Natural Sciences Division

Alejandro Rico-Guevara, assistant professor of biology at the UW and curator of ornithology at the UW Burke Museum, remembers when he first realized he was a hummingbird guy — not like an "I fill my hummingbird feeder every week" guy but an “I want to know everything about these birds” guy.

Last May, a team led by physicists at the University of Washington in Seattle observed something peculiar. The University of Washington team reported the FQAHE for the first time, in a specially designed 2D material: two sheets of MoTe2 stacked on top of one another and offset by a twist. Xiaodong Xu, professor of physics at the UW, is quoted.

"The next generation of optical systems demands lenses that are not only lighter and thinner than ever before, but also uphold uncompromising image quality. This demand has fueled a surge of efforts to develop ultra-thin sub-wavelength diffractive optics, known as meta-optics. ... In a new paper published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers, led by Professor Arka Majumdar at the University of Washington, introduced a new design framework termed 'MTF-engineering,'" writes Anna Wirth-Singh, a UW doctoral student in the physics department.

Certain chemicals break down a primrose’s key fragrance molecules, blunting its scent. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted.

Natural history museums have entered a new stage of discovery and accessibility â one where scientists around the globe and curious folks at home can access valuable museum specimens to study, learn or just be amazed. This new era follows the completion of openVertebrate, or oVert, a five-year collaborative project among 18 institutions to create 3D reconstructions of vertebrate specimens and make them freely available online. The team behind this endeavor, which includes scientists at the University of Washington and its Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture, published a summary of the project March 6 in the journal BioScience, offering a glimpse of how the data can be used to ask new questions and spur the development of innovative technology.

Apparently humans aren't the only animals who are neat freaks. Find out how this small rodent and other animals also declutter. James Ha, emeritus research professor of psychology at the UW, is quoted.

A newly discovered genetic mechanism helped eliminate the tails of human ancestors. David Kimelman, professor emeritus of biochemistry at the UW, is quoted.

Seattle scientist and conservationist Estella Leopold has died at the age of 97. Leopold spent most of her career at the University of Washington, teaching and learning about the distant past through pollen deposits. P. Dee Boersma, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

A team working on prolonging the lifespan of transplant organs took home the top prize in the 9th annual Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge at the UW. BioLegacy, made up of Seattle University and UW finance, mechanical engineering, and chemistry students, was awarded the $15,000 WRF Capital Grand Prize for its organ cryopreservation and rewarming innovation. The team was one of 22 that competed in this year’s final round of competition at the UW Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship. Other UW projects are mentioned.

The traveling salesperson problem is one of the oldest known computational questions. Despite seeming simple, the problem is notoriously difficult. Recent work using geometric tools has created a new, faster algorithm, making the biggest runtime leap in decades. Co-developer Thomas Rothvoss, professor of mathematics and of computer science and engineering at the UW, is quoted.

A new study led by researchers at the UW and Northwestern University found about 80% of parents spoke to their children about the Black Lives Matter movement within a year of the murder of George Floyd. Andrew Meltzoff, professor of psychology and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, is quoted.

You might not know it, but some moths can smell just as well as dogs. The nighttime insects use their antennae to sniff out flowers heavy with pollen up to a mile away. New research from the UW shows pollution in car exhaust can blunt the flowers’ scent – making it hard for pollinators to find the blossoms. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted.

An international team of scientists has blazed a new trail for studying how atoms respond to radiation, by tracking the energetic movement of electrons when a sample of liquid water is blasted with X-rays. Xiaosong Li, professor of chemistry at the UW, is quoted.

Air pollution is making it hard for some Washington state flowers to get pollinated, according to a new study in the journal Science. Jeff Riffell, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Scientists at this University of Washington facility in the San Juan Islands are working to help sunflower stars — a type of sea star — grow and thrive once again after their populations along the West Coast were devastated by a mysterious disease. Jason Hodin, research scientist in the UW Department of Biology, is quoted.