Sep 23, 2014

Snail shells show high-rise plateau is much lower than it used to be

New research, lead by Earth and space sciences professor Kate Huntington, is shedding light on how the Tibetan Plateau of south central Asia was at one time much higher than it is today. Its historical heights have long been debated in the scientific community, and Huntington and her team used novel research techniques — including the fossilized remains of snails that once lived in the Plateau’s ancient rivers and lakes — to help answer questions about the region’s distant past.

Join expedition online: UW students help install cabled deep-sea observatory

Students at the College of the Environment got a taste of what doing oceanographic research is all about this summer, spending numerous days at sea aboard the UW’s giant research vessel, the Thomas G. Thompson. The project: installing an underwater, cabled ocean observatory that will give scientists a continuous presence in the Pacific waters off of Oregon and Washington.

UW-built sensors to probe Antarctica’s Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean plays a major role in taking carbon from our atmosphere and storing it in the ocean. Yet the finer points of what makes these waters so good at doing that are not well known. Notoriously dangerous seas, the Southern Ocean — which surrounds Antarctica — have historically been difficult for scientist to access and study. College of the Environment oceanographers are set to help change that as one of 10 partner institutions in a new National Science Foundation study.

Future of Ice: Jody Deming on life in sea ice

The third installment in our Future of Ice speaker series featured Jody Deming, Walters Endowed Professor and a faculty member in Oceanography and Astrobiology at UW. Her talk explored how life exists in sea ice, the experience of studying sea ice in the Arctic in the dead of winter, and what studying sea ice can tell us about possibility for life on other planets.

Book explains astrobiology for a general audience

In the late 1990s, the University of Washington created what was arguably the world’s first graduate program in astrobiology, aimed at preparing scientists to hunt for life away from Earth. In 2001, David Catling became one of the first people brought to the UW specifically to teach astrobiology. Catling, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, is the author of Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction, the 370th offering in the Oxford University Press series of “very short introduction” books by experts in various fields.