|
|
 |
Why Do We Sleep? |
These Tobacco Leaves Are Becoming
Cancer-fighters Of Time, Space and Landscape Why Can't We Stop Eating? Cilia and Flagella |
 |
Poison or Pleasure? |
Of Collaboration and the Third
Eyelid |
 |
Watching Mount St. Helens Recover The catastrophic eruption of St. Helens in 1980 has created a remarkable laboratory for studying ecological succession. New technology seems to be revealing a larger pattern in a seemingly random process. |
Fundamental Response When you rely on flagella to get around, it takes every one of the two seconds of memory you can muster to find your galactose. Long-lived Sperm Understanding where sperm are stored in the woman's body and how long they can live prior to fertilizing an egg is critically important both for couples who don't want to conceive as well as for those who are trying to conceive--in short, for most couples of reproductive age. Yet little progress has been made in this field, due to the difficulty of studying the small Fallopian tube, where fertilization occurs. Plant Viruses Discover How to Overcome Gene Silencing Given the nature of nature, it should come as no surprise that when viruses attack, plants don't just sit there and take it. They fight back. James Carrington, of the Institute of Biological Chemistry, studies plant-virus interactions from both the virus and the host ends. Recent work in his lab suggests that it is not just the plants that fight back. When Shocking Things Happen to Otherwise Normal Materials The world of Yogi Gupta is measured in billionths of a second and hundreds of thousands of atmospheres. It is understandable that he wears of late a permanent grin, for he has just been given a $10 million charter to explore even more remote regions of this very unusual world over the next several years. A Natural History of the Underground Population growth over the next three decades will require a 50-percent increase in food production. If we hope to feed ourselves, we had better treat our earthworms better. Adventures in the Rhizosphere How do we increase agricultural productivity without creating a further threat to the environment and human health? |
 |
Millions and Millions of Microbes Microorganisms require a different way of thinking about diversity. Knowing When to Stop One group of rats eats a typical high-fat American diet. Another eats a low-fat diet with lots of fiber. Guess which group can't stop eating? |
| Self-Defense Try though he has for the past 30 years, Jim Cook cannot find resistance genes for root disease in wheat. So how do plants manage soilborne pathogens? |
 |
Dust Soil ecology doesn't mean much if you can't keep the soil down on the farm. Beyond Nature or Nurture Several years ago, Hubert Schwabl discovered that freshly laid canary eggs contain maternal sex steroids such as testosterone. |
| Instant Evolution If Charles Darwin were writing now, he'd title his book "Origins of Species" rather than "Origin of Species." Current evidence suggests that a large percentage of all land plant species have originated not just once but several times. "We may have to fundamentally change the way we view evolution," says Professor of Botany Doug Soltis. Hold the Salt The lipedopteran caterpillar is basically just a thin sheet of animal stretched over a big gut. The caterpillar's enormous gut reflects an enormous appetite, and indeed eating is its sole immediate purpose and occupation. But larval gluttony comes with certain physiological problems, which have long interested David Moffett. Imperfect Repair Made Us and Saves Us For most organisms, mutations – inheritable changes in their DNA – provide a raw material for evolution. Yet mutations also result in damage, a prospect so potentially serious that organisms have developed more than one mechanism to seek out and repair it. The efficiency of a given repair mechanism depends largely on whether the DNA being repaired is actively being used by a cell. "Evolution can occur because repair is not perfect," says Michael Smerdon, professor of biochemistry/ biophysics. For the past two decades Smerdon has focused on how chromatin structure modulates both damage to DNA and the mechanisms that repair it. Using Animation to Aid Student Learning How will students in the science classes of the future learn complicated scientific principles? Washington State University at Vancouver biochemistry professor Steve Sylvester believes the future of learning may lie in computer animations. To that end, he is attempting to create animations of the biochemical processes involved in DNA sequencing, a move which could be a significant step toward the creation of an entirely virtual textbook for college and even high school science students. Plant Invasions and Global Change Not only does the history of plant invasions span thousands of years, argues Richard Mack, "their collective impact has been truly global. In contrast to currently discussed forms of global change, plant invasions have already "wrought permanent consequences." |
 |
On the Edge Sue Ritter and others have also determined that the receptors that stimulate one's appetite for fat are located outside the brain. What all this means, she says, is that we control nutrient intake based at least in part on the needs of specific organ systems, the brain being particularly demanding. |
| The Richness of the World A powerful new computer simulation helps an anthropologist balance uniqueness and generalities to explore prehistoric Southwest culture. Evolution is Not Just Now or Never Introduced to area gardens, salsify has made itself at home throughout the area--and is adding to our understanding of evolutionary change. Skin Deep Biochemical analysis has proved your suspicions correct that the redder the apple, the blander the taste. The Effect of Good Neighbors A marine ecologist has identified the black rush as responsible for the biodiversity of its community. |
 |
Reluctant Admiration for a
Tenacious Invader Genetically and otherwise, cheatgrass is the perfect invader. Mutant Petunias and Productivity Loverine Taylor has found a substance, kaempferol, that increases the number of seeds in the petunia—and also in tomato, wheat, and corn. |
| Chemical Intolerance May Be Similar to
