Science

New research suggests the nation’s first reported coronavirus case — a Snohomish County resident — was not the source of the outbreak in Washington, as previously thought.

Tests people can take themselves at home work about as well at detecting COVID-19 as tests given by health care providers, according to Seattle researchers. They say self-administered tests could play a big role in confronting coronavirus, as well as future outbreaks.

This interview with the late Bill Ruckelshaus originally aired in March 2017. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Read a full obituary here .

The standard thing to do when a child is treated for brain cancer is to put some of the tumor cells under a microscope, and see what kind of cancer it is. But new research led by Dr. Jim Olson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Children’s compared that type of diagnosis with results of genetic testing of the same tumors and found that 71 percent were actually another type altogether.

(Updated at 12:30 pm, January 29, 2017 to correct the spelling of Dr. Ojemann's name.) New research on concussions in young athletes may be the key to better treating or monitoring the injuries. The study, published in the journal "Neurology," was conducted at Seattle Children’s Hospital. It was indirectly funded by the National Football League, part of the millions of dollars the NFL has spent on concussion research.

Scientists say it’s not a matter of if, but of when a devastating earthquake will hit the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington researchers have now done detailed simulations to find out just how intense the shaking from such a quake off the Oregon and Washington coast would be.

After such a glorious summer in the Pacific Northwest, you might be gearing up for the achy joints that many people swear come with cold, wet weather. But a local researcher says your knees could actually get a break when the weather changes.

When there is a solar eclipse, eye doctors do a lot to warn people about the dangers of looking at the sun without proper eye protection.

In May of 2015, Jason Love and Luke Tufts – two friends who met at the University of Washington – went fossil hunting around the Hell Creek Formation in Northeastern Montana, a region known for its fossil sites. On their last day, the two went out on government land to cover some more ground before heading home. “Fifteen minutes into it Jason walked onto to a big boulder with some bones in it,” Tufts said. Those bones ended up being the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex. Scientists at the museum are now in the process of revealing the fossilized skull of the T. rex. It’s been encased in rock for more than 66 million years. “I’m not an employee of the Burke Museum nor do I have any training in paleontology,” Love said. They did take a paleontology class when they were undergrads together. Love calls it “Dinosaurs 100.” “We learned a lot,” he said. “But the tests were very easy.” Now, the two enjoy searching for fossils in their free time. At the museum, what is normally a behind the scenes

For the last 20 years, the National Audubon Society has encouraged people to go into their backyards or to their local parks and count the birds they see. It's called The Great Backyard Bird Count. It began in the U.S. and Canada. Now, 130 countries participate in the global data-gathering weekend.

The flu is making rounds, and health officials across Washington say that 2017 is shaping up to be a severe season. “It’s never too late to get the flu shot," said Edie Jeffers, spokeswoman for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. Each year, the flu vaccine is reformulated to match the latest strain of influenza. "This year, it’s an especially good match for the flu that’s in circulation," she said. "So people that do get the flu shot, even if they do get sick, their symptoms are likely to be less severe, or they may skip getting sick altogether.” Pierce County has seen four deaths from the flu so far this year. In King County, there have been eight deaths. And officials almost everywhere are seeing upticks in the number of cases, especially in the last week or two. The illness is particularly hard on the very young, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems. In addition to getting a vaccine, officials say frequent hand washing can help. So can shielding your coughs

The Burke Museum is getting a new exhibit: A Tyrannosaurus rex skull. Seattle paleontologists unearthed the fossils in northern Montana last summer. It began when two museum volunteers, Jason Love and Luke Tufts, found fragments of large bones belonging to a carnivorous dinosaur. Greg Wilson led the expedition and is Burke Museum’s adjunct curator of vertebrate paleontology. He says the excavation team had a feeling they were on the trail of a T. rex. Hear him describe it:

What does it mean to age? When are we over the hill? And what are the side effects of a longer lifespan? On our most recent episode of Sound Effect on KPLU , we explored the idea of aging with Dr. Dan Gottschling .

Cancer researchers, doctors and survivors gathered Wednesday at hundreds of summits across the country to give guidance to the federal government’s cancer "moonshot.” At the summit in Seattle, hosted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, “Big Data” emerged as a priority.

An incredibly rare Northwest butterfly has been listed as a species that qualifies it for federal protection. It’s small, and at first glance, it's mostly white. It’s called the Island Marble butterfly.

Orange, grapefruit, lemon and lime orchards are being wiped out across Florida from a plague called citrus greening disease. A team of scientists from Washington State University in Pullman is studying the bacterium that causes the condition. They hope to find a cure. David Gang, a biological chemist at Washington State University, said the bacterium that causes greening disease is transmitted by a psyllid , a winged insect about half the size of a fruit fly, which spreads it from tree to tree. When the bacteria get into a tree’s vascular system, it clogs it up, preventing the flow of nutrients. “It eventually causes the roots to start to die. And then eventually the tree just dies,” said Gang. According to Gang, Florida is in danger of losing its citrus industry. “Yes, seriously. It’s very possible that in five years it will mostly be gone, if something isn’t done to fight it,” said Gang. When a citrus tree is infected, the fruit on the branches stays green and never ripens, which is

Children who are raised in a bilingual home appear to have a head start in building the part of the brain that deals with everything from impulse control to mental flexibility. These findings are in a new study that’s out of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences.

A new study shows that some one-on-one attention paid to Latinas can boost the likelihood they will be screened for breast cancer. For the study, low-income Latinas were visited by a S panish- speaking health care worker called a " p romotora" who provided them with information about getting a mammogram. After the visit, the women received a follow-up phone call, reminding them to make an appointment. The findings show that more than 19 percent of the women who received this one-on-one attention got a mammogram within a year, compared to the 11 percent in the control group. Gloria Coronado, an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente based in Portland, was the study’s lead author. Coronado’s goal from the outset was to figure out a way to get more Latinas screened for breast cancer since it is the leading cause of cancer death among this population. There are a variety of reasons why this is the case. “You know, low levels of awareness about the importance of screening, less access to

gspitzer@knkx.org (Gabriel Spitzer)

How do you make something called a “slime mold” sound even more disgusting? Call it “dog vomit slime mold.” It looks more or less like you’d expect, at least from a distance. “It looks a little bit gross to some people. I think it’s pretty cool,” said Angela Mele.

Researchers at the University of Washington say they can use phone records to help humanitarian efforts in developing countries. The key is the different cell phone habits of wealthier and poorer people .