Fukushima debacle risks Chernobyl like ‘dead zone’ as radiation in soil soars (Bloomberg) The most cost-effective solution may be to allow the cesium to move down into the soil to decay, Kathryn Higley, a radiation health physicist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, said in a telephone interview. Cesium has a half-life of about 30 [...]

OSU names Duke University leader, OSU alumnus as director of Alumni Association (Gazette-Times) Scott Greenwood, a Duke University administrator with extensive ties to the Pacific Northwest, has been named associate vice president and executive director of the Oregon State University Alumni Association. He also will direct the university’s Department of Alumni Relations. Republican’s climate solution: [...]

Kitzhaber tours ONAMI in Corvallis, says tech start-ups key to recovery (KLCC) Governor Kitzhaber toured ONAMI, the state-sponsored nanotechnology research center housed rent-free on the HP campus. Partnering with Oregon State University, the center’s companies have attracted $70 million in private funds. (See also Gazette-Times, Democrat-Herald, Barometer) The commitment-phobe generation (CNN) The delay, says Richard [...]

Blame La Nina for the cold, wet Spring (KGW) “You’ve seen most of your annual precipitation for the year by last month,” Oregon State University’s Deputy Director of the Oregon Climate Service Kathie Dello said.“It kinda aims the storm track right at us,” Dello said. “Its usually a cold and wet Northwest winter — and [...]

May 21: The end of the world? (ABC News) OSU’s Courtney Campbell describes some of the reasons why people insist on believing doomsday ‘prophets.’ Oregon State Police see spike in vehicle thefts at OSU (Gazette-Times) The Oregon State Police is urging drivers to lock their doors and park in well-lit areas in light of a [...]

Superfruits – Super sales and super claims (MSNBC) Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute, which specializes in diet and nutrition, performed the lab tests, finding XanGo’s antioxidant strength slightly higher than cranberry juice, lower than black cherry and less than half of blueberry juice. Annual expo allows students to show off fun and functional projects [...]

Japan earthquake shifted seafloor 79 feet (National Geographic) Japan’s seabed moved by as much as 79 feet (24 meters) during the giant March 11 earthquake—the largest earthquake slip ever recorded, scientists say. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the largest such shift ever to have been caused by an earthquake, cautioned Chris Goldfinger, director of [...]

Expert: A dirty girl is a healthy girl (KGW) In her research, Oregon State University philosopher, Sharyn Clough, found that women have higher rates of allergies, asthma and other autoimmune disorders because they tend to be so clean. Blood flow relates to clots (Democrat-Herald) To get a fuller understanding of why clots form in blood, [...]

John Kitzhaber to deliver McCall lecture (Gazette-Times) Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is scheduled to deliver the annual Gov. Tom McCall Memorial Lecture at Oregon State University on Wednesday, May 25. Budget proposal cuts extension by 18.8 percent (Herald and News) Programs offered by the local OSU Extension Service, including child nutrition, agriculture research, master gardeners [...]

OSU maps barley genome in search of hardier crop (KVAL) Oregon State University researchers, supported by a major new initiative to produce climate-change tolerant crops, are working on a hardier variety of barley that can be grown in frostier regions of the United States – and have improved yields and traits allowing growers and processors [...]