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Washington Research Foundation announces 2021 cohort of WRF Postdoctoral Fellows

The 10 Fellows-elect will conduct their research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch), the University of Washington (UW), Washington State University (WSU) and Western Washington University (WWU) starting in 2021. Most will be carrying out research of their own design that focuses on solutions to challenges in the life sciences. They were chosen by a national selection committee from academia and industry to complete projects that will accelerate the development of products and services to benefit people in Washington state and beyond.

Among them, Molly Carney is completing a doctorate in archaeology at WSU and will continue at the university to investigate how past Northwest people managed and produced native plant foods, to support contemporary native plant food restoration efforts.

WRF funds up to 10 new Fellows each year. The next application period is expected to open in the spring of 2021.

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FOX40

A female hunter’s remains hint at more fluid gender roles in the early Americas

Women in early hunter-gatherer groups regularly hunted big game alongside their male peers, indicates a study published on November 4 in the journal Science Advances. Researchers excavated a 9,000-year-old partial skeleton in the Andes buried with hunting tools and determined that the remains belonged to a young woman. The team also pored over previous reports of human remains from this time period, and found numerous other examples of women in North and South America buried with tools used in big-game hunting.

Shannon Tushingham.
Tushingham

However, a number of researchers have speculated that some ancient societies might have had a more equal division of labor. “We think that people were engaged in more group hunting practices,” says Shannon Tushingham, an archaeologist and director of the Museum of Anthropology at Washington State University who was not involved in the research. “It would make sense that men and women and children were all dispatching these large animals.”

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Popular Science

WSU COVID-19 research tackles the present and future pandemic

From tracking to treatment to prevention, Washington State University scientists are expanding our understanding of the current COVID-19 crisis while helping lead international efforts to identify and stop the next potential pandemic.

More than 150 researchers are working on projects related to COVID-19 throughout the WSU system. Many, such as identifying differences in how people are responding to the pandemic, have present applications, while others are helping advance our knowledge of this disease so as to prevent a future, similar outbreak.

Courtney Meehan.
Meehan

Infant health – Biological anthropologist Courtney Meehan is teaming up with researchers at University of Idaho, University of Washington and Tulane University to investigate maternal-infant SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk via breastmilk and breastfeeding as well as host immune responses to infection in breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding women and infants. Results will inform national and international guidance for infant feeding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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WSU Insider

War songs and lullabies behind origins of music

Love is not the reason why we sing and create symphonies—at least not the primary reason, according to a new evolutionary theory of the origins of music.

Ed Hagen.
Hagen

“Sex and mating are a part of the story, but music seems to expand far beyond that particular domain,” said Ed Hagen, an evolutionary anthropologist with Washington State University and a co-author on the study. “The sexual selection hypothesis doesn’t really explain a core feature of music: that it is often performed in groups. It’s also listened to and performed by both sexes.”

The researchers also argue against the social bonding theory noting that there are many more efficient ways for groups to bond than the time-consuming process of making music, including talking and sharing a meal. The theory also does not account for the fact that music is often performed for others who take no part in the creation of it.

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WSU Insider
Fast Company
Hindustan Times

The Indian Weekender

The Hearing Review

Ask Dr. Universe: Why do apes walk on their knuckles?

A lot of apes walk on their knuckles. Gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos use their knuckles for stability and balance.

Nanda Grow.
Grow

That’s what I found out from my friend Nanda Grow, an anthropologist and wildlife biologist at Washington State University who studies primates.

“Gorillas and chimpanzees both do knuckle walking, but they do different kinds,” she said.

Whether primates are swinging, jumping, running, skipping, knuckle-walking or walking upright, every species knows just the right way to get from one place to the next.

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Dr. Universe