The bivalve-rich beaches of Hood Canal were all summer after detection of a marine biotoxin that causes , a life-threatening foodborne illness that affects the nervous system.

Given that Washington’s commercial shellfish industry employs nearly 2,400 people and brings in more than $240 million each year, a monthslong closure during peak season had sweeping consequences.

Detecting harmful algal blooms early is critical for consumer safety and trust in the industry. The Washington State Department of Health oversees a that monitors toxin levels in shellfish tissue from various growing areas. The effort is supported by an unofficial partner: , a program launched by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2006 that migrated to Washington Sea Grant several years later.

Unlike the DOH, SoundToxins screens the water for harmful algae, which can expedite detection. When SoundToxins monitors detected ? — a species of phytoplankton that produces the toxin that causes PSP — they quickly relayed the information to the DOH, which closed the impacted marine areas before anyone got sick.

Although this type of advance warning can save lives, the future funding of the program is uncertain. Washington Sea Grant relies on a patchwork of 91自拍 grants and federal and state funds to operate SoundToxins. Recent cuts to 91自拍 funding and the current state of Washington’s budget have illuminated the precariousness of funding for vital programs like this. Washington Sea Grant remains committed to working with state and federal partners to find the right funding pathway to keep SoundToxins running.

A quantified the value of SoundToxins with survey data. UW News spoke with program manager about the results and the program.

How is the monitoring program and the early detection of harmful algal blooms (HABs) valuable?

Michelle Lepori-Bui: Harmful algal blooms can be really detrimental to the shellfish industry as closures have a direct impact on revenue and because recalls and illnesses affect the reputation of shellfish as a safe and healthy food source. Robust monitoring programs and early warning of these events help protect public health and minimize these impacts. There are many benefits to early detection of HABs to the general public and recreational and commercial harvesters that can be hard to quantify. Farmers can benefit by modifying harvesting activities to minimize losses, avoiding recalls, and maintaining trust in the market, while shellfish consumers and coastal communities benefit from safe local food sources and working waterfronts.

How does the new study demonstrate the value of SoundToxins?

MLB: This survey sought to capture the many tangible and intangible benefits of the program and distill them into a single economic metric using an approach called ‘willingness to pay.’ The study found that shellfish growers value the program with a willingness to pay $533/year for phytoplankton monitoring. With changing environmental conditions, shellfish mortality events, and heat waves, growers are facing an extremely challenging production environment. The finding that they are willing to pay this amount, even during these challenging economic times, shows how valuable this program is to coastal communities.

How does SoundToxins support the state-led effort?

MLB: The DOH’s biotoxin monitoring program is a series of steps in compliance with the National Shellfish Sanitation Program that starts with monitoring for biotoxins in mussel tissue. Mussels typically pick up toxins faster than other species, so they are a good indicator, but other species are tested as well. If toxins are detected, they can initiate recreational and commercial closures.

We’re not part of the official regulatory process, but our work can guide the DOH’s efforts through early warning. We maintain a database populated with volunteer data and a map that uses red, yellow and green color coding to report HAB presence on the coast and in Puget Sound and surrounding waters. We notify the DOH via email when something changes and it uses that information to prioritize certain samples or request additional samples.

Who collects the data?

MLB: SoundToxins is a very cost-effective program because we have really amazing monitors, partners and volunteers. A lot of different folks do the actual monitoring. We work with tribes, growers, environmental education groups and individuals at 35 different sites throughout the region. We provide them with equipment and training and support the database, and they collect and analyze the samples, posting everything online within 24 hours.

What happened this summer? How was it different from years past?

MLB: We got an alert from our monitor in early June that they found Alexandrium cells in a sample from Hoodsport, which is pretty far south in Hood Canal. That alert went straight to the DOH and it reacted quickly, requesting more samples from various parts of Hood Canal.

Historically, there haven’t been many incidents of PSP in south Hood Canal. There were a few blooms in the early 2000s and a big bloom in 2015 that went further south than usual, close to Hoodsport but not to the end of Hood Canal. That was considered unprecedented and this year surpassed that.

It’s understood globally that harmful algal blooms are increasing in frequency, severity and impact. This is partially related to changing climate conditions. Also, phytoplankton like Alexandrium respond to nutrients in the water. The input of nutrients from human activities can influence blooms. We have seen things showing up in places they haven’t been before and increasing in intensity.

A lot of people are working on models to predict harmful algal blooms, but it’s complicated, especially in our area where there are a lot of complex water bodies. We need to continue doing the 91自拍 to try to understand things better, but in the meantime, monitoring is critical.

Co-authors include Michelle Lepori-Bui, marine water quality specialist at Washington Sea Grant; , water quality specialist at Washington Sea Grant; Vera Trainer, a UW 91自拍 scientist in environmental and forest science and director of the Olympic Natural Resource Center; of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and of NOAA; and Jerry Borchert and Tracie Barry of WA DOH.?

This 91自拍 was funded by the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Prevention, Control, and Mitigation of HABs.

For more information, contact Lepori-Bui at mdtlb@uw.edu.?

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Pulling the strings: How stem cells in the developing fruit fly brain organize their DNA from outside the nucleus

Cells are very particular about the proper locations of their contents. For example, DNA is packaged in the nucleus in a highly specific way, but 91自拍ers are still trying to understand how this happens. For stem cells in the brain of a larval fruit fly — model organisms used to study processes such as early development — the DNA is organized so that the center of each strand, called the centromere, is at the top of the nucleus. In a paper in the Journal of Cell Biology, UW 91自拍ers describe how proteins outside the nucleus work alongside proteins inside the nucleus to control the position of centromeres. The 91自拍ers observed this mechanism by imaging stem cells within larval fruit fly brains and then using machine learning to measure how centromere locations change when specific proteins are removed. The 91自拍 team also followed the locations of two specific genes that are far away from the centromeres. Both genes lost their usual positions in the nucleus when the centromeres strayed from their normal location, suggesting that proper centromere positioning may be important for orienting the rest of the DNA in the nucleus. Studying how and why DNA is organized in these stem cells can help 91自拍ers better understand how stem cells are regulated and how brains develop.

For more information, contact lead author Jennifer Taylor, UW postdoc in biology, at jatay@uw.edu.???????

The other UW co-author is . A full list of funding is .

Micro language models let AI run instantly on small devices like smartwatches

Though artificial intelligence can refer to many technologies, the current AI boom has been driven by large language models, or LLMs. They power chatbots and AI agents by running predictions based on ever-increasing amounts of variables called “parameters.” Current cutting-edge models are estimated to have several trillion parameters, making them far too large to run on slower phones or small devices like smartwatches. In a paper at EMNLP 2026, UW 91自拍ers introduced “micro language models,” which run with 8-30 million parameters. These models are small enough to run on devices with limited computing power and give users instant responses that fill the lag before the device can access an LLM through the cloud. For instance, a user could ask their smartwatch a question and the micro language model would start responding instantly; then after four to eight words, the LLM would complete the response. The micro language model made mistakes in 4% to 8% of responses that the other model corrected seamlessly before continuing. In a user study, nine out of 10 participants preferred the paired system to the lagging responses from only a cloud model.

For more information, contact ulm@cs.washington.edu or visit .

The UW co-authors are , , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is in .

Policy gaps impact migrant fishers in Washington state

The commercial fishing industry is key to Washington’s maritime economy, but there are concerns about exploitation and forced labor among fishers. While much of industry is regulated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, exemptions in U.S. law mean some vessels aren’t subject to the same citizenship requirements. A 91自拍 team from the UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies recently focused on understanding the experiences of migrant fishers pursuing albacore tuna, a highly migratory species, who dock or unload at ports in Washington state. Researchers found the exemptions allow migrant fishers to work without authorization or visas, leaving them vulnerable to forced labor and exploitation. Meanwhile, complicated policy and regulatory frameworks make it difficult to address workers’ rights violations. The 91自拍ers gathered information from 15 migrant fishers, 14 U.S. citizen fishers, and more than 35 subject matter experts. Every migrant fisher interviewed by the team reported experiences aligned with the International Labour Organization’s indicators of forced labor, and both migrant and U.S. citizen fishers reported difficult living and working conditions. Approaches to combating forced labor are varied and uneven, the 91自拍ers found, and additional work is needed to better understand and support the needs of Washington’s fishers. Along with the full report, the team also published .

For more information, contact , 91自拍 director at the Bridges Center, at rerstad@uw.edu.

The other UW co-authors are , and .

