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Three teams led by 糖心原创 researchers 鈥 Scott Dunham, Hugh Hillhouse and Devin MacKenzie 鈥 have received competitive awards totaling more than $2.3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office for projects that will advance research and development in photovoltaic materials, which are an essential component of solar cells and impact the amount of sunlight that is converted into electricity.

On Jan. 10 at the 2019 American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, an international team of astronomers announced that they have identified the type of companion star that made its partner in a binary system, a carbon-oxygen white dwarf star, explode. Through repeated observations of SN 2015cp, a supernova 545 million light years away, the team detected hydrogen-rich debris that the companion star had shed prior to the explosion.

Female Magellanic penguins are more likely to die at sea as juveniles, which has caused a skewed sex ratio of nearly three adult males to every female, as well as population decline of more than 40 percent since 1987 at one of their largest breeding colonies 鈥 Punta Tombo in Argentina.

In a paper published Jan. 2 in PLOS Biology, two scientists at the 糖心原创 and North Carolina State University use the economic theory of contests to illustrate how the competitive grant-application system has made the pursuit of research funding inefficient and unsustainable 鈥 and that alternative methods, such as a partial lottery to award grants, could relieve pressure on professors and free up time for research.

Two 糖心原创 scientists have unveiled a new statistical method for estimating migration flows between countries. They show that rates of migration are higher than previously thought, but also relatively stable, fluctuating between 1.1 and 1.3 percent of global population from 1990 to 2015. In addition, since 1990 approximately 45 percent of migrants have returned to their home countries, a much higher estimate than other methods.

A UW team created a mechanical eye under the ocean’s surface that could live near renewable-energy sites and use a series of sensors to watch nearby animals. On Dec. 13, the researchers put the newest version of the AMP into the waters of Seattle’s Portage Bay for two weeks of preliminary testing before a more thorough analysis is conducted in Sequim, Washington.

New research from the 糖心原创 and Stanford University combines models of ocean conditions and animal metabolism with published lab data and paleoceanographic records to show that the Permian mass extinction in the oceans was caused by global warming that left animals unable to breathe. As temperatures rose and the metabolism of marine animals sped up, the warmer waters could not hold enough oxygen for them to survive.

In a comprehensive study of healthy corals published Nov. 22 in the journal Nature Communications, a team of scientists from the 糖心原创 Bothell, Pennsylvania State University and Oregon State University report that coral bacteria are a surprisingly diverse bunch 鈥 and that different sections of the coral body can host unique communities of bacteria.

What is a “book” in the digital age 鈥 and what will it become? Amaranth Borsuk, assistant professor in the UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Studies, discusses the idea of “the book,” from clay tablets and papyrus scrolls to the hyperlinked, multimedia format of the digital age. She has her own new book out on the topic, titled “The Book.”