UW Science Now is an annual tradition where Town Hall teams with UW Science Engage to bring local graduate students to the stage to present their latest cutting-edge research. This year we’re thrilled to partner with Ada’s Technical Books to feature these illuminating talks in a casual setting where audiences can enjoy a drink and an evening of scientific breakthroughs!

Shots aren’t fun. They’re even less fun when the shot delivers a vaccine that doesn’t work and you get sick. What if there was a way to both eliminate shots and make vaccines more effective? This may be possible by delivering vaccines using something that looks like a Listerine strip. Rachel Creighton will discuss the biology motivating the design of this new vaccine delivery method, and describes the (many) challenges that need to be addressed to make it a reality.

What makes up a defect in a crystal, and how can we turn these flaws into advantages? Through better understanding crystals and the defects in their structures, UW Science graduate student Maria Viitaniemi aims to transform our potential applications of crystals and ultimately integrate them into the design of a Quantum Computer.

Understanding changes of the snow and ice on Antarctica and Greenland are critical for understanding future sea-level rise. Snowflakes fall, get buried, and eventually turn into ice. This transition can take centuries, and depends mainly on the temperature and how much snow falls each year. How will climate change alter the speed of this transition? Brita Horlings explores our current understanding and research, and how they can be used to better estimate sea-level rise.

Presented by UW Science Engage, Ada’s Technical Books, and Town Hall Seattle as part of the Science series.