Population Health

"Health practitioners are increasingly concerned that because race is a social construct, and the biological mechanisms of how race affects clinical outcomes are often unknown, including race in predictive algorithms for clinical decision-making may worsen inequities," writes Anirban Basu, professor of health economics at the UW.

All women and girls are susceptible to eating disorders and poor body image, but because of misleading medical terminology, popular-media images, and a lack of overall awareness and training, the issue and remedies are framed almost exclusively around white women. But individuals and organizations are working to shift the discussion and unveil the true complexities of eating disorders, particularly in relation to minoritized communities. Timeka Tounsel, assistant professor of Black studies in communication at the UW, is quoted.

Altman, the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind viral chatbot ChatGPT and image generator Dall-E, is set to testify before Congress on Tuesday. His appearance is part of a Senate subcommittee hearing on the risks artificial intelligence poses for society, and what safeguards are needed for the technology. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

Is AI going to kill us? Or take our jobs? Or is the whole thing overhyped? Depends on who you ask. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement appears to have resumed flights to Boeing Field in King County after four years of using the Yakima Air Terminal. Angelina Godoy, professor of law, societies and justice and of international studies and director of the Center for Human Rights at the UW, is quoted.

Christopher Tounsel, associate professor of history at the UW, explains the reasons behind the violence and what it means for the chances of democracy being restored in Sudan.

A new UW report raises questions about adequate janitorial services at Tacoma’s immigration detention center. The report includes internal emails among ICE staff, noting concerns about cleanliness at the facility. Angelina Godoy, professor of law, societies and justice and of international studies and director of the Center for Human Rights at the UW, is quoted.

Over 100 people participated in a hunger strike last week at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, known colloquially as the Northwest Detention Center. The strike ended on Feb. 5 after four days, according to detention abolitionist group, La Resistencia. Angelina Godoy, professor of law, societies and justice and of international studies and director of the Center for Human Rights at the UW, is quoted.

Speech & Hearing Sciences faculty and students help incarcerated mothers in a residential parenting program build a strong communication foundation with their child.

In one of the first studies to explore how COVID-19 specifically affects older infants, researchers from the University of Washington and at institutions at four other locations in the Western and Southern U.S. found that the number of infected people in a household was the factor most closely linked with the infant’s likelihood of being infected.

This week, the Imagining Trans Futures cross-disciplinary research cluster is hosting an academic symposium to bring together scholars, artists, and leaders in the transgender and Asian American communities.

Released last month, “The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours,” is Chantel’s first book, and it arrived with a splash. A small tsunami, really; the highly anticipated text has been described by reviewers as “marvelous,” “hilarious,” “highly accessible,” “charming,” and “the smartest, clearest, and funniest book I’ve ever read about the brain.”

A new study projects the number of days with "dangerous" and "extremely dangerous" mixtures of heat and humidity by the end of this century. Even if global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius, results show that deadly heat waves will become much more common in the mid-latitudes, and many tropical regions will experience "dangerous" heat for about half the year.

Statistics professor Jon Wakefield led a team estimating excess deaths due to COVID. The findings caused a stir.

New research by scientists at the University of Washington, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and the University of Cologne indicates that carefully designed cocktails of broadly neutralizing antibodies could help treat HIV while minimizing the risk of the virus evolving to “escape” treatment.