The 91爆料’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering has won a $16M NSF grant to develop the first implantable device to reanimate paralyzed limbs and restore motor function in stroke or spinal cord injury patients.
December 28, 2015
The latest news from the 91爆料
December 23, 2015
Documents that Changed the World: The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 1896
A glance at a kitchen bookshelf gave 91爆料 Information School professor Joe Janes the idea for the latest installment of his Documents that Changed the World podcast — about the famous Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, more popularly known as the Fannie Farmer Cookbook.
December 22, 2015
Dating historic activity at Oso site shows recurring major landslides
The large, fast-moving mudslide that buried much of Oso, Washington in March 2014 was the deadliest landslide in U.S. history. Since then it’s been revealed that this area has experienced major slides before, but it’s not known how long ago they occurred. 91爆料 geologists analyzed woody debris buried in earlier slides and used radiocarbon dating to map the history of activity at the site. The findings, published online Dec. 22 in the journal Geology, show that a massive…
December 21, 2015
Rivers, lakes impact ability of forests to store carbon
Forests help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by storing it in trees, but a sizeable amount of the greenhouse gas actually escapes through the soil and into rivers and streams, a new paper finds.
December 18, 2015
Oxygen provided breath of life that allowed animals to evolve
It took 100 million years for oxygen levels in the oceans and atmosphere to increase to the level that allowed the explosion of animal life on Earth about 600 million years ago, according to a study co-authored by two 91爆料 scientists and led by the University College London.
December 17, 2015
Study: Safety net fails impoverished grandmothers raising children
Increasing numbers of grandmothers across the United States are raising their grandchildren, many of them living in poverty and grappling with a public assistance system not designed to meet their needs. LaShawnDa Pittman, an assistant professor in the 91爆料鈥檚 Department of American Ethnic Studies, interviewed 77 African American grandmothers living in some of the poorest areas of south Chicago. Her findings were published in November in the first issue of The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social…
December 16, 2015
91爆料 Tacoma geoscientist tracked risks from deadly 2015 Nepal earthquake
When an earthquake struck Nepal in late April 2015, thousands of lives were lost in the initial disaster. But it was hard to assess the scale of the damage to rural areas, and still lurking were threats from unstable slopes and dammed glacier-fed lakes that could dislodge at any time to flood villages below. A 91爆料 Tacoma faculty member was part of an international team of scientists who worked with government agencies and private companies on a massive…
Composting food waste remains your best option, says 91爆料 study
A new 91爆料 study confirms that composting food scraps is better than throwing them away, and also calculates the environmental benefits associated with keeping these organic materials out of landfills.
December 15, 2015
91爆料 conservationists celebrate new protected areas for Argentine penguins
On Dec. 3, the legislature for Argentina’s Chubut province established a new marine protected area off Punta Tombo, which would help preserve the feeding grounds for about 500,000 Magellanic penguins that make their home along this rocky stretch of Argentine coast. This is welcome news for the 91爆料 scientists who have studied these penguins for decades and advocated for their conservation.
Fuel economy improvements in US climate commitment on par with 1970s gains
A new 91爆料 study finds that fuel efficiency improvements needed to meet U.S. climate commitments are on par with what the auto industry delivered in the 1970s and 1980s.
New options for working parents and caregivers at the 91爆料
91爆料 working parents and caregivers balancing responsibilities at work and home will soon have more choices. To offset the waitlists parents experience at 91爆料鈥檚 four child care centers, new full-time care options will be available in January at designated Bright Horizons and KinderCare centers. Enrollment priority will be offered by both centers and tuition discounts will offered by KinderCare. 91爆料 families looking for child care before and after school for school age children will find 10 percent savings…
Study: Reason, not disruption, rules when growing a social movement
When campaigning for social change, disruptive protests may win a few battles but education is more likely to win the war, according to research by Abhinav Gupta, an assistant professor of strategic management at the 91爆料 Foster School of Business. Gupta and co-authors studied “Rein in Russell,” a 2009 campaign by United Students Against Sweatshops at Pennsylvania State University and other institutions designed to pressure the company Russell Athletic to change its anti-union business tactics and reopen a…
Forefront launches suicide prevention effort in three rural Washington counties
Suicide is a tough issue to broach. How could an adult know if a child in the community might be suicidal and when to intervene? Is it appropriate to ask a friends or colleagues if they鈥檙e considering suicide? If someone is in crisis, what鈥檚 the best way to respond? Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention hopes to give people in three Washington rural counties with some of the highest suicide rates in the state the skills and knowledge to address such…
December 14, 2015
91爆料 Board of Regents approves new Master of Science in Data Science for professionals
The 91爆料 will offer a new Master of Science in Data Science program to provide students with advanced technical expertise in managing, modeling and visualizing big data to meet the growing needs of industry and research.