Burrowing shrimp are on the move in a mudflat near you

Burrowing shrimp are a pest well known to shellfish growers. These pale-bodied creatures excavate mud as they dig into the ground, creating piles of sediment that suffocate oysters and clams growing on the surface. In estuaries on the west coast, shrimp beds reach densities of hundreds of shrimp per square meter, but the boundaries of beds change. in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science shows that shrimp beds move up to 100 feet each year. The study took place at Willapa Bay over the course of three years and is the first to quantify how rapidly the boundaries of these beds shift over time. Researchers still don’t know why the shrimp move, but they observed a clear pattern in the ecosystem. Shrimp change the texture of sediment by eating organic matter and releasing finer particles, so sediment becomes muddier and more compact once they leave. After several years, these abandoned beds were colonized by eelgrass, a marker of ecosystem health. This “engineering” effect was less evident in areas where moving water keeps mud from settling. Studying these rapid shifts and the types of sediment left behind could ultimately help shellfish growers better protect their product.

For more information, contact co-author Jennifer Ruesink, a UW professor of biology, at ruesink@uw.edu.???????

The other UW co-authors are Wesley Hull, Haleh Mawson, and . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

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Last month, a group of 175 91自拍ers, including eight from the 91自拍, co-authored published in Earth’s Future and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

The paper provides a roadmap for future climate assessments in the U.S. by synthesizing the science and identifying 91自拍 priorities based on existing gaps. “U.S. Climate Collection: Informing Assessment of Risks and Solutions” is the first article to appear in a launched by the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.

Many of the scientists who co-authored this commentary were invited to contribute to the sixth National Climate Assessment (NCA), slated for early 2028, but were then dismissed in April 2025 after the Trump Administration for the assessment. The fifth NCA was published in 2023.?

The federal government is legally required to produce a National Climate Assessment chronicling climate change every four years per the . These assessments track new and evolving risks related to climate change, as well as options for mitigation and adaptation. The national scope is key to ensuring that funding and policies represent a broad range of experiences and concerns. 

“International assessments are valuable, but they are not always tailored to the specific regions and issues that are important in the United States. National assessments fill that gap,” said , Washington state climatologist and a 91自拍 scientist in the UW Climate Impacts Group.

The special collection is not intended to replace the NCA but rather compile 91自拍 for other scientists, policymakers and members of the public to aid in decision making. The commentary kicks off the collection by identifying where 91自拍 has advanced, and how risks have changed, in the years since the last assessment. 

“Our understanding of climate change and its impacts continues to evolve,” said , professor of global health, of environmental and occupational health sciences, and of emergency medicine in the UW School of Medicine. “Conducting regular climate assessments allows us to systematically evaluate that new evidence, incorporate it into our understanding of current circumstances, present it to stakeholders, and apply it to near-term decisions in our respective sectors.” 

UW News asked each of the UW contributors to elaborate on their role in authoring the commentary and how it connects to their 91自拍.

, 91自拍 scientist, UW Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies: “I’m an oceanographer with intimate experience in federal 91自拍 funding mechanisms and with a broad familiarity with ocean warming and CO2 uptake with associated acidification and feedback on marine ecosystems and fisheries. Initially I was appointed to coordinate among federal agencies, academics and policymakers, but that changed dramatically when the Trump administration eliminated NCA6. In the scramble I became more of an author, and an editor of the Ocean section. 

“Some of my 91自拍 at the UW involves ocean model development in collaboration with NOAA. It was a natural fit to contribute to the discussions on ‘Simulations of ocean conditions’ and on ‘Innovations in ocean observation and data science.’”

, professor of urban and environmental planning “I led the urban team and the section on urban regions. Urban regions are central to climate assessments. They concentrate populations and human activities, contribute substantially to climate change, and shape how impacts propagate across neighborhoods, metropolitan systems, national supply chains, and global markets. They are also critical places to examine where mitigation and adaptation reinforce one another, where they create trade-offs, and how benefits, costs, and risks are distributed across communities. 

“Our section argues that future assessments must represent cities as complex dynamic systems. We call for comparative, long-term evaluation of urban mitigation and adaptation strategies. For nature-based solutions, that means testing performance under future climate conditions and assessing multiple functions, life-cycle costs, social and ecological outcomes, and trade-offs rather than simply measuring short-term, project-level benefits.”

Mauger: “I contributed to the Northwest section of the paper, based on my expertise in regional climate impacts and adaptation science, specifically around water and flooding. Our synthesis reflects many of the emerging issues I see in my work helping communities, tribes, agencies and others to understand and prepare for the effects of climate change. For example, we highlight new 91自拍 on the effectiveness of resilience actions — as more communities take action on climate, I am seeing a greater need for 91自拍 of this kind.”

, principal scientist, UW Climate Impacts Group: “I also contributed to the Northwest section of the paper. My work at UW aims to provide the science, tools and guidance needed by governments and communities as they respond to climate impacts and prepare for those to come. Most of this work is focused on the Northwest, with a heavy emphasis on ecosystems and natural resources. The Northwest section of the paper highlights many of the climate risks and adaptation advances and challenges my partners on the ground face every day.”

Hess: “The takeaways from the health section, which I helped draft, are that we need more information on health impacts from extreme weather and compound events, as well as information on the costs of these impacts. We also need more strategies for advancing adaptation in public health and health care systems; we need health care interventions to protect patients at particular risk; we need more information on nature-based solutions; and we need more information to help convey the health benefits of a clean energy transition. 

“The recommendations related to interventions and adaptation in the health sector are particularly relevant to my work at the UW, which is focused on climate change health impacts and opportunities for increasing resilience of the public health and health care systems. I 91自拍 these issues and also provide leadership related to sustainability and climate resilience for UW Medicine.”

, professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences: “I was an author on the Air Quality chapter that focused on how climate change could alter exposures to poor quality, from pollen to wildfire smoke to indoor and outdoor air quality. One of my areas of 91自拍 at UW is quantifying the extent to which reducing greenhouse gas emissions could reduce morbidity and mortality from outdoor air pollution. The evidence is robust that the economic value of the health benefits from reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be of the same order of magnitude — if not larger — than the costs of reducing emissions. In other words, reducing greenhouse gas emissions would benefit Americans by decreasing hospitalizations and deaths.”

Other UW co-authors include , 91自拍 scientist of environmental and forest sciences and Deputy Director of the Western Fire and Forest Resilience Collaborative and , affiliate professor of environmental and forest sciences. 

For more information, contact Alberti at malberti@uw.edu.

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Although Mars may have once resembled Earth, the rocky red planet now appears far from hospitable. Still, certain details — such as ice-bound water — pique 91自拍ers’ curiosity. Much like on Earth, ice contains valuable records of past climate that could say whether Mars hosts, or has ever hosted, life.

Aside from the poles, where ice is sometimes exposed, most of Mars’ ice is buried beneath a dusty surface layer. Dust impacts climate by darkening ice, which changes how much sunlight is reflected into space. A 91自拍 study shows that the north pole of Mars contains less dust than scientists thought.

“We know there is water ice in the area surrounding the north pole of Mars, but there has been widespread disagreement as to how dusty that ice is,” said , a senior 91自拍 scientist at the UW’s . “If it is dustier, the ice will be darker. Just like a dark T-shirt in the sun makes you warmer, dusty ice gets warmer and vaporizes faster on Mars.”

Much of what we know about how Earth’s climate has evolved through millennia comes from sampling ice. Scientists drill deep into polar ice to draw out long cylinders that contain a record of the local atmosphere. Like a tree’s rings, these records can be dated to ancient periods of Earth’s history. But this is no easy task on Earth. On Mars, it’s even more complicated.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration celebrated its 50 years ago. In 2008, the successfully sampled ice near the north pole, a major triumph after the went missing near the south pole in 1999. The UW 91自拍ers used data from the Mars Phoenix mission, combined with observations from orbiting satellites, to complete this study.

Several years ago, Khuller discovered a discrepancy in the way 91自拍ers were analyzing the physical properties of ice on Mars. The leading approach was developed for studying soil on the Moon, but when Khuller checked its accuracy on Earth, the seemed off.

In this study, Pari Mohan, who recently graduated from the UW with a degree in geoscience, worked with Khuller to redo the calculations using a different method. Theirs is based on an approach developed by , UW professor emeritus of Earth and space science, and an expert in analyzing snow and ice.

“His methods had been used successfully to study snow and ice on Earth for decades. So I thought it would be interesting to adapt these Earth-tested methods to Mars,” Khuller said.

The results suggest that the north pole is stacked “like an ice-cream sandwich,” with layers of dustier ice between slabs of cleaner ice. A dusty layer of frost forms over the ice every winter and disappears in the summer, revealing older, cleaner ice. Previous estimates suggested that the top layer of polar ice contained as much as 25% dust by mass, but this study says it’s closer to 3%.

