Latest News

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Mindfulness meditation is a stress-management practice with ancient lineage that cultivates nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment, often by directing attention to the physical sensations of breathing. Initially inspired by centuries-old Buddhist practices consisting of philosophies and meditations together, today a secular version of mindfulness — consisting of meditations alone — is becoming increasingly popular.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Washington-led research suggests moon jellies are feasting on zooplankton, the various tiny animals that drift with the currents, in the bays they inhabit. This could affect other hungry marine life, like juvenile salmon or herring — especially if predictions are correct and climate change will favor fast-growing jellyfish.

• share
• favorite_border

Washington counties that rely more on revenue from court-imposed fines and fees also sentence more women to incarceration, a study by the University of Washington finds.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

An experiment conducted on 10 farms across the U.S. suggests that crops from farms following soil-friendly practices for at least five years have a healthier nutritional profile than the same crops grown on neighboring, conventional farms. Researchers believe soil microbes and fungi boost certain beneficial minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals in the crops.

• share
• favorite_border

Patients treated for Merkel cell carcinoma face a five-year recurrence rate of 40%—markedly higher than recurrence rates for other skin cancers, according to new research in JAMA Dermatology. As well, 95% of recurrences happened in the first 3 years, suggesting surveillance should be focused in that span.

• share
• favorite_border

Annual MRI screenings starting at ages 30 to 35 may reduce breast-cancer mortality by more than 50% among women who carry certain genetic changes in three genes (ATM, CHEK2, PALB2), according to a newly published comparative modeling analysis. The findings will be published Feb. 17 in JAMA Oncology.

• share
• favorite_border

Using powerful tools and techniques developed in the field of structural biology, researchers at the University of Washington and The Scripps Research Institute have discovered new details about the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Washington researchers showed that image search results for four major search engines from around the world, including Google, still reflect gender bias.

• share
• favorite_border

As the European green crab invasion in Washington state worsens, a new analysis method developed by University of Washington and Washington Sea Grant scientists could help contain future invasions and prevent new outbreaks using water testing and genetic analysis.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study led by the University of Washington found that anaerobic processes occurring on floodplains of the Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia, are important contributors of the carbon dioxide that is dissolved in surface waters. The findings were published Feb. 14 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Washington scientists and U.S. officials used genetic testing of ivory shipments seized by law enforcement to uncover the international criminal networks behind ivory trafficking out of Africa, exposing an even higher degree of connection among smugglers than previously known.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a new blood-clotting test that uses only a single drop of blood and a smartphone vibration motor and camera.

• share
• favorite_border

New research indicates that a common mosquito species (after detecting a telltale gas that we exhale) flies toward specific colors, including red and orange. Scientists believe these findings help explain how mosquitoes find hosts, since human skin, regardless of pigmentation, emits a red-orange “signal” to their eyes.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from the University of Washington shows that people in states with higher medical debt and lower rates of insurance coverage are more likely to try to raise money but less likely to succeed.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Washington researchers report that a yeast cells can actively regulate a process called phase separation in one of their membranes, a process that helps cells send different types of signals and perform different types of work.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a new test for COVID-19 that combines the speed of over-the-counter antigen tests with the accuracy of PCR tests that are processed in medical labs and hospitals.

• share
• favorite_border

A research team led by the University of Washington has developed an optical computing system for AI and machine learning that not only mitigates the noise inherent to optical computing but actually uses some of it as input to help enhance the creative output of the artificial neural network within the system.

• share
• favorite_border

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Washington and Stanford University recently completed the largest nationwide study to date conducted in the U.S. on the relationship between food environment, demographics and dietary health with the help of a popular smartphone-based food journaling app.

• share
• favorite_border

Many nations are calling for protection of 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 from some or all types of exploitation, including fishing. Building off this proposal, a new analysis led by the University of Washington looks at how effective fishing closures are at reducing accidental catch. Researchers found that permanent marine protected areas are a relatively inefficient way to protect marine biodiversity that is accidentally caught in fisheries. Dynamic ocean management — changing the pattern of closures as accidental catch hotspots shift — is much more effective.

• share
• favorite_border

The UW School of Pharmacy’s Drug Interaction Database, or DIDB — the core research tool in the school’s nonprofit Drug Interaction Solutions organization — is celebrating both a national award for innovation and its independent funding since 2002 through licensing agreements with companies, research institutes and regulatory agencies around the globe.

• share
• favorite_border

Wild animals often return to the same places to eat, travel and raise their young. A team found that, while this “consistent” behavior may be beneficial when environmental conditions don’t change very fast, those benefits may not hold up in an ever-changing world dominated by humans.

• share
• favorite_border

In 2019, researchers witnessed an extreme heat event at Punta Tombo in Argentina, one of the world’s largest breeding colonies for Magellanic penguins. On Jan. 19, temperatures at the site spiked in the shade to 44 C, or 111.2 F, killing at least 354 penguins, nearly three-quarters of whom were adults.

