University of Washington
As citizens of Washington state wait out a third count with 42 votes separating the candidates for governor, new research shows that Washington was not the only state where the voters' true choice may never be known. In three other states, the margin of voting error was greater than the margin of victory for the U.S. Senate winners, according to a University of Washington white paper to be released today. And in three more states, the margin of error was larger than the winning presidential candidate's victory margin, the researchers found. This means that John Kerry conceivably deserved a dozen more electoral votes than he received -- almost enough to swing the election his way.
Imagination is alive and thriving in the minds of America's school-age children. It is so prevalent that 65 percent of children report that, by the age of 7, they have had an imaginary companion at some point in their lives, according to a new study by University of Washington and University of Oregon psychologists. The research also indicates that having an imaginary companion is at least as common among school-age children as it is among preschoolers.
With increasing global warming Rudolph and the rest of Santa Claus' reindeer will disappear from large portions of their current range and be under severe environmental stress by the end of the century. That finding comes from a new study that examined the archaeological record in southwestern France, where reindeer became locally extinct during two earlier episodes of warming roughly 10,000 and 130,000 years ago.
A new interpretation for temperature data from satellites, published earlier this year, raised controversy when its authors claimed it eliminated doubt that, on average, the lower atmosphere is getting warmer as fast as the Earth's surface. Now, in another study headed by the same researcher to be published Dec. 15 in the Journal of Climate, direct temperature data from other scientists has validated the satellite interpretation.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded researchers in Rice University's Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning a dissemination grant of $540,000 to broaden the scope of their innovative, Web-based, episodic adventure series for middle schoolers called MedMyst. Rice will partner with the McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science in Houston, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the University of Washington Outreach Program to ensure that the project involves teachers across the nation.
The Democratic National Committee sent more than three times as many e-mails as the Republicans to students who signed up. In the closing weeks of a tight presidential race, the Democratic National Committee has been out-e-mailing its Republican counterpart, a research team of University of Washington students has found. The 100 students, who signed up to receive campaign e-mails from both parties, found that the Democratic Party not only sent them at least three times as many e-mails as the Republicans, but it was far faster at sending out spin messages after each of the three debates.
A new means of propelling spacecraft being developed could dramatically cut the time needed for astronauts to travel to and from Mars and could make humans a permanent fixture in space. In fact, with magnetized-beam plasma propulsion, or mag-beam, quick trips to distant parts of the solar system could become routine. Currently, using conventional technology and adjusting for the orbits of both the Earth and Mars around the sun, it would take astronauts about 2.5 years to travel to Mars, conduct their scientific mission and return. ''We're trying to get to Mars and back in 90 days.''
A group of promising cancer-fighting compounds derived from a substance used in ancient Chinese medicine will be developed for potential use in humans. The University of Washington has signed a licensing agreement with a Chinese company and its U.S. subsidiary. The compounds, all developed through the research of UW scientists, make use of a substance known as artemisinin, found in the wormwood plant and used throughout Asia since ancient times to treat malaria.
When women engage in a technique called emotion coaching, even in families where there is domestic violence, their children are less aggressive, depressed and withdrawn, researchers have found. The new study also suggests that women who are victims of low levels of battering are just as likely as non-battered women to coach their children about their emotions, protecting youngsters from some of the behavior problems associated with being exposed to family violence.
For many years scientists have believed they understood how closely related species that occupy the same regions of the ocean were kept from interbreeding. It turns out they were only seeing part of the picture. New research shows that common assumptions about sea urchin reproduction don't hold true for all species of the invertebrate creature. The work could lead to better understanding of fertilization among mammals, including the potential to solve some baffling human reproductive problems.
As office workers pause for Labor Day and students prepare for school, a new study sheds harsh light on an item that gives both groups headaches -- paper. Participants in a survey from the University of Washington's Information School reported that they were much more likely to misfile and lose track of paper information than information stored on a computer. More than half of survey participants admitted losing track of a paper document at least once a week -- more than twice the number of people who reported losing electronic information.
The area burned by wildfires in 11 Western states could double by the end of the century if summer climate warms by slightly more than a degree and a half, say researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington. Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico appear acutely sensitive, especially to temperature changes, and fire seasons there may respond more dramatically to global warming than in states such as California and Nevada.
A new study has found unambiguosly that people would rather lose time than money. ''People are relatively certain about how much their money is worth, but when it comes to their time, people are less certain about its value,'' said the study;s lead researcher. Unlike previous research that focused almost exclusively on money-based transactions, this study used time as a form of currency. Researchers conducted five experiments to determine how the inherently ambiguous value of time influences consumer purchasing behavior.
Taking to the streets to demonstrate and protest is more effective than working inside the system to influence the passage of pro-environmental legislation in the United States, according to a new study analyzing the impact of the environmental movement. The study also found that a pro-environmental bill has a much better chance of being approved by Congress when Democrats are the majority party, but contrary to public perception, a bill's odds of passage actually decrease slightly under a Democratic president.
Smoke from giant Siberian forest fires pushed one measure of Seattle's air quality past federal environmental limits on at least one day in 2003, new research shows. And the rapidly changing climate in northern latitudes makes it likely such fires will have increasingly serious ramifications for air quality all along the West Coast of North America, said Dan Jaffe, an environmental scientist at the University of Washington, Bothell. ''In the past, we haven't considered that long-range transport can bring in pollution levels that are significant,'' Jaffe said. ''What we're finding is that these events can bring in significant levels of pollution, even to urban areas where the levels already are relatively high.''
