Research

"Survivor accounts of the lasting effects of their prostitution at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his wealthy friends repeat the story of every trafficked girl and woman on Aurora Avenue in Seattle," writes Debra Boyer, affiliate faculty in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the UW.

The rockhead poacher, which lurks in the shallow intertidal of the northeastern Pacific Ocean, is one freaky looking fish. Adam Summers, professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences at the UW, is quoted.

Carnivorans, from mongooses to bears, evolved diverse body shapes in response to two major global cooling events, according to a study of 850 skeletons. Chris Law, a principal research scientist of biology at the UW and an affiliate curator at the UW Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, is quoted.

The comet 3I/ATLAS makes its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19, according to NASA. James Davenport, research assistant professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

What happens if you let teens craft the rules that dictate their use of phones at school? You get policy ideas with a nuanced, holistic perspective that rival those being officially issued by the adults in leadership. The UWs Youth Advisory Board, a group of approximately 20 teens from Seattle-area schools, recently published its first memo tackling this contentious issue. The UW's Rotem Landesman, doctoral student in the Information School, and Luca Magis-Weinberg, assistant professor of psychology, are quoted.

While female green hermit hummingbirds have curved bills, males straighter mouthparts are built for stabbing one another, a new study suggests. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, associate professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is quoted.

The sharp, elongated bills of green hermit hummingbirds arent just fine-tuned for feeding; they also allow males to joust like knights over mates. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, associate professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is quoted.

New research says birth rates for gray whales are still low, likely because of climate change affecting their food sources. However, melting sea ice has created new feeding opportunities, and scientists are hopeful the whales can adapt, allowing populations to rebound. Sue Moore, affiliate professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Nicole McNichols, associate teaching professor of psychology at the UW, writes, "On November 17, my students at the University of Washington heard from someone at the center of todays most complicated conversations about sexuality, labor, and the digital world. That person was Ari Kytsya, an enormously successful OnlyFans creator whose online presence is very different from what many people imagine when they hear 'OnlyFans model.'"

Emily Levesque, an associate professor of astronomy at the UW who specializes in massive stars and supernovas, joined host Leah Pezzetti on The Sky Above to discuss the biggest and best discoveries to come from the James Webb Space Telescope this past year.

While some dancers only appear weightless, Rachael Lincoln—with the help of climbing technology—literally defies gravity.

A space-based wildlife tracking system that could revolutionize the study of animal migrations and behavior is set to get back online with SpaceX's recent launch. Briana Abrahms, associate professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

The universe is full of mysteries that scientists have not yet been able to solve. And a big one has to do with what the universe is actually made of. Now physicists from the UW are taking a big swing at answering that question. Alvaro Chavarria, associate professor of physics at the UW, is quoted.

The University of Washington is proud to announce that 56 faculty and researchers who completed their work while at UW have been named on the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list from Clarivate.

Geography major Edwin Bai has researched private cities, developed by individuals and corporations, that  "take the libertarian idea of low government regulation to the maximum."