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To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of declining phytoplankton in the North Atlantic may have been greatly exaggerated. A prominent 2019 study used ice cores in Antarctica to suggest that marine productivity in the North Atlantic had declined by 10% during the industrial era, with worrying implications that the trend might continue.

Generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, an AI-powered language tool, and Midjourney, an AI-powered image generator, can potentially assist people with various disabilities. These tools could summarize content, compose messages or describe images. Yet the degree of this potential is an open question, since, in addition to regularly spouting inaccuracies and failing at basic reasoning , these tools can perpetuate ableist biases.

Screen readers, which convert digital text to audio, can make computers more accessible to many disabled users - including those who are blind, low vision or dyslexic. Yet slideshow software, such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides, isn't designed to make screen reader output coherent. Such programs typically rely on Z-order - which follows the way objects are layered on a slide - when a screen reader navigates through the contents.

They don't know it, but Darwin's finches changed the world. These closely related species - native to the Galapagos Islands - each sport a uniquely shaped beak that matches their preferred diet. Studying these birds helped Charles Darwin develop the theory of evolution by natural selection. A group of bats has a similar - and more expansive - evolutionary story to tell.

To help struggling salmon populations, the state of Washington is legally required to replace hundreds of culverts that divert streams under roadways. The state transportation department is replacing old, rusting metal pipes with broad, concrete promenades that provide more gradual gradients and gentler flows for salmon swimming upstream to access more spawning grounds.

Alden Woods Two years ago, as life regained its rhythm and public transit once again filled with people, train and bus operators spotted a troubling trend. Some operators reported instances of people smoking drugs on their vehicles, and worried that the haze it created could linger, potentially affecting workers- physical and mental health.

Researchers are more likely to write scientific papers with co-authors of the same gender, a pattern that can't be explained by varying gender representations across scientific disciplines and time. A new study from the University of Washington and Cornell University, recently published in PLOS One , finds consistent gender homophily - the tendency of authors to collaborate with others who share their gender - in a digital collection of 560,000 published research articles over a 50-year period.

UW News staff A team of biomedical researchers, including two bioengineers at the University of Washington, has developed a new method for hiring engineering professors. Currently, the researchers argue, engineering departments "lack the education and skills needed to effectively hire faculty candidates from historically excluded groups.

Organizational change can be seen as a threat, but can also create opportunity. How people initially react to changes depends on their placement within their work groups- status hierarchy, according to new research from the University of Washington. A status hierarchy is an informal ranking of employees based on the amount of respect and admiration earned from others.

A particle physics experiment decades in the making - the Muon g-2 experiment - looks increasingly like it might set up a showdown over whether there are fundamental particles or forces in the universe that are unaccounted for in the current Standard Model , the comprehensive theory that physicists use to describe how the universe works at its most fundamental level.

An asteroid discovery algorithm - designed to uncover near-Earth asteroids for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory -s upcoming 10-year survey of the night sky - has identified its first -potentially hazardous- asteroid, a term for space rocks in Earth's vicinity that scientists like to keep an eye on.

Even for scuba and snorkeling enthusiasts, the plunge into open water can be dislocating. Divers frequently swim with limited visibility, which can become a safety hazard for teams trying to find each other in an emergency. Yet even though many dive with smartwatches designed to go to depths of over 100 feet, accurately locating mobile devices underwater has confounded researchers.

For decades, scientists have been probing the potential of two-dimensional materials to transform our world. 2D materials are only a single layer of atoms thick. Within them, subatomic particles like electrons can only move in two dimensions. This simple restriction can trigger unusual electron behavior, imbuing the materials with -exotic- properties like bizarre forms of magnetism, superconductivity and other collective behaviors among electrons - all of which could be useful in computing, communication, energy and other fields.

Sarah McQuate We use plastics in almost every aspect of our lives. These materials are cheap to make and incredibly stable. The problem comes when we're done using something plastic - it can persist in the environment for years. Over time, plastic will break down into smaller fragments, called microplastics, that can pose significant environmental and health concerns.

Over 30 years of dentistry, Sami Dogan has treated just about every kind of tooth ailment. Cavities are simple to fill. Dental implants have become routine. But there's one problem, he said, that annoys even the most experienced dentists: hypersensitivity, the painful sensation sparked by contact with hot, cold or acidic food.

Despite their invisibly small size, ultrafine particles have become a massive concern for air pollution experts. These tiny pollutants - typically spread through wildfire smoke, vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions and airplane fumes - can bypass some of the body's built-in defenses, carrying toxins to every organ or burrowing deep in the lungs.

Quantum computing could revolutionize our world. For specific and crucial tasks, it promises to be exponentially faster than the zero-or-one binary technology that underlies today's machines, from supercomputers in laboratories to smartphones in our pockets. But developing quantum computers hinges on building a stable network of qubits - or quantum bits - to store information, access it and perform computations.

If you-ve ever thought you may be running a temperature yet couldn-t find a thermometer, you aren-t alone. A fever is the most commonly cited symptom of COVID-19 and an early sign of many other viral infections. For quick diagnoses and to prevent viral spread, a temperature check can be crucial. Yet accurate at-home thermometers aren-t commonplace, despite the rise of telehealth consultations.

An international team including a University of Washington scientist has found that the water on one of Saturn's moons harbors phosphates, a key building block of life. The team led by the Freie Universität Berlin used data from NASA's Cassini space mission to detect evidence of phosphates in particles ejected from the ice-covered global ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Climate leaves indelible marks on our lives - impacting where we live, what we eat, our work and our leisure. Two scientists recently documented one of climate's lesser-known impacts: our given names. Co-authors Raymond Huey , a professor emeritus of biology at the University of Washington, and Donald Miles , professor of biological sciences at Ohio University, reported that the popularity of certain month and season names for girls varies by geographic region in the continental United States.