In 1906 while attending a livestock fair in Plymouth England, Sir Francis Galton witnessed an interesting contest where locals were trying to guess the correct weight of a slaughtered and dressed ox (think jellybeans in a jar, but for butchers). He examined all 800 guesses and calculated the median calling it the vox populi, or “voice of the people,” reasoning that this would cancel out outliers on either side of the true answer. Astonishingly, the median guess was extremely close–within .8%–of the weight measured by the judges and closer than any individual guess. “This started the idea of the wisdom of crowds, where if you have a whole bunch of independent guesses you can average them, cast off the errant guess on either side and hone in on the right answer,” said Dr. Andrew Berdahl one of the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences’ newest faculty members.

Andrew Chin, a senior double majoring in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and Marine Biology shares his month-long experience sailing South Pacific with the SEA Semester program

Uniquely positioned in the region, the University of Washington (UW) has established itself as a world-leader in the fields of Oceanography and Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. The UW is thrilled to announce that it will be expanding the scope of its marine science offerings to include a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Marine Biology. While students could minor in Marine Biology, this is the first time it will be offered as a major at the UW.