The invasive Asian clam is more common in the lower Columbia River than its native habitat of southeast Asia, according to a study of the clam’s abundance in the river. The findings don’t bode well for potential future invasions by the even more destructive quagga and zebra mussels. So far, the Columbia is one of […]
Farmers who keep their chickens outdoors may want to watch the weather. A study of chicken farms in the West found that high winds increased the prevalence of Campylobacter in outdoor flocks, a bacterial pathogen in poultry that is the largest single cause of foodborne illness in the U.S. Researchers found that about 26% of […]
Glacier National Park is home to around 50 Canada lynx, more than expected, surprising scientists who recently conducted the first parkwide occupancy survey for the North American cat. The Washington State University-led survey reveals the iconic predator resides across most of Glacier’s 1,600 square-mile landscape, although at lower densities than in the core of its […]
Adding evidence to the importance of early development, a new study links neutral maternal behavior toward infants with an epigenetic change in children related to stress response. Epigenetics are molecular processes independent of DNA that influence gene behavior. In this study, researchers found that neutral or awkward behavior of mothers with their babies at 12 […]
It feels personal. The Black college students interviewed by Betty Wilson racially identified with unarmed Black victims of highly publicized police killings. In them, they saw their relatives, their friends — and themselves. “Am I next?” one student asked, encapsulating the ongoing fear many expressed. Wilson herself felt deep sadness in learning about the death […]
A recent study titled “The Pot at the End of the Rainbow” is one of the first to examine motives for cannabis use among sexual minorities quantitatively. Led by Washington State University psychologists, the researchers analyzed survey data from nearly 4,700 university students from across the country. “People who are in sexual minority groups not […]
Even without hunting rifles, humans appear to have a strong negative influence on the movement of wildlife. A study of Glacier National Park hiking trails during and after a COVID-19 closure adds evidence to the theory that humans can create a “landscape of fear” like other apex predators, changing how species use an area simply […]
More than 500 years ago in the midwestern Guatemalan highlands, Maya people bought and sold goods with far less oversight from their rulers than many archeologists previously thought. “Scholars have generally assumed that the obsidian trade was managed by Maya rulers, but our research shows that this wasn’t the case at least in this area,” […]
An alarming increase in the occurrence of the most common genital malformation in male babies, hypospadias, is likely due to environmental factors, such as toxicant exposure, which alter epigenetic programming in a forming penis. That’s according to a new study in Scientific Reports that identified a direct link between hypospadias tissue samples and the presence of epigenetic […]
A new WSU-led study indicates consistent exercise can change not just waistlines but the very molecules in the human body that influence how genes behave. Published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers found the more physically active sibling in identical twin pairs had lower signs of metabolic disease as measured by waist size and body mass […]