“By looking at how the brightness changed over time, we figured out that there is a frost that forms in the winter and it’s more dusty. In the Martian summer it goes away, exposing cleaner, older ice,” Khuller said.

These layers contain key details about the climate of Mars thousands of years ago, when the ice is thought to have formed from snowfall. Mars experiences massive ice ages that have deposited shallow ice on roughly one-third of the planet.

Earth is stabilized by the gravitational pull of its moon. Mars, having only two small moons, “oscillates wildly,” Khuller said, which causes these dramatic ice ages.

In a , Khuller and colleagues suggested that layers of dust and ice could create conditions for life on Mars. The dark layers could help trap sunlight and form pockets of meltwater within the ice. These pockets, enriched with nutrients from the dust, could potentially host bacteria and primitive life forms.

Similar pockets of shallow, dusty meltwater found in ice on Earth are often teeming with life in the summer. In the winter, the liquid water freezes and the microbes become dormant until the next summer.

“The fact that Mars and Earth both have these similar layers of water ice and dust is interesting,” Khuller said. “Why does one planet have life and the other doesn’t?”

Uncovering details about the climate moves the needle, but answering this question may take years. Khuller hopes to expand on this work by applying these improved methods to other regions of the red planet.

For more information, contact Khuller at akhuller@uw.edu.

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Capybaras like their habitats wet. These large rodents thrive in low-elevation wetlands, migrating along creeks and rivers to nibble on foliage and flowers. That’s why 91自拍ers were surprised to find an 8.8 million-year-old fossilized capybara tooth in northern Chile’s , one of the driest regions on Earth. In a paper in Scientific Reports, 91自拍ers postulate that the Atacama Desert must have had a wetter climate during the , based on this discovery. This is the first time a capybara species has ever been seen in the Atacama region of Chile — today these creatures reside in the marshy lowlands across Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay. Researchers had at one time assumed that the Andean mountain chain on the eastern side of Chile would have prevented these short-legged rodents from ever entering the Atacama region. With this discovery, the authors propose that capybaras were able to follow a wetland trail along the northern part of South America, trekking from Bolivia to Peru into northern Chile. In addition to capybaras, the ancient Atacama region also likely had palms and other flowering plants, according to plant fossils analyzed by a UW scientist for the study. These findings challenge the idea that the Atacama was just always a desert, and can help 91自拍ers better understand how shifts in climate can drastically affect the environment.

For more information, contact co-author , UW professor of biology, at caestrom@uw.edu.??????

A full list of co-authors and funding is . Adapted from a release .

Multitasking gives marine microbes an edge when nutrients are scarce

The world’s oceans teem with tiny organisms that are difficult to study yet critical to account for. The organisms that make up this microscopic community, many of which are protists, have evolved over time to help keep marine ecosystems balanced. A UW study in the ISME Journal, found that organisms that can both photosynthesize and eat to generate energy do better in nutrient-limited environments, which includes warmer water. This flexibility may help them cope with changing conditions and could help 91自拍ers gauge how marine ecosystems will respond to future warming. Gathering more data from the bottom of the food web is important for understanding the ecosystem-wide impacts of environmental change. The study also debuted a new genetic method for studying energy production versus consumption that may make it easier to study protists. Samples in this study were collected from the North Pacific, near Hawaii and about 1,000 miles north, but the 91自拍ers hope to continue expanding the radius to improve global ocean models.

For more information, contact , UW 91自拍 scientist and engineer of biological oceanography at coesel@uw.edu.

The UW co-authors are Shiri Graff van Creveld, and . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

UW engineers capture behavior of ‘edge waves’ on beaches, putting popular wave models to the test

Coastal engineers and oceanographers often think of the motion of water on beaches as “one dimensional”: waves propagating directly onto the beach from offshore. These simplified wave models are used widely from designing shoreline infrastructure to forecasting coastal flooding. However, some waves propagate along the coast rather than crashing into it, and may push an additional meter of water depth onto the beach. For decades, these “edge waves” have not been accounted for in the one-dimensional models commonly used to understand wave behavior. To find out how edge waves might be impacting model accuracy, 91自拍ers at the UW and UC San Diego deployed an array of pressure and velocity sensors along a beach in Southern California for 60 days. In a paper in JGR Oceans, the 91自拍ers describe a model they built to tease out the influence of edge waves in the larger system. While edge waves contributed a significant amount of energy, the team found that ultimately the one-dimensional models that exclude edge waves remain accurate enough for predicting total water levels at the shoreline.

For more information, contact , a postdoctoral scholar of civil and environmental engineering, at cshender@uw.edu.

A full list of co-authors and funding is .

How Colombian environmentalists use law and democracy to redefine mountain landscapes

In 2013 and 2017, Colombian voters in two towns backed a legal effort to stop a large-scale gold mining project. In doing so, they are making the mountainous areas where they live more visible and politically relevant. The decision allowed environmental advocates to organize around a larger area defined by elevation, massive volume, and subterranean and arboreal features. , UW assistant professor of anthropology, a 91自拍 article in the journal Anthropological Forum that examines how the effort used legal tools for citizen participation to not only voice their opinions on extractive projects, but also reconfigure space in unprecedented ways. The case shows that democratic participation can have far-reaching consequences for how landscapes are defined and lived. The article appears in a special issue, called “Ethnographies of Vertical and Volumetric Worlds,” which was co-edited by Ardila and Steven Schwartz of the University of Rochester.

For more information, contact Castillo at acastil@uw.edu.

Funding information is .

Researchers develop new way to measure how blood clots form

A wound stops bleeding because tiny blood cell fragments called platelets clump together to form a clot. Researchers know that platelets generate forces that help compact and strengthen clots. However, they’ve struggled to understand how blood clots form in real time. To better understand this system, UW mechanical engineers created a device that measures how platelet forces and stiffness evolve together during the first minutes of clot formation. in Advanced Healthcare Materials, the 91自拍 team used the device to apply magnetic forces to clumps of platelets, causing them to strengthen and stiffen through a process called “mechanotransduction” in which cells convert mechanical forces into biological responses. These findings could be used to study how new drugs affect clot formation, how platelets respond to signals when disease is present, and how blood clotting biomechanics contribute to cardiovascular disorders.

For more information, contact , a UW professor of mechanical engineering, at nsniadec@uw.edu.

The UW co-authors are , , Yoeur-Man Mach and . A full list of co-authors and funding is . Adapted from a story by .

UW 91自拍ers probe superconducting materials that defy expectations

Most materials resist the flow of electricity to some degree, but unusual materials known as superconductors can carry an electric current with no resistance at all. Superconductors offer a unique window into the physics of materials at tiny scales, and they could one day revolutionize electronics. In recent years, 91自拍ers have discovered new forms of superconductivity in stacks of atomically thin materials such as . Resistance typically drops to zero as these materials are cooled, but in some cases it mysteriously levels off at a small finite value, which contradicts expectations of superconductor behavior. In a paper in Nature, UW materials scientists tested this behavior with a device consisting of several layers of graphene stacked in a staircase-like pattern. By adjusting voltages applied to the device, the 91自拍ers could control whether the graphene exhibited true superconductivity or the more peculiar “failed” form, providing clear evidence that failed superconductivity is real. The team is now working to uncover the origin of this mysterious behavior.

For more information, contact , a UW associate professor of both physics and materials science and engineering, at myank@uw.edu..

The UW co-authors are , , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

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New faculty books from the 91自拍 include those from the Information School, bioengineering, mathematics, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and Earth and space sciences.

Feminist theory of creep through technological analysis?

, professor in the Information School, is the co-author and co-editor of “,” published by Duke University Press.

New and emerging technologies, especially ones that infiltrate intimate spaces, relations, homes, and bodies, are often referred to as creepy in media and political discourses. In “Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen,” Neda Atanasoski and Nassim Parvin introduce a feminist theory of “creep” that they substantiate through critical engagement with smart homes, smart dust, smart desires and smart forests toward dreams of feminist futures.?

Contributing authors further illuminate what is otherwise obscured, assumed, or dismissed in characterizations of technology as creepy or creeping. Considering diverse technologies from border surveillance and China’s credit system to sexcams and home assistants, the volume’s essays and artworks demonstrate that the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence and digital and robotic technologies cannot be assessed through binaries of seeing/being seen, privacy/surveillance or harmful/useful.?

Together, their multifaceted and multimodal approach transcends such binaries. This volume develops creep as a feminist analytic and creative mode on par with technology’s complex entanglement with intimate, local, and global politics.

For more information, contact Parvin at nassimi@uw.edu.

Foundations of microfluidics through broad understandings of the world?

