91爆料

We Homo sapiens and our energy-gobbling technologies are changing the very ecology of the Earth. But even as these human-caused changes unfold, some wonder whether we have doomed ourselves to extinction. In a new paper in the journal Anthropocene, 91爆料 astronomer Woodruff Sullivan and co-author Adam Frank, a University of Rochester astrophysicist and a 91爆料 alumnus, suggest this might not be the first time “where the primary agent of causation is knowingly watching it all happen and pondering…

As you might guess from the name, dark matter is quite elusive. Its particles make up about one-quarter of the mass of the universe and as much as 85 percent of all matter. But it apparently does not interact with light or other matter and so it’s never been directly observed. In a webcast Thursday, Nov. 20, three scientists including 91爆料 physicist Gray Rybka will discuss how close we are to actually identifying dark matter. They will talk…

The latest in the Seattle Arts & Lectures SAL U series will look at technologies that could help repair a person’s cognitive or sensory-motor functions. “Brain-Computer Interfaces: Building the Bionic Man” is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19, in Kane Hall room 110. The speaker is Rajesh Rao, a 91爆料 professor of computer science and engineering and director of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering. Rao’s research involves聽understanding聽computational principles in the brain’s ability to learn, process and store information, then…

Daniel Schindler, a 91爆料 fisheries ecologist who explores aquatic ecosystem dynamics, has been named the 2015 Frank Rigler Award recipient. The award is the highest honor given by the Society of Canadian Limnologists and recognizes major achievements in the field of limnology by Canadians or those working in Canada, the society says. Schindler, born in Ontario, holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship. His father David Schindler won the Rigler award in 1984, the first year it was given…

The Spokane City Council on Monday night formally approved the lease of the former Spokane Visitor Information Center to the 91爆料, which will use the space for many purposes, including business outreach, alumni activities and student admissions. The site will also help support the 91爆料鈥檚 efforts to expand its existing medical school in Spokane. The city of Spokane sought tenants for the roughly 2,550-square-foot space and the 91爆料 submitted its lease proposal on Oct. 2, 2014. The space…

In the wake of a 2011 study that found black applicants for National Institutes of Health grants were significantly less likely to receive funding than their equally qualified white counterparts, the health agency began to look at ways to uncover and address bias in how it awards research funding. The agency launched a contest last spring to detect bias and boost fairness in how it reviews grant applications. The “Most Creative Idea for Detection of Bias in Peer Review,” went…

The 91爆料 Sephardic Studies Program and the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies will host the second annual celebration of International Ladino Day with an event at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in Kane Hall room 130. The event is free and open to the public but advance registration is recommended. International Ladino Day was begun Dec. 5, 2013, by Israel’s National Authority for Ladino to celebrate Ladino as a living language for the first time since 1492. Also…

The November issue of Seattle Magazine includes a list of 51 local people who made 2014 what it was. Along with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the Seahawks team’s “12th man” fans, it includes 91爆料 glaciologist Ian Joughin, whom the magazine dubs the “ice breaker.” The magazine notes: “In the face of global warming, it鈥檚 people like Ian Joughin鈥攁 glaciologist and affiliate professor of earth and space sciences at 91爆料, researching the surface motion and topography of ice…

The 91爆料 and other Washington schools hog half the spots on a new list of the West Coast’s 10 best-landscaped colleges, with the 91爆料 coming in at No. 4. The amount of green space, unique landscaping and attention to lawns earned the 91爆料 its ranking. The list was created by inspecting hundreds of photos, interviewing students, alumni and faculty, and scanning message boards. The accompanying website shows an image of the Quad and says: “91爆料, a ‘public ivy’…

The 91爆料 landed in a three-way tie for No. 14 in U.S. News & World Report鈥檚 first ranking of Best Global Universities 鈥� a new ranking that is separate from its annual Best Colleges list. The publication released world rankings, it said, in recognition of the fact that more students are looking beyond their own borders for higher education options and universities are competing worldwide for the best students. The new U.S. News rankings, released last week, were…

Classroom d茅cor may seem relatively unimportant, but it can play a surprisingly big role in influencing student learning and achievement. That鈥檚 among the key findings in a new paper co-authored by 91爆料 researchers. Published this week in the inaugural issue of Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the paper finds that classroom features such as light, temperature and d茅cor can profoundly influence learning. Students exposed to more natural light perform better, the analysis found, but research…

The 91爆料 School of Law is introducing two new programs to expand its degree offerings and provide more options for students. Beginning in January 2015, the school will offer an accelerated Juris Doctor/Master’s in Business Administration program that will enable students to earn degrees from the school the Foster School of Business in four years. Students will be encouraged to start the master’s courses in their first year and their doctorate curriculum in the second year. In the…

The latest KCTS-9 Washington Poll has found strong support for the background checks on gun sales promoted by Initiative 594 and the reduced classroom sizes sought by Initiative 1351, and slightly less support for Initiative 591, which seeks to prohibit background checks for gun sales minus a national standard. The poll, directed by Matt Barreto, a 91爆料 professor of political science, interviewed 602 registered voters statewide. Of these, 64 percent expressed support for the expanded gun sales background…

