You know that moment when you can't think of anything to say? Jed Thompson doesn't.

Put your phone away. What would you do if you heard that? Turn your phone off, or silence it? Flip it upside down on the table? Put it in your pocket or your purse? Throw it in the trash can? At the movies, do you power down or switch to vibrate? Do you peak during a bathroom break? Did that Facebook notification give you a dopamine rush?

As one of the most cited researchers in his field, UW Astronomy Professor Tom Quinn is featured on the latest Thomson Reuters list of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds. We had a special Q&A chat with him for this week's Faculty Friday.

A musician can make a great tour guide. In Tom Collier’s new jazz album, "Across the Bridge," he explores the streets, schools, and sounds of West Seattle, the neighborhood he grew up in. The School of Music professor plays two instruments on the nine-track trek: the vibraphone and its king-sized cousin, the marimba.

At a big university like UW Seattle, political correctness can cut both ways. Some feel that classrooms are safer when offensive language and fringe ideas are driven out. Others think that eliminating these voices, as hurtful as they can be, restricts the learning process. Senior Lecturer Anu Taranath says it all depends on whose stories we focus on. In her Comparative History of Ideas class Re-Thinking Diversity, students hash out these ideas of power and privilege.

Forget pills — can you take a tablet instead? As mobile technology expands, so does its potential to transform health care. Your iPad or iPhone can already look up your symptoms, but soon it might be able to treat your problems, too. At least your mental maladies. Pat Areán, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, says mobile apps that resemble video games can improve mood, cognition, and social functioning.

They met because of a book. It was 1968, and they were students at Michigan State University. Cherry McGee was searching for a copy of the Kerner Report, a recently published government study. Her friend suggested that a fellow named James Banks might have it. After all, James had his own personal library in 242 Owen Hall. If anybody had a copy, the friend said, it would be him.

The door of each office in Mackenzie Hall is adorned with a little metal placard, meant to display name plates, business cards, or office hours. For L.A. Smith, this 3×2-inch rectangle has been the frame for nearly a thousand pieces of art. Every day, Smith displays a new finger-length canvas on her office door. These [...]

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The first time Kathie Friedman taught a class about immigration, in 1991, she assigned her students to write a fictional story for their final project. None of them were immigrants, or even knew any immigrants, so they were tasked with estimating what the newcomer experience might be like. "I said, 'It's gotta be feasible, you need to do research. But you can create your characters,'" Friedman, an associate professor in the Jackson School, recalled.

Welcome to Seattle, where the Space Needle soars overhead, fish fly at the market, and majestic Mount Rainier looks on from the distance. And… where rents rise, construction cranes loom, displacement runs rampant, and thousands live on the street. It’s a city in flux, to say the least.

Listen up: Women rock, and they've been rocking for a very long time. That's what you'll learn from Michelle Habell-Pallán, an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies. She teaches a class about the female side of American music, from early rock 'n' roll to punk and hip hop.

If you visit Michael Brown’s faculty homepage, you’ll encounter a pensive-looking man in a royal purple shirt — his eyes closed, head bowed, and hands in his lap. The tranquil scene is an oil painting. “That’s a self-portrait,” said Brown, a professor in the Department of Geography. He laughed: “I don’t take a good photograph, [...]

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