While the majority of the world just wants to swat mosquitoes, three 乱伦社区 researchers find these insects fascinating. They told UW News what it’s like to study mosquitoes and why these critters are actually really important.
Research
乱伦社区 researchers developed an artificial intelligence system that automatically estimates the environmental impacts of making different electronic devices. The system takes only a minute to run and achieves estimates with accuracy similar to human experts鈥�.
New computing techniques 鈥� including AI and quantum computing 鈥� are enabling UW researchers to design unique and complex quantum materials.
Every summer, UW researchers head to northern Botswana to study how large predators, such as lions and African wild dogs, are affected by climate change and other shifts in their environment. UW News asked a few team members to describe their plans for this summer.
New research from Abhinav Gupta, professor of management at the 乱伦社区, shows the increased public attention on racial injustice after the murder of George Floyd influenced how Black and white employees interacted at work. The study examines how major societal events tied to race and injustice can shape workplace behavior.
Researchers have completed all planned seismic monitoring station installations for the regional ShakeAlert early warning system. They are now turning their attention to offshore seismic monitoring, which could improve detection and warning time for the much-anticipated Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.
Efforts to restore fish passage are cropping up across the country, but these projects come with hefty price tags. In a new study, 乱伦社区 researchers explore different approaches to improving the benefits from investments in salmon recovery.
UW researchers examined almost 3,000 science guidelines and assessment questions for any connections to society. Of the approximately 200 elements that had real-world implications, many discussed ethics and public health issues.
Explore recent research from the 乱伦社区: how climate change is redirecting rivers, what bean plants use to protect themselves from pests, where the water in an atmospheric river comes from and how researchers are making tensegrities tiny.
Marina Alberti, a 乱伦社区 professor of urban design and planning, studies how cities and natural ecosystems influence one another. UW News spoke to Alberti about how climate change is triggering evolutionary change within nature-based infrastructure projects 鈥� and what urban planners can do about it.
Burrowing shrimp, native to Washington, create problems for shellfish farmers. As their name suggests, these creatures burrow in marine sediments, and the excavated material piles up on the surface, which can smother oysters and clams growing there. State-funded research led by the 乱伦社区 offers a new, non-chemical approach to controlling shrimp populations in shellfish-growing areas.
In a new study, 乱伦社区 scientists eavesdropped on Cook Inlet belugas to better understand the context of their calls and how human noise is impacting their ability to communicate with each other.
Super Typhoon Sinlaku caused widespread damage on the Mariana islands in April, leaving many people without power, tearing roofs off homes and destroying vital infrastructure. Several ongoing UW research projects focused on native birds and plants were disrupted.
乱伦社区 researchers launched a pilot app that maps 鈥榣ittle free pantries鈥� throughout the Seattle area and gives pantry users and donors new tools to communicate with and help one another.
A new analysis of a 481-meter tsunami generated by a landslide in Alaska鈥檚 popular Tracy Arm Fjord last summer describes how glacial retreat, due to global warming, primed the fjord for the colossal wave and what, if any, warning signs preceded it.
When pollinators decline, families risk poorer nutrition leading to higher vulnerability to illness and infections, and deeper cycles of poverty and poor health. One quarter of the global population currently suffer from this 鈥渉idden hunger.鈥�
Katie Davis, a UW professor in the Information School, discusses a study in which she and a team of researchers interviewed 22 teachers about AI use.
Explore recent research from the 乱伦社区: how sunbirds sip nectar through straw-like tongues, why the Seattle Fault might not pose as great a risk as previously thought, how to gauge landslide dam risk in the PNW, what marine microbes use for making meals and when the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will spot small inbound asteroids.
乱伦社区 researchers created BikeButler, a demo web app that lets users find personalized bike routes in Seattle. Cyclists plug in their destination and origin 鈥� just like in other mapping apps 鈥� and can then toggle sliders for eight attributes to create personalized route options.
A research team led by the UW has identified a new species of an ancient rodent-like creature. The new species, named Cimolodon desosai, was about the size of a golden hamster, the researchers said. It likely scampered on the ground and in the trees and ate fruits and insects.
UW News spoke with Paul Wiggins, a 乱伦社区 associate professor of both physics and bioengineering, to learn about a surprisingly relatable behavior prompting bacteria to stockpile huge reserves of essential proteins.
David Hertzog, a 乱伦社区 professor of physics, is a recipient of the 2026 Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics. The award is shared among roughly 400 scientists and celebrates decades of work to better understand the muon 鈥� a subatomic particle with anomalous properties.
