FROM THE ABYSS: Increasing media and scholarly attention has focused on the discovery of a small life form found at or below the ocean floor - nanobes. The creatures are smaller than any other known life form, but are making a big splash in the human consciousness. UW biologist John A. Baross talked to The New York Times about the mystery behind the miniature life forms. “They can’t be anything like the traditional microorganisms we know about. We have to think about them in a different way, and one is that they are components.”

WTO FALLOUT: In the wake of the WTO’s Seattle trade summit, David Olson, a UW political science professor, told USA Today that the city had changed irreversibly. “The aftershocks from this human quake are going to be felt for a decade.”

A NEW APPROACH: An article in The New York Times on the new approach to treating speech problems in children quoted UW’s Patricia Kuhl, a professor of speech and hearing sciences. “It used to be that we didn’t think anything was going on up there until there was evidence language had begun. Now we know that while babies are quiet, there is a tremendous amount going on in the brain.”

STRAIGHT TALK: U.S. News & World Report quoted the UW’s James Mazza, assistant professor in the college of education, in an article on preventing suicide with “straight talk.” Mazza, whose research covers suicidal-risk adolescents in the Seattle area, told the magazine that “much of the problem is rooted in schools’ tendency to sidestep discussions of psychological illnesses, which affect up to 90 percent of suicidal teens.” ¶

Newsmakers is a periodic column reporting on coverage of the University of Washington by the national press and broadcasting services.