This RSS news feed from uwnews.org, the University of Washington Office of News and Information, includes the last 40 in the Science category. http://uwnews.org/apps/uwnews/public/rss.aspx?q=uwnByCategoryName&categoryName=Science&numToShow=40 http://uwnews.org/images/uwnewslogo_small.jpg http://uwnews.org/ uwnews.org, the University of Washington Office of News and Information (c)2010 University of Washington News and Information | http://uwnews.org | uwnews@u.washington.edu | 206-543-2580 Bob Roseth | roseth@u.washington.edu Ken Fine | kenfine@u.washington.edu Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:55:35 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ A material derived from crustacean shell and algae supports the growth of new stem cells, offering a possible replacement to today's Petri dishes lined with animal byproducts. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=55374 Science Health and Medicine Technology Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=55374 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:16:14 GMT Scientists have devised a way to explore how phase transitions -- changes of matter from one state to another without altering chemical makeup -- function in less than three dimensions and at the level of just a few atoms. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=55299 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=55299 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:00:00 GMT UW research devises formula to examine just what types of change occur over time among complex and integrated structures. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=55191 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=55191 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:00 GMT Civil engineers at the University of Washington and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Seattle office have taken a first look at how dams in the Columbia River basin, the nation's largest hydropower system, could be managed for a different climate. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=55131 Science Technology Environment Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=55131 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:18:40 GMT Uncertainty about the effects of haze particles clouds the understanding of climate warming. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54983 Science Environment Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54983 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:15:57 GMT From the Dachshund's stubby legs to the Shar-Pei's wrinkly skin, breeding for special canine characteristics has left its mark on the dog genome. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54922 Science Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54922 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:19:36 GMT New research solves nagging issues in the theory of how cold dark matter let the universe evolve into the galaxy-rich cosmos we see today. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54791 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54791 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:00:00 GMT Greenroads, developed over the past three years by UW engineers and collaborators at the global engineering firm CH2M Hill, aims to do for road construction what the LEED system has done for the building industry. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54839 Science Technology Environment Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54839 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT On the marine microbial stage, there appears to be a vast, varied group of understudies only too ready to step in when "star" microbes falter. Work led by the University of Washington provides the first evidence that microorganisms can be rare for long periods before completely turning the tables to become dominant when ecosystems change. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54801 Science Sandra Hines (shines@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54801 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:47:28 GMT When scientists confirmed in October that they had detected the first rocky planet outside our solar system, it advanced the longtime quest to find an Earth-like planet hospitable to life. The rocky planet CoRoT-7 b is, however, a forbidding place. If its orbit is not almost perfectly circular, then the planet might be undergoing continuous, fierce volcanic eruptions, according to information presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54644 Science Sandra Hines (shines@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54644 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:15:12 GMT For the first time scientists have seen molten lava flowing from a deep-ocean seafloor volcano, exploding into 35-foot-long streams of red and gold and rising as bubbles as much as 3 feet across. Volcanic rocks, especially pillow basalts, are one of the most common rock forms on Earth, and yet no one has ever seen them forming in the deep ocean before. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54413 Science Sandra Hines (shines@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54413 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:45:49 GMT UW scientists have discovered more small seismic tremor events lasting one to 70 hours that occur in somewhat regular patterns in a megathrust earthquake zone in Washington and British Columbia, http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54372 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54372 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:36:12 GMT Scientists are hunting for sites in the Seattle area to place special seismographs designed to be easily installed in urban areas and record moderate to strong shaking from earthquakes. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54344 Science Community Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54344 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:32:16 GMT Dime-sized temperature sensors that were first built for the refrigerated food industry have been adapted to sense mountain microclimates. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54337 Science Technology Environment Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=54337 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:30:00 GMT An international research team that includes a UW scientist finds the effects of climate change are greater than they were expected to be and getting more serious all the time. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53877 Science Environment Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53877 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:32:38 GMT Recent theories suggesting that half of fishes' food comes from from land-based ecosystems may not hold water. Experiments show that algae, not land-based matter, is needed to build healthy and fertile aquatic organisms. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53872 Science Environment Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53872 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:47:44 GMT Computer scientists at the UW are using Android, the open-source mobile operating system championed by Google, to transform a cell phone into a flexible data-collection tool. Their free suite of tools, named Open Data Kit, is already used by organizations around the world that need inexpensive ways to gather information in areas with little infrastructure. