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Dr. Universe: What would happen if we had three hearts and one of them stopped?

October 10, 2018 adriana

It’s hard to say exactly what would happen if you had three hearts and one of them stopped. Humans, like cats, have just one heart, so we have no experience with this. Octopuses, on the other hand, do have three hearts.

Kirt Onthank. When I called my friend Kirt Onthank, an alumnus in biology from Washington State University who studies how octopus bodies work, he told me all about the three hearts. Before becoming a professor at Walla Walla University, he also studied biology here at WSU.

Onthank says the answer to your question depends on which of an octopus’s three hearts stops working. Octopuses have two types of hearts. Two of them are called branchial hearts and one is called a systemic heart.

Each branchial heart sits right next to each of the octopus’s gills. The branchial heart pumps blood through the gills and after the blood leaves the gills, the single systemic heart pumps it to the rest of the body.

“The branchial hearts kind of work like the right side of your heart, pumping blood to the lungs, and the systemic heart works like the left side of your heart, pumping blood to the rest of the body,” Onthank says.

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Dr. Universe

Professor conducts soundtrack for new film

October 9, 2018 adriana

Multiple WSU faculty members helped create, perform movie score.

A WSU music professor composed and performed the complete soundtrack for the new short film “The Cross-Up,” which was released in February and is now available on Amazon Prime.

Greg Yasinitsky, a professor of saxophone, composition and jazz studies at WSU, originally became involved with the project when his childhood friend and screenwriter Jerry Hauck was discussing the need for a composer.

“I have always wanted to write music for the movies, but never had the opportunity,” Yasinitsky said. “This was sort of serendipitous.”

Yasinitsky’s connection to the writer gave him the opportunity, but he was chosen because of his extensive background in music, he said.

The 22-minute film, directed by Eddie Velez, was featured in multiple film festivals as well as screenings in Los Angeles. It is a comedy about a mafia-like character receiving a visit from God to turn his life around.

The entire process for creating the soundtrack took approximately a year, Yasinitsky said. This involved writing the music, recording and having the directors review the soundtrack among other steps.

Much of Yasinitsky’s work was done at WSU, he said.

“We have great musicians here at WSU and a great recording studio just down the hall,” he said. “I thought if I put this together, we can use the people here.”

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Daily Evergreen

WSU researcher looks to find solution to fish mortality

October 8, 2018 adriana

A single source is not yet determined, but car tires may be partially to blame.

A WSU researcher is studying how urban stormwater runoff affects fish health.

Jenifer McIntyre, assistant professor at the Washington Stormwater Center in Puyallup, Washington, is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

Recent findings show specific fish species react differently to urban runoff, which is a problem for certain fish but not others. Researchers are trying to see how many coho and chum salmon survive to spawn.

Once coho salmon are exposed to urban runoff, they die in a few hours, but chum salmon do not get sick or die. Researchers are not sure why this discrepancy occurs.

“Coho are at risk where we build cities,” McIntyre said.

This is because coho live in lowland areas and do not spawn very far upstream, she said. There are high mortality rates for coho salmon due to urban stormwater runoff because they commonly spawn in creeks near cities.

If coho salmon are not surviving to spawn, there are fewer salmon eggs, McIntyre said. That means fewer salmon are born, which could affect the food chain. This includes the Puget Sound orcas, which commonly feed on coho.

So far, the research has been in the Puget Sound Basin, but researchers plan to do studies outside of the area because the problem has been happening north and south of the their study sites as well.

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Daily Evergreen

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Hanford gives Tri-Cities a history like nowhere else. New WSU book series tell the tales

October 1, 2018 adriana

A new series of Tri-City area history books has launched with the story of the people whose homes, land and businesses were seized for a secret wartime project in 1943.

The Hanford History Project at Washington State University Tri-Cities is using the oral histories it’s recorded as the basis of books that will tell the unusual history of the region as shaped by the Hanford nuclear reservation.

The first book—“Nowhere to Remember—Hanford, White Bluffs, and Richland to 1943”—will be featured at a launch party 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the visitor center for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, 2000 Logston Blvd., Richland.

The book, edited by WSU history faculty members Robert Bauman and Robert Franklin, was written to academic standards but uses oral histories to make the history more accessible.

Franklin covers the tight bonds among early residents, and Bauman tells the story of the removal of those who lived on the land.

Other writers relate the experiences of women who lived in the region in the early 20th century and look at transportation to root the local history in the larger context of the American West at the time. » More …

Technology company started by WSU professors receives grant

September 28, 2018 adriana

New microscope costs less, shows promise for university researchers

A startup company launched by a WSU professor has received a $740,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue research and eventually commercialize a new, less expensive and easy-to-use microscope.

Matthew McCluskey, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy, filed for a provisional patent five years ago for his design.

His company, Klar Scientific, designed and manufactures a spectroscopic confocal optical profile (COP) microscope, which collects more information about materials in less time and at a lower cost than what is currently on the market, McCluskey said.

He and co-founder Rick Lytel, an adjunct professor of physics, launched Klar Scientific after having difficulties gathering data with a standard confocal microscope. Certain types of confocal microscopes use fluorescence to find impurities or defects in a sample.

“Fluorescence occurs when you shine a laser on a sample and some molecules emit a different color of light,” McCluskey said. “It is similar to if you attended a blacklight party. The UV from the blacklight may make molecules in paint glow green or red.”

By comparison, McCluskey’s design is better at detecting small defects and uneven textures.

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Daily Evergreen