Researchers from the University of Washington are using high-tech tags to record the movements of swordfish — big, deep-water, migratory, open-ocean fish that are poorly studied — and get a window into the ocean depths they inhabit.

A team led by the University of Washington and Stanford University has discovered clues in the environment that help identify transmission hotspots for schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that is second only to malaria in its global health impact. The research, publishing the week of Oct. 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses rigorous field sampling and aerial images to precisely map communities that are at greatest risk for schistosomiasis.

With the help of new technologies, a team led by the University of Washington has confirmed that piranhas — and their plant-eating cousins, pacus — do in fact lose and regrow all the teeth on one side of their face multiple times throughout their lives. How they do it may help explain why the fish go to such efforts to replace their teeth.

Ethen Whattam, an undergraduate student in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, recently returned from India, where he spent 10 months studying as a recipient of the Boren Scholarship. Whattam, along with the other student awardees, was given the opportunity to immerse himself in the Hindi language and culture, while researching the country’s complex relationship with water.

A University of Washington team inspired by the clingfish’s suction power set out to develop an artificial suction cup that borrows from nature’s design. Their prototype, described in a paper published Sept. 9 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, actually performed better than the clingfish.

Register now to ensure you get a seat for Holtgrieve’s lecture – Floods, fish and people: Challenges and opportunities in the Mekong River basin

It’s hard to think small in Alaska. The largest of the United States is home to North America’s highest mountain range. It’s a place where undammed rivers run more than 1000 kilometers, glaciers collapse into the ocean, and polar bears roam. Daniel Schindler, however, is here hunting for something the size of a grain of rice.

Our annual Autumn Seminar Series begins next week, Thursday, September 26. Be sure to view our events page and hit the + to subscribe and have information about each week’s presentation added to your calendar. Presentations will also be recorded and uploaded to our SAFS YouTube channel the following day.

Please join us in congratulating Sarah Converse who will be receiving the Department of the Interior’s Distinguished Service Award in Washington D.C. on September 12th.

SAFS is excited to announce that José M. Guzmán has been appointed our newest full-time lecturer.