91爆料

Skip to content

Research

December 6, 2024

More than 10,000 supernovae counted in stellar census

Since 2018 the聽Zwicky Transient Facility, an international astronomical collaboration based at the Palomar Observatory in California, has scanned the entire sky every two to three nights. As part of this mission, the ZTF鈥檚 Bright Transient Survey has been counting and cataloguing supernovae 鈥� flashes of light in the sky that are the telltale signs of stars dying in spectacular explosions. On Dec. 4, ZTF researchers 鈥� including astronomers at the 91爆料 鈥� announced that that they have identified more than 10,000 of these stellar events, the largest number ever identified by an astronomical survey.

Record-low Antarctic sea ice can be explained and forecast months out by patterns in winds

bow of ship with ice floes in background

91爆料 researchers show that the all-time record low in winter sea ice extent in 2023 can be explained by warm Southern Ocean conditions and patterns in the winds that circled Antarctica months earlier, allowing forecasts for sea ice coverage around the South Pole to be generated six or more months in advance. This could support regional and global weather and climate models.

December 5, 2024

That鈥檚 no straw: Hummingbirds evolved surprisingly flexible bills to help them drink nectar

Hummingbird bills 鈥� their long, thin beaks 鈥� look a little like drinking straws. But new research shows just how little water, or nectar, that comparison holds. 91爆料 scientists have discovered that the hummingbird bill is surprisingly flexible. While drinking, a hummingbird rapidly opens and shuts different parts of its bill simultaneously, engaging in an intricate and highly coordinated dance with its tongue to draw up nectar at lightning speeds.

December 4, 2024

Video: Talking about climate and weather with the Office of the Washington State Climatologist

Researchers speaking and scenes from Washington state

From a base at the southwest corner of the 91爆料’s Seattle campus, the Office of the Washington State Climatologist’s Guillaume Mauger and Karin Bumbaco provide expertise, tools and resources on 鈥渁ll things climate鈥� to partners and communities across the state.

November 25, 2024

RETRACTED AND REPLACED: 91爆料-led research links wildfire smoke exposure with increased dementia risk

Photo of a neighborhood street with a couple cars driving on it. The air is orange and hazy.

An analysis of the health care records of 1.2 million Southern California residents found that higher long-term smoke exposure was associated with a significant increase in the odds that a person would be diagnosed with dementia.聽Exposure to non-wildfire PM2.5 also increased a person鈥檚 risk of dementia, but to a much lesser degree.聽聽

Fewer than 7% of global hotspots for whale-ship collisions have protection measures in place

A new study led by the 91爆料 has for the first time quantified the risk for whale-ship collisions worldwide for four geographically widespread ocean giants that are threatened by shipping: blue, fin, humpback and sperm whales. In a paper published online Nov. 21 in Science, researchers report that global shipping traffic overlaps with about 92% of these whale species鈥� ranges. Only about 7% of areas at highest risk for whale-ship collisions have any measures in place to protect whales from this threat. These measures include speed reductions, both mandatory and voluntary, for ships crossing waters that overlap with whale migration or feeding areas.

In the 鈥榃ild West鈥� of AI chatbots, subtle biases related to race and caste often go unchecked

91爆料 researchers developed a system for detecting subtle biases in AI models. They found seven of the eight popular AI models they tested in conversations around race and caste generated significant amounts of biased text in interactions 鈥� particularly when discussing caste. Open-source models fared far worse than two proprietary ChatGPT models.

Q&A: A new medical AI model can help spot systemic disease by looking at a range of image types

91爆料 assistant professor Sheng Wang discusses BiomedParse, an AI medical image analysis model that works across nine types of medical images to better predict systemic diseases. Medical professionals can load images into the system and ask the AI tool questions about them in plain English.

AI headphones create a 鈥榮ound bubble,鈥� quieting all sounds more than a few feet away

A man wears Sony headphones with wires and a chip visible on the outside.

A team led by researchers at the 91爆料 has created a headphone prototype that allows listeners to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 feet. Voices and sounds outside the bubble are quieted an average of 49 decibels, even if they鈥檙e louder than those in the bubble.

November 8, 2024

Miniature backpack-like tags offer insight into the movement of hummingbirds

A team led by scientists at the 91爆料 and the University of Aberdeen attached tiny 鈥渂ackpack鈥� trackers to hummingbirds in the Colombian Andes to learn more about their movements. As they report in a paper published Oct. 10 in the journal Ecology and Evolution, the tracking system will aid conservation efforts in this region by revealing the previously hidden movements of hummingbirds and other small animals.

