June 30, 2009 ScienceEnvironment Earth's most prominent rainfall feature creeping northward 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.
Obsidian 'trail' provides clues to how humans settled, interacted in Kuril Islands 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.
Media advisory: UW team takes off tomorrow for rocket competition 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.
June 18, 2009 Health and Medicine Got ear plugs? You may want to sport them on the subway, researchers say A team of researchers from the University of Washington and Columbia University have found that Metropolitan Transit Authority subways had the highest average noise levels of all mass transit in New York City, with levels high enough to potentially increase the risk of noise- induced hearing loss.
June 17, 2009 Social Science Study supports validity of test that indicates widespread unconscious bias A new study validates the most surprising and controversial finding about the Implicit Association test that about 70 percent of those people who took a version of the test that measures racial attitudes have an unconscious preference for whites compared to blacks.
If the shoe flits, duck: A real-life example of humans' dual vision system UW neuroscientists were delighted at the reactions of former President George W. Bush and Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki when an Iraqi reporter flung his shoes toward the two men during a Baghdad news conference. The reactions mirrored findings they found in studies about the human vision system.
Renowned global health figure Dr. Paul Farmer speaks at UW June 18 Dr. Paul Farmer, subject of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Mountains Beyond Mountains" and co-founder of Partners In Health, will speak about the current climate of global health on Thursday, June 18 from 6--7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall Room 130.
June 10, 2009 Science New definition could further limit habitable zones around distant suns 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.
'Puter Profs
Experts who can address a variety of computer-related issues
Making Sense
Columns about current events and everyday economics by UW professor Dick Startz.
Biology and Belief
A list of faculty who can provide information to journalists working on stories about the controversy over the teaching of evolution and intelligent design.