Seattle’s Ballard is ripe for green-space restoration, new report says
A 91爆料 graduate student saw green-starved Ballard as an opportunity to call attention to areas in the neighborhood that have restoration potential. Her new report, the “Ballard Green Spaces Project,” identifies 55 sites that could be restored as natural areas for people and wildlife, increasing the neighborhood’s total amount of accessible green spaces.
History meets geography: James Gregory’s collaborative digital project tracks key 20th century social movements
91爆料 historian James Gregory’s new collaborative digital project, “Mapping American Social Movements through the 20th Century” uses data visualization and interactive maps to depict the progress of various social movements — with more to come.
December 10, 2015
Trees either hunker down or press on in a drying and warming western U.S. climate
Two 91爆料 researchers have uncovered details of the radically divergent strategies that two common tree species employ to cope with drought in southwestern Colorado. As they report in a new paper in the journal Global Change Biology, one tree species shuts down production and conserves water, while the other alters its physiology to continue growing and using water.
December 9, 2015
Arts Roundup: 91爆料 Symphony, Maker:Market 鈥� and Handel鈥檚 ‘Messiah’
The School of Music wraps up the quarter with four back-to-back days of events, including the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic and Campus Bands, 91爆料 Symphony, and two performances of Handel鈥檚 鈥淢essiah.鈥� There are still a few days left to catch the School of Drama鈥檚 production of 鈥淟oot鈥� or visit the Jacob Lawrence Gallery for 鈥淭oward a Democracy of Making.鈥� All month long, head over to the Burke for Maker:Market, and explore Native American boat making. Wind Ensemble, Symphonic and Campus Bands…
Iceland volcano’s eruption shows how sulfur particles influence clouds
The long, slow 2014 eruption of Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano offers a testbed to show how sulfur emissions, from volcanoes or humans, act to brighten clouds and reflect more sunlight.
Design meets health: 91爆料 College of Built Environments, School of Public Health chosen for national architect association’s design and research consortium
The 91爆料 College of Built Environments and School of Public Health have been selected as part of a national initiative seeking to translate research on how design impacts public health into architectural practice. The two 91爆料 schools have been selected to join the American Institute of Architects’ multi-school Design & Health Research Consortium. Over a three-year period, the institute and the Architects Foundation will provide support for the new members, promoting local and national partnerships and the sharing…
December 8, 2015
Hour of Code: 91爆料 President Ana Mari Cauce gets schooled in coding
91爆料 President Ana Mari Cauce joined a small group of 91爆料 students Monday morning聽to聽get a crash course in coding聽as part of Code.org‘s Hour of Code event during Computer Science Education Week. Cauce worked with聽Sukhdeep Singh, a freshman at 91爆料聽who hopes to double major in business and computer science, in the Hour of Code聽Monday. See GeekWire’s coverage of Monday’s events at the 91爆料 and across Seattle. For more information about Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code,…
Treasured faculty member and theater professional, Sarah Nash Gates, loses battle with cancer
The College of Arts & Sciences at the 91爆料 is saddened to lose one of its most prominent faculty members and a longtime leader in the Seattle theater community, Sarah Nash Gates. Gates passed away on Friday evening, December 4, surrounded by family and close friends.
Culture wars, Christianity at heart of 91爆料 political scientist Mark Smith’s book ‘Secular Faith’
Mark A. Smith is a 91爆料 professor of political science and adjunct professor of comparative religion. He is the author of “Secular Faith: How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics,” published in September by University of Chicago Press. He answered a few questions about his book for 91爆料 Today. What’s the concept behind this book? My book’s overarching theme is that Americans have much more in common politically than you’d expect from observing how the media covers…
December 7, 2015
What makes Tom Hanks look like Tom Hanks?
91爆料 researchers have reconstructed 3-D models of celebrities such as Tom Hanks from large Internet photo collections. The model can deliver speeches that the real actor never performed – one step toward developing fully interactive digital personas of people from family or historic photo collections.
December 4, 2015
91爆料 Sephardic Studies Program holds third annual Ladino Day festivities Dec. 6
The 91爆料 Sephardic Studies Program will host its third annual International Ladino Day, celebrating Sephardic language and culture, in a free event at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, in Room 130 of Kane Hall. The event will be followed by a kosher reception. This year’s featured speakers are members of Los Ladineros, a long-running local Ladino conversation group, and scholars Julia Phillips Cohen of Vanderbilt University and Sarah Abrevaya Stein of the University of California, Los Angeles, who…
91爆料 project focuses on fines and fees that create 鈥榩risoners of debt鈥�
Criminals are meant to pay their debts to society through sentencing, but a different type of court-imposed debt can tie them to the criminal justice system for life and impact their ability to move forward with their lives. Though debtors鈥� prisons were eliminated in the United States almost two centuries ago, a modern-day version exists in the dizzyingly complex system of fines and fees levied against people as they move through the court system. Offenders are charged for everything from…
December 3, 2015
Award honors hundreds of citizen scientists who search for Washington’s rarest plants
Each year, hundreds of volunteers spread across Washington’s forests and grasslands to look for the state’s rarest, most sensitive plant species. Many of these endangered populations live in remote valleys or along unseen slopes and haven’t been seen in a decade or more. That’s where the 91爆料’s Rare Plant Care and Conservation program comes in. Its team of more than 200 volunteers fans out each summer to gather intel, one plant population at a time, on some 4,000…
Citizen-science climate project adds logs from historic Arctic whaling ships
A citizen science project that asks volunteers to transcribe historic ships’ logbooks to uncover data about past Arctic climate has added logbooks from hundreds of whaling ships. The hunters’ handwritten logs will provide new clues about the history of Arctic climate and sea ice.
