The winds that gust across the Tibetan Plateau have done so for far longer than previously believed, showing they are resilient to the formation of mountains and changes in carbon dioxide and temperature.
Virginia Mason Medical Center now offers the totally laparoscopic Whipple procedure as an advanced surgical option for removing tumors from the head of the pancreas.
A recent University of Washington study sought to understand why shark teeth are shaped differently and what biological advantages various shapes have by testing their performance under realistic conditions. The results appeared in August in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Is life better or worse after sticking your Fitbit in a drawer? University of Washington engineers surveyed hundreds of people who had abandoned self-tracking tools and found emotions ranged from guilt to indifference to relief that the tracking experience was over.
Umbilical cord blood transplants may have advantages beyond offering an alternative stem cell source for leukemia patients without a traditional donor match, according to a study published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.
In a paper published today in Science Translational Medicine, researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center shared data from an early-phase study of patients with advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who received JCAR014, a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell treatment, and chemotherapy. CAR T cells are made from a patient’s own immune cells that are then genetically engineered to better identify and kill cancer cells.
A new study by University of Washington researchers found that preschoolers were more engaged and did better on STEM-related tasks when they felt they were part of a group, versus doing the tasks on their own.
UW engineers have developed HemaApp, which uses a smartphone camera and other lighting sources to estimate hemoglobin concentrations and screen for anemia without sticking patients with needles.
Doctors and researchers know that man-made chemicals commonly found in plastics, foods, personal care products and building materials can interfere with how hormones like estrogen and testosterone work in the body.
A PNNL expert on rock chemistry and microbial life is part of a team investigating whether there has ever been life on Mars. Sherry Cady’s expertise ferreting out signs of ancient life on early Earth will help scientists decide which rock samples from the red planet to analyze.
Johannes Lercher, Director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Institute for Integrated Catalysis, was chosen for the first David Trim and Noel Cant Lectureship sponsored by the Catalysis Society of Australia.
Mayenite is one smart cement -- it can be turned from an insulator to a transparent conductor and back. It is also suitable for use as semiconductors in flat panel displays. The secret behind mayenite's magic is a tiny change in its chemical composition. In new work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers show how components called electron anions help to transform crystalline mayenite, also called C12A7, into semiconducting glass.
Many popular long-term drought estimates ignore the fact that plants will be less thirsty as carbon dioxide goes up. Plants’ lower water use could roughly halve some current estimates for the extent of future drought, especially in central Africa and temperate Asia.
The University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy have created an animated map showing where mammals, birds and amphibians are projected to move in the Western Hemisphere in response to climate change.
The world's attention is now on Proxima Centauri b, a possibly Earth-like planet orbiting the closest star, 4.22 light-years away. The planet's orbit is just right to allow liquid water on its surface, needed for life. But could it in fact be habitable?
If so, the planet evolved very different than Earth, say researchers at the University of Washington-based Virtual Planetary Laboratory where astronomers, geophysicists, climatologists, evolutionary biologists and others team to study how distant planets might host life.
SPOKANE, Wash. – “Roman Myth and Mythmaking,” a special, temporary exhibition examining how the ancient Romans constructed and spread their religious and cultural beliefs as seen through mostly small-scale objects they created and used on a daily basis will be on display in the Jundt Galleries of Gonzaga University’s Jundt Art Museum from Sept. 17 to Dec. 17.
A new report from the University of Washington School of Law's Cannabis Law and Policy Project identifies factors that make food attractive to children. Commissioned by the state Liquor and Cannabis Board, the report studied research on what makes food appeal to children and the role that marketing and branding play.
SPOKANE, Wash. – Gonzaga University intends to break ground in spring 2017 on the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, a transformative $30 million facility made possible by an extraordinary $55 million gift from the late Miss Myrtle Woldson – the largest gift in Gonzaga's history. Construction awaits final approval from Gonzaga’s Board of Trustees anticipated later this year.
Hitching a ride on fatty molecules, a "sticky" strategy shields sugary molecules from their soluble nature, and may explain the discrepancies between models and actual measurements of sea spray aerosol composition.
University of Washington sociologists have found what is believed to be the first quantitative evidence of a seasonal, biannual pattern of divorce filings. The researchers analyzed filings in Washington state over a 14-year period and found that filing consistently peaked in March and August, the periods following winter and summer holidays.
Social media is redefining how people grieve, bringing conversations about death back into the public realm, University of Washington sociologists conclude in a new study. And Twitter in particular, they say, is broadening the discourse around who may engage when someone dies.
University of Washington professor Sally Brown and collaborators have published the most extensive compilation to date explaining how to grow urban agriculture, and how doing so could save American cities.
Helping fish migrate past dams could cost a fraction of conventional fish ladders with the help of PNNL’s upcoming study of Whooshh Innovations’ so-called Salmon Cannon.
There are a couple strains of herpes so common that researchers estimate 90% of the human population have them. These strains, human herpes 6 and human herpes 7, usually do not cause severe symptoms when people acquire them. But researchers know that under certain circumstances, dormant herpes viruses in the body can unexpectedly come roaring back and cause complications not typically associated with herpes virus.
