Fire can put a tropical songbird’s sex life on ice. Following habitat-destroying wildfires in Australia, a team of researchers led by WSU biology doctoral student Jordan Boersma found that many male red-backed fairywrens failed to molt into their red-and-black ornamental plumage, making them less attractive to potential mates. They also had lowered circulating testosterone, which […]
Even before the pandemic made Zoom ubiquitous, WSU researchers were using the video conferencing app to research a type of cannabis that is understudied: the kind people actually use. “Because of federal restrictions to researchers, it was just not possible to study the acute effects of these high-potency products,” said Carrie Cuttler, WSU psychologist and
A Spokane resident whose invention transformed the shipping industry; a woman who passed as a man and worked as a bartender, bronco buster, and longshoreman; plus preachers, prisoners, ranchers, immigrants, cowgirls, and soldiers are among the myriad people whose stories illuminate the history of the Northwest in Past as Prologue, a new radio program created […]
Before the huge potential of tiny nanocarriers for highly targeted drug delivery and environmental clean-up can be realized, scientists first need to be able to see them. ““We have developed a new technique to look at nanocarrier internal structure, chemistry, and environmental behavior without any labeling at all—a new capability that up to now has […]
You can take a fish out of toxic water, but its epigenetic mutations will remain for at least two generations. A research team led by Washington State University scientists analyzed the epigenetics—molecular factors and processes that determine whether genes are turned on or off—of a group of Poecilia mexicana fish, or Atlantic molly, that live […]
A new study in Global Biogeochemical Cycles shows per-area greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s water reservoirs are around 29% higher than suggested by previous studies, but that practical measures could be taken to help reduce that impact. According to the analysis by Washington State University and University of Quebec at Montreal scientists, much of the increase […]
Employer COVID‑19 safety measures influenced worker precautions even when they were not on the clock, according to a new study led by WSU psychology professor Tahira Probst. Researchers found workplace cultures that adopted COVID‑19 prevention measures, such as daily health checks and encouraging sick workers to stay home, resulted in less “sickness presenteeism” or going […]
No billionaires live among the Tsimane people of Bolivia, although some are a bit better off than others. These subsistence communities on the edge of the Amazon also have fewer chronic health problems linked to the kind of dramatic economic disparity found in industrialized Western societies. “The connection between inequality and health is not as […]
For decades, wealthy nations have transported plastic trash, and the environmental problems that go with it, to poorer countries, but WSU sociology researchers have found a potential bright side to this seemingly unequal trade: plastic waste may provide an economic boon for the lower-income countries. Yikang Bai (’15 MA, ’19 MS, ’20 PhD) and former […]
Alterations in the epigenetic programming of hatchery-raised steelhead trout could account for their reduced fertility, abnormal health and lower survival rates compared to wild fish, according to a new Washington State University study. The study, published May 18 in Environmental Epigenetics, establishes a link between feeding practices that promote faster growth, as well as other […]