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New books get to roots of contemporary issues

Tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues – from energy supply to mass migration and public health – is at the heart of an acclaimed new book series written and edited by history faculty at Washington State University.

Clif Stratton.
Stratton
Jesse Spohnholz.
Spohnholz

The books represent years of scholarly research by Associate Professor Clif Stratton, Professor Jesse Spohnholz and former Postdoctoral Instructor Sean Wempe, now an assistant professor at California State University, Bakersfield. They reflect the thematic structure and successful teaching approach of the Roots of Contemporary Issues program (RCI) and introduce WSU’s pioneering teaching approach to educators and students elsewhere.

“We designed the books after years of learning how to engage with WSU students who are eager to learn about how the world developed the way it has,” said Spohnholz, RCI director. “They understand that learning our world’s past empowers them to shape its future.”

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WSU Insider

WSU research behind potential game-changing Alzheimer’s drug

Joe Harding.
Harding

Medicinal chemist and now-adjunct professor of psychology Joe Harding was in his lab at Washington State University trying to isolate, purify, and clone the protein receptor for the hormone angiotensin II when he noticed something unusual but interesting.

Jay Wright.
Wright

It was 1991 and Harding was researching potential new options for relieving high blood pressure, but if the anomalies showing up in his lab tests meant what he thought they might, he and his research partner, fellow WSU scientist and then-professor in the Department of Psychology, Jay Wright, were on the brink of a different breakthrough.

In the years that followed, the WSU scientists discovered that a molecule associated with memory could activate a powerful growth system that can stimulate the production of new nerve cells and enable damaged nerve cells to replace connections lost during the Alzheimer’s disease process. The work coming out of their WSU lab has since shown that activating this system reversed cognitive deficits in multiple models of dementia, and, recently, the research took another major step forward.

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WSU Insider

GeekWire

Opinion: Racial discrimination and protests have long history in Tri-Cities

By Robert Bauman and Robert Franklin, history faculty at WSU Tri-Cities

Robert Franklin.
Franklin
Robert Bauman.
Bauman

As scores of Tri-Citians have joined hundreds of thousands of citizens across America in demonstrating against racial injustice and violence this summer, it is important to remember that the Tri-Cities has a long history of protests against racial segregation and discrimination in this community.

The Tri-Cities was a small but important part of the largest migration in American History, the Great Migration. By 1950, 20% of Pasco’s approximately 10,000 residents were Black, almost all segregated in substandard housing in East Pasco, while few lived in the new atomic community of Richland and none in “lily-white” Kennewick.

In the Spring of 1963, at the same time that Martin Luther King, Jr. was leading marches in Birmingham, Alabama, the first of many demonstrations in support of Civil Rights and against segregation began in Kennewick and Pasco. At a protest in 1963, marchers carried signs advocating that “Kennewick Racism Must Go” and asking “Why is Kennewick All White?” In addition, protests in Pasco in 1969 and 1970 addressed residential segregation and the ongoing use of violence and intimidation by police against black residents.

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Tri-City Herald

 

WSU researchers look into differences between political ads on TV vs. Facebook

In an age where more and more political advertising is moving online, Washington State University researchers have found ads on Facebook use more partisan language than those on TV but are generally less negative.

Travis Ridout.
Ridout

“One of the findings is that the ads themselves are quite different — you find a lot more negativity on TV than you do on digital advertising but on digital ads, you find more partisanship,” said WSU professor of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, and author on the study, Travis Ridout. “The other main finding or the main difference there is that digital advertising is actually less likely to talk about policy issues than is TV advertising.”

Ridout said there are a number of reasons for the disparities between the two mediums, including that the goals for digital advertisements are much more extensive than their televised counterparts. He said while both formats endeavor to persuade viewers to be sympathetic toward a particular point of view, digital ads may also seek to fundraise, gather demographic information or mobilize voters.

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Daily News
WSU Insider

Wildlife biologists study threatened Canada lynx at Glacier

The Glacier National Park Conservancy, Glacier National Park and Washington State University are in year two of a three-year research study.

Alissa Anderson.
Anderson

“Climate change is highly likely to shrink lynx habitat and make it more fragmented,” said Alissa Anderson, a master’s student in environmental sciences at Washington State University and wildlife biologist.

The trail cams are able to snap photos of more than just the lynx. Over the span of the study so far, the trail cams have captured photos of hundreds of moose, elk, bears, deer and thousands of hikers.

Project workers will be able to collect the data from all sorts of animals, not just lynx, and share the information with other researchers and studies.

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NBC Montana