Sensitization While many physicians dismiss chemical intolerance as neurotic, patients insist their problems are real. "I've been trying to stay on the fence with regard to the origin of chemical intolerance," says Barbara Sorg, an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology at Washington State University. She is investigating the physiological processes involved in its development. Sorg's expertise lies in an area called sensitization - a very general phenomenon through which the brain amplifies its response. Psychologist Works to Exploit Skills that Remain After Severe Head Injuries Over 500,000 Americans suffer traumatic head injuries each year. Problems that these people encounter vary, but among the most frustrating are difficulties in memory and attention. In order to better understand the mechanisms behind these problems, Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe is conducting projects through the Head Injury Research Program at Washington State University that focus on how to build on abilities that remain intact following such a traumatic injury. Veterinary Researchers Discover Sheep Scrapie Test USDA scientists working in collaboration with researchers in the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine have discovered that sheep eyelids hold the key to an easy, inexpensive test for diagnosing scrapie, a fatal brain disease in sheep. Scrapie is a degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats. It is a type of spongiform encephalopathy, similar to the disease known as Mad Cow Disease. In fact, current theories suggest Mad Cow Disease in Britain may have arisen from sheep scrapie. The announcement of the groundbreaking test's development came late last week from the office of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. WSU & TriDiamond Sports Engineer Superior Wood Baseball Bat Researchers and developers from Washington State University and TriDiamond Sports in Spokane are designing, engineering and testing a stronger, more durable wood bat that will step up to the plate in performance. The wood engineering faculty and TriDiamond management have created a unique manufacturing process that warrants one approved patent and has additional patents pending. The next phase of research in fiber reinforcement and automation technologies will enhance the product even further. Commercialization is expected within two years. When Genes Go Bad: Scientist Uses Drug Combination to Suppress Mutant Gene Not only are there many kinds of cancer, but even cancers that we think of as distinct can act differently in different people. Breast cancer is a case in point. But following initial discouragement upon realizing how differently breast cancer can behave in different women, scientists finally discovered that the distinguishing factor in such cases is the normally protective p53 gene. Microbiologist Unravels Campylobacter's Tactics Campylobacter jejuni. Its name may not be familiar, but its effects are. It causes the cramping, diarrhea, fever and nausea usually associated with food-borne gastrointestinal illness. Campylobacter jejuni causes more of this illness in the United States than its more famous cousins Salmonella or Escherichia coli, somewhere between two and eight million cases of gastrointestinal upsets a year. How Will Increased Ultraviolet Radiation Affect Forests? Since global processes do not operate in isolation, how will the UV-B effect on forests affect their ability to cope with anticipated global warming? The Contemporaries of Kennewick Man Discovery of the skeleton called Kennewick Man along the bank of the Columbia River has revived the public's curiosity about the first people who made the Northwest home. Vaguely written in bones and shells, projectile points and cordage, the legacy of the region's original inhabitants is the focus of an ongoing review by Washington State University anthropologists. Over the past 40 years, WSU archaeology teams have excavated dozens of Northwest prehistoric sites and collected hundreds of thousands of artifacts dating back 11,000 years. |
 |
Plants Can Adjust to Cold Temperatures If you think your outdoor plants are just sitting around waiting to freeze in the fall while you're rooting around in your cedar chest for another sweater, think again. Plants also respond to colder temperatures in ways that will help them survive the coming winter. |
|
High-Tech Detectives Seek Natural
Control for Take-All Roll down your window next time you drive past a wheat field. Listen carefully. Or better yet, get out and grab a handful of soil. Hidden in that soil is a conversation between the wheat's roots and a variety of soil bacteria. It takes a special ear, though, to hear this "cross talk," says USDA-Agricultural Research Service plant pathologist David Weller. for the conversation takes place via chemical signals. Trying to Stay Ahead of Mother Nature with Antibiotics The "bugs and drugs" tennis match has no clear winner yet. Almost every time Mother Nature serves up a new bacteria, her serve is returned by a new antibiotic. Antibiotics have done well. But Mother Nature's not-so-secret weapon – evolution – is providing her with more and more aces. |
 |
Safer Food End Product of New
Processing Center Gustavo Barbosa-Canovas, on the faculty of Washington State University's Department of Biological Systems Engineering for seven years, has helped develop a center for nonthermal methods of food preservation, such as high-voltage pulsed electric field, ultra-high pressure, oscillating magnetic fields, and combined methods. |
| Good Neighbors: Positive Interaction
Can Increase Biodiversity For a while, in ecology as well as sociology and other studies of interaction, the darker, Malthusian implications of evolution seemed to garner the most attention. Competition was the name of the interactions game. But in ecology, at least, positive interaction has reclaimed respect and close attention. Life Determined by More Than Just Environment and Genetics Hormones regulate critical life processes such as growth and reproduction. But now hormones are being found to have impacts beyond the individual animal that produces them. They reach from one generation to effect the very survival of the next. In addition, they communicate messages about the environmental conditions affecting the parent generation to the offspring – which may help the new generation adapt to their environment. |
 |
A New World Environmental Science Professor Edward Rykiel is trying to put together a complex puzzle that may take years if not decades to solve. He is studying the ability of nature to heal itself. Rykiel has spent the last four years researching what is known as the Pumice Plain at Mount St. Helens. Before the eruption on May 18, 1980, the Pumice Plain area was a dense silver fir forest on the banks of Spirit Lake. Now it is an area as large as the city of Pullman covered with up to 30 meters of pumice, a rock that can float and is similar to blown glass. |
Green Clean Machines AND BE SURE
TO VISIT OUR AWARD-WINNING SCIENCE WEBSITE ... |
        |
hen William Jasper Spillman joined the faculty at Washington
Agricultural College in 1894, he became its fifth faculty member. Besides teaching a full
load, he managed the college's livestock herd, dispensed scientific advice to farmers
across the state, and coached the football team. He also conducted wheat hybridization
experiments and, as did three other scientists, independently repeated Gregor Mendel's
genetics experiments, three decades after the Austrian monk introduced his observations to
a world not yet ready to understand their significance.
