Biological Sciences | CAS in the Media | Washington State University

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Effect of toxins shown to skip generations, DDT linked to obesity

October 23, 2013

Michael Skinner portrait — Michael Skinner

“What your great-grandmother was exposed to during pregnancy, like DDT, may promote a dramatic increase in your susceptibility to obesity, and you will pass this on to your grandchildren in the absence of any continued exposures,” says WSU professor Michael Skinner.

Research shows ancestral exposures to environmental compounds like the insecticide DDT may be a factor in high rates of obesity. The finding comes as DDT is getting a second look as a tool against malaria.

Read the full story at WSU News

Read latest research finding in the
current issue of the journal BMC Medicine.

Tasmania Devil study seeks to understand infectious cancer

October 22, 2013

Andrew Storfer, an Eastlick Distinguished professor of biology, received a $2.25 million grant from NSF’s Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease program to study a fatal facial tumor disease in Tasmanian devils caused by a rare infectious cancer that is pushing the species towards extinction.

Storfer, along with an international team of colleagues, will study the ecological genomics of both the disease and the Tasmanian devil to better understand the emergence, transmission and evolution of the disease.

WSU astrobiologist contributes to Smithsonian blog

October 4, 2013

Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a professor in the School of the Environment, explores the mysteries of methane on Mars in his latest post on the Smithsonian Air & Space blog, The Daily Planet.

Read this and other posts by Schulze-Makuch, including “Life Raining Down from Space?” and “The Fermi Paradox Revisited.”

Grizzly bears benefit from return of wolves to Yellowstone

July 30, 2013

The return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park is having an interesting — though not surprising — effect on the larger ecosystem, affecting everything from grizzly bears to elk to berry bushes, according to new research from Oregon State University and Washington State University.

The study was published this week by scientists from Washington State University and Oregon State University in the Journal of Animal Ecology. WSU co-authors are graduate assistant Jennifer K. Fortin and Charles T. Robbins, professor in the WSU School of the Environment.

Other sources:

Cleaning up the global aquarium trade

July 12, 2013

Marine ecologist Brian Tissot raises serious concerns about reef and ecosystem damage related to collecting and selling tropical fish and other sea creatures. Some public aquariums, retailers, and wholesalers are taking measures to improve their practices.

Could new insights from the aquarium hobby actually help reef-dependent humans and animals alike?

See the clownfish and read more about ending destructive practices and encouraging aquaculture