In “,” , professor of bioengineering at the UW, explores? microfluidics, the field of science that studies fluids constrained to spaces that are smaller than one millimeter wide. Through engaging and digestible stories, Folch takes a lens to this tiny science and demonstrates how big a role microfluidics plays in life as we know it.?

“It was my wife who insisted I write another book on microfluidics,” Folch said. “She insisted that this one be for the general public and cover not just the academic microfluidic chips but also the mesmerizing microfluidics one finds in nature and in a variety of contraptions and devices you’d never think to call ‘microfluidic.’”

The goal of “How the World Flows” was not for students to learn microfluidic engineering, but instead, to create a broader understanding of the foundations of the field. As the title suggests, this process spans from natural raindrops to COVID tests, affecting humanity in marvelous ways.

“Just like microelectronic circuits are too small for you to see and are hidden under the screen of your smartphone, most microfluidic phenomena happen in tiny spaces,” Folch said. “All these microfluidic systems, despite their microscopic size, have had a colossal impact on our planet and our lives. In some capacity or another, they all make the world flow.”

For more information, contact Folch at afolch@uw.edu.

Unified account of a fundamental mathematical object?

, professor emeritus of mathematics at the UW, recently published “.”?

This is a survey of the mathematics developed over the last 60 years concerning the Heisenberg group, a mathematical object that has connections with many different areas of mathematics.

Folland intends the audience to be graduate students and professionals in mathematics, providing “the first unified account of the diverse analytic and geometric mathematical developments associated with the Heisenberg group.”

For more information, contact Folland at folland@uw.edu.

Jewish family saga unveiled

, professor emeritus of computer science and engineering at the UW, published “” in February. This braided historical novel is based on family history concealed from Tompa by his parents throughout his childhood.

The book starts in the 1930s, as two Jewish families live happy and successful lives in cosmopolitan Vienna. On March 12, 1938, without firing a shot, the Nazis annex Austria into the German Reich, and Adolf Hitler marches into Vienna with his army. This sudden, terrifying event tears each of these close-knit families apart and scatters their members across the globe as they snatch at any possibility of safe haven.

Liesl, who is 18 years old, flees alone to London and a servant’s life. Liesl’s future soulmate, Peter, is deported from Vienna and thrown into a Hungarian jail. Liesl’s parents, Otti and Ernst, flee on the Trans-Siberian Railway to a foreign life in Shanghai. Two years later, they sail to Manila in the Philippines, arriving just as Japan’s bombardment and occupation begin.

By the end of 1945, all four of them and several more family members converge on New York City as though drawn together by magnetic forces.?

“It is a tale of survival against terrible odds and the rebuilding of family at journey’s end,” Tompa said. “Writing this family saga has been my dream for 25 years.”

For more information, contact Tompa at tompa@cs.washington.edu.?

Solutions to help our land

In “,” , professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, lays out practical and productive solutions to recover the health of our land through soil-building regenerative agriculture. Drawing on the work of farmers, historians and 91自拍ers, he articulates the power of rebuilding soil health by minimizing or avoiding physical and chemical disturbance of the soil, such as through combining cover cropping, no- or low-tillage and crop diversity.

The combination allows farmers — and gardeners — to greatly reduce or eliminate synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use and can help address a number of today’s most pressing problems.

The book takes apart common myths around conventional farming and unearths much-needed soil rehabilitation as the key to our agricultural future.

“REGEN shows how reforming the way we see and treat the land can address critically underappreciated, yet eminently solvable problems to restore the health of our land and secure civilization’s agricultural foundation — and a healthy future for society and ourselves,” Montgomery said.?

For more information, contact Montgomery at bigdirt@uw.edu.?

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Come curious. Leave inspired.

The UW offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University.

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Go directly to the week you’d like to view:

• Week 1: September 28 – October 4
• Week 2: October 5 – 11
• Week 3: October 12 – 18
• Week 4: October 19 – 25
• Week 5: October 26 – November 1

See all that’s to come in the November ArtSci Roundup.

ArtSci On Your Own Time:

Closing October 25 | (Henry Art Gallery)
ojo|-|o?l?? (pronounced oh-ho hol-ohn) is an exhibition of recent and newly commissioned work by Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege (b. 1994, Na’nízhoozhí [Gallup, New Mexico]) that includes sculpture, textile, collage, and video, activated by moments of performance. Across this work, Riege combines customary Diné practices of weaving, silversmithing, and beading with contemporary cultural forms, exploring Diné cosmology, the history of Euro-American trading posts in and adjacent to the Navajo Nation, and the notion of “authenticity” as a value marker of Indigenous art and craft.

(School of Art + Art History + Design)
The annual fall MFA show mediates on accumulation, the underground, labor & capacity, and the movement of systems and objects toward loss, disrepair, and failure. Spanning performance, installation, sound art, and found object sculpture, see the works of Jayden Dukes, Gaeun Kim, Cameron McGaff, and Skye Amber O’Brien. The exhibition runs from September 30 through November 7. Free.

(Biology)
Wednesdays, noon to 4 pm / 2nd and 4th Saturdays, 10 am – 2 pm
For nearly 70 years, the Biology Greenhouse at the 91自拍 has played a vital role in 91自拍 and teaching. Whether focusing on plant-pollinator interactions, paleoclimatology, or other biological questions, the teaching collection has enhanced and inspired UW biological 91自拍. Visit the 4 Collection rooms and browse through an amazing diversity of plant species from around the world. Free.

Week 1: September 28 – October 4

September 30 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
The annual fall MFA show mediates on accumulation, the underground, labor & capacity, and the movement of systems and objects toward loss, disrepair, and failure. Spanning performance, installation, sound art, and found object sculpture, see the works of Jayden Dukes, Gaeun Kim, Cameron McGaff, and Skye Amber O’Brien. The exhibition runs from September 30 through November 7. Free.

September 30 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Authors Spencer Greening and Rachel Greening discuss their new book, Gyetk: Coastal Fusion and Ancestral Knowledge from a Ts’msyen Kitchen.?Gyetk (pronounced gy-e-tk and meaning “to feed the people”) immerses readers into the rich food traditions, knowledge, and relationships that have sustained the Ts’msyen (Tsimshian) people for millennia along the Pacific Northwest Coast. Drawing from the authors’ lived experiences practicing a land-based lifestyle, as well as their backgrounds in Indigenous food sovereignty, health and well-being, and cultural 91自拍, Gyetk weaves together modern culinary fusion, traditional knowledge, and scholarly insight. Through 60 beautifully photographed recipes, the book follows the Ts’msyen seasonal round, weaving together ancestral foodways, traditional ecological knowledge, dietetic perspectives, and thoughtful harvesting practices — inviting readers to feast in relationship with the natural world.

October 1 | ?(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Admission to the Burke Museum is FREE, and the museum is open until 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. Get closer to the daily work happening in the Burke Museum’s visible collections storage, labs, and workrooms during Free First Thursday. Free.

October 1 + October 3 | (Henry Art Gallery)
To celebrate the culmination of the exhibition, ojo|-|o?l?, join Eric-Paul Riege with guest artists Olivia Camfield and Kole Galbraith for a multi-day convening of film screenings, performances, and conversations. Inspired by the modularity of Riege’s work in which materials and motifs are re-worked and re-imagined in perpetuity, the artists will explore how history and culture are neither static nor permanent. To close the convening, join Riege, Camfield, and Galbraith as they source new meanings from the sounds, materials, and images of both the past and present, challenging high art through lo-fi means. Free.

October 2 | ?(Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
On Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, three-time Grammy Award-winning composer Ricky Kej performs music from his acclaimed album Gandhi — Mantras of Compassion. Kej, a UN Goodwill Ambassador and recipient of India’s fourth-highest civilian award, Padma Shri, blends ancient Indian mantras with global musical traditions and contemporary orchestration. His sweeping melodies and meditative soundscapes honor Gandhi’s legacy. Featuring local performers and a youth choir, Kej invites audiences to reflect on the power of nonviolence, compassion and unity in today’s world.

Hybrid – October 2 | (Classics)
Latin poetry is defined by its relationships with poetry in other languages. It was originally constituted by its relation to Greek, and in later times has been constituted by its relation to the European vernaculars. In this bold and innovative book, distinguished Latinist Stephen Hinds explores these relationships through a series of vignettes. These explore ancient conversations between Latin and Greek verse texts, followed by modern (especially early modern) conversations between Latin and European vernacular verse texts, reflecting the linked stories of reception that make up the so-called ‘classical tradition’: conversations across language, across period, and sometimes both at the same time. The book’s range is expansive, ranging from Homer through Virgil and the Augustans to late antiquity, the Renaissance, Romanticism and on to Seamus Heaney. Free.

