Natural Sciences Division

This week at the UW, join online events ranging in topics from population health to contempary race and politics in the United States.

“General chemistry has a terrible reputation on most college campuses. It’s seen as a killer—a place where dreams of careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) go to die. Now the data have spoken, and their message is clear: The bad rep is justified. And the numbers are especially bleak for students who are underrepresented in STEM,” writes Scott Freeman, teaching professor emeritus in biology at the UW.

"We found direct support for what recipients of microaggressions have been saying all along: Students who are more likely to say they commit microaggressions are more likely to score higher on measures of racial bias," writes Jonathan Kanter, research associate professor of psychology at the UW.

The 2020 Population Health Applied Research Fellows concluded their 10-week program to produce small area population forecasts at the Census tract and Health Reporting Area levels by sex, race, ethnicity and five-year age groups for King County from 2020 to 2045.

Anthony Greenwald, professor emeritus of psychology at the UW, discusses how the Implicit Association Test can be used as an educational and informational tool for better understanding.

Louis Maliyam, ’21, came to the U.S. for computer science — and along the way discovered dance.

Hana Ra, UW Biology ’20 alumna, discusses her involvement with the OceanEYEs Citizen Science Project.

The unexpected atmospheric detection of phosphine, a smelly gas made by microbes on Earth, could spark a revolution in astrobiology. Michael Wong, a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Statistics and Sociology Professor Adrian Raftery is lead author on a guide to understanding COVID-19 data, for those making public health decisions.

A National Science Foundation survey found that in 2016, scholars who identified as Black or African American were awarded just 6% of all doctorates in life sciences, and less than 3% of doctorates in physical and Earth sciences. Overt harassment and subtle intimidation during fieldwork compound the discrimination that Black scientists and those from other underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds already feel in academic settings. Christopher Schell, assistant professor of interdisciplinary arts and sciences at UW Tacoma, and Scott Freeman, principal lecturer emeritus in biology at the UW, are quoted.

Smoke and fog shrouded the Puget Sound region as fires continued to burn throughout the West Sunday morning, adding a new layer of anxiety and distress to a summer of pandemic, civil unrest and economic decline. Jane Simoni, professor of psychology at the UW, is quoted.

As a kid growing up in Kennewick, Danielle Reed (BA, Psychology, 1984), was drawn to eating kale, dandelion and other sharp-flavored greens—but their bitter taste repelled most of her friends. That made her wonder why. When she was a student at the UW in the 1980s, she learned about the study of physiological psychology, or the biological explanations for how our minds work. Next came the opportunity to conduct research that examined animals’ food intake and what drove their approach to food.

Emeritus Professor Eric Adelberger, Professor Jens Gundlach, and Professor Blayne Heckel are the recipients of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

SpaceX’s attempts to dim the spacecraft in its megaconstellation fall short of eliminating disruptions to the world’s ground-based observatories. Meredith Rawls, a research scientist in astronomy, is quoted.

Three physics professors at the UW have been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in physics.