Technology

"Artificial intelligence can increasingly perform a white-collar employees tasks. What it cannot do is vouch for the result. Yet a new slasher genre, the jobs apocalypse, threatens that AI will displace the regular nine-to-five and claims to be scarier than your grandfathers zombie flick," writes Victor Menaldo, professor of political science at the UW.

Come curious. Leave inspired. Wherever you are, the University of Washington offers opportunities to learn and connect with the ideas, people, and research shaping our world. This summer, visit campus for the latest exhibitions at the Henry Art Gallery and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, or join us from anywhere through recorded lectures, podcasts, virtual experiences, and more. As a public university, we’re proud to share the knowledge, creativity, and discoveries of the UW with communities near and...

The UWs CoMotion program announced 10 startups that secured UW-licensed intellectual property over the past year. Eight are in healthcare, spanning diagnostic tools, medical devices and new therapeutics. The other two focus on K-12 education or climate change. The UW's Michael Malone, doctoral student in mechanical engineering, Jan Whittington, associate professor of urban design and planning, Min Sun, professor of education, Scott Kennedy, associate professor of pathology in the UW School of Medicine, Dr. Ian Bennett, professor of family medicine and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in the UW School of Medicine, Dr. Misbah Keen, professor of family medicine at the UW School of Medicine, Larry Mauksch, clinical professor emeritus of family medicine, Jae-Hyun Chung, associate professor of mechanical engineering, Andrea Stocco, associate professor of psychology, and David Baker, professor of biochemistry in the UW School of Medicine and director of the UW Institute for Protein Design, are mentioned.

One of the most endangered sea creatures of the Pacific Ocean is getting a leg up in the kelp forests of Washingtons San Juan Islands: a 24-armed sea star called the sunflower star. Researchers are working with the Samish Indian Nation to bring this pizza-sized predator back from the brink of extinction after a vast underwater pandemic. Jason Hodin, a research scientist at the UW Friday Harbor Laboratories, is quoted. Tess Chapman, Chloe Schwab and Julia Knopf, all research assistants at the UW Friday Harbor Laboratories, are mentioned.

The Seattle Homelessness Count is a UW Department of Sociology project led by Professor Almquist with graduate students and UW partners. It develops and pilots new methods for counting unsheltered people experiencing homelessness, with particular attention to individuals who do not actively engage with services and are most likely to be missed by conventional enumeration.

As students, teachers and employers wrestle with the demands of an increasingly AI-powered world, the UW has a new proposition: an interdisciplinary AI minor, with an anthropologist and a computer scientist at the helm. The UW's Magdalena Balazinska, professor and director of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and Ben Marwick, professor of anthropology, are quoted.

For decades, scientists have understood that plants can release volatile organic compoundsessentially airborne chemical signalsto attract the natural enemies of the things that eat them, like caterpillars. What we didnt know was exactly how a plant translates the physical act of being eaten into a specific, predator-summoning distress signal. Adam Steinbrenner, an associate professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

A hummingbird darts up to a flower, slips in its long, thin beak and drinks. The whole visit lasts a fraction of a second, and for years scientists assumed the bird simply sucked the sweet liquid up and swallowed. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, associate professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is mentioned.

Elissa Khodikian, a graduate student in the Department of Biology, researches how certain mosquito species adapt to saline environments in the Pacific Northwest. Originally from Lebanon and later studying in Canada, Elissa came to UW to continue her research under Dr. Andrea Durant. Her story highlights her passion for evolutionary biology and the important role mentorship as well as community have played in shaping her experience at UW.

Mary Brunkow's unconventional journey from UW genetics student to Nobel laureate was shaped by a love of discovery.

Included in this science round up is a story about how plants call wasps to their defense. Adam Steinbrenner, an associate professor of biology at the UW, is interviewed.

Bean plants have been recruiting wasps to fight their battles for them since long before anyone noticed. A caterpillar bites down, the plant releases a chemical signal, and predatory wasps come flying in to finish it off. That part biologists already knew. What they couldnt explain was how the plant told the difference between a caterpillar and a rainstorm. Adam Steinbrenner, an associate professor of biology at the UW, is mentioned.

Explore recent research from the University of Washington: how climate change is redirecting rivers, what bean plants use to protect themselves from pests, where the water in an atmospheric river comes from and how researchers are making tensegrities tiny.

A brand new astronomical observatory has discovered over 11,000 previously-unknown asteroids. Mario Juri, professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

A global public besieged by fears of AI got new fuel Monday from Pope Leo XIV, who released a roughly 40,000-word encyclical warning about the technologys potential to worsen inequality, erode workers dignity and automate war. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.