Genesee Adkins, who brings 12 years of experience in the halls of state government, has been appointed director of state relations at the 91爆料, effective Nov. 12. 鈥淲e are getting an experienced, highly capable government relations professional who understands the subtleties of Olympia and will be able to represent the university鈥檚 interests extremely well,鈥� said Randy Hodgins, 91爆料 vice president for external affairs.聽 鈥淭his coming legislative session will be one of the most important in recent years, and…

David Montgomery, a 91爆料 professor of Earth and space sciences, took home the 2014 James H. Shea Award, given annually since 1991 by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. The award, presented Oct. 21 during the national meeting of the Geological Society of America in Vancouver, British Columbia, was for “exceptional contributions in the form of writing and or editing of Earth science information” that is of interest to the public and Earth science teachers. The award was established in…

The 91爆料’s innovative “Ride in the Rain challenge” is among the reasons the university has just moved up to the highest gold level set by the League of American Bicyclists. Among the 100 current Bicycle Friendly Universities recognized by the league, only 10 have achieved gold. The league’s president and a panel of city and university experts talking about current progress and the path forward for bicycling around the region will kick off the annual November “Ride in…

Political scientist Christopher Parker: ‘If it were not for big government鈥�” Christopher Parker, 91爆料 associate professor of political science, rarely minces words when debating about American politics and government.He has done much research on philosophical differences between the tea party and traditional conservatives, and was co-author, with fellow 91爆料 political scientist Matt Barreto, of the 2013 book, 鈥淐hange They Can鈥檛 Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America.鈥� He also has some new research about conservative…

“I鈥檝e had my leg crushed; been in a full-leg cast for 16 months; put more of my buddies six feet under than I care to think about; been frost bitten and treated for heat exhaustion; and had every one of my fingers and most of my toes broken. [But] when I’m at the top of that mountain of one of those perfect mornings and the sun is just cresting the ridge, nothing else really seems to matter. I guess I…

When Thomas Jarboe and Derek Sutherland took their concept for an economically feasible fusion reactor into the public sphere two weeks ago, they expected some negative loud mouths and naysayers. After all, this is fusion physics, a field that seems so inaccessible to most people that it carries a certain mystique and inspires an almost religious fervor to see it succeed or fail. That’s the playing field that Jarboe, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics, and Sutherland, a graduate student,…

The 91爆料’s Jackson School of International Studies will host a daylong conference titled “Kurdistan and the Changing Middle East” on Thursday, Nov. 6, in the Peterson Room on the fifth floor of Allen Library. Re艧at Kasaba, Jackson School director, will give introductory remarks and moderate panels titled “Regional Dynamics” and “State-Society Relations in Northern Iraq.” Arbella Bet-Shlimon, 91爆料 assistant professor of history, also will participate in the latter panel. The keynote address, “Kurdistan, the Changing Middle East, and…

The 91爆料 won Seattle Business Magazine鈥檚 2014 Community Impact Award for Sustainability in Business Operations this week for demonstrating how businesses can have a beneficial impact on their communities. Seattle Aquarium and Harley Marine Services won silver awards for their sustainable business operations. 91爆料鈥檚 award recognizes its overall environmental stewardship, Climate Action Plan, many LEED certified buildings and the connection to the 91爆料 Business Diversity Program. 鈥淭his award reflects the terrific work by the entire 91爆料 community over the past…

Brewster Denny, great-grandson of Seattle and 91爆料 founders Arthur and Mary Denny, rang the Denny Bell for 91爆料 homecoming ceremonies nearly every autumn for 51 years. He died in 2013 at the age of 88, but his family is carrying on the tradition. Denny’s daughter Maria Denny will gather with her mother, Patricia, husband, Jim Kodjababian, and their children, Jacob and Ella, at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24 鈥� at Denny Hall, of course 鈥� to ring the…

Seats are still available for three of the four 91爆料 Graduate School Public Lectures of 2014, presented in cooperation with the 91爆料 Alumni Association. The lectures are all free, but advance registration is required. The series begins with a lecture by Olympia Snowe, a former U.S. senator from Maine, who will speak at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, in Room 130 of Kane Hall. Her lecture is titled “Anything is Possible 鈥� How to Overcome Obstacles and Make a Difference.”…

91爆料 faculty, other academic personnel and senior graduate students are being invited to apply for the chance to visit the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia during 2015. There is financial support for two 91爆料 participants staying for two to four weeks. Each is expected to give lectures, interact with Slovenian students and collaborate with Slovenian faculty members in their field of study. The visits must be completed by the end of 2015 and should take place during the spring or…

The four evenings that comprise the 2014 History Lecture Series have already sold out, but no one needs to miss the lectures themselves. The lectures will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday evenings from Nov. 5 to Dec. 3, all in Room 130 of Kane Hall. The series topic is “1914: The Great War and the Modern World.” There will be on-site waiting lists each evening and a televised feed will be broadcast in Room 210 of Kane…