October 3 | Washington Warm Up at USC (UW Alumni)
The Huskies head to Southern California to take on the Trojans at Memorial Coliseum. Join the UWAA’s official pre-game party!

October 3 | (Philosophy)
In conversation with UW Political Science Professor Jamie Mayerfeld, UW Philosophy Professor Dr. Karen Emmerman will discuss her recently published book, Defending Animals, Disappointing People. Emmerman offers a ground-breaking exploration of what happens when caring deeply about animals places us in conflict with the people we love. Free.

October 4 | (School of Music)
In never leave story, percussionist Bonnie Whiting explores intersections of storytelling and experimental music, integrating text, movement, creative sonification, and technology. Act I features collaborations with dancer Jennifer Salk and ceramicist Timea Tihanyi, plus music by Jeffrey Trevi?o and field recordings of poet Alice Notley. In Act II, Whiting extends her speaking percussionist project via a new commission from composer Kevin Clark and a reimagining of a historic work by Iannis Xenakis. Tennyson’s Ulysses looks back on his life, while Aeschylus’ Kassandra looks forward: in reality, both point to the urgency of “the now.”

Week 2: October 5 – 11

October 6 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Assistant Professor Miriam Chusid will present her ongoing 91自拍 on premodern Japanese art history and visual culture, with a particular focus on Buddhist art. In thirteenth-century Japan, beliefs about life after death underwent a dramatic transformation. This era of profound political upheaval and social instability brought with it increasing anxiety around the ability to attain religious salvation, an event dependent on dying with sole focus on the Buddha. Chusid’s book examines the most notable innovation to alleviate such fears: the creation of images of Buddhist hell used to benefit the dead. In this talk, Chusid uncovers the visual, ritual, and material matrix from which these depictions were given form and meaning, and demonstrates how ritual specialists employed them to address a range of postmortem concerns and expectations within increasingly diverse Buddhist communities. Chusid’s book, The Ill-Fated Afterlife: Painting the Buddhist Cosmos in Premodern Japan, is forthcoming from the 91自拍 Press in December 2026. Free.

October 7 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
The American example of the end of Slavery inspired a number of social movements in India. Satyashodhak Samaj was one of them. It was a socio-cultural sect established in 1874 by Jotirao Phule and others, with a view to create a society based on the ideals of equality and justice. Engaging with the writings of Jotirao Phule, Mukta Salve, Dhondiram Kumbhar and Tarabai Shinde, the talk will try to connect the issues of discrimination based on caste and gender in the late nineteenth century Maharashtra and explore the ways in which the Satyashodhak Samaj offered to mitigate the challenges posed by the unequal social structure. Free.

October 7 | (School of Music)
Faculty pianist Cristina Valdés performs works honoring the 100th birthday of 20th century composers Betsy Jolas, Morton Feldman, and Gyorgy Kurtag. Program includes Betsy Jolas’s Signets, hommage à Maurice Ravel; Morton Feldman’s Palais de Mari; and Gyorgy Kurtag’s Eight Piano Pieces, Op. 3, as well as works by Ravel and Haydn.

Hybrid – October 8 | State of the University Address (Office of the President)
91自拍 President Robert J. Jones invites you to his first State of the University Address. He’ll reflect on his first year as president and share his vision and the University’s strategy for the future as it navigates the challenges and opportunities ahead. Free.

October 8 | (Jackson School)
As part of the 18th Annual Seattle Latino Film Festival, the event will feature a special screening of this powerful Indigenous-themed documentary, followed by a Q&A with members of the filmmaking team, including directors Guido Bilbao and Elio Cunampio, an Indigenous Emberá filmmaker from Panama. Free.

October 8 | ?(School of Art + Art History + Design)
Moderated by Swagato Chakravorty (The Henry Art Gallery), Dr. Jennifer Jolly (Ithaca College) and Dr. Gigi Peterson (SUNY Cortland) will be in conversation about? Mexican Muralism and Networks of Solidarity: The Struggle Against Racial Discrimination” in Seattle and Beyond. This conversation situates Pablo O Higgins’ 1945 mural, currently on display at the UW, in the larger context of mural-making and international organizing to explore the conditions and contradictions that conspired to make this form of expression a radical, if imperfect, tool for social change. Free.

October 9 | (GWSS)
The Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies welcomes the entire campus community to celebrate the start of a new academic year and greet new students. The gathering will feature the presentation of the Doman Excellence in Teaching and Alumni Awards, as well as snacks and festive community celebration. Free.

October 9 | ?(Henry Art Gallery)
Joiri Minaya presents Fabricating the Global Tropics, a talk about textiles, place, identity, and the fantasy realm for the “exotic” that extends from the Caribbean to the Pacific. This public talk is one of two keynote lectures for the 7th Triennial Conference of the Association for Latin American Art, Reclamations: The Afro-Asian-Native Turn in the Arts of Latin America, presented in conjunction with her current exhibition Joiri Minaya: To Hell With Hibiscus. Free.

Week 3: October 12 – 18

October 12 | (History)
2026 Inaugural Linda Nash Memorial Lecture: Drawing on archival 91自拍, fieldwork, Indigenous legal theory, and the natural sciences, Dr. Bathsheba Demuth’s talk examines how Indigenous, imperial, and nation-state legal traditions made law with, for, and about the Yukon River over the past two centuries—from seeing law in the actions of salmon to using laws to shape human relations with beavers. In doing so, it offers an argument for how environmental history can widen the scope of the social in ways critical to our understanding of what law is, and who it is for, in an era of climate change and species loss. Bathsheba Demuth is a writer and environmental historian focused on the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic and teaches environmental history and creative nonfiction at Brown University. Free.

Hybrid – October 14 | A Conversation with Paola Ramos (Public Lectures)
Emmy Award-winning journalist, Paola Ramos, in conversation with UW Political Science faculty member Sophia Jordán Wallace, explores the evolving landscape of Latino voter engagement and political participation. This compelling discussion examines demographic shifts, policy priorities, and the critical role Latino voters play in shaping electoral outcomes across America. Free.

October 14 | (Dance)
UW Department of Dance second-year MFA candidates present their 91自拍:

• “The Edge of Comfortability: A Phenomenology of Trust and Risk in Contact Improvisation” by Jake Bone
• “Disrupting the Script: Audience Agency, Care, and the Unpredictability of Performance in Public Spaces” by Alice Gosti
• “The Straightening of Bachata: Studio-fication as (mis)Translation” by marco farroni leonardo
• “Litefeet’s Visibility Paradox: Competing Media Narratives and the Politics of Being Seen” by Jillian Amadi Roberts
• “Waacking Battles: Spaces of Translation and Transformation” by Tracey Wong

Free.

October 14 | ?(Jackson School)
Over the past four decades, China has witnessed a shift in its public sphere, transitioning from a period of flourishing to one of decline. Conversely, the realms of culture, arts, and private life have remained highly vibrant. Furthermore, the center stage of social media has shifted from intellectuals to internet celebrities. What does this mean for China’s future? Free.

October 15 | (Speech & Hearing Sciences)
Annette Estes, PhD, is the director of the 91自拍 Autism Center. The Center is devoted to supporting autistic individuals and their families, caregivers, and community through clinical services, 91自拍, and education. She holds the Susan and Richard Fade Endowed Chair, is a Research Professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, and an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at the 91自拍. She is also a licensed psychologist in the state of Washington. Her 91自拍 is carried out at the UW Autism Center and Center on Human Development and Disability. Free.

October 15 | ?(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
The October book club selection is The North Cascades: Finding Beauty and Renewal in the Wild Nearby by William Dietrich. The discussion will be led by Burke Museum Herbarium Collections Manager, David Giblin. Free.

October 15 | ?(Jackson School)
As “hyphenated people” (Chow 1993) and “Taiwanese new immigrants” (Robinson 2020), Chinese diasporic and Southeast Asian directors making films in Taiwan today embody a transnational dimension of Taiwan New Cinema (first wave, 1982–9; second wave, 1990–), raising questions about gender, identity, queerness, migration, mobility, and more crucially, the global structures that fund, produce, circulate, and exhibit world cinema. Their internationally co-produced and circulated films materialize these flows of capital and people, while film festivals mediate their reception and reposition Taiwan geopolitically toward Southeast Asia, renegotiating the island’s uncertain and ambiguous national identity. This talk approaches film festivals as a theoretical framework for understanding how Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, and Midi Z came to represent Taiwan through international circulation and reception. Situating Taiwan New Cinema within this exhibition context, Beth Tsai also considers its persistent feminist caliber within the nation’s cultural imaginary and slow-cinema aesthetics, focusing on female fl?neurs in Hou’s city films as a case study. Free.

