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2 Military Veterans Help Other Vets Transition To Purposeful Civilian Life

Career transitions are hard for everyone, but the shift from military to civilian life can be particularly challenging.

Alair MacLean.
MacLean

Soldiers coming back from the Vietnam War were too often treated as damaged goods by employers, according to research by Alair MacLean, sociology professor at Washington State University, it remains to be seen how welcoming employers will be to service members returning from the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — especially those in the second half of life.

Veterans, generally speaking, bring many skills to their future employers, including an ability to work in multigenerational teams. Many vets are worldly, having been exposed to different cultures and parts of the world during tours of duty. That said, some veterans with combat experience can’t deal with loud noises; others may find it difficult to be surrounded by too many people in a crowded office.

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Forbes

Through the camas plant, archaeologist bridges the past, present, and future

Molly Carney.
Carney

Molly Carney is both a pioneering scientist and a bridge builder.

In her current research, the environmental archaeologist and postdoctoral researcher in the WSU Department of Anthropology reconstructs the cultural history and plant food uses by Northwest Native communities. Specifically, her projects focus on use and cultivation strategies of camas (Camassia quamash), a bulb plant. For thousands of years, camas has been a valuable plant food for tribal communities.

“Native people managed and harvested camas bulbs for more than 4,000 years,” said Carney, who earned her PhD in archaeology this spring. “When harvesting, Native Americans selected only mature camas bulbs. and considered the long term for the plant itself. This approach was calculated with enduring sustainability in mind.”

Respect for this cultural legacy has been frequently disregarded by scientists, Carney noted. Many initiate relationships with Native people to conduct research on their lands. But, once the work is complete, they depart and leave those connections in the dust.

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WSU Insider
NWPB

WSU and PNNL to host joint seminar series to foster research collaboration

Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will kick off the Discuss, Discourse, Disseminate with Data (D4) joint seminar series at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 1 via Teams.

Jan Dasgupta.
Dasgupta

Chris Keane, vice president for research and vice chancellor for research at WSU, and Mike Wolcott, associate vice president for National Laboratory Partnerships, will introduce the session along with Nairanjana (Jan) Dasgupta, director of Data Analytics and Data Science Fellow. She will briefly share some highlights about the field of data science.

Bala Krishnamoorthy.
Krishnamoorthy
Daryl DeFord.
DeFord

The series will continue through the spring 2022 semester on the second and fourth Wednesday every month at noon, ending in mid-June with a WSU-hosted Data Science Day. The series will feature Bala Krishnamoorthy, professor in the WSU College of Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Sutanay Choudhury, computer scientist at PNNL, Assefaw Gebremedhin, associate professor in the WSU Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Chris Oehmen, computer science in the Biological Sciences Division at PNNL, Daryl Deford assistant professor of data analytics in the WSU College of Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematics and Statistics at WSU, William Cannon, multiscale modeling and UQ computational scientist at PNNL, Xiongzhi Chen, assistant professor in the WSU College of Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and Eric Lofgren, assistant professor in the WSU Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health

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Mirage news
WSU Insider

 

Ask Dr. Universe: How did the sun form?

Our sun may be one of the billions of stars in the galaxy, but it’s the only star right here in our solar system. It keeps us warm and gives us light, which is important for all kinds of living things on our planet.

Jose Vazquez.
Vazquez

To find out more about how stars like our sun form, I talked to my friend Jose Vazquez, an astronomer at Washington State University.

“It’s kind of like when you make bread, tortillas or cookies,” Vazquez said. “Even though they are all different products, they often require the same basic ingredients and a good mix.”

When the protostar reaches just the right temperature, a reaction called nuclear fusion begins in its core. The fusion of certain gases, such as hydrogen, can release a lot of energy which powers the heat and light of the star for a long time.

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Ask Dr. Universe

Do Animals Fall in Love?

If love is life’s greatest mystery, then perhaps its second-greatest mystery is whether humans are alone in experiencing it. We talk about lovebirds and puppy love, but biologists are cautioned against anthropomorphizing their animal subjects and assigning human traits and meaning where they don’t belong. Instead, scientists scan brains, measure hormone production and conduct “speed dating for pandas,” all of which could help answer the question, “Do animals fall in love?” And if so, how, and why?

Meghan Martin.
Martin

When creating breeding programs for endangered animals, scientists “need to figure out how to make them fall in love, and it’s not as easy as turning on Marvin Gaye,” says Meghan Martin, an adjunct biology professor at Washington State University-Vancouver and director of the nonprofit PDX Wildlife. “We have to break their specific code.”

“The general assumption is that if given the chance to breed with the last panda on Earth, which is theoretically what’s happening, that all animals would do that,” says Martin. “But that is not the case. I have seen species go almost into extinction in the conservation breeding world” because the researchers tried to pair uninterested animals together.

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