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Finding could improve nuclear reactors, detectors

Cigdem Capan
Cigdem Capan

A Washington State University physics instructor and undergraduate have taken part in a study aimed at getting a better understanding of plutonium, a complex element with far-ranging applications in the fields of energy, security and the environment.

WSU Tri-Cities physics instructor Cigdem Capan and undergraduate Richard Dempsey worked with a team of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists that found plutonium does not share electrons when it bonds with fluoride atoms. They have published their findings in the journal Physical Review B.

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PNNL

Modeling maps vegetation to monitor erosion, rising seas

Stephen Henderson
Stephen Henderson

Washington State University scientists Stephen Henderson and Nikolay Strigul have developed a computer model that uses photographs to recreate the complex geometry of coastal plants.

“A large and growing percentage of Earth’s human population lives at low elevations along coastlines,” said Henderson, an associate professor in the School of the Environment at WSU Vancouver. “Developing a better understanding of the sheltering effects of aquatic vegetation on these environments will help us identify areas at risk from climate change and in the design of solutions to future problems.”

The research more efficiently gathers input for models that determine the effectiveness of mangrove forests, seagrass beds and other coastal plants at depositing sediment and reducing flooding and erosion. This could eventually help scientists predict how rising seas and more frequent extreme weather events will affect coastal population centers impacted by climate change.

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WSU News

$1.1 million award funds solar technology advances

Kelvin Lynn
Kelvin Lynn

Washington State University researchers have received a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative cooperative award to improve the performance and lower the cost of solar materials for the multibillion dollar industry.

Working in collaboration with researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and industry partner Nious Technologies, Inc., WSU researchers will improve the performance of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar material. They will improve its feedstock, or the raw crystal needed to make solar cells, with the goal of reducing costs and making it more competitive with popular silicon-based technology.

“A robust CdTe feedstock manufacturing technology and high quality CdTe materials will be available to the solar industry that could disrupt the current thin-film solar energy supply chain,” said Kelvin Lynn, Regents professor in WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Department of Physics and Astronomy. “The overall outcome will positively impact American solar energy manufacturing sector by boosting technology competiveness.”

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WSU News

Corpses, pythons, sleep deprivation: Meditation rituals in Thailand can be intense

Julia Cassaniti
Julia Cassaniti

A decomposing body may not seem like an ideal meditation aid, but at some of Thailand’s tens of thousands of Buddhist temples, it is common to find monks reflecting while seated before a rotting corpse.

It is not only monks who meditate in ways that may seem extreme.

Julia Cassaniti, an anthropology professor at Washington State University, was walking in the woods of a Thai monastery when she heard screams coming from a hut. The laypeople inside were using meditation to interact with their past lives, a struggle that adherents describe as painful.

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MalayMail Online

The New York Times

Hyperbaric chamber eases drug withdrawal symptoms

Raymond Quock
Raymond Quock

Washington State University researchers have found that treatments of pure oxygen in a high-pressure chamber can relieve the symptoms of opiate withdrawal.

Ray Quock – a pharmacologist and WSU psychology professor – gave morphine-addicted mice pure pressurized oxygen before they began withdrawal from the drug. The mice had far less severe withdrawal symptoms than addicted mice that did not receive the treatment.

Outwardly, said Quock, the treated mice appeared “much calmer. You can tell the difference.”

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WSU News

Medical Xpress

Health Medicine Network

Science Daily