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Teaching old bears new tricks

Joy Erlenbach.
Erlenbach

Training adult grizzly bears to give blood turned out to be much easier than Joy Erlenbach imagined.

The Washington State University graduate student, along with Bear Center manager Brandon Hutzenbiler, trained the WSU Grizzly Bear Research, Education, and Conservation Center’s two adult males to give blood in less than a month.

“It was surprisingly easy,” Erlenbach said. “These bears have never been touched before by people, and they’ve been at the Center for over a decade. But they just got it right away. It was awesome.”

John and Frank, the two adult male bears, came to WSU from Yellowstone, so they’re not as comfortable around people as the bears that were bottle-raised at the center.

The center has 11 bears total, and the seven bottle-raised bears have long been trained for blood draws. But until now, the four bears from the wild had to be anesthetized for their regular blood work.

“Having them trained is so much less stressful on them,” Erlenbach said. “And these regular blood checks are important for us to monitor their health and make sure they’re getting the best care possible.”

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WSU Insider

Fulbright takes environmental science professor to Brazil in search of plastics in food

Alex Fremier.
Fremier

While shocking images of floating islands of plastic trash in the world’s oceans cause widespread alarm, a more insidious threat to ecological and human health may be the nearly invisible microplastics in local waters, according to Alex Fremier, a riparian ecologist at Washington State University.

Tiny bits of plastic, measuring less than five millimeters, that enter the food chain, or web, can pose direct physical and chemical harm to numerous organisms, including humans, Fremier said.

“We need to understand more about microplastics and their potential health risks with released toxins,” he said.

In July, he will go to Belém, Brazil, through a four‑month Fulbright Global Scholar Award, to collect water, fish and sediment samples in the Lower Amazon River Basin with the aim of learning where microplastics occur in the regional web of human food.

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WSU Insider

Dear Dr. Universe: Why do we dance?

If we traveled around the world, we would see all kinds of dancers. We might see classical ballerinas in Russia. We might see break dancers performing on the streets of New York. We might even see tango dancers in Argentina.

While the exact reasons we dance remain a mystery, there are a few theories about it.

Ed Hagen.
Hagen

That’s what I found out from my friend Ed Hagen, an anthropologist at Washington State University who has researched the roots of dance.

In nature, we actually see a lot of animals dancing. It’s not just humans. Bees do a kind of waggle dance where they step in a figure-eight pattern. This movement helps them communicate important information. It lets other bees know where to find the best pollen to make honey.

Birds, especially male birds, will often flutter their bright and beautiful feathers to attract a mate. Dolphins will also make graceful leaps together and twirl around in the ocean to attract a partner.

This process of using dance to find a mate is part of something called courtship, Hagen said. Dance may also be part of courtship in humans, too.

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Dr. Universe

History prof to lead WSU UCORE general education program

Clif Stratton.
Stratton

Washington State University history professor Clif Stratton has been named the new director of the University Common Requirements Program, known as UCORE, announced Mary F. Wack, vice provost for undergraduate education.

Stratton will continue to teach in history’s Roots of Contemporary Issues program, for which he served as assistant director for five years. Roots is a one-course, first-year-experience cornerstone of the UCORE curriculum. Stratton also teaches history and Honors College courses on race and modern U.S. history.

“It’s a great honor to lead UCORE,” Stratton said. “It is central to the mission of the university. It touches virtually every student on every campus, regardless of their major, from their first-year through capstone courses.

“UCORE meets students’ academic needs by advancing knowledge, understanding, and skill development. It helps them make connections across disciplines. In many ways, UCORE provides a foundation for today’s students to become lifelong learners equipped to analyze, communicate, and solve tomorrow’s problems.”

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WSU Insider

Dr. Universe: How do you make mummies?

When we think of mummies, we might imagine the kind from ancient Egypt wrapped up in linen. But there are lots of ways to make mummies—and they can even form in nature.

Shannon Tushingham.
Tushingham

That’s what I found out from my friend Shannon Tushingham, an archaeologist at Washington State University and director of the WSU Museum of Anthropology.

In ancient Egypt, priests were usually in charge of making a mummy. They used a special hook to pull out the brain. They put the brain in a jar to help preserve it. They put the lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach in jars, too. But the heart was left in place.

The ancient Egyptians believed it was the heart, not the brain, that was the center of someone’s being and intelligence.

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Dr. Universe