Tag Archives: university of washington

UCLA Life Scientists’ Study of Abalone Yields New Insights into Sexual Reproduction

*Research could lead to techniques to improve fertilization in humans*

In new research that could have implications for improving fertilization in humans and other mammals, life scientists studied interactions between individual sperm and eggs in red abalone, an ocean-dwelling snail, and made precise chemical measurements and physical models of these interactions. They are the first scientists to do so.

By simulating the natural habitat of the abalone in the laboratory, the scientists were able to determine the conditions under which sperm–egg encounters and fertilization were most likely to occur. (more…)

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Scientists Unfolding Protein Mystery, Fighting Disease with Windows Azure

*Microsoft has partnered with the University of Washington’s Baker Laboratory to help scientists supercharge the computing power of their protein folding research with Windows Azure. Helping scientists get faster results could mean speeding up cures for Alzheimer’s, cancers, salmonella, and malaria.*

REDMOND, Wash. – June 14, 2011 – Cloud computing is helping biologists uncloud one of nature’s biggest mysteries: proteins.

Microsoft has partnered with the University of Washington’s Baker Laboratory, one of the world’s top computational biology labs, to give scientists access to some high-caliber computing power. That, in turn, helps them explore and understand proteins, which could eventually lead to thwarting everything from Alzheimer’s to Malaria, and from cancer to salmonella. (more…)

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Whales Help Researchers Take Winter Temperature of Greenland’s Coastal Waters

WASHINGTON — Scientists using sensors attached to a type of Arctic whale known for its unicorn-horn-like tooth have detected continued warming of the southern Baffin Bay off West Greenland. The temperatures of the waters have continued to rise since wintertime ocean temperatures were last effectively measured there in the early 2000s, the researchers reported October 23 in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, a publication of the American Geological Union (AGU).

Temperatures in the study were collected by narwhals, a medium-sized whale species, during missions in 2006 and 2007. The animals were tagged with sensors that recorded ocean depths and temperatures during feeding dives from the surface pack ice to the seafloor, as deep as 1,773 meters, or more than a mile. (more…)

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Desert Dust Reduces Colorado River Flow

Dark-colored dust that settles on snow in the Upper Colorado River Basin makes the snow melt early and robs the Colorado River of about 5 percent of its water each year, says a new study co-authored by researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder-based Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES.

(more…)

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Back to School: Are Teachers Equipped to Teach ‘Digital Natives’?

*Many teachers are using Microsoft tools and training to help prepare their students for the future, and are encouraging their peers to embrace using the technology that students are growing up with.* 

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 16, 2010 Educators are preparing to go back to school, and they’re starting to do so with more than pencils and books. The “digital natives” that fill their classrooms are restless, and teachers are altering their curricula to keep those students engaged and prepared for the future. Microsoft wants to help. 

Digital natives are people who have had access to digital technology for most of their lives—in other words, most of today’s school children.

(more…)

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