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53209 Science Technology Health and Medicine Environment Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53209 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:57:42 GMT For the first time, a group of scientists working in the Kuril Islands off the east coast of Russia has documented the scope of tsunami-caused erosion and found that a wave can carry away far more sand and dirt than it deposits. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53117 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53117 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:02:21 GMT Biologists for the first time have documented a second breeding season during the annual cycle of five songbird species that spend summers in temperate North America and winters in tropical Central and South America. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53093 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53093 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:53:49 GMT UW scientist instrumental in important step to convert methane gas to a liquid, giving the potential of making it more useful as a fuel and as a source for making other chemicals. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52992 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52992 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:45:45 GMT It may take a village to raise a child, and apparently it takes at least two adult birds to teach a young song sparrow how and what to sing. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52899 Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52899 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:42:18 GMT New research on the Kitsap Peninsula, at the west edge of Washington state's Puget Sound, finds evidence that land was raised at least 6 feet by ancient earthquakes. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52822 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52822 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:52:49 GMT University of Washington leaders today officially broke ground on a molecular engineering building. The underground instrumentation space that minimizes vibrations and electromagnetic interference will be the largest such lab space on the West Coast. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52619 Campus Science Technology Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52619 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:57:41 GMT During the next six years Operation Ice Bridge will use aircraft to conduct what NASA says is the largest airborne survey ever made of ice at the Earth's polar regions. Flights over Antarctica, with University of Washington oceanographer Seelye Martin as chief scientist, start Oct. 15. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52616 Environment Science Sandra Hines (shines@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52616 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:00:42 GMT Tiny organisms known as archaea play a central role in the planet's nitrogen cycle, according to new research. Experiments suggest archaea play a key ecological role in upper- and deep-ocean ecosystems. This could affect global climate model calculations. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52221 Science Environment Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52221 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:00:00 GMT The UW was among nine research institutions from around the world that collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple biomedical robots operated from locations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. UW engineers also helped develop the standard protocol used in the tests. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52044 Science Technology Health and Medicine Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) and Lindsay Sheppard (lindsay.sheppard@sri.com) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52044 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:58:53 GMT University of Washington researchers at the UW Medicine Eye Institute have successfully used gene therapy to cure color blindness in adult monkeys. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52015 Health and Medicine Science Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52015 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:00:00 GMT Using tourist photos downloaded from the Web, computer scientists created a digital version of Rome in about a day. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51970 Science Technology Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51970 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:33:59 GMT A University of Washington Seaglider operated for 9 months and 5 days in the Pacific Ocean, an endurance record more than double what any other autonomous underwater vehicle has accomplished on a single mission. During that time it propelled itself a distance equivalent to crossing the Atlantic Ocean from New England to Europe, without periods of drifting with currents and while continually diving to collect data. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51901 Science Environment Sandra Hines (shines@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51901 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:32:53 GMT For the first time researchers have run an electrical circuit entirely off power in trees. The findings suggest a new power source for wireless sensors. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51869 Science Technology Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51869 Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:57:00 GMT The University of Washington is slated to receive approximately $126 million -- of which $35 million is stimulus money -- to begin installing nearly 500 miles of fiber-optic and power cable and seven science nodes on the seafloor off the Pacific Northwest. The cabled observatory will give scientists new ways to study the processes that influence global climate, store human-generated fossil fuel carbon, cause ocean acidification, support major fish stocks and threaten coastlines with storms and tsunamis. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51819 Environment Science Sandra Hines (shines@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51819 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:50:00 GMT Researchers led by a UW chemist have found a way to train tiny semiconductor crystals, called nanocrystals or quantum dots, to display new magnetic functions at room temperature using light as a trigger. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51638 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51638 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:00:00 GMT A new organic material lets both positive and negative charges flow efficiently. It permits a simpler design of organic electronics, using a single material for transporting positive and negative charges. