Predator or not? Invasive snails hide even when they don’t know

The Sitka periwinkle, a native marine snail, is often exposed on rocks at low tide.

Recognizing the signs of a predator can mean the difference between living to see another day and becoming another critter’s midday snack. All prey animals, whether a swift-footed deer or a slow-moving snail, use cues from their environment to sense the presence of a threat. It’s what keeps them alive — or at least gives them a shot at getting away.

Dean's letter: Keeping the flame alive

Dean of the College of the Environment Lisa J. Graumlich examines what the social contract between higher education and the public looks like today.

UW Environment undergrads receive AGU Outstanding Student Paper Awards

Two University of Washington undergraduates from the College of the Environment recently received Outstanding Student Paper Awards from the American Geophysical Union as a result of their presentation at the annual fall meeting held in December 2016. Eliza Dawson, a senior in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, won based on her presentation titled “Variability of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone Related to Changes in the Inter-Hemispheric Dust Load.”

Listen to the Earth smash another global temperature record

Federal science agencies announced Wednesday that 2016 was the warmest year on record, beating the previous global temperature record set in 2015, which itself had beat the previous record set in 2014. Now atmospheric scientists at the University of Washington have set the new temperature record to an electronic dance beat. This is their second project to convert scientific data to an audio track, a process known as sonification.

Vitamin B-12, and a knockoff version, create complex market for marine vitamins

An oceanographic sampler, known as a rosette, during a 2013 cruise in the North Pacific. Each bottle contains water from different depths, which is how researchers collected samples of the vitamins at sea.

All animals, from humans to whales to sea cucumbers, need vitamin B-12. But only certain microbes can make the complex, cobalt-containing molecule. For land dwellers a main source is the microbes that thrive in animals’ guts, which is why beef is such a good source of B-12. Shellfish also accumulate a lot of B-12. In the oceans, the source of their vitamins for some marine organisms is sometimes mysterious.