Least resistance (The Atlantic) OSU English instructor Wayne Harrison’s short story. See an interview with him here. OSU Researchers Look to Marine Life for Climate Clues (KEZI) The age and condition of a tree can be studied looking at the rings on the inside of the plant, but now researchers at Oregon State University are [...]

Leader of OSU campus ministry dies at 49 (Catholic Sentinel) The dean of Oregon’s Catholic campus ministry has died. Sue Gifford, campus minister at Oregon State University here for more than 20 years, died in her sleep last weekend. She was 49. Problem areas mar Oregon’s beaches (Oregonian) Frank Burris, an Oregon State University watershed [...]

Dire forecast for fire season in the West (San Francisco Chronicle) Much of California – particularly the Central Valley, the Bay Area and the region north of Los Angeles – will remain “extremely dry,” the worst possible fire condition, or “severely dry,” through December, said Ronald Neilson, a Forest Service researcher and botany professor at [...]

Researchers Project Intense Fire Season in the West (New York Times) Ron Neilson, a professor of botany at Oregon State University and a bioclimatologist with the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, said it appears an El Niño is beginning and there may be tentative shifts in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, both of which are [...]

Community economist studies small farms (Eastern Oregonian) Bruce Sorte is a community economist in the Oregon State University Eastern Oregon Rural Studies Program. His office is at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, but he often parks his Airstream trailer at the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Education Center. Putting Plankton in Perspective, from Sea to [...]

Website of the Week — Linus Pauling Online (Voice of America) OSU Libraries’ Chris Peterson talks to Voice of America about the Pauling collection. 10 Ways Universities Are Engaging Alumni Using Social Media (Mashable.com) Oregon State University uses Google Maps (Google Maps) on its Powered By Orange site, as well. The site includes a map [...]

SWAT team practices at Reser Stadium (Gazette-Times) In a few weeks, Oregon State University’s football team will be going through drills at Reser Stadium, but on Tuesday, the facility hosted a much different sort of practice. Oregon Ag Research Foundation Grants $400,000 for Farm Research (Western Farmer-Stockman) Grants totaling nearly $400,000 have been awarded by [...]

Underseas exploration (BBC) Oregon State University’s Jake Hamblin is interviewed as part of this broadcast (note to listeners, Hamblin’s university is misidentified by the BBC) OSU researchers say wood fiber can make car tires more energy efficient, less expensive (Oregonian) An Oregon State University researcher who developed a non-toxic adhesive for kitchen cabinetry says he [...]

Update: Previously Unidentified Black Blob ID’ed (Discover) A few days ago, we wrote about a mysterious black blob floating off of Alaska’s coast. At that point, experts hadn’t been able to identify what the goo was made of. New information, however, brings an end to the speculation: Authorities say it’s a gigantic algae bloom. “We’ve [...]

Birth control pill takes longer to work in obese women (Baltimore Sun) Obese women starting to take the birth control pill should also use an alternative method of contraception for at least 10 days, and perhaps for as long as 20 days because it takes that long for effective levels of the drug to build [...]