November 5, 2024

Reconstructing ancient Andean climate provides clues to climate change

As Earth faces unprecedented climate change, a look into the planet鈥檚 deep past may provide vital insights into what may lie ahead. But knowledge of the natural world millions of years ago is fragmented. A 15-year study of a site in Bolivia by a joint U.S.-Bolivia team has provided a comprehensive view of an ancient ecosystem when Earth was much warmer than it is today, and changed how we look at the Andes.

November 4, 2024

NASA funds effort to study effects of the space environment on living organisms

NASA has awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant to establish a regional scientific consortium based at the 91爆料, in partnership with Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The consortium will use an interdisciplinary approach to explore how the space environment 鈥� both in low-Earth orbit and beyond 鈥� affects living things.

October 31, 2024

AI tools show biases in ranking job applicants鈥� names according to perceived race and gender

A laptop with blank screen sits on a table.

91爆料 researchers found significant racial, gender and intersectional bias in how three state-of-the-art large language models ranked resumes. The models favored white-associated names 85% of the time, female-associated names only 11% of the time, and never favored Black male-associated names over white male-associated names.

From accessibility upgrades to a custom cat-food bowl, this mobile 3D printer can autonomously add features to a room

91爆料 researchers created MobiPrint, a mobile 3D printer that can automatically measure a room and print objects onto the floor. The team鈥檚 graphic interface lets users design objects in a space that the robot has mapped out. The prototype, which the team built on a modified consumer vacuum robot, can add a range of objects to rooms.

October 21, 2024

Sweetened beverage taxes decrease consumption in lower-income households by nearly 50%, 91爆料 study finds

A glass of soda sitting on a wooden table

New research from the 91爆料 investigated responses to sweetened beverage taxes using the purchasing behavior of approximately 400 households in Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and Philadelphia. Researchers found that after the tax was introduced, lower-income households decreased their purchases of sweetened beverages by nearly 50%, while higher-income households reduced purchases by 18%.

October 4, 2024

Q&A: New dataset provides a robust picture of Hurricane Helene鈥檚 destruction 鈥� and could help design more resilient communities

A person on a beach holding a small white device attached to a pole

91爆料 researchers collaborated with people at multiple institutions to collect pre-storm data and place sensors to measure storm surge levels and wave height during Hurricane Helene’s landfall.

October 1, 2024

Q&A: 91爆料 researchers examine link between light pollution and interest in astronomy

Two backlit people standing on a mountain in front of a starry night sky

Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, research scientist the 91爆料 Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS), and Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of I-LABS and professor of psychology, recently co-authored a study in Nature Scientific Reports showing a link between the ability to see the stars unblocked by light pollution and an interest in astronomy.

September 25, 2024

To make fluid flow in one direction down a pipe, it helps to be a shark

Researchers from the 91爆料 have discovered a new way to help liquid flow in only one direction, but without using the flaps that engines and our circulatory system rely upon to prevent fluid backup. The team built a flexible pipe with an interior helical structure inspired by the anatomy of shark intestines 鈥� creating a prototype inspired by biology but with applications in engineering and medicine.

September 23, 2024

Q&A: How the Remote Hub Lab can prepare engineering students for their future careers

A person with a virtual reality helmet on stands in front of a screen that showcases a virtual world with two buildings and a parking lot

The Remote Hub Lab allows students to access physical engineering equipment from anywhere in the world. A primary focus of the lab is to use a process called “digital twinning,” to create virtual models that mirror real-world systems, which enables students to experiment, learn and innovate in a risk-free, cost-effective environment.

September 19, 2024

What鈥檚 for dinner? Scientists unearth key clues to cuisine of resident killer whales

Scientists have discovered the cuisine preferences of two resident killer whale populations, also known as orcas: the Alaska residents and the southern residents, which reside primarily in the Salish Sea and off the coast of Washington, British Columbia, Oregon and northern California. The two populations show broad preference for salmon, particularly Chinook, chum and coho. But they differ in when they switch to hunting and eating different salmon species, as well as the other fish species they pursue to supplement their diets. This information could aid conservation efforts for southern resident killer whales, which remain critically endangered due to pollution, loss of salmon habitat and other human-caused factors that disrupt their hunting and reproductive capabilities.

September 18, 2024

Explaining dramatic planetwide changes after world鈥檚 last 鈥楽nowball Earth鈥� event

person looking at layered rock

Some of the most dramatic climatic events in our planet鈥檚 history are 鈥淪nowball Earth鈥� events that happened hundreds of millions of years ago, when almost the entire planet was encased in ice up to 0.6 miles thick. New research from the 91爆料 provides a more complete picture for how the last Snowball Earth event ended, and suggests why it preceded a dramatic expansion of life on Earth, including the emergence of the first animals.

