Environment

1 in 5 adult female white-necked jacobin hummingbirds look like males. New research from the University of Washington shows that this is a rare case of "deceptive mimicry" within a species: Females with male-like plumage are trying to pass themselves off as males, and as a result receive a benefit in the form of reduced aggression from males.

Norie Sato (MFA,, 1974) has been commissioned by the city to install one of seven new large-scale art pieces for the waterfront project.

A new study projects the number of days with "dangerous" and "extremely dangerous" mixtures of heat and humidity by the end of this century. Even if global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius, results show that deadly heat waves will become much more common in the mid-latitudes, and many tropical regions will experience "dangerous" heat for about half the year.

Rod Crawford has discovered nearly 200 species that hadn’t been described before, many of which proved to be new to science. Of the nearly 190,000 Washington specimens in the Burke’s spider collection, Crawford contributed about half.

Which group of mammals has the more "primitive" reproductive strategy — marsupials, with their short gestation periods, or humans and other placental mammals, which have long gestation periods? For decades, biologists viewed marsupial reproduction as "more primitive." But University of Washington scientists have discovered that a third group of mammals, the long-extinct multituberculates, had a long gestation period like placental mammals. Since multituberculates split off from the rest of the mammalian lineage before placentals and marsupials had even evolved, these findings question the view that marsupials were “less advanced” than their placental cousins.

During her time at the UW, Ava Kloss-Schmidt (BS, Biology, 2022) has surrounded herself with plants — in a lab, in a greenhouse, and on mountaintops.

“Individuals undertaking climate protests should also ask the following question: how will this action change what others do about climate issues? Who is the target and why should they respond to my protests? What is the desired outcome?” write the UW's Nives Dolšak, professor of marine and environmental affairs, and Aseem Prakash, professor of political science.

Astronomers have issued an Earth Day call for environmentalism to be extended more fully to the final frontier, and for companies such as SpaceX and Amazon to dial back their plans for mega-constellations. Meredith Rawls, a research scientist in the UW Department of Astronomy, is quoted.

Daniel Schwartz, professor of chemical engineering at the UW and director of the UW Clean Energy Institute, is the author of this article explaining the process of developing greener technologies and the supports that are needed.

Jason Hodin, a research scientist at UW's Friday Harbor Laboratories, discusses whether sea stars bred in captivity can survive in the wild.

A video taken by Caitie Moore, a UW marine biology student, shows a baby orca jumping out of the water.

Aseem Prakash, professor of political science, discusses the situation in Afghanistan and its possible effects on climate change policy.

Jeff Riffell, a UW biologist, and Claire Rusch, a graduate student in biology, are mentioned in this article about recent mosquito experiments.

Aseem Prakash, professor of political science, explains why climate policy is lacking even amidst increasing evidence of its importance.

Sharlene Santana, a UW professor of biology and curator of mammals at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Jeffrey Riffell, a UW professor of biology, former UW postdoctoral researcher Zofia Kaliszewska, and UW doctoral alum Leith Leiser-Miller have authored a new study on the scent compounds of pepper.