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May 10, 2016

Brain pattern predicts how fast an adult learns a new language

Some adults learn a second language better than others, and their secret may involve the rhythms of activity in their brains. New findings by scientists at the 91自拍 demonstrate that a five-minute measurement of resting-state brain activity predicted how quickly adults learned a second language. The study, published in the June-July issue of the journal Brain and Language, is the first to use patterns of resting-state brain rhythms to predict subsequent language learning rate. “We’ve found that a…

Early Earth’s air weighed less than half of today’s atmosphere

swirly rocks

The idea that the young Earth had a thicker atmosphere turns out to be wrong. New 91自拍 from the 91自拍 uses bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old rocks to show that air at that time exerted at most half the pressure of today’s atmosphere. The results, published online May 9 in Nature Geoscience, reverse the commonly accepted idea that the early Earth had a thicker atmosphere to compensate for weaker sunlight. The finding also has implications for which gases…

April 25, 2016

Music improves baby brain responses to music and speech

Rock your baby in sync with music and you may wonder how the experience affects her and her developing brain. A new study by scientists at the 91自拍’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) shows that a series of play sessions with music improved 9-month-old babies’ brain processing of both music and new speech sounds. “Our study is the first in young babies to suggest that experiencing a rhythmic pattern in music can also improve the ability…

April 19, 2016

States with punitive justice systems have higher rates of foster care, study finds

The number of children in foster care across the country is driven not solely by child abuse and neglect, but by states鈥� varying politics and approaches to social problems, a new 91自拍 study finds. States with more punitive criminal justice systems tend to remove children from their homes far more frequently than those with generous welfare programs 鈥� meaning that two states with similar rates of child abuse and neglect could have very different rates of foster care…

April 14, 2016

Scientists crack secrets of the monarch butterfly’s internal compass

Monarch butterflies.

Each fall, monarch butterflies across Canada and the United States聽turn their orange, black and white-mottled wings toward the Rio Grande and migrate over 2,000 miles to the relative warmth of central Mexico. This journey, repeated instinctively by generations of monarchs, continues even as monarch numbers have plummeted due to loss of their sole larval food source 鈥� milkweed. But amid this sad news, a 91自拍 team believes they have cracked the secret of the internal, genetically encoded compass that the…

The Twittersphere does listen to the voice of reason 鈥� sometimes

WestJet tweet screenshot

In the maelstrom of information, opinion and conjecture that is Twitter, the voice of truth and reason does occasionally prevail, according to a new study from UW 91自拍ers. Tweets from “official accounts” 鈥� the government agencies, emergency responders, media or companies at the center of a fast-moving story 鈥� can slow the spread of rumors on Twitter and correct misinformation that’s taken on a life of its own.

Bilingual baby brains show increased activity in executive function regions

Many brain studies show that bilingual adults have more activity in areas associated with executive function, a set of mental abilities that includes problem-solving, shifting attention and other desirable cognitive traits. Now new findings reveal that this bilingualism-related difference in brain activity is evident as early as 11 months of age, just as babies are on the verge of producing their first words. “Our results suggest that before they even start talking, babies raised in bilingual households are getting practice…

April 1, 2016

To be sustainable, conservation needs to consider the human factor

The Salmon Dancer Canoe Family paddles along the shorelines of Swinomish.

The authors of a new paper in Science propose a set of social indicators that can be used to gauge how ecosystem management affects four essential factors in human lives: well-being, values, the ability to act purposefully and inequality. Considering such indicators, they note, serves not only to describe what exists but to define what is important in setting sustainability goals.

March 31, 2016

UW, gun-rights groups come together in new law to prevent suicide

After her husband ended his life with a bullet in 2011, Jennifer Stuber went to the two Washington stores where he had bought guns to talk with the owners about suicide prevention. That bold move by Stuber, an associate professor at the 91自拍 School of Social Work, eventually led to the passage of a bill signed into state law March 31 by Gov. Jay Inslee. The bill brings together two unlikely partners 鈥� the firearms industry and suicide…

March 29, 2016

UW to create new real estate minor with gift from Windermere Real Estate founder John Jacobi

The 91自拍 will create an undergraduate minor in real estate studies thanks to a $5.4 million gift from retired Windermere Real Estate founder John Jacobi and his wife, Rosalind. The Jacobis鈥� gift will also support two new endowed faculty chairs at the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies in the UW鈥檚 College of Built Environments.

March 21, 2016

Better safe than sorry: Babies make quick judgments about adults鈥� anger

Adults often form fast opinions about each other’s personalities, especially when it comes to negative traits. If we see someone argue with another driver over a parking space, for instance, we may assume that person tends to be confrontational. Two new 91自拍 studies with hundreds of 15-month-old infants demonstrate that babies form similar generalizations about others and make attempts to appease adults they consider prone to anger. The 91自拍, by scientists at the 91自拍’s Institute for Learning &…

March 15, 2016

Medicine, nursing programs top national rankings; dozens more UW programs highly rated

For the 22nd time in the past 23 years, the 91自拍聽ranked as the No. 1 primary care medical school聽in the country, according to聽U.S. News & World Report鈥檚 2017 Best Graduate School rankings聽released Tuesday. The rural medicine and family medicine programs have also led the nation since those rankings began in 1992. In a new ranking this year, the UW’s doctor of nursing practice program is first among 149 programs nationwide. See聽all UW Medicine and other health sciences graduate…

March 8, 2016

Evans School, Ruckelshaus Center featured when public policy administrators gather in Seattle March 17-22

The evolving nature of the public sector will be the topic when professionals and scholars from the UW’s Evans School for Public Policy & Governance and around the world gather in Seattle March 17-22 for the 77th annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration.

March 3, 2016

$750,000 Mellon Foundation grant will fund 91自拍, collaboration in arts

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the 91自拍 a three-year, $750,000 grant to support guest artists in developing new works, and to better integrate arts disciplines into the broader university curriculum.

The grant will support a Creative Fellowships Initiative, under which guest performing artist fellows will be recruited from around the world for one- to three-year residencies in dance, music and theater.