Research

New experiments have answered the decades-old question of how pieces of splitting nuclei get their spins. George Bertsch, professor emeritus of physics at the UW, is quoted.

The shapes of fossilized teeth from 65.9 million-year-old, squirrel-like creatures suggest that the branch of the tree of life that gave rise to humans and other primates flowered while dinosaurs still walked the earth. The UW’s Gregory Wilson Mantilla, Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology and professor of biology, and Brody Hovatter, a graduate student in Earth and space sciences, are quoted.

Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest bred little, fluffy white dogs that provided for them, both materially and spiritually. A discovery made by Coast Salish spinning researcher Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa at the UW’s Burke Museum is mentioned.

When two University of Washington researchers asked people to draw two women — one likely to be sexually harassed, and one who would never find herself in such a position — the results were clear: Looks are everything. The UW's Cheryl Kaiser, professor of psychology, Bryn Bandt-Law, a doctoral student in psychology, are quoted. Jin Goh, a former postdoctoral researcher at the UW now at Colby College, is mentioned.

UW classics professor Sarah Stroup says that ancient coins that were seized at the Canada-U.S. border represent the cultural history of the world, and Sandra Kroupa, UW Libraries' book arts and rare books curator, talks about how impactful it will be for students.

In a ceremony, Homeland Security gave ancient coins to the UW. UW classics professor Sarah Stroup talks about how impactful it is to be able to show students coins that are 3,000 years old.

Two stars in a binary star system eclipsed each other repeatedly over the past century, but that is expected to end this month.

The pledges countries made to reduce emissions as part of the 2015 Paris agreement are woefully inadequate, and the world must nearly double its greenhouse gas-cutting goals to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change, according to research published Tuesday. Adrian Raftery, professor of statistics at the UW, is quoted.

Seven UW scientists were included on Cell Mentor's list of 1,000 inspiring Black scientists, including postdoctoral chemistry fellow Tam’ra-Kay Francis and Assistant Professor of mathematics Bobby Wilson.

One of the first actions by President Biden after his inauguration was bringing the U.S. back into the Paris climate agreement. A new study from a researcher at the University of Washington shows people how much more we will have to do, to meet the goals in that accord. Adrian Raftery, a professor of statistics, is quoted.

Adrian Raftery, professor of statistics, and Peiran Liu, doctoral student in statistics, have co-authored a new study that found that the planet has a less than 5% chance of staying within the goal of 2 degrees Celcius warming this century.

Assistant Professor of chemistry Alexandra Velian has been named a Cottrell Scholars by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, receiving $100,000 for the continuation of her research and educational accomplishments.

Five months after findings pointing to life floating in the clouds of Venus, scientists are not quite sure what to make of the data and what it might mean. It might spur a renaissance in the study of Venus, which has largely been overlooked for decades. It could point to exotic volcanism and new geological puzzles. It could indeed be aliens. Or it could be nothing at all. Victoria Meadows, professor of astronomy, is quoted.

Eli Shlizerman, an assistant professor in both the applied mathematics and the electrical and computer engineering departments, is the senior author on a new project that used machine learning to create a system that creates audio from muted piano performances.

Ecologists have shown that climate change has not been an equal opportunity stressor. As the Mojave Desert warmed by about 2°C over the past century, bird numbers and diversity declined dramatically, but small mammals like little pocket mice are holding their own. Lauren Buckley, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.