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New Genetic Tools Have Dramatically Changed Wildlife Conservation

The collection of eDNA is just the first step in trying to identify species from the bits of themselves they leave behind as they roam different habitats. The dead skin, saliva, scat, and other cellular material that organisms shed must then be analyzed in a laboratory using molecular methods.

At Washington State University’s School of the Environment, associate professor Caren Goldberg extracts the DNA trapped in the filters that [National Park Service biologist Andy] Hubbard sends from southern Arizona. “We do one species at a time, and then sometimes we have to do some extra cleaning on the samples, and then we process all the data, and we double-check it to make sure everything looks good before sending it back,” she said.

Environmental technology is a valuable tool for finding elusive species like frogs, Goldberg said. She knows how slippery the creatures can be because, as a University of Arizona student, she completed her master’s thesis after chasing barking frogs in the mountains and surveying Chiricahua leopard frogs that can be difficult to see in murky, and often deep, water holes.

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Undark.com
The Good Men Project

Investigating Spin and Chirality Interactions

Electronic devices known as spintronics employ an electron’s spin rather than its charge to produce an energy-efficient current that is used for computing, data storage, and communication.

Researchers have successfully measured the amount of charge generated in spin-to-charge conversion within a spintronic material at ambient temperature, thanks to a printable organic polymer that prints into chiral configurations. The polymer’s adjustable properties and adaptability make it appealing for use in understanding chirality and spin interactions more broadly, as well as for less costly, environmentally friendly, printed electronic applications.

The study can be found in Nature Materials. Co-first authors are Kyung Sun Park of Urbana-Champaign and Rui Sun of ORaCEL with the support of eight co-authors, including Zhi-Gang Yu of Washington State University.

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AZO Materials
MSN.com

How our first jobs shape the rest of our lives

We all start somewhere. And our first jobs — no matter if you’re an ice cream scooper or an investment intern — leave lasting marks on us. First jobs teach us about ourselves and the world around us. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

MPR News host Angela Davis talked with WSU sociologist Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson about how our first jobs shape our minds, habits and futures.

Listen to the full interview:
Minnesota Public Radio News

 

New program emphasizes service learning

A partnership between Washington State University’s Center for Civic Engagement and the LAUNCH Program is bringing service-learning into the classroom, with positive impacts on student success.

The two offices collaborated on an effort to include service-learning in Psychology 105 and Human Development 200 courses in the 2023-24 academic year. More than 800 students were asked to engage in service-learning experiences scaffolded into the courses and then reflect on the experience as part of their fall semester course curriculum.

“Our goal was to give students the space and opportunity to think about who they are, where they want to go, and what learning experiences could help them in that developmental process,” Samantha Swindell, psychology professor and associate dean of undergraduate studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Service-learning doesn’t just give students an opportunity to live their values – it also has a substantial impact on their success. A study conducted by biology faculty and CCE staff during academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 found that students who participated in a similar service-learning project received an academic boost: end-of-semester grades for participants were almost 10% higher than non-participants’ grades, and participants’ fall-to-fall retention was 9.3% higher. The impact was particularly pronounced among students of color.

“We have every reason to believe that the benefits of service-learning are as true for our students as they were in the group that was studied,” Swindell said. “Service-learning helps students be more civic-minded, feel more like a member of the community, improves self-efficacy, and is great practice in stepping into an unfamiliar situation and seeing it as a learning opportunity.”

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KHQ News
WSU Insider

‘Exploding head syndrome’? Inside a mysterious, disturbing sleep condition

A musician and guitar luthier who’s no stranger to loud noises, Dave Lovos admits to being a bit undone by the boom he heard in his head one night earlier this year. It hit just as Lovos was drifting off to sleep, the force of it snapping him to attention.

What Lovos experienced is known by the unscientific but evocative moniker “exploding head syndrome” (EHS), a mysterious example of a parasomnia, or sleep disorder. Parasomnias include sleepwalking, sleep talking, sleep paralysis, and pesky muscle spasms known as “myoclonic jerks.” In most cases, these parasomnias are normal and harmless, except when physical danger or pain is involved.

“My office would be a lot messier if heads were actually exploding,” says Brian Sharpless, [former WSU psychology faculty member and] a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in sleep. Sharpless is among the handful of psychologists and others researching EHS. He says the condition is harmless.

Classified as a sleep disorder in 2005 by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the small number of studies to date have dismissed earlier clinical claims that women over 50 were more prone to EHS. Data today show that the incidents are almost equally divided among men and women. In a study out of Washington State University, authored by Sharpless, upwards of 13 percent of college students reported at least one episode.

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National Geographic Magazine