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Racial ‘Hierarchy of Bias’ Drives Decision to Shoot Armed, Unarmed Suspects, CU-Boulder Study Finds

By Guest PostOctober 25, 2012Politicsafrican american, asians, behavior, bernadette park, bias, black men, blacks, boulder, cell phone, charles judd, Chicago, colorado, cultural stereotype, dangerous, ethnic environment, ethnic group, florida, hierarchy, hispanics, joshua correll, jurisdiction, multi, new mexico, police officer, positive bias, russell sage foundation, san diego, shoot, state university, students, suspects, university, Washington, whites, young

Police officers and students exhibit an apparent “hierarchy of bias” in making a split-second decision whether to shoot suspects who appear to be wielding a gun or, alternatively, a benign object like a cell phone, research conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder and San Diego State University has found.

Both the police and student subjects were most likely to shoot at blacks, then Hispanics, then whites and finally, in a case of what might be called a positive bias, Asians, researchers found. (more…)

Among Voters Lacking Strong Party Preferences, Obama Faces 20 Percent Handicap Due to Race Bias

By Guest PostOctober 7, 2012Politicsamerican electorate, anthony greenwald, association test, Barack Obama, black, brian nosek, data, election, electorate, eligible voter, ethnicity, gender, implicit, kaiyuan xu, mitt romney, online study, polarized, political party, politically partisan, popular vote, preference, presidential candidate, race, race bias, racial attitude, sexuality, sianna ziegler, sriram natarajan, teri kirby, university, Washington, white

An online study of eligible voters around the country revealed that preferences for whites over blacks among the least politically-partisan voters are strong enough to have substantial impact on their presidential candidate preference.

Among these voters, race biases against Barack Obama could produce as much as a 20 percent gap in the popular vote in a contest that would otherwise be equal. (more…)

Sticky Paper Offers Cheap, Easy Solution for Paper-Based Diagnostics

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2012Scienceacidity, antibodies, arthur yu, biological molecule, chemical trick, daniel ratner, diabetes, diagnostic, disease, divinyl sulfone, DNA, fluorescent ricin, galactose, george whitesides, global, harvard university, health research, immune system, industrial solvent, jing shang, malaria, medical test, nitrocellulose, oldest technology, paper, paper stick, paul yager, plain paper, poison, pregnancy test, protein, rodrigo andrade, sticky membrane, university, Washington, ziploc bag

A current focus in global health research is to make medical tests that are not just cheap, but virtually free. One such strategy is to start with paper – one of humanity’s oldest technologies – and build a device like a home-based pregnancy test that might work for malaria, diabetes or other diseases.

A University of Washington bioengineer recently developed a way to make regular paper stick to medically interesting molecules. The work produced a chemical trick to make paper-based diagnostics using plain paper, the kind found at office supply stores around the world. (more…)

Browser Plug-in Helps People Balance Their Political News Reading Habits

By Guest PostSeptember 29, 2012Politics, Technologyappalling cesspool, article, balanced view, balancer, behavior, cartoon, chrome browser, debate, democrat, Google, michigan, new jersey, online, plug in, political bias, political blog, political news, political rumor, political spectrum, presidential election, reading habit, republican, sean munson, self discovery, site, Social networking, university, US, voter, Washington, web browser

As the U.S. presidential election approaches, many voters become voracious consumers of online political news. A tool by a University of Washington researcher tracks whether all those articles really provide a balanced view of the debate – and, if not, suggests some sites that offer opinions from the other side of the political spectrum.

Balancer, a free plug-in for Google’s Chrome browser, was developed this summer by Sean Munson, a new UW assistant professor of Human Centered Design and Engineering. The tool analyzes a person’s online reading habits for a month and calculates the political bias in that behavior. It then suggests sites that represent a different point of view and continues to monitor reading behavior and offer feedback. (more…)

Large Bacterial Population Colonized Land 2.75 Billion Years Ago

By Guest PostSeptember 26, 2012Scienceatmosphere, atmospheric oxygenation, cambrian period, continental rock, data, database, david catling, earth, Environment, eva stueken, event, geologist, great, methane, microbial life, molybdenum, ocean, oxidation, oxygen, ozone layer, research record, roger buick, sulfur, ultraviolet radiation, university, Washington, weathering pyrite

There is evidence that some microbial life had migrated from the Earth’s oceans to land by 2.75 billion years ago, though many scientists believe such land-based life was limited because the ozone layer that shields against ultraviolet radiation did not form until hundreds of millions years later.

But new research from the University of Washington suggests that early microbes might have been widespread on land, producing oxygen and weathering pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral, which released sulfur and molybdenum into the oceans. (more…)

The Original Twitter? Tiny Electronic Tags Monitor Birds’ Social Networks

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2012Nature, Sciencearchipelago, bird, brian otis, broadcast, costa rica, crow, drexel university, ecology, encounternet, forest, frequency, galapagos islands, german, internet, islands, john burt, lysanne snijders, Netherlands, new caledonia, radio tracking, radio transmitter, scotland, social behavior, social mobility, social network, South Pacific, st andrews, Technology, university, Washington, wireless sensor, woodland bird

If two birds meet deep in the forest, does anybody hear? Until now, nobody did, unless an intrepid biologist was hiding underneath a bush and watching their behavior, or the birds happened to meet near a research monitoring station. But an electronic tag designed at the University of Washington can for the first time see when birds meet in the wild.

A new study led by a biologist at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews used the UW tags to see whether crows might learn to use tools from one another. The findings, published last week in Current Biology, supported the theory by showing an unexpected amount of social mobility, with the crows often spending time near birds outside their immediate family. (more…)

Shrinking Snow Depth on Arctic Sea Ice Threatens Ringed Seal Habitat

By Guest PostSeptember 20, 2012EnvironmentArctic, atmospheric sciences, brendan kelly, cecilia bitz, climate change, climate model, ice, important factor, paul hezel, predict, pups, sea ice, seals, shrink, snowfall pattern, thermodynamic impact, thickness, university, Washington

As sea ice in the Arctic continues to shrink during this century, more than two thirds of the area with sufficient snow cover for ringed seals to reproduce also will disappear, challenging their survival, scientists report in a new study.

The ringed seal, currently under consideration for threatened species listing, builds caves to rear its young in snow drifts on sea ice. Snow depths must be on average at least 20 centimeters, or 8 inches, to enable drifts deep enough to support the caves. (more…)

UW Deploying Seismic Sensors in Hope of Getting to Bottom of Spokane Quakes

By Guest PostJune 29, 2012Environmentautomated earthquake, bill steele, cascades, detector, douglas gibbons, echoes, fault, geological structure, internet access, mild earthquake, motion sensor, netquakes, ocean shores, oregon, project, puget sound region, seismic network, seismometer, spokane, spokane area, university of washington, Washington, yakima

It’s been a decade since a swarm of relatively mild earthquakes shook up parts of Spokane. Now, armed with the right tools, scientists want to find out what was at fault.

“It was always something not as well understood as we thought it should be,” said Douglas Gibbons, a University of Washington researcher in Earth and space sciences, who is guiding installation of strong-motion sensors as part of a project called NetQuakes.

NetQuakes will install a half-dozen seismometers in the Spokane area by the end of June, mostly in volunteers’ homes, to help improve understanding of what lies beneath the city. (more…)

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