Natural Sciences Division

Daniel Kuo-Ching Chen, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle, signed a memorandum of understanding of cooperation with UW President Ana Mari Cauce on Dec. 8. Based on the memorandum, the Taiwan government provided $1.8 million for the UW to strengthen its Taiwan studies program in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and launch a Taiwan arts and culture program.

Jason Hodin, a biology research scientist at UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories, talks about his work successfully breeding sunflower sea stars.

Election-related falsehoods have subsided, but misleading claims about the coronavirus vaccines are surging — often spread by the same people. Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Jonathan Kanter, director of the Center for the Science of Social Connection, offered UW News some suggestions for a healthy and, yes, happy, holiday season.

David Bell, PhD student in physics, and Savannah Lomelli, art student, discuss how they're spending the holidays in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jonathan Kanter, research associate professor of psychology and director of the Center for the Science of Social Connection, explains how to have a joyous holiday season amidst COVID-19.

Here's a quick look at some giftworthy books and music created by UW faculty and staff in 2020, and a reminder of some recent favorites.

See public a public art exhibition on the side of city buses, watch a talk about "Public Opnion and Polls in the 2020 Presidental Election, revisit Marc Seales Group's performance at Town Hall, and more!

Jane Simoni, professor of psychology at the UW, talks about the mental health challenges people are experiencing during the winter amidst the pandemic. [Segment begins at :25.]

The Conservation Canines program, which is part of the UW Center for Conservation Biology, trains dogs in what might seem at first to be unusual detective work: tracking wild animal scat. Deborah Giles, a research scientist at the center, and Sam Wasser, research professor of biology at the UW and director of the center, are quoted.

There’s no doubt that 2020 has been a strange year. So strange, in fact, that the idea of an obstacle-dodging, autonomous cyborg drone that uses a real live moth antenna to track down smells doesn’t sound too much like weird science fiction. That’s probably a good thing, too, because it’s something that researchers from the University of Washington have actually built. And they’ve called it "smellicopter," because … why the heck not? The UW's Melanie Anderson, a doctoral student of mechanical engineering, and Thomas Daniel, professor of biology, are quoted.

NASA reported last week that the Stingray Nebula, which is 18,000 light-years from Earth and located near the southern constellation Ara, has dimmed remarkably fast, fading over just 20 years. Bruce Balick, professor emeritus of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Thomas Daniel, a UW professor of biology, is the co-author of a study on the newly developed Smellicopter: an autonomous drone that uses a live antenna from a moth to navigate toward smells.

The Stingray Nebula, a shroud of gas around an aging star, was already unusual: It is by far the youngest such object in space. But scientists say that it is now getting dimmer as rapidly as it appeared. Its brightness has dropped by a factor of nearly 1,000 over 20 years, and the bright tendrils that once wrapped around its edges are gone. Bruce Balick, professor emeritus of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Amid the dispiriting surge of coronavirus cases around the United States, seven states in the Midwest appear to have a reason to be hopeful: They have all seen a sustained decrease in case numbers over the past two weeks. Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted. [This is part of updates for Dec. 5.]