The mothers of beached whale calves often were missing entirely from the beach, a study found.
Category » Healthy Planet
May 21, 2013
From Data to Doing
Converting climate science to community action
Adapting to climate change requires two key things: good data and boots on the ground. As oceans rise, icecaps melt, snowpack diminishes, wildfires rage and aquifers dry up, coupling science to action becomes ever more urgent. But the barriers to linking science to practical action are formidable, often springing from deep disparities in worldview among [...]
May 21, 2013
Sea Trio
Oregon State will lead design and construction of coastal research vessels
Oregon State has been designated by the NSF as the lead institution for the design, building and launching of as many as three state-of-the-art research vessels.
May 9, 2013
Connective Tissue
Finding hope where facts and values intersect
When Michael P. Nelson talks about his work, he mentions carcasses and cadavers to a startling degree — startling because Nelson is not a physician or a veterinarian or even a biologist. He’s a philosopher. So at first glance, necropsy seems an odd topic of discourse. But it starts to make sense when you notice [...]
May 3, 2013
Biochar video
Learn how biochar is made, sequesters carbon and protects water quality
Perry Morrow, student in the Oregon State University Water Resources Graduate Program, produced this video on biochar, the carbonized remains of plants. Turning low-value wood and other biomass into biochar sequesters carbon from the atmosphere for hundreds of years. The resulting material may also benefit water quality by absorbing pollutants such as copper, lead, zinc [...]
April 3, 2013
Yellowstone: One of the World’s Largest Calderas
Keep up on the latest research
The Yellowstone caldera is no typical volcano. Its elongated form measures about 35 miles by 45 miles, considerably larger than most. Yellowstone Lake stands at the center of the caldera and shows evidence of volcanic activity that has formed some of its arms. Yellowstone contains one of the world’s largest geothermal systems. The caldera has [...]
April 3, 2013
Researcher Profile: Adam Schultz
A professor of geology and geophysics, Adam Schultz received his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1986. He came to Oregon State University in 2003 and directs the National Geoelectromagnetic Facility, which loans geophysics equipment to scientists, industry and government. His research interests include geothermal systems, the Cascade volcanic arc, the Cascadia subduction zone [...]
April 3, 2013
Rethinking Yellowstone
The hotspot theory gets a makeover from the emerging science of magnetotellurics
A geological mystery lies beneath the majestic beauty of Yellowstone National Park. Once thought solved, the enigma continues to unfold through the lens of a young science known as magnetotellurics. As accepted theory goes, over the past 16 million years a rising plume of magma in the Earth’s mantle produced massive amounts of lava and [...]
February 26, 2013
Roots of Relationship
Under the pine needles lies one of the secrets to forest health
The summer is warm and sunny in Corvallis, but my travels draw me east. Over and past the Cascades is an open land where the cold sparkling waters of a river flow north, and the sweet smell of Ponderosa pine blends with the fresh scent of lodgepole — the Deschutes National Forest. My one-person tent [...]
February 14, 2013
Posture for the Planet
Green Yoga combines inner peace with ecological consciousness
For many people, yoga is a form of relaxation. But in India, the birthplace of the exercise, yoga is beginning to stretch beyond the boundaries of one’s self and into the ecological realm. A new movement called “Green Yoga” encourages men and women who practice yoga — called yogis and yoginis — to strive for [...]
February 1, 2013
Corps of Discovery
Mastering the natural history of Oregon's storied lands and waters - and passing it on
Just as some babies are born with special gifts for music or math, Harvard’s Howard Gardner argues, others come into the world with an exceptional sensitivity to nature. The Oregon Master Naturalist program was designed to tap into this devotion to the land and build a statewide corps of expert volunteers.
January 31, 2013
Lake of the Woods
Where the wild things are
“The three key words in the mission of Oregon Master Naturalists are explore, connect, contribute.”
January 31, 2013
South Slough
Where the waters mix
Anne and Philip Matthews have explored every twist and tangle of the South Slough, which became the nation’s first national estuarine research reserve in the 1970s.
January 31, 2013
Rimrock Ranch
Where steelhead will swim again
Guiding tours for the Deschutes Land Trust has been, for years, an outgrowth of Mary Crow’s passion for the land.
January 30, 2013
An Ethical Tightrope
Learning to make delicate choices
Making ethical choices about animals can be a philosophical high-wire act — a precarious balance of practicality and principle. Weighing practical needs against “normative ethics” — right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust — requires more than a handbook of do’s and don’ts. “The institutional protocols — the laws, regulations, policies — provide [...]