October 15 | (Jackson School / Cinema & Media Studies)
The film follows a group of restless young men who leave their fishing village on the Penghu Islands for the port city of Kaohsiung, where new encounters with work, urban life, friendship, and desire mark their passage into adulthood. Through its attention to everyday rhythms, place, and the changing social landscape of 1980s Taiwan, The Boys from Fengkuei anticipates the cinematic style that would make Hou one of Taiwan’s most influential filmmakers. The screening will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with Beth Tsai (Film & Media Studies, Hunter College, CUNY) and James Tweedie (Cinema & Media Studies, 91自拍), exploring the film’s place in Hou’s career, Taiwan New Cinema, the histories and environments that shape its coming-of-age story, and how the film continues to speak to audiences today. Free.

October 15 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Writing is a relational practice. Like teaching, writing is central to our lives as educators, artists, and university workers. And like teaching, we rarely engage one another on what we are doing when we are writing. As such, writing can be underestimated as a practice, and overlooked as a form of relation. Writing can be a way of knowing, a visitation, a keeping, and a keeping away. Following her lecture, Eve Tuck will be joined by UW professor Dian Million (Tanana Athabascan) for a conversation on writing as one way we attend to our many relations of care and responsibility to communities, to lands and waters, and to one another. Free.

October 15 – 17 | (Scandinavian Studies)
ASTRA/NORTANA/DANA unified symposium explores how archives shape culture, memory, and citizenship, and can be used as a powerful pedagogical tool to help students engage with language and culture. Authors, archivists, and fellow teachers from both sides of the Atlantic will present and lead workshops on why the archives matter more than ever and how we can use them in our teaching and 91自拍. Free.

October 16 | (Physics)
Dr. Stephon Alexander (Brown University) revisits the deep interconnection between music and the evolution of astrophysics and cosmology. We explore new ways in which music, particularly jazz, mirrors ideas in modern physics, including quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe. Finally, we discuss how innovations in physics have been, and may continue to be, inspired by the kind of “improvisational logic” exemplified in jazz performance and practice. Free.

October 16 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
The Arditti Quartet enjoys a worldwide reputation for its spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and 20th-century music. Since its founding in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti, the Quartet has inspired hundreds of composers to write groundbreaking works specifically for the ensemble, shaping how this music is heard and played. As explorers of cutting-edge string quartet music, their Meany debut features selections from the wide collection of the Quartet’s repertoire.

October 16 | ?(School of Music)
Following the Quartet’s Oct. 16 Meany Center appearance, the quartet premieres UW School of Music director and faculty composer Jo?l-Francois Durand’s String Quartet No. 4, a new work written for the group for this performance, as well as pieces by James Clarke and Brian Ferneyhough. Free.

October 18 | Alaska Airlines Dawg Dash (UW Alumni)
Hit the road, Huskies! Lace up your sneakers and soak in the fall campus beauty at our annual 10K run and 5K run/walk in support of students. All Dawgs (and dogs) are invited. UWAA members save on registration! From race start to the Post-Dash Bash finish, it’s a day of fun for the whole Husky pack.

Week 4: October 19 – 25

October 19 | (Jackson School)
A journey through the evolution of Peruvian tropical music, beginning in 1950s Lima, when large orchestras embraced Cuban music and mambo, and continuing through the 1960s, when cumbia emerged alongside and competed with Afro-Caribbean sounds. By the end of that decade, cumbia had become the leading genre of Peruvian tropical music, giving rise to Peruvian cumbia. The story continues in the 1970s, as tropical music spread across the country before returning to Lima, bringing diverse regional sounds into the capital’s recording studios. In the 1980s, the growing influence of Andean music gave rise to the term “chicha.” The genre evolved through Peru’s sociopolitical and economic crisis of the 1990s, the rise of tecnocumbia and northern cumbia, and a chicha revival that began in the late 2000s and continues today. The presentation combines active listening to chicha music with an exhibition of neon chicha posters, tracing the musical and visual evolution of this influential Peruvian genre. Free.

October 19 | (Jackson School)
Is Zionism a movement of national liberation or a story of colonialism and dispossession? Most public debate insists it has to be one or the other. This talk makes the case that it’s both, and that treating it as an either/or question gets in the way of actually understanding Zionism’s history, its current crisis, and its possible futures. Drawing on history that ranges from French Algeria to the broader question of Jewish nationalism, this talk will ask whether Zionism should be seen as an exceptional case or as part of larger histories of liberation, nationalism, and colonialism since the late 19th century. By reframing Zionism in a series of wider contexts, the talk clarifies the stakes of the existential choices currently facing Israel and Palestine. The talk also offers a preview of speaker Ethan Katz’s current book project, “Unsettling Histories: Zionism and Colonialism Reconsidered,” forthcoming from Princeton University Press. Free.

October 19 | (Statistics)
The 2026 Blackwell Seminar is presented by Stephanie Cook, Associate Professor in the Departments of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Biostatistics and New York University James Weldon Johnson Professor, New York University. The Blackwell Seminar was established in 2020 to honor the contributions of David Blackwell to mathematical statistics, game theory, probability theory, and information theory. The Blackwell Seminar focuses on topics at the interface between statistics and equity issues such as racial disparities, social justice, and ethics. Speakers are invited based on their contributions to these areas. Free.

October 20 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Bruce Liu has emerged as one of the most compelling pianists of his generation since winning the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition in 2021. He is praised not only for his dazzling technique but also for his curiosity and artistry, which combine “nimble versatility” (The New York Times) with “playing of breathtaking beauty” (BBC Music Magazine).

Online – October 20 | (Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies)
The Bridge’s Center presents the findings from their 91自拍 project, “Rights on the Line: Policy and Regulatory Gaps Affecting Migrant Fishers in Washington State Ports.” Free.

October 21 | (Chemistry)
Professor Emeritus Ned Sibert (University of Wisconsin, Madison) presents “Exploring the CH Stretch Spectral Region with Local Mode Hamiltonians.” Free.

October 21 | (College of the Environment)
Conservation has always been about more than protecting species and ecosystems—it is about our relationship with the living world. Drawing on lessons from The Nature Record, the first independent national assessment of nature in the United States, Phil Levin, professor and director of the UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and director of The Nature Record, reflects on what four years of scientific synthesis revealed about stewardship, resilience and responsibility. Blending personal stories, ecological science and reflections from ancient wisdom and contemporary literature, this talk explores why nature matters not only for biodiversity but also for our shared future. At a moment of rapid environmental and social change, Levin considers what the evidence tells us about our relationship with nature and the choices before us.

Online – October 22 | (Classics)
Roman imperialism brought about interconnected world history. So argues the second-century historian Polybius. Beginning in the 140th Olympiad (220-216 BCE), “history became corporeal, so to speak, [hoinoei sōmatoeidē] and Italian and African affairs were woven together with those in Asia and Greece, and the direction of everything became towards one end [telos]” (1.3.4). The rise of Rome marks a historical threshold: the first truly “world” empire and a moment of unification for world history. This talk sets Polybius’ organicist claims about Roman empire in the context of Hellenistic historiography, and examines some aspects of Polybius’ reception history in later Roman historical writing. In so doing, I trace a long tradition of using corporeal metaphor to theorize the intersection of world empire and effective historiography. Free.

October 22 | (Jackson School)
Central Asia is considering a major expansion of nuclear energy. The appeal is clear: nuclear power could support economic growth, reduce reliance on imported fuel, and help meet climate goals. But the region also carries a difficult history with nuclear activity, from Soviet-era testing and mining, and faces ongoing concerns about safety, security, waste management, corruption, and geopolitical competition among major powers. This talk examines these competing pressures and what they mean for the region’s energy future. Free.

October 22 | (Jackson School)
Susan Whiting’s book advances institutional economic theory with original survey and fieldwork data by addressing two puzzles in Chinese political economy: how economic development has occurred despite insecure property rights and weak rule of law; and how the Chinese state has maintained political control amid unrest. She answers these questions by focusing on the role of illiberal law in reassigning property rights and redirecting grievances. The book reveals that, in the context of technological change, a legal system that facilitates reassignment of land rights to higher-value uses plays an important and under-theorized role in promoting economic development. This system simultaneously represses conflict and asserts legitimacy. Comparing China to post-Glorious Revolution England and contemporary India, Whiting offers a critical new argument that brings the Chinese case more directly into debates in comparative politics about the role of the state in specifying property rights and maintaining authoritarian rule. Free.