Group B streptococcus (GBS) is the most common life-threatening bacterial infection in newborns worldwide. GBS typically resides in the lower genital tract but does not cause infections in healthy women. But if the infection is transmitted to an infant during pregnancy, it can lead to preterm birth or stillbirth. If the infection is transmitted to a newborn, it can cause pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis, all of which can occur within the first week of life or within 90 days of birth. The goal of my research is to prevent maternal to infant transmission of GBS.
Summer is here and backyard barbecues, camping trips and youth camp sessions are in full swing. Amidst all of these fun activities is often a far less welcoming sign of summer: mosquitoes.
A child with absence epilepsy may be in the middle of doing something—she could be dancing, studying, talking—when all of a sudden she stares off into space for a few moments. Then, as quickly as she drifted off, the child snaps back into whatever she was doing, unaware that the episode occurred.
"Interscatter" communication developed by University of Washington engineers allows power-limited devices such as brain implants, contact lenses, credit cards and smaller wearable electronics to talk to everyday devices such as smartphones and watches.
Analysis of almost 3,000 pairs of Danish twins shows that they live longer than the general population. The authors believe it reflects the benefits of lifelong social support.
Paleontologists with the University of Washington's Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture have discovered a Tyrannosaurus rex, including a very complete skull. The find, which paleontologists estimate to be about 20 percent of the animal, includes vertebrae, ribs, hips and lower jaw bones.
Interracial marriage has grown in the United States over the past few decades, and polls show that most Americans are accepting of mixed-race relationships.
.American companies are increasingly making their own power – and sales – with wind turbines located near the factories and buildings that consume the power they make, concludes PNNL’s 2015 Distributed Wind Market Report.
Large, nationwide study finds better psychological well-being, fewer graft vs. host disease symptoms and greater likelihood of returning to work among bone marrow transplant recipients
A report from the University of Washington finds that inconsistent practices and policies leave many foster children in the state without an advocate in decisions that shape virtually every aspect of their lives.
University of Washington biologist Peter Ward's body of research has helped policymakers recognize the impact nautiluses have on ocean ecosystems, as well as how they can — and cannot — replenish their numbers in the face of unrestricted, unregulated fishing. At a CITES meeting in September, Ward and his team hope nautiluses will get much-needed protections from trade and harvesting.
At the USENIX Security Conference in Austin, Texas, a team of University of Washington researchers on Aug. 12 presented the first-ever comprehensive analysis of third-party web tracking across three decades and a new tool, TrackingExcavator, which they developed to extract and analyze tracking behaviors on a given web page. They saw a four-fold increase in third-party tracking on top sites from 1996 to 2016, and mapped the growing complexity of trackers stretching back decades.
Led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, scientists conducted a collaborative study that answered foundational questions about how nature influences the composition of aerosols. The team's findings could help avoid unintended consequences in both regulations and remediation.
This book advances strategies for planning a future that may look very different from the present, as rapid urbanization could tip the Earth toward abrupt and nonlinear change. Can we guide the Earth away from inadvertent collapse and toward a new era of planetary co-evolution and resilience?
A new study in mice suggests that in a tumor’s pre-clinical stages, long before a human tumor would be clinically recognizable, certain immune cells can recognize changes that make these cells behave as cancerous cells and attempt to launch an immune attack. However, the T cells that are recognizing these “driver” mutations in the tumor are rapidly turned off and then permanently silenced, making the cells non-functional and thereby protecting the tumor from an immune attack. If researchers can find a way to reverse that silencing, the tumor-recognizing T cells could be rescued and could potentially improve the performance of certain immunotherapies, including that of so-called checkpoint inhibitor drugs that release some of cancer’s brakes on the immune system.
The lot of Seattle's lowest-paid workers improved following the city's minimum wage increase to $11 in 2015, but that was more due to the robust regional economy than the wage hike itself, according to a research team at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Policy & Governance.
PNNL scientists have untangled a soil metagenome – all the genetic material recovered from a sample of soil – more fully than ever before, reconstructing portions of the genomes of 129 species of microbes. While it’s only a tiny proportion of the species in the sample, it’s a leap forward for scientists who have had only a fraction of that success to date.
While relentless bright light brings many forms of cyanobacteria to their knees – figuratively, of course – Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 does the opposite, thriving and growing at a rate that far outpaces most of its peers. Now researchers know why: It triples in size to accommodate a rapid expansion of the cellular machinery it uses to build proteins.
The PNNL-led Battery500 consortium aims to significantly improve upon the batteries that power today’s electric vehicles by nearly tripling the specific energy in lithium batteries.
A study of the the first clean cookstove intervention in India financed through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism found expected benefits from newer, more "efficient" stoves — based on their performance in lab tests — did not materialize in the field.
Polar oceans pump organic carbon down to the deep sea about five times as efficiently as subtropical waters, because they can support larger, heavier organisms. The finding helps explain how the oceans may function under climate change.
A team of researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Trento in Italy unveiled an engineered protein that they designed to repress a specific cancer-promoting message within cells.