being close relatives, their jaws evolved in wildly divergent shapes and sizes to exploit different food sources. A paper published Aug. 22 in Nature Communications shows those adaptations include dramatic, but also consistent, modifications to tooth number, size, shape and position. For example, bats with short snouts lack certain teeth, presumably due to a lack of space. Species with longer jaws have room for more teeth — and, like humans, their total tooth complement is closer to what the ancestor of placental mammals had.

Political Science professor James Long studies why many voters choose to participate in elections in emerging democracies despite the considerable personal cost.

What it means to be Black and Republican has changed through the years. American Ethnic Studies professor La TaSha Levy is researching a period of dramatic change for Black Republicans. 

Where do you seek information about politics and elections? In this roundtable, three faculty in the UW Department of Communication discuss the role of media in creating an informed public.

From dark matter to planet-crushing asteroids, four ways the telescope could alter our understanding of the universe. Mario Jurić, professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.