Kepler Telescope Spies Details of TRAPPIST-1 System’s Outermost Planet
A University of Washington-led international team of astronomers has used data gathered by the Kepler Space Telescope to observe and confirm details of the outermost of seven exoplanets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1. They confirmed that the planet, TRAPPIST-1h, orbits its star every 18.77 days, is linked in its orbital path to its siblings and is frigidly…
Earth’s Atmosphere More Chemically Reactive in Cold Climates
Unseen in the air around us are tiny molecules that drive the chemical cocktail of our atmosphere. As plants, animals, volcanoes, wildfires and human activities spew particles into the atmosphere, some of these molecules act as cleanup crews that remove that pollution. The main molecules responsible for breaking down all these emissions are called oxidants.…
75 Million-Year-Old Iguanian Fossil Found, Sheds Light on Dinosaur-Era Lizards
Paleontologists picking through a bounty of fossils from Montana have discovered something unexpected — a new species of lizard from the late dinosaur era, whose closest relatives roamed in faraway Asia. This ancient lizard, which lived 75 million years ago in a dinosaur nesting site, is described from stem to stern in a paper published…
‘Protective’ DNA Strands Are Shorter in Adults Who Had More Infections as Infants
New research indicates that people who had more infections as babies harbor a key marker of cellular aging as young adults: the protective stretches of DNA which “cap” the ends of their chromosomes are shorter than in adults who were healthier as infants. The findings, published Jan. 25 in the American Journal of Human Biology, shed…
How to Monitor Global Ocean Warming – Without Harming Whales
New Grasses Neutralize Toxic Pollution from Bombs, Explosives & Munitions
On military live fire training ranges, troops practice firing artillery shells, drop bombs on old tanks or derelict buildings and test the capacity of new weapons. But those explosives and munitions leave behind toxic compounds that have contaminated millions of acres of U.S. military bases — with an estimated cleanup bill ranging between $16 billion…
New Protein Bridges Chemical Divide for ‘Seamless’ Bioelectronics Devices
Life has always played by its own set of molecular rules. From the biochemistry behind the first cells, evolution has constructed wonders like hard bone, rough bark and plant enzymes that harvest light to make food. But our tools for manipulating life—to treat disease, repair damaged tissue and replace lost limbs—come from the nonliving realm:…
Microbes Help Plants Survive in Severe Drought
With California in its fifth year of severe drought and many western states experiencing another year of unusually dry conditions, plants are stressed. Agricultural crops, grasses and garden plants alike can get sick and die when factors such as drought and excess sun force them to work harder to survive. Now, plants can better tolerate drought and…
One Step Closer to Internet-Connected Wireless Implanted Devices
UW Project Highlights Liability of Internet ‘Intermediaries’ in Developing Countries
How Well Do Facial Recognition Algorithms Cope with a Million Strangers?
In the last few years, several groups have announced that their facial recognition systems have achieved near-perfect accuracy rates, performing better than humans at picking the same face out of the crowd. But those tests were performed on a dataset with only 13,000 images — fewer people than attend an average professional U.S. soccer game.…