Sierra Magazine, the official publication of the Sierra Club, once again placed the University of Washington in the top echelon in the country for its initiatives to operate sustainably and limit its contributions to global warming. This is the fifth year the UW has been among the top-ranked schools; it was first last year. Read more here; also check out the complete list of “cool schools”. 

Public participation in scientific research – termed “citizen science” – is growing, in numbers of projects, participants, and data points. Learn more about the exciting opportunities, as well as the challenges, that citizen science provides, and how you can get involved, here! SoundCitizen‘s Amanda Bruner is quoted.   

Big Data. A catchy name, with a shadowy similarity to phrases like Big Brother. Why is the concept of big data gaining so much attention, and what does its creation and use mean for science and society? Read up here; UW’s Ed Lazowska is cited. 

Ever wonder how scientists go about predicting the seasonal sea ice low point? Researchers from the Applied Physics Lab’s Polar Science Center use many different kinds of data throughout the year to make these predictions, and this year that includes NASA sea-ice thickness measurements from airplanes. They added their prediction to a crowd-sourced project called Sea Ice Outlook, an effort supported by the U.S. 

David Montgomery, a UW geologist, is the author of a new book that explores the long history of religious thinking on matters of geological discovery, particularly flood stories such as the biblical account of Noah’s ark.  Read more about his book here.