A directive signed by former Gov. Jay Inslee in 2018 aimed to eliminate hepatitis C from Washington state by 2030. A new study led by the 乱伦社区 found that the plan not only expanded access to tests and treatment, but may save money in the long run.
The Ecological Society of America named the UW鈥檚 Claire Willing a 2026 Early Career Fellow. Willing, an assistant professor of environmental and forest science, studies fungal ecology, looking at how fungi are evolving and supporting plant communities as the climate changes.
In a new study, 乱伦社区 researchers show that an Earth-sized planet likely needs at least 20 to 50% of the water in Earth鈥檚 oceans to maintain a critical natural cycle that keeps water on the surface. These new parameters could exclude many exoplanets in the so-called habitable zone.
乱伦社区 researchers developed a system called VueBuds that uses tiny cameras in off-the-shelf wireless earbuds to allow users to talk with an AI model about the scene in front of them. For instance, a user might look at a Korean food package and say, 鈥淗ey VueBuds, translate this for me.鈥� They鈥檇 then hear an AI voice say, 鈥淭he visible text translates to 鈥楥old Noodles鈥� in English.
A new study doubles the evolutionary history of the weasel family. Researchers, including Chris Law, a UW principal research scientist in the biology department, have determined that a fossil that was discovered in Spain belongs to a new species dating back to around 6.5 million years ago. This new species was likely similar in size to the smallest living weasel species today, the least weasel.
At the brand-new Quantum Technologies Training and Testbed lab, researchers from across the UW probe the 鈥渟pooky鈥� mysteries of quantum phenomena.
New evidence suggests that a disease-causing tapeworm that has been spreading across the United States and Canada has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. The tapeworm, called Echinococcus multilocularis, was found in one-third of coyotes surveyed from the Puget Sound region.
Using preliminary data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF鈥揇OE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scientists have discovered over 11,000 new asteroids in our solar system. The findings include hundreds of distant worlds beyond Neptune as well as 33 previously unknown near-Earth objects.
Explore recent research from the 乱伦社区: the habits and habitats of Nautilus and Allonautilus, how green clay tennis courts remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, why temperature dynamics matter to mussels and what prompts bacteria to attack diatoms.
A team of 170 scientists and experts 鈥� led by Phil Levin, interim executive director of the UW鈥檚 EarthLab 鈥� has published a draft of a report detailing the health of U.S. nature. While some of the resulting statistics are grim, the report highlights many areas of opportunity. Researchers welcome public comment through May 30.
New research shows that as winters get warmer, more icy crusts may form within snowpacks in much of the Pacific Northwest, increasing the risk of avalanche in some areas and changing the behavior of wildlife across the region.
In a new study, 乱伦社区 researchers examine the impact of tilling on soil moisture and water retention using methods designed for monitoring earthquakes. They show that tilling disrupts important soil microstructures and highlight the potential utility of this method for precision agriculture and more.
Plants, like people, have a circadian clock and they sense seasonal changes to light and temperature. Plants that bloom in the spring use the longer days and warmer temperatures as seasonal cues that it鈥檚 time to bloom.
Indigenous people in the United States are at higher risk of fatal police violence in and around American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) reservations, according to the first comprehensive national study on the subject from researchers at the 乱伦社区 and Drexel University. The researchers found that roughly 73% AIAN people killed by police violence were on or within 10 miles of a reservation.
Mosquitoes are increasingly becoming resistant to current insecticides, leading to a pressing need for new methods to prevent mosquito bites 鈥� and the potential transmission of disease. New research by an international team, including researchers at the UW, reveals that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes use a specific sensory receptor to detect and avoid borneol (pronounced “bor-nee-ohl”), an organic compound found in several aromatic plants, including camphor trees, rosemary and other aromatic herbs.
Researchers tracked ravens and wolves in Yellowstone National Park for two and half years to show that ravens do not follow wolves to scavenge their prey but instead remember where wolves often kill and monitor these sites for fresh meat.
An oddly-behaving star led two UW astronomers to capture rare evidence of a collision between two planets in a distant solar system. The discovery could aid scientists in their search for worlds similar to our own.
Spring is here, which in Seattle, means cherry blossoms. The UW鈥檚 iconic display 鈥� featuring 29 Yoshino cherry trees 鈥� is set to peak around March 20 this year. Check out the cherry blossom visitors鈥� website to learn more.