University of Washington biology professor Adam Summers no longer has to coax hospital staff to use their CT scanners so he can visualize the inner structures of sting ray and other fish. Last fall, he installed a small computed tomography, or CT, scanner at the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island in Washington […]
Ocean ‘Robot’ to Help Identity Toxic Algae Off Washington
After a massive toxic algae bloom closed lucrative shellfish fisheries off the West Coast last year, scientists are turning to a new tool that could provide an early warning of future problems. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington last week deployed the so-called ocean robot about 50 feet […]
Growing Push To Expose More Students To Computer Science
Moving her finger over the laptop trackpad, 6-year-old Lauren Meek drags and drops a block of code to build a set of instructions. She clicks the “run” button and watches as the character moves through a maze. She then pumps her fist in excitement. “Yes! This is so easy,” says Meek, a kindergartener at Marshall […]
Free Housing, Other Efforts Try to Attract Women to Tech
Free rent and groceries were selling points, but college freshman Aishwarya Mandyam was more excited about the chance to connect with like-minded women when she moved into the eight-bedroom house offered up by a Seattle software startup. “There’s inspiration. There’s tech support,” said the computer science major who is interested in a career that combines […]
Washington Governor Proposes Carbon Pollution Cap
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday proposed an ambitious cap-and-trade program to require the state’s largest industrial polluters to pay for every ton of carbon they release. The proposal was part of a broader package that the Democrat said would help the state meet a 2008 mandate to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for […]
From Promising Biofuels Pitch to Federal Custody
The biofuels company claimed it had developed a promising new technology to convert household trash into diesel fuel, but even from the start, Michael Spitzauer and his company, Green Power Inc., raised some eyebrows. The company once envisioned setting up hundreds of waste-to-fuel plants, pitching facilities in Fife, Wash., and Cheyenne, Wyo., as an answer […]