Natural Sciences Division

As several athletic programs announce their move to a new conference, a group of sleep and circadian scientists and physicians dive into the impacts of increased travel on student-athletes. The UW's Horacio de la Iglesia, professor of biology; Dr. Russ Van Gelder, professor of ophthalmology; and Michael Dillon, associate athletic director for health and wellness, are quoted.

"The toll of my husband's hearing loss can be invisible--even to me. But a new wave of tech could change everything," writes Seattle Met editor, Allecia Vermillion. Yi Shen, associate professor of speech and hearing sciences at the UW, is quoted.

UW researchers discovered an "unexpected finding" while studying the effects of alcohol and caffeine on sleep. Frank Song, a doctoral student of psychology at the UW, is quoted.

Pandemic-related lockdowns were hard on everyone, but a growing body of research suggests they were especially hard on young people. Now a new study scanning adolescent brain seems to be backing some of those suspicions. Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences at the UW and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, is interviewed. [This interview is part of a roundup and begins at 27:05]

Six University of Washington subjects ranked in the top 10, and atmospheric sciences maintained its position as No. 1 in the world on the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects list for 2023. The ranking, released at the end of October, was conducted by researchers at the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, a fully independent organization dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultation.

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

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.

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. 

Briana Abrahms serves as the Boersma Endowed Chair of Natural History and Conservation at UW, and recently received the prestigious Packard Fellowship. Abrahms’ lab will receive $875,000 to pursue research regarding the impacts of environmental change on animal behavior. Writer Samuel Abraham sits down with the professor and distills her ongoing research.

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.

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

The UWAA is proud to honor six extraordinary students across the UW whose stories exemplify Husky adaptability, tenacity and resolve. Each student receives a scholarship and was recognized at the Homecoming football game on Sat. Oct. 21, 2023.

Briana Abrahms, a University of Washington assistant professor of biology and researcher with the UW Center for Ecosystem Sentinels, has been named a 2023 Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering, according to an Oct. 16 announcement from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. As one of 20 new fellows across the country, Abrahms, who holds the Boersma Endowed Chair in Natural History and Conservation, will receive $875,000 over five years for her research.

In a paper published Sept. 6 in Physical Review Letters, an international team of researchers in the United States, Germany and France reported that a distinctive strategy they have used shows real promise to be the first approach to measure the mass of the neutrino. Once fully scaled up, their collaboration — Project 8 — could also reveal how neutrinos influenced the early evolution of the universe as we know it.