University of Washington

Scientists have developed a clingfish-inspired suction cup, that outperforms the actual fish itself.

While lightning strikes are generally considered to be a summer phenomenon, the rare and powerful superbolt form doesn't follow suit.

​Considering how important an organ it is, it’s a shame that the heart is so bad at repairing itself. Stem cells are an emerging solution, and now researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Washington have combined heart muscle cells and supportive cells to help mend broken hearts.

Proteins are the workhorses of the cell, but nature sometimes has room for improvement. Now a team from the Institute for Protein Design and the University of California San Francisco has created a new artificial protein that acts like a switch, turning regular cells into “smart cells.”

​According to some folks, smart speakers such as Google Home and Amazon Echo simply make us lazy while needlessly adding electronic complexity to our lives. Thanks to new research, however, the things may someday prevent people from dying of cardiac arrest while sleeping.

Studies have shown that billions of years ago Venus might have been just as habitable as Earth. So what happened? New research has found that if ancient Venus was home to vast oceans, tidal drags may have slowed down the rotation of the planet and let it bake into the lifeless world we know today.

Ear infections are common, but conditions can be difficult to diagnose. Researchers from the University of Washington have stepped up with a mobile app that can detect fluid behind the eardrum using just a cone of paper and your phone.​

3D printing organs is going through some teething issues. Now researchers have found a surprisingly simple answer to the complex problem of printing detailed vascular networks, and shown it off with a dramatic model of a breathing lung that passes oxygen into surrounding blood vessels.

Arsenic is toxic to almost all life forms, but now researchers have discovered that some microbes in the Pacific Ocean actively breathe it. The discovery has implications for how life may adapt to a changing climate, as well as where we might find it on other planets.

Tokamak reactors and fusion stellarators are a couple of the experimental devices used in pursuit of nuclear fusion, but scientists at the University of Washington are taking a far less-frequented route known as a Z-pinch, with the early signs pointing to a cheaper and more efficient path forward. ​

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an autonomous robot arm that can figure out the best way to pick up food of any shape and bring it up to a user’s mouth, which should make mealtimes easier for people with limited mobility.

​It's no secret that an increasing number of people are dying from opioid overdoses. If those overdoses are detected early enough, however, a shot of the drug naloxone can be administered to save the person's life. An experimental new sonar-based app could help that to happen.