When land grant universities were created 150 years ago, science was already an international activity. Well before the signing of the Morrill Act in 1862, American scientists aboard six U.S. Navy vessels had circumnavigated the globe, collected thousands of plant and animal specimens and mapped parts of the Pacific Ocean from the Columbia River to [...]
Tag » Science
June 29, 2012
Science Without Borders
Want to do science today? Make sure your passport is up to date.
May 24, 2012
X-ray vision
Discarded data may hold the key to a sharper view of proteins and other molecules
There’s nothing like a new pair of eyeglasses to bring fine details into sharp relief. For scientists who study the large molecules of life from proteins to DNA, the equivalent of new lenses has come in the form of an advanced method for analyzing data from X-ray crystallography experiments. Reported in this week’s issue of [...]
April 20, 2012
You don’t have to look like Einstein
Oregon girls get hands-on science and engineering experience
The lecture hall overflows with middle-school girls and their parents one Saturday morning in February. Images flash across three big screens at the front of the room. Suddenly, a giant face of Albert Einstein pops up, filling the screens with the scientist’s wild white hair and huge, fuzzy mustache. “A lot of people think you [...]
May 24, 2011
Pathfinders
Have you ever shot an electron beam through a molecule? Undergrads in Ken Hedberg's lab take aim and discover how matter is arranged.
Robert Johnson gets a lot of strange looks when he tells his friends what he does in Ken Hedberg’s lab. The senior from Salem and another student, Luke Costello from Corvallis, shoot beams of electrons through clouds of gasses and use the results to analyze molecular structure. “People ask ‘why?’” says Johnson. “I just say, [...]
January 29, 2011
Wave Action!
Tsunami (pronounced soo-NAH-mee): A Japanese word meaning “harbor wave”
Wave machines and miniature towns reveal secrets of tsunamis.
July 23, 2010
Uncharted Waters
Communities, engineers and scientists prepare for the next tsunami
It may come like it did the last time, in the middle of a cold and blustery January night. Suddenly the ground will begin to shake, windows will shatter, bridges collapse, the electricity will go out and parents will frantically try to find a flashlight and dig sleepy kids out of bed, ignore everything else [...]
July 23, 2010
Nature’s Medicine Chest
Taifo Mahmud's father inspired a quest for new drugs in Indonesia
Taifo Mahmud opens the incubator and, picking up the stacked petri dishes one by one, raises them to the light. Each round, lidded container displays a colorful pattern pocked or sprayed across the agar. The researcher points with pride to the branching abstractions of yellows and rusts, oranges and greens, the visible etchings of billions [...]
July 23, 2010
Birding by Ear Online
Volunteers help teach computers to ID birds by song
Recording the subtle syllables, notes and motifs that distinguish one bird species from another requires some pretty sophisticated gear. But for OSU researchers, collecting audio data in an old-growth forest last summer was a walk in the park compared with analyzing it. “It’s a lot of data,” reports Jed Irvine, a faculty research assistant in [...]
July 17, 2010
Teeny Little Steps
Small changes can pay big dividends for overweight kids
Romping in the backyard at Cozy Corners family childcare home, Avery and Lauryn are boosting their health by doing what kids do naturally – running, jumping and playing.
July 17, 2010
The Persistence of Species
An ecologist seeks clues to forest biodiversity
In the tropics of Costa Rica, this violet sabrewing hummingbird is helping researchers understand the effects of forest fragmentation on ecosystems.
July 17, 2010
From Problem to Profit
Western juniper could benefit Oregon's "green" economy
Which of Oregon’s abundant tree species can provide not only logs for your vacation cabin but scented oil for your afternoon massage and flavor for your evening cocktail? Juniperus occidentalis, western juniper. This hardy species – which is endemic to the dry, rocky grasslands east of the Cascades – has heartwood that is both beautiful [...]
July 17, 2010
On Track
OSU undergraduate accepted into summer biomedical program in Switzerland
By Nick Houtman and Darryl Lai Marsha Lampi runs for distance – 5,000 or 10,000 meters in track, 5,000 or 6,000 meters in cross-country. The former Lincoln High School student from Portland enjoys pacing herself but is always looking to improve. “I usually think, if only I had done this or that differently, I could [...]
July 17, 2010
Summer of Science
Experience Oregon's beauty and bounty through OSU research
Take a hike! Summer may have arrived a bit late in the Pacific Northwest, but you can make up for lost time by exploring Oregon through OSU’s Summer of Science Google map.
April 24, 2010
Biases and Barriers
Pharmacist battles myths about chronic pain
Bi-Mart seems an unlikely springboard for social change. Yet tucked away in a corner of a store on the edge of Springfield, pharmacist Kathy Hahn is waging a militant campaign against pain. “I’m kind of an activist,” she says, leaning close to her listener and whispering the word “activist” as if confiding a dark secret. [...]