October 23 | (German Studies)
The Seattle Opera and the German Studies Department are teaming up for a German Night at the Opera for their performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome, followed by a Q&A with Professor Annegret Oehme. There will also be a to discuss the opera on Monday, October 26. Details coming.

October 23 | (Asian Languages & Literature)
From Godzilla to Pokémon, Japan is monster country. And all of Japan’s monsters have their roots in the bizarre menagerie of creatures called yokai. Noted monster scholar and yokai folklorist Zack Davisson guides you through the history behind yokai; a journey from the invisible monsters of the Heian period to the yokai catalogs of Edo. Free.

October 23 | (Philosophy)
The Annual Ethics Lecture features Linda Alcoff (Hunter College). Racism in the United States today cannot be understood in a narrow national frame. Rather, it needs to be understood in relation to the coming end of the US Empire and of Western intellectual and financial dominance, and the resulting precarity of the social contract citizens have expected in the global north. To chart this terrain, Alcoff argues that we need a historical understanding of racial formations, a focus on cultural racism, and an honest approach to the complex history of settler colonialism in this hemisphere that can be the basis of new and stronger coalitions for all working-class peoples. Free.

October 25 | (School of Music)
Members of the UW Wind Ensemble (Christopher Vongvithaymathakul, director) perform music by W.A. Mozart, Claude Arrieu, Joan Tower and others. With Yuman Wu and Joshua Michael Smith, assistant conductors. Free.

Week 5: October 26 – November 1

October 26 | (Jackson School)
Christopher Rea discusses how he and Julie M. Wang rendered an award-winning novel into English, including the process of 91自拍ing a historical epic of bestial violence also filled with Malaysian vampires, Japanese demons, and Bornean bog monsters. In doing so, he offers answers to a more general question: When faced with a challenging text, how can a translator get out alive? Free.

Hybrid?– October 26 | What Feeds Us: Science, Climate, and the Future of Food with Pamela Ronald (Public Lectures)
Climate change is threatening the crops that feed us all. UC Davis geneticist Pamela Ronald reveals how her discovery of flood-tolerant rice is helping millions of farmers adapt — and what plant science means for the future of food. Free.

October 28 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
How did the martial artist and actor Bruce Lee vault to global stardom? In this lecture, Daryl Joji Maeda describes how transpacific contacts and migrations created the world in which a singular individual encountered, absorbed, and synthesized multiple philosophical and aesthetic influences to create a hybrid form all his own. Tracing Lee’s evolution as a fighter and performer reveals how macroeconomic and geopolitical forces can manifest new forms of culture and resistance. Free.

October 28 | ?(Jackson School)
The U.S. faces more challenges in East Asia than it has seen in decades: An ascendant China that is threatening American dominance of geopolitics, economics and technology, and a nuclear North Korea that has been newly emboldened by its ties with Moscow and Beijing. Jonathan Cheng, the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and the former Korea bureau chief, will talk about more than a decade reporting from on the ground in China and on the Korean peninsula, and his new book, “Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult.”?Free.

October 29 | (School of Music)
Dr. Stephen Price is joined by students, colleagues, and friends of the UW Organ Studies program in this concert of spooky organ classics and Halloween fun. Free.

October 29 | (Jackson School)
Tadashi Ishikawa introduces Geographies of Gender, which examines the fringes of family and marriage in imperial Japan and colonial Taiwan in the 1910s through the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. The talk focuses on daughter adoption as one of the boundaries of family and marriage under study. As elite and ordinary Japanese and Taiwanese men and women exchanged competing social norms and ideals in colonial and anticolonial spaces, daughter adoption became a point of negotiation in the colonial courtroom. Those processes, his book argues, ultimately redefined the Japanese empire along gender lines. As the colony of Japan as a non-Western empire during the interwar era, Taiwan showed both the possibility of progress and its repeated gendered contradictions among both colonizer and colonized, suggesting that it is a promising object of historical 91自拍 not only as spatially open, but as temporally circular. Free.

October 30 | ?(Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Spot Reservation, Swinomish artist Daniel R. Smith’s newest participatory public art project, is a free event he describes as an “Indigenous, celebratory occupation of the 91自拍.” Taking place the day before Halloween, Friday, October 30, from 11:00am – 3:00pm, the project transforms the lower level of the Padelford Parking Garage into an unexpected gathering place centered around participatory art making in a tiny forest, or “nanoforest,” of native plants growing from industrial oil barrels. Featuring photo portraits with costumes and wearable taxidermy in a tiny post-apocalyptic forest, fry bread tacos, live birds of prey demonstrations, and an open mic; all free and open to the public.

October 30 | ?(Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures)
Nearly half a century after the Iranian Revolution, a striking paradox has emerged. Many young Iranians reject 1979 as the origin of the political order they seek to overcome, while many of the revolutionary generation have become estranged from the revolution they once made. Yet successive waves of protest, from the Green Movement to Women, Life, Freedom, have returned to the street—the quintessential space of revolutionary politics—to challenge the Islamic Republic.
In the wake of state brutality, political disappointment, and the ongoing effects of the US and Israeli wars on Iran, the present is increasingly marked by exhaustion and political impasse. This lecture asks what becomes visible when we remember 1979 before its outcome was known: when leftists, nationalists, Islamists, workers, students, intellectuals, merchants, and others occupied the same streets while imagining radically different futures. Free.

October 30 | (School of Music)
David Alexander Rahbee and the UW Symphony present “Hungarian Connections,” a program of music by Leó Weiner, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Bela Bartók. With faculty artist Pala Garcia, violin.

October 30 | ?(Classics)
Learn about recent archaeological excavations at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Oplontis in the Bay of Naples. Through the two Roman villas found there, we encounter both unbridled luxury and the lives of working individuals.

The ArtSci Roundup

The ArtSci Roundup is your guide to connecting with the UW—whether in person, on campus, or on your couch.

Those who receive monthly emails, with timely updates and engaging content wherever you are. Check the roundup regularly, as events are added throughout the month. Check out the ArtSci On Your Own Time section for everything from podcasts to videos to exhibitions that can be enjoyed when it works for you!

Do you have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Lauren Zondag (zondagld@uw.edu).

Source

If someone leaves the faucet running in your bathroom and the house floods, it’s easy to assign responsibility for the damage. But for other disasters — bigger, costlier and more complicated ones — the link between cause and effect isn’t as clear.

In recent years, scientists have improved methods for connecting extreme weather events, sometimes called climate disasters, to climate change. Advancements in clarify how burning fossil fuels has increased the likelihood of extreme weather occurring. These findings form the backbone of a attempting to hold major emitters responsible for deaths and damages incurred during climate disasters.

A new 91自拍 study takes this work a step further by showing that past emissions from — the top 178 oil, gas, coal and cement producers — will continue impacting our environment for decades to come.

The results in PLOS Climate.

“We know that fossil fuel emissions have caused a lot of warming, and we’re seeing the impacts of that, but the question is: How long does that warming last into the future?” said , a UW associate professor of atmospheric and climate science.

If greenhouse gas emissions were to plummet tomorrow, the environment would not revert to its old self. Carbon majors have emitted more than a trillion tons of carbon dioxide, a substantial portion of which will remain in the air, trapping heat, for millennia.

Even if we stop emitting, Earth will remain approximately 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures.

“We expect continued warming of the climate until we stop fossil fuel emissions,” Frierson said. “The only stable future is one with no fossil fuels burned at all.”

To arrive at this conclusion, 91自拍ers simulated global climate through 2500 using the Finite Amplitude Impulse Response, or , model in both low and higher emissions scenarios, with and without emissions from carbon majors through 2024.

In a future where greenhouse gas emissions are limited, carbon majors are responsible for a larger percent of warming above preindustrial levels.

In higher emissions scenarios, where fossil fuel burning continues unabated, Earth becomes much warmer as emissions rise. In the most extreme scenario tested, future emissions cause a much larger percentage of warming than carbon majors. But the total temperature change from carbon majors is about the same.

“The amount of warming is calculable and relatively independent of future emissions,” Frierson said. “If there are legal decisions about accountability, the responsibility is not just now, it will continue for many many years into the future.”

The relationship between greenhouse gases and global warming is not new. In fact, scientists understood the risks many decades ago. Efforts to hold emitters accountable hinge on allegations that companies knew about those risks and concealed that information from the public, sometimes employing .

This new study shows that the gasses released by leading emitters, from both extracting and burning fossil fuels, may also be responsible for events that have not happened yet. Emissions from the past can increase the odds of a future disaster through persistent warming.

“This is important for current decisions about fossil fuels,” Frierson said. “Future fossil fuel production will exacerbate climate disasters for many decades to come, so new legal battles about who is accountable should be expected for many years.”