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51503 Science Technology Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51503 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:16:20 GMT University of Washington researchers have found a way to measure exactly how much electrical current is carried by tiny bubbles and channels that form inside nanoscale solar cells, paving the way for development of more efficient materials. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51232 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51232 Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:35:00 GMT A team of engineers and medical experts has been able to illuminate brain tumors by injecting fluorescent nanoparticles into the bloodstream. The tiny particles can safely cross the blood-brain barrier, an almost impenetrable barrier that protects the brain from infection. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51245 Health and Medicine Science Technology Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51245 Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:27:46 GMT Twenty one fisheries management researchers and marine ecologists - many of whom have been at odds with each other in the past over the state of the world's fisheries - have collaborated on a groundbreaking paper that puts forth a common way to look at fish abundance and exploitation. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51229 Environment Science Sandra Hines (shines@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51229 Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:25:31 GMT A likely comet collision on Jupiter last week caused a minor sensation, but new research shows that similar impacts on Earth are most likely not responsible for any of the planet's mass extinctions. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51186 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51186 Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:00:00 GMT UW scientists say Seattle area bracing for triple-digit temperatures this week. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51162 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51162 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:51:55 GMT For the first time, researchers combine nanoparticles used for medical imaging and therapy in one tiny package. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51016 Science Technology Health and Medicine Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51016 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:41:00 GMT Private information scattered all over the Internet and impossible to control. A new system, called Vanish, puts an expiration date on electronic text. Electronic communication sent using Vanish -- such as e-mail, Facebook posts and chat messages -- would have a brief lifetime and then self-destruct. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50973 Technology Science Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50973 Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:00:00 GMT Beyond the immediate distress, dental pain may portend future medical problems. It may be a warning that the high-glycemic diet that led to dental problems in the short term may, in the long term, lead to potentially serious chronic diseases. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50669 Science Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50669 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:02:00 GMT The rain band near the equator that determines the supply of freshwater to nearly a billion people throughout the tropics and subtropics has been creeping north for more than 300 years. If the band continues to migrate at just less than a mile a year, which is the average for all the years it has been moving north, then some Pacific islands near the equator may be starved of freshwater by midcentury or sooner. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50686 Science Environment Sandra Hines (shines@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50686 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:19:19 GMT University of Washington engineers used a novel underwater manufacturing technique to build biomimetic cilia. The hairlike appendages mix tiny volumes of liquid to speed up biomedical reactions. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50683 Technology Science Health and Medicine Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50683 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:13:44 GMT New research shows that, at least for some insects, wings that flex and deform, something like what happens to a heavy beach towel when you snap it to get rid of the sand, are the best for staying aloft. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50656 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50656 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:07:00 GMT Archaeologists have used stone tools to answer many questions about human ancestors in both the distant and near past and now they are analyzing the origin of obsidian flakes to better understand how people settled and interacted in the inhospitable Kuril Islands. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50505 Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50505 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:04:08 GMT A team of graduate students and faculty advisors in the UW's aeronautics and astronautics department are available today to show off the rocket they built from scratch. The team leaves tomorrow for Utah, where the rocket will compete to carry a 10-pound payload to 10,000 feet. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50499 Science Technology Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50499 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT Weaving chitosan, found in the shells of crabs and shrimp, with an industrial polyester creates a promising new material for biomedical applications, including the tiny tubes that support repair of a severed nerve. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50407 Technology Science Health and Medicine Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50407 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:50:00 GMT New calculations indicate that, in nearby star systems, tidal forces exerted on planets by their parent star's gravity could limit what is regarded as a star's habitable zone and change the criteria for planets where life could potentially take root. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50350 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50350 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:32:35 GMT A team of astronomers and astrobiologists has devised a technique to tell whether small Earth-like planets orbiting other suns harbor liquid water, which in turn could tell whether they might be able to support life. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=49976 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=49976 Tue, 26 May 2009 11:00:00 GMT In a new book, University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward suggests that Earth is ultimately inhospitable to life, and that life itself might be the primary reason. Rather than the nurturing idea of the Gaia hypothesis, he invokes the darker Medea from Greek mythology. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=49831 Science Vince Stricherz (vinces@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=49831 Wed, 20 May 2009 16:41:36 GMT