January 29, 2013
Documenting the Giants
Canopy science for old-growth forests
Forest scientist and Oregon State University alumnus Steve Sillett studies and climbs the largest trees in the world. Since 1987, he’s climbed more than 1,000 of these arboreal giants, many of which reach heights greater than 200 feet tall and diameters upwards of 20 feet. Sillett’s study of old-growth forests — and in particular redwood [...]
January 29, 2013
Oregon State University In Asia
Scientific partnerships flourish across the region
For growth in research and educational opportunities, Oregon State University faculty and students increasingly look west. Connections to Asia are expanding. They encompass a wide range of activities including academic conferences, student exchanges and faculty collaborations. They focus on business, engineering, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, wood science, music and more. The university’s growing international influence is fueled [...]
January 23, 2013
The Road to Ecosystem Safeguards
Unsnarling the regulatory tangle in transportation planning
“This new tool will help speed up transportation projects while beefing up environmental stewardship.”
January 23, 2013
Ice Core Diaries
Records from the past carry warnings for our future
We are slowly beginning to understand the anatomy of global climate and how it changes, its geographic fingerprint and its tempo. Ice cores paint a complex and sometimes surprising picture, one that generations of scientists will spend decades trying to fully understand.
December 26, 2012
How Fire Saves Water
Controlled burns can keep water-hogging juniper in check
Parts of the Oregon outback are a poetic juxtaposition of passionate color scattered among charred, stalagmitic trees piercing the sky above like mighty javelins. In autumn, the understory blazes in hues of red, orange and yellow — colors that light the burnt forest as if it were once again on fire.
November 2, 2012
Ground Lines
Maps guide us through unfamiliar terrain
I remember my first day at what’s called “baby field camp” in the Oregon State geology program. Outside Bishop, California, we mapped the area around a cinder cone, long since dead. I quickly learned that the hot sun is a never-ending force of nature, not to be underestimated. I drank at least a gallon of [...]
October 12, 2012
Drug Test
Chemists' prototype fingers fake medicines
By some estimates, a third to half of the artesunate, an anti-malarial drug, in some countries is counterfeit. The World Health Organization has called for faster, more accurate tests, and now a team of Oregon State University chemists has stepped up with an innovative approach.
October 12, 2012
Far and Away
Oregon State students make discoveries from French Polynesia to the African savannah
When you play fetch with a killer whale, it makes an impression. When you play fetch with a killer whale and you’re only 7 years old, it can change your life. For Renee Albertson, the change was a long time in the making. But as she tried first one career and then another, she never [...]
October 10, 2012
Spinrad to Lead Ocean-Observing Group
Committee advises federal policymakers
Oregon State’s vice president for research, Rick Spinrad, has been tapped to chair a federal committee on ocean observing systems. The 13 marine scientists, conservationists and industry stakeholders will advise the Integrated Ocean Observation System, as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on data collection, management and technological innovation. As a former [...]
October 10, 2012
The Biscuit Fire 10 Years Later
What will the long-term data show?
The 2002 Biscuit Fire not only torched a half-million acres in Southern Oregon, it became a poster child for the debate over post-fire management and forest recovery. When the journal Science accepted a paper on the fire’s aftermath by then-graduate student Daniel Donato, it ignited a long-smoldering debate over what, if anything, should be done [...]
October 10, 2012
Contributing to the Mars Mission
NASA's quest for signs of life on Mars got a boost when Curiosity landed on the Red Planet
NASA’s quest for signs of life on Mars got a huge boost in August when Curiosity landed on the Red Planet.
October 9, 2012
Forms from the Sea
Oregon artists reveal hidden worlds in plankton science
During a Pacific Ocean research cruise, Angel White peers into her microscope. The ship rides gentle swells and sways side to side. In her field of view, organisms the size of dust motes rise and fall through their own watery world. “It can be disorienting and enthralling at the same time. The microbes are dying [...]
October 9, 2012
Drifters
Artist statement — Sara McCormick. My work is a form of digital art know as fractals: mathematical and natural forms that exhibit what’s known as self-similarity. Using a computer I render mathematical formulas into art of infinite depth and detail. More than anything else for me, my [...]
October 9, 2012
The Collection
Artist statement — Chi Meredith. I am a professional artist and also a retired oceanography research assistant. When asked to contribute to the da Vinci Days project, I anticipated making a two-dimensional oil painting of the beautiful photographs Dr. Angelicque White took of plankton gathered from the ocean. However, while in North Carolina last winter, [...]
October 9, 2012
Emiliania coccolithophore
Artist statement — Ella Rhoades. I went literal in my interpretation of Angelicque White’s photographs. The imagery of life beneath the microscope lends itself so beautifully to mosaic form. Optical filters are remnants from the oceanographic industry and generated the color palette for this piece [...]