Lauren Henrie, a former student of Environmental Science and Resource Management at the UW, is a co-author.?

For more information, contact Frierson at dargan@uw.edu.

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Once coyotes get a taste for city living, the call of the wild fades to a whisper. Food is abundant and predators are few. Research indicates that coyotes enjoy the benefits of urban areas enough to put up with all the people, and Seattle is no exception.

Over the past century, coyotes have colonized every major metropolitan area in North America. Chicago is home to an , and in Los Angeles, urban coyote density is at least seven times higher than in wild areas. Coyotes are often spotted in parks and neighborhoods , but the lack of formal data makes it difficult for 91自拍ers to track trends.

“We observed a ninefold increase in coyote density in Seattle compared to more natural and wild areas of the state,” said lead author , a UW professor of environmental and forest sciences. “That might surprise people who think of coyotes as afraid of humans, but I think it just shows how ideal the urban setting is for coyotes.”

The results in Environmental Research: Ecology.

In the study, 91自拍ers analyzed coyote scats collected throughout Seattle and from wild study areas near Winthrop in north-central Washington and Chewelah in the northeastern part of the state. They estimated density based on how often they picked up a scat from the same animal, identifying 261 total coyotes from 842 scats.

Researchers were also curious about factors that influence density within the city, such as the luxury effect — where wealthier neighborhoods have more plant and animal diversity. Researchers compared the coyote density maps to ones showing pollution level, tree cover, buildings and roads, human population density and income level. Of those factors, only human density seemed to influence the coyotes.

“In Seattle, human population density had a negative effect on coyote density. But when you compare coyote abundance in Seattle to areas with far fewer people, the coyote population was much higher in the city,” Prugh said.

Although coyotes are wary of people, the conditions that dense human populations create favor their survival. Urban coyotes are less likely to be killed or go hungry than their wild counterparts.

that fear of mortality may play a role in determining where coyotes live. In the wild, larger carnivores such as wolves and mountain lions hunt coyotes, but in cities they get to masquerade as apex predators. Farmers and landowners are also more likely to kill coyotes to protect their livestock in rural settings.

The only things that regularly kill urban coyotes are cars and disease.

Cities also offer a wider variety of food options for coyotes. Scat analyses showed that urban coyotes’ diets were more than twice as diverse as those of wild coyotes, although .

Rabbits are the choice prey for coyotes in most ecosystems and the abundance of one often impacts the other. Seattle’s over the past few decades changed urban ecology, and may have helped draw coyotes to the region.

“Coyotes and rabbits have a natural relationship, even in a highly altered environment like Seattle,” Prugh said. Rabbit density could be an even stronger predictor of coyotes than humans, she added, but there isn’t enough data to test the theory.

Although long-term coyote population data is also limited, there is overwhelming anecdotal evidence of coyote abundance increasing in the past few decades, Prugh said.

Sightings are more common at dusk and dawn, but coyotes are now as well. They tend to avoid people, but residents have raised concerns about coyotes and displaying territorial or behavior.

Because they are territorial, coyotes will fight each other over turf. This behavior helps control their population in the absence of other predators. Cities can only support so many coyotes, but Prugh isn’t sure whether Seattle has met that limit yet.

Either way, the coyotes aren’t going anywhere fast.

“One thing that coyotes have shown over and over is that they are incredibly resistant to control efforts,” said Prugh. “With enough food, they will just have more pups.”

The study also highlights some of the often overlooked ways that coyotes can benefit the ecosystem. For example, by munching on young plants, and coyotes help them by munching on rabbits.

“Whether there are too many or too few coyotes is sort of a societal question, but ultimately our answer might not matter,” said Prugh. “Coyotes are here to stay in cities, and it is up to us to learn how to live with them.”

Co-authors include , lab manager at the UW; of Purdue University; and of Colorado State University; of the Wildlife Institute of India; of New Mexico State University; and of the University of California Berkeley.

This 91自拍 was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the UW Royalty Research Fund, the Woodland Park Zoo, the Animal Welfare Institute and the Fulbright India program.

For more information, contact Prugh at lprugh@uw.edu.

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UPDATE Sept. 8, 2026: This story has been updated to correct the total increase in melt season since the 1980s.

Relatively few people have been to the Arctic, and even fewer have set foot in Antarctica. Most of us rely on our imaginations and media to visualize these landscapes and the ways they are changing.

Research shows that the Arctic is than the global average. The sea ice is melting, exposing more open ocean and throwing the ecosystem out of balance. The story of Antarctica contains fewer details, but emerging trends are concerning to 91自拍ers.

Conceptualizing this change can be challenging for those of us who have only glimpsed Greenland from the airplane window, but for someone with firsthand experience, it’s eye-opening.

, a 91自拍 scientist at the 91自拍’s Applied Physics Laboratory, has visited the Arctic at least once a year since 2009, sometimes staying for as long as five months.

Webster is the lead author of a new 91自拍 paper, in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, that describes how sea ice has changed in the past 50 years.

Their analysis arrives as the world begins preparations for the , a dedicated period of observation that will peak during the 2023 to 2033 season. International Polar years have occurred every 30 to 50 years since the late 1800s to advance polar 91自拍 and track environmental change. The upcoming International Polar Year will occur just 25 years after the last, held in 2007, due to the acceleration of climate change.

What motivated this study?

Melinda Webster: We have known for a long time now that the extent, or area, and thickness of sea ice is declining, especially in the Arctic. But we wanted to take that a step further to examine the properties of the ice, especially perennial ice, which doesn’t completely melt away in summer. We updated trends for sea ice with 15 to 20 more years worth of data to understand how it has changed through the contemporary period. We also wanted to emphasize the divergent responses we see in the Arctic and Antarctica, and make recommendations for future 91自拍.

What did you discover?

MW: The Arctic sea ice melt season has gotten approximately seven and a half days longer per decade since 1979, and this is mostly driven by sea ice forming later in the fall. This has sweeping implications for the global climate system. The superpower of sea ice is its high albedo, meaning that it reflects a lot of sunlight — somewhere between 60% and 90% — back into space. Dark ocean water, on the other hand, reflects just 7%. The open ocean absorbs much more sunlight than ice does, and with that absorption comes warming. In the fall, the ocean is too warm for ice to form and it is taking longer for that heat to dissipate.

The seasonal ice that ultimately forms is thinner, and easier to melt in the following spring and summer. So this creates a cycle of warming that reduces ice coverage and increases the amount of energy in our climate system over time.

What’s the deal with Antarctica?

MW: Antarctica is a land mass covered in ice and surrounded by water. The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land. Although they share certain qualities, the two regions are very different from one another, with distinct responses to climate change. For a long time, the sea ice cover wasn’t declining in Antarctica, but in the last four years the sea ice cover experienced record losses.

Logistically, it’s a lot more difficult to deploy instruments in the Antarctic than the Arctic. The measurements we do have are less accurate because the Antarctica sea ice system is more complicated. But, we need to unravel these recent changes, which is a priority 91自拍 area we identify in the paper.

What other impacts do you foresee these changes having?

MW: Another key result we presented is that snow cover on Arctic sea ice has gotten thinner and the sea ice itself is smoother. That has huge repercussions for polar bears and seals, as it impacts their ability to build dens for raising their young.

There’s also a connection to fisheries. Changes in sea ice cover also impact algae, which form the base of the food web. These algae are accustomed to very low light conditions, but thinner snow and ice let more light in and the algae are essentially getting sunburnt.

When you take an ecosystem that was adapted to an ice environment and introduce open ocean, it disrupts its regular functioning. The health of algae impacts the entire food web, which has important implications for fisheries in the sub-Arctic and Arctic. Less food might mean fewer fish, and that introduces a whole new set of concerns.

Are there any potential solutions??

MW: To mitigate climate change, you have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That’s at the center of the problem. There are various alternative geoengineering strategies floating around but little consensus on how safe and useful they are.

I think that it is critical to have international regulations that are shaped by representative communities on what kind of 91自拍 we need before any geoengineering action is taken, if at all. Still, at the end of the day, geoengineering is a Band-Aid. We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to deal with the underlying cause of climate change instead of just treating its symptoms.

I’m optimistic about solutions for reducing emissions. Technological and scientific innovation are progressing at a rapid pace, which gives me hope about the future.

Co-authors include of the University of Hamburg; of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology; of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; of Université Catholique de Louvain; of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and of Hokkaido University.

This 91自拍 was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, NASA, the Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, the University of Hamburg, the German Research Foundation, SnowCast, the DFG Emmy Noether Programme Project Snowflake and the Research Council of Finland.

For more information, contact Webster at melindaw@uw.edu.

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