Oct 24, 2018

2018 Doug Walker Lecture with Richard Louv

Join University of Washington’s EarthLab and the College of the Environment for an evening with our 2018 Doug Walker Lecturer, Richard Louv. A journalist and the author of nine books, including “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Nature in a Virtual World” and “Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life,” Louv will discuss the central role nature plays in human health and well-being at every age and stage of life.

A dose of nature: New UW initiative to spearhead research on health benefits of time outside

Time spent in nature can reduce anxiety and help you sleep better at night, experts have found. It also offers promising benefits for a range of health issues, including cardiovascular disease, depression and obesity. But there are still many questions about how time in nature can help with these health conditions, and others. A new University of Washington initiative announced this week seeks to advance research on these questions, connecting academic researchers with pediatricians, childcare providers, mental health practitioners and others who work with various populations on critical health issues.

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Oct 23, 2018

Sockeye carcasses tossed on shore over two decades spur tree growth

UW researchers walk along Hansen Creek in 2015.

For 20 years, dozens of University of Washington researchers have walked Hansen Creek — home to one of the densest sockeye salmon runs in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region — every day during spawning season, counting live salmon and recording information about the fish that died. After counting a dead fish — an inevitability here, either after spawning or in the paws of a brown bear — researchers throw it on shore to remove the carcass and not double-count it the next day.

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Oct 22, 2018

UW atmospheric scientists to study most extreme storms on Earth, up close

Two University of Washington atmospheric scientists—Angela Rowe and Lynn McMurdie—are leaving for a weeks-long, firsthand study of some of the fiercest storms on the planet. They will participate in RELAMPAGO, an international campaign in Argentina to monitor storms that occur east of the Andes near the slopes of another mountain range, the Sierra de Córdoba. The international team hopes to better understand how convective storm systems — the big systems that unleash torrential rains, hail and lightning — initiate and grow as they travel from the mountainous terrain eastward over the plains.

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Oct 22, 2018

New UW-authored children’s book offers a robot’s-eye view of the deep ocean

Author Dana Manalang and illustrator Hunter Hadaway.

After years working on a cabled observatory that monitors the Pacific Northwest seafloor and the water above, a University of Washington engineer decided to share the wonder of the deep sea with younger audiences. The result is “ROPOS and the Underwater Volcano” by Dana Manalang, an engineer at UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory. The book’s illustrator, Hunter Hadaway, is the creative director at the UW-based Center for Environmental Visualization.

Read more at UW Today »