With its skeleton revealed in red and cartilage in blue, an image of a scalyhead sculpin fish from biology prof Adam Summers‘ lab is among the winners in this year’s BioArt competition. “Each day, scientific investigators produce thousands of images and videos as part of their research 鈥� from collection of image-based data, to the visualization of results,” according to contest sponsor the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. The federation conducts the BioArt competion to “share the beauty…

Fifth and final lecture: Summer 2014 Expedition Thursday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m. Kane Hall 110 Tickets, $20, available here If you missed the 91爆料 Alumni Association’s lecture series last spring, “The Global Ocean & Human Culture: Past, Present & Future,” you can now watch the talks on 91爆料TV. John Delaney, a 91爆料 professor of oceanography, presented the four lectures last April and May in the 91爆料’s Kane Hall. The talks now available for streaming are: Human Culture, Science of the…

If you use high speed Wi-Fi and 4G or LTE on your smartphone, you’ve got Arogyaswami Paulraj to thank. His wireless communications technology 鈥� MIMO, or multiple input, multiple output 鈥� is the core driver that increases performance in the latest wireless systems. Paulraj will talk about developing this technology and what may be coming next at this year’s annual Dean Lytle Electrical Engineering Endowed Lecture Series. Paulraj, an emeritus professor at Stanford University, will speak twice for the 91爆料…

Human sprawl is usually a threat to wildlife, but some birds buck the trend. Can we help biodiversity take wing in our suburbs? So ponders 91爆料’s John Marzluff in a piece he penned for Aeon, the digital magazine of ideas and culture that posts an original essay every weekday. During a decade of bird counts and research, the 91爆料 prof of environmental and forest sciences found an unsurpassed variety of birds in suburbia. Even nearby forest reserves were…

A memorial to celebrate the life of Fred Nick, the longtime director of the Center for Social Science Computation and Research, will be 4-6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20, in the Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall. Nick died unexpectedly in early September, just a year after retiring from the 91爆料. He is remembered for his stewardship of the Social Science research center for 38 years, serving faculty, staff and students as a mentor and colleague. In the center’s Autumn 2014 newsletter,…

91爆料 Libraries is opening a new study center in its East Asia Library called the Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies. It’s the result of new collaboration between 91爆料 Libraries and the National Central Library, in Taiwan. The center will bring valuable Chinese and Taiwanese scholarly publications, and host a new annual lecture series about Taiwan as well. At an Oct. 2 ceremony where a memorandum of understanding was signed, Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson, 91爆料 vice provost and dean of 91爆料…

The workload and time crunch were comparable to pulling two all-nighters, but you wouldn’t guess that from the energy in the room. Fifteen students, all wearing matching grey t-shirts, buzzed around the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering Monday morning (Oct. 13), clearly excited to show off their designs. They had just finished a 36-hour weekend hackathon, a first for the National Science Foundation-funded center headquartered at the 91爆料. Their mission was to work as teams of three to…

The new聽Pronto Cycle Share聽system launched Monday around the U-District, downtown, South Lake Union and Capitol Hill.聽Pronto is Seattle鈥檚 cycle-sharing system featuring 500 bikes at 50 stations, with bikes available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Check out the station map to see all the Seattle locations. Campus stations are at the IMA, the Engineering Library, Meany Hall, Condon Hall, McCarty Hall, the Burke Museum and the Medical Center. Each station has a touchscreen kiosk, station map, helmets, and…

Michael Honey, professor of interdisciplinary arts and sciences at 91爆料 Tacoma, has written books about Martin Luther King 鈥� now he is blogging about King as well. His writings can be found on the Beacon Broadside, a blog written by authors with Beacon Press, an independent publisher of serious nonfiction founded in 1854. Honey said Beacon asked him to blog about how he got involved with King and the role of the Unitarian Church in civil rights work in the…

A group of 91爆料 engineering students are winners of the 2014 Ford College Community Challenge, a competition that awards $25,000 per team to student-led groups聽at 10 universities to fund projects that help build sustainable communities. The 91爆料 team’s project is StopInfo, which integrates with the OneBusAway app and provides specific information on location, safety features and stop closures for each bus stop in King County. OneBusAway was developed at the 91爆料 and uses real-time data to track when…

Measuring universities on their scientific research productivity, impact and excellence, National Taiwan University named the 91爆料 fifth best in the world, and the top public institution in the United States, in its 2014 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities released Thursday. The NTU Ranking is based on the production and impact of universities鈥� scientific papers, intended to objectively measure their contributions in the advancement of scientific innovation. 鈥淭his is yet another international ranking that places the…

It鈥檚 impossible not to make this awkward, but here鈥檚 our best shot: Welcome to the new 91爆料 Today blog. For years, 91爆料 Today in various incarnations has provided the news of the 91爆料 鈥� from groundbreaking scientific research and awe-inspiring student projects, to ranking updates, awards and roundups of arts events that can be found on campus. So, why start a blog now? To put it simply: Because there鈥檚 just too much good stuff happening at the 91爆料…