Q&A: Healthier soil leads to more-nutritious food, argues new book by UW geomorphologist David Montgomery

Cover of the book, What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health

During the pandemic lockdown, many people were dabbling in urban farming or growing houseplants. University of Washington geomorphologist David Montgomery was exploring a deeper topic: How do practices that rebuild soil health affect the quality of the food that comes from that soil? His new book, “What Your Food Ate,” released June 21 from W.W. Norton & Company and co-authored by Anne Biklé, explores this question.

Scientists seek to grow the field of eDNA research ‘without squelching creativity’

The eDNA Collaborative team. From left to right: Program manager Cara Sucher, director Ryan Kelly and chief scientist Eily Andruszkiewicz Allan.eDNA Collaborative

A new effort at the University of Washington aims to accelerate eDNA research by supporting existing projects and building a network of practitioners to advance the nascent field. Called the eDNA Collaborative, the team is based in the College of the Environment with leadership and program staff from the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. For about a decade, scientists have honed the craft of using genetic material in the environment — known as eDNA — to detect and monitor organisms for environmental science and conservation.

Model finds COVID-19 deaths among elderly may be due to genetic limit on cell division

This illustration represents the core theory in a new modeling study led by the University of Washington: The circles represent the immune system’s aging, in which its ability to make new immunity cells remains constant until a person (represented by the human figures) reaches middle-age or older and then falls off significantly. The central blue figure represents a virus or a challenge to the immune system.

Your immune system’s ability to combat COVID-19, like any infection, largely depends on its ability to replicate the immune cells effective at destroying the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease. These cloned immune cells cannot be infinitely created, and a key hypothesis of a new University of Washington study is that the body’s ability to create these cloned cells falls off significantly in old age.

Birdwatching in the wintertime

Olivia Sanderfoot birdwatches at the Center for Urban Horticulture

Where do birds go during the colder months? Do we see different species of birds here in Seattle during the winter versus during the summer? Where are the best spots to catch a glimpse of birds? Luckily for bird enthusiasts, winter in the Pacific Northwest is just as great for bird watching as summer, but with some key differences. Olivia Sanderfoot, who recently defended her Ph.D.

Spring blooms to watch for in the Seattle area

Though Seattle’s weather can be fickle in the spring, with fleeting hints of warmth between long spells of cold and rain, the Puget Sound region is home to stunning buds and blossoms that remind locals summer is just around the corner. “Spring is my favorite time of the year for observing plants, because I love the anticipation and getting to watch things change week to week,” said Ray Larson, curator of Living Collections at the UW Botanic Gardens.