Some soil bacteria can acquire sets of genes that enable them to pump the heavy metal nickel out of their systems, a study has found. This enables the bacteria to not only thrive in otherwise toxic soils but help plants grow there as well. A Washington State University-led research team pinpointed a set of genes […]
As a child growing up in rural China in the 1970s, Xiuyu Wang remembers competing with his friends to get as many fireworks as possible to usher in the Lunar New Year. It is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the most important holiday in China. “We’d save up ahead of time to […]
Even in the precipitation-heavy Pacific Northwest, more frequent heatwaves are threatening a key source of water supply. A Washington State University study that intended to look at snow melting under a single, extreme event, the 2021 “heat dome,” instead revealed an alarming, longer-term rising trend of successive heatwaves melting snowpack earlier in the year. […]
Seeing robots made with soft, flexible parts in action appears to lower people’s anxiety about working with them or even being replaced by them. A Washington State University study found that watching videos of a soft robot working with a person at picking and placing tasks lowered the viewers’ safety concerns and feelings of job […]
Wildfires and record heatwaves are just a couple climate change impacts that have already hit the Pacific Northwest — and there are likely to be more, according to a U.S. Government report. The 5th National Climate Assessment released this week paints a grim picture of the effects of human-caused climate change across the country but does […]
Rising temperatures will cut the number of days when conditions favor prescribed fires by 17% on average across the western U.S., mostly in spring and summer, according to a recent study. Prescribed fires are typically lit by trained firefighters to clear away excess plant matter to help prevent conditions that might otherwise turn a healthy […]
The breadth of scholarly interests and teaching expertise of the college’s newest faculty—from environmental humanities and many-body physics to economic globalization and the history of visual storytelling—enriches and expands the arts and sciences across the WSU system. Click “read more” to learn a little about each of these new faculty members. Arts & Humanities | […]
Following a thorough vetting by faculty members and the Faculty Senate, and approval by the president and Board of Regents, the WSU Department of Fine Arts is now the WSU Department of Art. The name change reflects the breadth and depth of the artistic areas available at WSU, yet the use of the singular “art” is […]
The invasive Asian clam is more common in the lower Columbia River than its native habitat of southeast Asia, according to a study of the clam’s abundance in the river. The findings don’t bode well for potential future invasions by the even more destructive quagga and zebra mussels. So far, the Columbia is one of […]
Cheryl Schultz helped put the Fender’s blue butterfly on the road to recovery, from a low of about 1,000 butterflies in its Oregon habitat to 20,000 to 30,000 butterflies today. It’s a rare success story of an insect that has been downlisted from endangered to threatened, made possible, she said, by science, partnerships, and time. Schultz, […]