Department of Biology

Growing evidence suggests heat waves, droughts and other extreme events can boost lethal clashes between people and wildlife. Briana Abrahms, assistant professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

In 1920, Serbian-born inventor Nikola Tesla designed and patented what he called a "valvular conduit" — a pipe whose internal design ensures that a fluid will flow in one preferred direction, with no need for moving parts. Based on new CT scans of shark intestines, scientists have concluded that the intestines are naturally occurring Tesla valves. Adam Summers, a professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences at UW Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island, is quoted.

Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, says that the lack of access Facebook gives researchers and others to data makes it difficult to assess how information is spreading on the social media platform. [Segment starts at 24:35]

Facebook’s back-and-forth with the Biden administration got ugly over the weekend. The social network scrambled to respond to the president’s striking accusation that the company is “killing people” for allowing the spread of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

University of Washington Provost Mark A. Richards today announced Dianne Harris will become dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, beginning Sept. 1.

The heat wave in the Pacific Northwest is creating lasting damage to marine life. Emily Carrington, professor of biology at the UW, is interviewed.

The third and — hopefully — final wave of COVID-19 infections sweeping through the country could be a prolonged affair that stretches into the autumn. And the momentum of the virus means that we end up “overshooting” the herd immunity threshold, experts have said. Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Amid the crushing summer heat wave that has slammed the Pacific Northwest and parts of Canada, Alyssa Gehman, a marine ecologist who lives by the sea in Vancouver, B.C., walked down to the shore to go for a swim. As expected, the beach was packed with others looking to beat the heat. She made her way to the edge of the water. It smelled like putrid shellfish — cooking. Emily Carrington, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

With the publication of “Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe” 20 years ago, the UW’s Peter Ward, professor of biology, and Donald Brownlee, professor of astronomy, explained why microbial life may be ubiquitous in the universe, but intelligent life may be rare indeed. They are now working on a sequel, tentatively titled “The Rare Earth Hypothesis: Assessing the Frequency of Complex Life in the Cosmos, in the Age of Exoplanet Discovery.”

There's a market for just about anything — and fossils are hot right now. Collectors are paying tens of thousands of dollars for the latest dig, and that's making it difficult for paleontologists to track important finds. The UW's Christian Sidor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum and professor of biology, is interviewed. [This is the third segment on "The Record"]

While some social scientists, journalists and activists have been raising concerns about how social media is affecting our democracy, mental health and relationships, we haven’t seen biologists and ecologists weighing in as much. That’s changed with a new paper published in the prestigious science journal PNAS earlier this month, titled “Stewardship of global collective behavior.” The UW’s Joe Bak-Coleman, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for an Informed Public, and Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology, are interviewed.

A breakthrough study published earlier this year found a relationship between sleep and the lunar calendar. Specifically, in the several days leading up to a full moon, study participants slept 50 minutes less and dozed off 30 minutes later than normal on average. Horacio de la Iglesia, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

The 2021 Husky 100, a group of 100 students making the most of their time at the UW, have been announced.

Our ability to confront global crises, from pandemics to climate change, depends on how we interact and share information. Social media and other forms of communication technology restructure these interactions in ways that have consequences. Unfortunately, we have little insight into whether these changes will bring about a healthy, sustainable and equitable world. As a result, researchers now say that the study of collective behavior must rise to a “crisis discipline,” just like medicine, conservation and climate science have done, according to a new paper published this month.

For four months, Facebook censored claims that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. But the company has reversed its stance, in a prime example of how the pandemic has intensified the free speech questions already plaguing social media titans. The decision has thrown into sharp relief the challenges of evaluating misinformation amid evolving scientific debates. Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.