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Emily Godfrey is an OB-GYN at the UW School of Medicine. She has done research on the demand for abortion pills in different states. https://newsroom.uw.edu/postscript/pandemic-boosts-demand-postal-delivery-abortion-pill

• share
• favorite_border

University of Washington researchers investigated disparities in exposure to six major air pollutants in 1990, 2000 and 2010 by comparing models of air pollution levels to census data. While overall pollutant concentrations have decreased since 1990, people of color are still more likely to be exposed to all six pollutants than white people, regardless of income level, across the continental United States.

• share
• favorite_border

New research shows that machine learning — computer algorithms that improve themselves without direct programming by humans — can be used to improve forecasts for lightning, one of the most destructive forces of nature.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists computationally simulated more than 200,000 hypothetical Earth-like worlds all in orbit of stars like our sun, and found that about 90% of these potentially habitable hypothetical worlds lacked partial surface ice like polar caps. When partial ice is present, ice belts — permanent surface ice along the equator — were more common than ice caps.

• share
• favorite_border

A team led by the UW has developed a new, non-destructive method that images entire 3D biopsies instead of a slice for determining prostate cancer aggressiveness. The 3D images provided more information than a 2D image — specifically, details about the tree-like structure of the glands throughout the tissue.

• share
• favorite_border

In this study of 3,000 adults with cataracts, the risk of developing dementia was lower in participants who underwent cataract removal compared with those who didn’t.

• share
• favorite_border

Using high-frequency waves, the new treatment pushes smaller stones from the bottom of the kidney toward the ureter. The procedure allows for an office visit instead of surgery.

• share
• favorite_border

Children as young as age 6 develop stereotypes that girls aren't interested in computer science and engineering, according to new research from the University of Washington and the University of Houston.

• share
• favorite_border

A research team at the University of Washington has developed a wearable device to detect and reverse an opioid overdose. The device, worn on the stomach like an insulin pump, senses when a person stops breathing and moving, and injects naloxone, a lifesaving antidote that can restore respiration.

• share
• favorite_border

A randomized controlled trial of 2,275 women in Kenya showed that a single dose of the HPV vaccine was highly effective. The current standard for women is three doses. This news could greatly hasten the pace of vaccinations and brings renewed energy to make cervical cancer the first cancer to be wiped out.

• share
• favorite_border

A team led by the UW developed a chatbot that could ask emergency department visitors about social needs, including housing, food, access to medical care and physical safety.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers created a smartphone app with daily game-like exercises to help people with a serious mental illness (bipolar, schizophrenia, major depression) reassess their beliefs. The app was tested among 315 people in 45 states recruited through online ads on Google and Facebook in 2020.

• share
• favorite_border

In recent studies, researchers find 1) Few people get a timely diagnosis of dementia, especially if they are of color with no college degree. 2) No dementia risk in members of military over 65. 3) Link to hearing and dementia.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Washington researchers looked at almost 56,000 political ads from almost 750 news sites between September 2020 and January 2021. Political ads used multiple tactics that concerned the researchers, including posing as a poll to collect people’s personal information or having headlines that might affect web surfers’ views of candidates.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have created a new type of carbon fiber reinforced material that is as strong and light as traditionally used materials, but can be repeatedly healed with heat, reversing any fatigue damage. This also provides a way to break it down and recycle it when it reaches the end of its life.

• share
• favorite_border

A clinical trial at the Kidney Stone Center at UW Medical Center – Northwest is testing the ability of ultrasound waves to dislodge and move small fragments left behind after surgery so they can naturally be expelled

• share
• favorite_border

Public health messages such as in the image (associated with this release) — designed to reduce parents’ purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages marketed as fruit drinks for children — convinced a significant percentage of parents to avoid those drinks, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Pennsylvania.

• share
• favorite_border

While many animals have adapted to live with wildfires of the past — which were smaller, more frequent and kept ecosystems in balance across the West — it’s unclear to scientists how animals are coping with today’s unprecedented megafires. A team of researchers tracked a population of black-tailed deer before, during and after the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire and found that most of the deer returned home within hours of the fire, while trees were still smoldering.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team has combined observations, experiments and computer modeling to better understand the repeating patterns of stones that form in frost-prone landscapes.

• share
• favorite_border

New research by the University of Washington shows that states eased pandemic restrictions, such as gathering limits and business closures, based on politics as much as COVID-19 death rates or case counts. 

• share
• favorite_border

A new study led by the University of Washington, in collaboration with Washington Department of Natural Resources, has found that recent bigleaf maple die-off in Washington is linked to hotter, drier summers that predispose this species to decline. These conditions essentially weaken the tree’s immune system, making it easier to succumb to other stressors and diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

As Prostate Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, researchers want to circulate the message that some gene mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancer are also associated with prostate cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of paleontologists from the University of Washington excavated four dinosaurs in northeastern Montana this summer. The four dinosaur fossils are: the ilium of an ostrich-sized theropod; the hips and legs of a duck-billed dinosaur; a pelvis and limbs from another theropod; and a Triceratops specimen.

• share
• favorite_border

New research by the University of Washington and New York University explored gender, racial and ethnic differences among teens who think about and/or attempt suicide, as well as associated behavioral and environmental factors.