April 24, 2010
Guarding Human Health
Diseases cross barriers from animals to people
Veterinarians, as everyone knows, care for dogs, cats and livestock. Less well-known is their role in safeguarding human health. “It’s important to point out the strengths and critical assets that veterinarians bring to public health,” observes Cyril Clarke, Lois Bates Acheson Dean of Veterinary Medicine. Clarke ticks off the key intersections of animal-human health one [...]
April 24, 2010
Partners in Rural Vitality
OSU students and faculty team with Wallowa Resources to address rural development
Beautiful landscapes may inspire us, but it takes more than scenery to create community vitality. Wallowa County and rural communities across the country struggle with economic development, a future for their youth and the cultural tensions that arise from changing land ownership. For more than a decade, such issues in Wallowa have been addressed by Wallowa [...]
April 24, 2010
Fending Off a Fruit Menace
Extension videos teach you how to trap and identify the spotted wing Drosophila It’s a pest not much bigger than the head of a pin. But for Oregon farmers, the tiny fruit fly has the potential to take a giant bite out of yields — and profits. The spotted wing Drosophila has made its way [...]
April 24, 2010
Preview of Coming Attractions
After Chile, Oregon prepares for Big One
March 15, 2010: “The Bridge Team’s goal for today was to determine the geographical extent of bridge damage from the Chilean earthquakes. We did this by driving nearly 450 miles south along Route 5 (the Pan American Highway) from Santiago to Temuco, keeping along the outer edge of the zone of strong shaking (about 50 [...]
April 23, 2010
Tools of the Trade
Gramene database spurs quiet revolution in crop genetics
To find the genes that enable a crop — ryegrass or wheat, for example — to resist disease or tolerate drought can mean endless searching, not through one haystack but through many. And success is only the beginning of time-consuming breeding trials. Now scientists, farmers and plant breeders who feed the world have a new [...]
April 23, 2010
Global Ocean
Sea levels are rising. Coral reefs are under siege. “Dead zones” are proliferating. From the poles to the Equator, Oregon State University marine scientists are tackling these and other problems in their quest to understand how oceans work, how ecosystems are responding and how we can manage them. With one of the largest concentrations of [...]
April 23, 2010
Living on the Fault
On a computer generated diagram of seismic profiles from Nepal and Tibet, John Nabelek traces a thin blue line. “That’s the interface between the Indian and the Eurasian tectonic plates,” he says. The earthquake-prone, mountainous terrain above it is home to an estimated 40 million people. “It is very steep. In earthquakes, landslides come tumbling [...]
April 23, 2010
Paying for Pavement
Vehicle mileage fee could replace the gas tax
Praise the gas tax. For every gallon pumped into pickups, SUVs and miserly subcompacts, Oregonians put 24¢ into the state highway fund and another 18.3¢ into the federal. On top of that, two Oregon counties (Washington and Multnomah) and 21 cities add their own levies for local roads. In 2005, about 80 percent of Oregon’s [...]
April 23, 2010
Oxytocin, Empathy and Autism: Q&A with Sarina Rodrigues
Terra: What is the link between empathy and autism? Sarina Rodrigues: In general, people high on the autism scale don’t do particularly well on tasks where they are asked to read other people’s emotions. We call this skill “empathic accuracy.” But that doesn’t mean people with autism can’t empathize. In fact, there’s one theory that [...]
April 23, 2010
Finding a Balance: Q&A with Stewart Trost
Terra: Sometimes anti-obesity programs are viewed as placing emphasis on children’s weight rather than on their health. Stewart Trost: Yes, that’s true. Some programs have tried sending home BMI (body mass index) report cards to parents. They’ve had a lot of push-back from parents saying, “You’re telling me my child’s fat.” It’s difficult, because on [...]
April 17, 2010
OSU Scholars Archive Ranks Among World’s Best
ScholarsArchive@OSU, a digital archive for scholarly writings, rates among the top institutional repositories in the world. Achieving its highest ratings yet in January 2010, OSU came in fourth nationally and 16th internationally on Web-o-Metrics Institutional Repository rankings. Only three U.S. universities — MIT (which designed the repository software), Michigan and Tufts — outranked Oregon State. [...]
February 22, 2010
No More Dentures
Discovery could lead to growing spare teeth
As soon as the story was out last winter, Chrissa Kioussi’s phone started to ring. People offered to send her their teeth or to volunteer in her study of tooth development.
February 22, 2010
Redrawing the Map
Scientists and fishermen team up to find seafloor hazards and habitats
Maps of Oregon’s territorial sea are due for an upgrade.
February 22, 2010
Two Business Startups Get Boost from OSU Fund
An innovative tax credit program aimed at fast-tracking commercialization of university research stands as a bright spot in Oregon’s sputtering economy.
February 22, 2010
Radical Defense
Without antioxidants, you may be more prone to cancer and neurological or cardiovascular problems.
February 22, 2010
Stimulating Research
Oregon State University research projects are receiving a stimulus boost through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)