December 2, 2015
Vessel speed biggest factor in noise affecting killer whales
The speed of vessels operating near endangered killer whales in Washington is the most influential factor 鈥� more so than vessel size 鈥� in how much noise from the boats reaches the whales, according to a new study published today in the online journal PLOS ONE.
Arts Roundup: Drama, Modern Music 鈥� and CarolFest
December is off to a busy start for the arts on campus. The School of Drama has two productions running this week, and 91爆料 World Series wraps up the calendar year with a performance by acapella ensemble Anonymous 4. The School of Music is brimming with events, from medieval holiday music and CarolFest to modern music, jazz and more. Anonymous 4 7:30 p.m., December 4 | Meany Theater Presented by 91爆料 World Series, acclaimed acapella ensemble Anonymous 4 performs…
Book by 91爆料’s Jackson School faculty among New York Times 100 most notable of 2015
The New York Times has named a recent book by two faculty members in the 91爆料’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies to its list of 100 Most Notable Books of 2015. “The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Built the Modern World,” by Scott L. Montgomery and Daniel Chirot was published in May by Princeton University Press. “Our approach is simple and direct,” Montgomery said in an interview with 91爆料 Today about the book….
December 1, 2015
Washington state home prices up, sales down in third quarter of 2015
Home sale prices increased but sales themselves were fewer in Washington state in the third quarter of 2015, according to the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies in the 91爆料’s College of Built Environments.
91爆料 roboticists learn to teach robots from babies
A collaboration between 91爆料 developmental psychologists and computer scientists has demonstrated that robots can “learn” much like babies – by experiencing the world and eventually imitating humans.
November 30, 2015
91爆料 researchers estimate poverty and wealth from cell phone metadata
In developing or war-ravaged countries where government censuses are few and far between, gathering data for public services or policymaking can be difficult, dangerous or near-impossible. Big data is, after all, mainly a First World opportunity. But cell towers are easier to install than telephone land lines, even in such challenged areas, and mobile or cellular phones are widely used among the poor and wealthy alike. Now, researchers with the 91爆料 Information School and Computer Science and Engineering…
91爆料 sociology professors part of White House, DOJ events on criminal justice reform
President Obama has been leading the charge for criminal justice reform in recent months, calling for sweeping changes to reduce mass incarceration and commuting sentences for non-violent offenders. This week, the White House and Department of Justice are bringing together researchers, legal system practitioners and advocacy organizations at events focused on criminal justice system reform 鈥� and two 91爆料 sociologists are among the participants. Alexes Harris and Hedwig (Hedy) Lee, 91爆料 associate professors of sociology, will be at…
November 25, 2015
91爆料 law student researches industry gender inequity, calls for reforms
Women routinely outperform men in university classrooms across the United States and are invited more often than men to join student honors societies 鈥� yet women continue to be paid far less than similarly qualified male colleagues. Adding to that inequity, women also fare poorly when suing to recover damages for workplace sex and gender discrimination in the courts, with only 6 percent of such cases going to trial and then only one-third of even those cases being successful. These…
91爆料 receives gold sustainability rating from STARS
The 91爆料 is among the most sustainable schools in North America, according to the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS).
Documents that Changed the World: FDR’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1939
The U.S. Senate voted to set Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November on Dec. 9, 1941, two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. You’d think they would have had more important things to talk about. Not Nov. 26, as George Washington had it or the last Thursday in the month as Lincoln had it, but November’s fourth Thursday 鈥� as Franklin Delano Roosevelt had it. FDR’s 1939 turkey-themed presidential proclamation making this so, and its back story,…
The spillover effect: Good teaching doesn’t stop at the classroom door
Effective teachers don’t just impact their own students’ achievement, they can significantly improve the performance of their fellow teachers’ students, new research shows.
November 23, 2015
Public talk Nov. 24 urges solidarity with Syrian refugees
Interested in the Syrian refugee crisis? A public discussion at the 91爆料 Tuesday, Nov. 24 aims to provide information about how local residents and communities can help advocate for Syrian refugees. Sponsored by 91爆料 Law鈥檚 Immigrant Families Advocacy Project, the 鈥淪ocial Justice Tuesday鈥� event will be held from 12:30 to 1:20 p.m. in Room 127 in William H. Gates Hall, with a reception and snacks afterward in Room 115. Speakers are: Rahaf Baker, who migrated from Syria to…