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CAS in the Media Arts and Sciences Media Headlines

More of us need help. Why is it so hard to ask for, and how can we make it easier?

The reluctance to reach out for help is a common tendency, but it’s an important one to unpack during a pandemic. How can we make that easier?

The first step is to understand why it’s so hard to reach out.

Craig Parks.
Parks

Requesting assistance is also uncomfortable because it’s “an admission that you’ve lost control of your situation,” says Craig Parks, a professor of social psychology and a vice provost at Washington State University. “We really need to feel, at all times, like we control our situations and can determine what happens to us.”

Plus, it creates a feeling of indebtedness — you helped me, so now I owe you — even if the helper doesn’t expect this, Parks says. “Socially, there’s still going to be a lot of pressure on you to reciprocate in kind.”

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Washington Post

Seattle: When it rains, it pollutes

When rain falls in undeveloped areas, the water is absorbed and filtered by soil and plants. But in built-up cities like Seattle, the water washes over roofs, roads and pavements, picking up a cocktail of pollutants on its way: petrol, tyre particles, heavy metals, pesticides and even animal excrement. Most of it ends up passing directly into the Puget Sound, transforming the city’s waterway into a toxic home for marine life.

Jennifer McIntyre.
McIntyre

Jen McIntyre, assistant professor in the School of the Environment and a leading aquatic ecotoxicologist at Washington State University, explains why coho salmon are an important sentinel for the dangerous impacts of stormwater.

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France24

Three Minute Thesis crowns its 2020 winner

Robyn Reeve.
Reeve

Robyn Reeve, doctoral candidate in the School of Biological Sciences, took third place and a $500 travel grant in the WSU-wide 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Reeve also won first-place and People’s Choice awards in the CAS 3MT preliminary.

3MT competitors present their research in no more than three minutes to judges who rate their performance on ability to connect with the audience and to present the technical details of their research in a way non-specialized audiences can understand.

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WSU Insider

Q&A: WSU professor Rebecca Craft talks marijuana research, how the drug may affect the sexes and lasting cultural misconceptions

Rebecca Craft.
Craft

Rebecca Craft was one of the first researchers to study how marijuana could affect males and females differently, back when use both for medicinal and recreational purposes was still widely considered taboo. Through this continued work, Craft hopes to learn whether medicinal marijuana dosages need to be adjusted based on sex, or if there is a biological gender connection to drug abuse, both in cannabinoids and opioids.

As a professor of psychology at Washington State University, Craft currently teaches several psychology courses, including behavioral pharmacology.

This spring, Craft was scheduled to present a series of lectures on marijuana across the Inland Northwest in May for Humanities Washington’s Speakers Bureau program. Due to COVID-19, however, Craft’s lectures — titled “Marijuana: Evil Weed or Medical Miracle?” — have been canceled, though she hopes to reschedule later this year. We chatted with Craft about her presentation and her marijuana research. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

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Inlander
The Growth Op

Creative collaborations connect arts, sciences, community

Linda Russo.
Russo

Walking along the soggy banks of the Palouse River near Pullman, Washington, Linda Russo an assistant professor of English, listened to the squish of mud under her feet and felt the cool wetness seep into her shoes. As the water rose around her heels and toes, her mind was flooded with thoughts about the past, present and future of the riverfront and other “wild edge” spaces.

“Almost 11 years ago, I went down to the muddy Palouse riverbank and my feet sunk in, setting a course,” Russo said about the genesis of EcoArts on the Palouse, her newest community project which brings together environmental history, ecology and creative expression.

“EcoArts on the Palouse invites the community to engage in exploration, discussion and discovery of the Palouse’s wild edge spaces by calling out the details in the languages of environmental science and different creative and healing arts to see what image of the landscape emerges and what new connections might arise,” she said.

A similarly collaborative, cross-disciplinary current runs through Russo’s other teaching and outreach activities. The projects allow her to reach students inside and outside the humanities and to help them engage with complex, challenging ideas.

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WSU Insider