Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture

Come curious. Leave inspired. The UW offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. And you don’t have to wait until June: Take a look at everything still happening in May. Sign up to receive a monthly notice when the ArtSci Roundup has been published. ArtSci On Your Own Time: Through July...

The history of life on Earth often feels like a story about giants. Huge dinosaurs, powerful predators and massive plant-eaters fill our imagination. But that is only part of the picture. Gregory Wilson Mantilla, professor of biology at the UW and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the UW Burke Museum, is quoted.

Explore recent research from the University of Washington: how sunbirds sip nectar through straw-like tongues, why the Seattle Fault might not pose as great a risk as previously thought, how to gauge landslide dam risk in the PNW, what marine microbes use for making meals and when the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will spot small inbound asteroids.

Come curious. Leave inspired. The UW offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. 

A research team led by the UW has identified a new species of an ancient rodent-like creature. 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 the trees and ate fruits and insects.

New research published in Current Biology reveals sunbirds use their long tongues as a kind of makeshift straw to hoover up nectar in flowersthe first vertebrates known to do so. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, associate professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is mentioned.

A new study doubles the evolutionary history of the weasel family. Researchers, including Chris Law, a UW 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.

On display now at the University of Washingtons Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving examines the traditional art form and its importance to Coast Salish communities. Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, associate professor of art history at the UW and curator of Northwest Native American Art at the Burke Museum, is quoted.

Come curious. Leave inspired. The UW offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. Sign up to receive a monthly notice when the ArtSci Roundup has been published. ArtSci On Your Own Time or From Your Own Home Video | Katz Distinguished Lectures Playlist (Simpson Center for the Humanities) From Mourning across...

Come curious. Leave inspired. The UW offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. And you don’t have to wait until Marchtake a look at everything still happening this February. In addition,sign up to receive a monthly notice when the ArtSci Roundup has been published. ArtSci On Your Own Time Exhibition |...

While February might be just 28 days, the UW College of Arts & Sciences offers an exciting lineup of more than 40 in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University.

Upper Skagit elder Vi Hilbert's legacy in language and culture preservation lives on through archival records collected in the Vi Hilbert Collection, first curated and digitized by retired longtime UW Ethnomusicologist Laurel Sercombe and now housed through UW LIbraries, and through a documentary film and symphony she commissioned, Healing Heart of the First People of This Land," staged at the UW in February 2026 by the UW Symphony and soloist (and School of Music alumna) Adia S. Bowen.  

“This Is Native Land” is a permanent, 3,000-square-foot exhibition at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma that weaves the stories of Indigenous peoples into the fabric of the 30-year-old institution. Co-curated by Associate Professor Danica Sterud Miller (Puyallup) and Todd Clark (Wailaki), tribal liaison for the Washington State Historical Society, the project engaged more than 100 Native contributors from more than 60 tribes. 

Key collaborators include elder Philip H. Red Eagle, ’83, ’87 (Dakota and Puget Sound Salish); artist Joe Feddersen, ’83, (Colville); Owen Oliver, ’21 (Quinault); current UW museology student Markus Teuton, ’24 (Cherokee); and museum staff, including head of collections Maggie Wetherbee, ’00, and director of audience engagement Mary Mikel Stump, a former UW student. Viewpoint spoke with Miller, who is on faculty at UW Tacoma, for a look at the making of “This Is Native Land.”

Trump in the World 2.0 Winter Lecture Series, Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration by UW professor Mark Letteney and Matthew D.C. Larsen, a Grad Lab Concert, and 25+ in-person and online events, podcasts, exhibitions, and more.

Carnivorans, from mongooses to bears, evolved diverse body shapes in response to two major global cooling events, according to a study of 850 skeletons. Chris Law, a principal research scientist of biology at the UW and an affiliate curator at the UW Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, is quoted.