will.ferguson | CAS in the Media | Washington State University

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Undergraduate researchers win national awards

December 7, 2016 will.ferguson

Three Washington State University undergraduates won national awards and cash prizes recently for outstanding presentations at the 2016 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in Tampa, Fla.

Marleny Garcia, a senior zoology and pre-medicine major from Mattawa, Wash., won in the cell biology category for her research poster, “Kallikreins in Female Reproductive Tract: New Players in Semen Liquefaction.” Carlie Knox, a senior neuroscience and psychology major from Federal Way, Wash., won in the neuroscience category for her poster, “Sex Differences in Opioid-cannabinoid Interactions on Chronic Inflammatory pain.”

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WSU News

Ask Dr. Universe: What color are our stars?

November 30, 2016 will.ferguson

Just the other night, I grabbed my binoculars and looked up to the starry sky. At first the stars looked white, but when I looked closer I noticed some appeared more blue and red.

I was curious to find out exactly what color they were, so I visited my friend George Newman. He’s a physics and astronomy instructor at Washington State University.

He said that a star mostly emits the kinds of light that our eyes see as red or blue.

“The thing that determines which color they give off most is their temperature,” he said.

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Dr. Universe

Researcher: Turkeys a major part of ancestral Pueblo life

November 22, 2016 will.ferguson

While the popular notion of the American Thanksgiving is less than 400 years old, the turkey has been part of American lives for more than 2,000 years. But for much of that time, the bird was more revered than eaten.

Washington State University archaeologists over the years have repeatedly seen evidence, from bones to blankets to DNA extracted from ancient poop, suggesting that the Pueblo people of the Southwest bred turkeys as far back as 200 B.C.

“Turkeys were an important bird symbolically and in practical ways as a source of feathers that kept people warm in the winter,” said Bill Lipe, a WSU professor emeritus of anthropology with decades of experience in the area. “And they were also important as a food source, probably primarily at periodic feasts and ritual gatherings.”

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WSU News

Physicists to do super-cool research in space

October 27, 2016 will.ferguson

Washington State University and NASA scientists are set to begin an investigation into the strange world of quantum physics on the International Space Station.

WSU physicists Peter Engels and Maren Mossman are part of a team studying the behavior of atoms laser-cooled to temperatures just a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero, the point where they behave like one wave of discrete particles.

Their research will be the start of a new chapter in the study of quantum physics that could eventually help in the development of ultrapowerful quantum computers and a wide variety of advanced sensors for taking measurements of quantities such as gravity, rotations and magnetic fields.

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WSU News

Fat in feces points to early presence of colorectal cancer

October 25, 2016 will.ferguson

Scientists at Washington State University and Johns Hopkins Medical School have discovered a fast, noninvasive method that could lead to the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer.

Using ultrasensitive, high-speed technology, the researchers identified a suite of molecules in the feces of mice that signifies the presence of precancerous polyps.

This “metabolic fingerprint” matches changes in both mouse and human colon tumor tissues and suggests a potential new diagnostic tool for early detection of colorectal cancer in a clinical setting.

Herbert Hill, WSU Regents professor of chemistry, and graduate student Michael Williams conducted the study in collaboration with Raymond Reeves, WSU School of Molecular Biosciences, and Linda Resar, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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Colon Cancer News Today