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Group honors queer heroes, rewriting Oregon and Washington history with truth

A local group is celebrating 10 years of trailblazers who have helped uplift the LGBTQ+ community in the Pacific Northwest.

“It’s important to tell all of the stories,” said Robin Will, president of the Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN). “That old saying that winners write history… If you get into the historical record where you can’t be ignored, then you are a winner.”

Peter Boag.
Boag

“I was told early on in my career that this kind of research would end my career,” Washington State University queer historian Peter Boag said.

Boag was named a Queer Hero in 2018.

As other states enact anti-LGBTQ laws in 2021, he noted this reminder: “Some things have changed, and unfortunately some things haven’t.”

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KGW8

Ask Dr. Universe: Why does it make noise when you snap your fingers?

Troy Bennefield.
Bennefield

When I got your question, I snapped my fingers a few times to try and find the exact source of the sound. After a few tries, I decided to ask my friend Troy Bennefield, the director of Athletic Bands at Washington State University.

As the middle finger hits the base of the palm, you actually send some vibrations out into the air. Vibrations are a big part of the reason we can hear all kinds of things—from snaps to claps to a variety of musical instruments.

When an object vibrates, it creates waves of energy that travel to a listener’s ears. The outer part of the ears collect those waves and the ear canals channel them inside of the ears. Meanwhile, the brain helps interpret the incoming information and allows you to put a name to the sound you hear.

Bennefield is really interested in how we can use snapping in making music. One famous scene with a lot of snapping comes from the musical “West Side Story.” Maybe you know a song or two that incorporates a lot of snapping, too. Think about how that sound can bring a certain emotion or feeling to the song.

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Ask Dr. Universe

Record-setting heat blasts the West: ‘Your skin is almost sizzling’

Millions of blasting air conditioners strained electric grids, prompting Texas and California utilities to threaten shut-offs. The National Weather Service in Las Vegas tweeted all-caps appeals for residents to stay hydrated and stay inside: “Long duration heat waves are DEADLY.” Doctors from Palm Springs to Phoenix warned about pavement so scorching it can give people third-degree burns.

Deepti Singh.
Singh

Fueled by climate change, the first major heat wave of the summer has seized the western United States, toppling records and threatening lives. The event is unprecedented in its timing, intensity and scope, said Washington State University climate scientist Deepti Singh; never have such severe conditions been recorded over such a large area so early in the summer.

The persistent lack of moisture amplifies already scorching conditions, scientists say. The energy required to turn water into vapor usually brings down temperatures — that’s why evaporating sweat helps cool a person off.

“But right now, because of how dry it is, all that energy is just going into heating our atmosphere and heating the surface,” Singh said.

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The Washington Post
Yahoo!News

Toxin-adapted fish pass down epigenetic mutations to freshwater offspring

A research team led by Washington State University scientists analyzed the epigenetics—molecular factors and processes that determine whether genes are turned on or off—of a group of Poecilia mexicana , or Atlantic molly, that live in springs naturally high in hydrogen sulfide, which is normally toxic to most organisms.

Joanna Kelley.
Kelley

“After two generations in laboratory conditions, the fish generally retained their same epigenetic marks, which was really unexpected,” said Joanna Kelley, WSU associate professor of evolutionary genomics and a corresponding author on the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “In an evolutionary context, the study shows that these epigenetic marks are fairly stable.”

Michael Skinner.
Skinner

For this study, Kelley collaborated with WSU environmental epigenetics and reproductive biologist Michael Skinner, to do the epigenetic analysis. The researchers raised a sample of sulfidic and non-sulfidic fish in freshwater environments. When the fish produced two generations of offspring, they measured their epigenetic similarities, specifically regions of DNA methylation, a type of chemical modification that can regulate gene expression, turning a gene on or off, without changing the DNA sequence string itself.

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Phys.org
WSU Insider
Lab roots

Epigenetic Research, Healing, and the Global Village

The field of epigenetics has exploded in recent years, and for good reason. The more we understand about human behavior, trauma, and its transmission throughout future generations, the more epigenetic research shows that we’ve got work to do.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) describes epigenetics as the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. While we may have inherited certain DNA from our biological parents, the choices we make in our lives in response to these genetics can alter the way our body reads a DNA sequence. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence.

Michael Skinner.
Skinner

In an article for Science Magazine, Andrew Curry chronicled stories of descendants of post-war veterans, Holocaust survivors, and children from Pakistani orphanages, alongside studies of noted biologist Michael Skinner at Washington State University. Curry stated that the hypothesis that an individual’s experience might alter the cells and behavior of their children and grandchildren has become widely accepted, and that in animals, exposure to stress, cold, or high-fat diets has been shown to trigger metabolic changes in later generations. Similarly, Skinner’s research suggests changes to the epigenome, a swirl of biological factors that affect how genes are expressed, can be passed down through multiple generations.

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Psychology Today