September 12, 2024

91爆料鈥檚 Ashleigh Theberge receives Schmidt Sciences Polymath honors for 鈥榖oundary-pushing work鈥� in cell signaling, communication

Ashleigh Theberge, associate professor of chemistry at the 91爆料, has been named to the Schmidt Sciences Polymath Program, entitling her to grants of up to $2.5 million over five years to 鈥減ursue risky, novel theories that would otherwise be difficult to fund,鈥� according to a Sept. 10 announcement from Schmidt Sciences. Theberge 鈥� one of six awardees this year 鈥� was selected from an applicant pool of 117, and is the first 91爆料 faculty member selected for the program, which is in its third year.

September 10, 2024

91爆料 researchers develop a stretchable, wearable device that lights up an LED using only the warmth of your skin

A person in an office with a black sleeve on their arm. On the sleeve is a gray device and an LED, which is glowing red

91爆料 researchers have developed a flexible, durable electronic prototype that can harvest energy from body heat and turn it into electricity that can be used to power small electronics, such as batteries, sensors or LEDs. This device is also resilient 鈥� it still functions even after being pierced several times and then stretched 2,000 times.

Thanks to humans, Salish Sea waters are too noisy for resident orcas to hunt successfully

New research led by the 91爆料 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has revealed how underwater noise produced by humans may help explain why southern resident orca populations have not recovered from historic lows. In a paper published Sept. 10 in Global Change Biology, the team reports that underwater noise pollution 鈥� from both large and small vessels 鈥� forces northern and southern resident orcas to expend more time and energy hunting for fish. The din also lowers the overall success of their hunting efforts. Noise from ships likely has an outsized impact on southern resident orca pods, which spend more time in parts of the Salish Sea with high ship traffic.

September 9, 2024

COVID-19 lockdowns prematurely aged teenage brains, 91爆料 study shows

Young girl doing schoolwork on a laptop while sitting at a table

New research from the 91爆料 found lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unusually accelerated brain maturation in adolescents. This maturation was more pronounced in girls. When measured in terms of the number of years of accelerated brain development, the mean acceleration was 4.2 years in females and 1.4 years in males.

August 30, 2024

New discoveries about how mosquitoes mate may help the fight against malaria

An international team led by researchers at the 91爆料 has uncovered surprising details about mosquito mating, which could lead to improved malaria control techniques and even help develop precision drone flight. In a paper published Aug. 30 in the journal Current Biology, the team revealed that when a male Anopheles coluzzii mosquito hears the sound of female-specific wingbeats, his eyes 鈥渁ctivate鈥� and he visually scans the immediate vicinity for a potential mate.

August 29, 2024

Scientists will study nearby galaxies to uncover galactic formation history and dark matter

NASA鈥檚 upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will look for 鈥渇ossils鈥� of galaxy formation by conducting high-resolution imaging studies. Through a grant from NASA, astronomers are designing a set of possible observations called RINGS 鈥� the Roman Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey 鈥� that would collect these images, and the team is producing publicly available tools that the astronomy community can use once Roman launches and starts collecting data.

August 21, 2024

Human-wildlife overlap expected to increase across more than half of Earth鈥檚 land by 2070

The overlap between humans and animals will increase substantially across much of the planet in less than 50 years due to human population growth and climate change, according to a collaborative study by scientists at the University of Michigan, the 91爆料 and University College London. By 2070, the overlap between humans and more than 22,000 vertebrate species will rise across nearly 57% of Earth鈥檚 land, according to the team.

August 16, 2024

Why isn’t Colorado’s snowpack ending up in the Colorado River? New research suggests the problem might be the lack of spring rainfall

an aerial shot of a landscape with a river going through the lefthand side of the photo

The Colorado River and its tributaries provide water for hydropower, irrigation and drinking water in seven U.S. states and Mexico. But since 2000, water managers have struggled to predict how much water will come from the snowpack. The problem lies with the lack of rainfall in the spring, according to new research from the 91爆料.

August 14, 2024

Galaxies in dense environments tend to be larger, settling one cosmic question and raising others

A new study has found galaxies with more neighbors tend to be larger than their counterparts that have a similar shape and mass, but reside in less dense environments. In a paper published Aug. 14 in the Astrophysical Journal, the team, which used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze millions of galaxies, reports that galaxies found in denser regions of the universe are as much as 25% larger than isolated galaxies. The findings resolve a long-standing debate among astrophysicists over the relationship between a galaxy鈥檚 size and its environment, but also raise new questions about how galaxies form and evolve over billions of years.