Alyssa Sperry’s research for her University Scholars Honors thesis on the history of salt in Jamaica earned her the Library Research Excellence Award for 2018. It also changed her life. The library research award is designed to recognize students who excel in using the library and its rich resources. Sperry, who graduated from WSU Vancouver in […]
One‑fourth of the carbon held by soil is bound to minerals as far as six feet below the surface, a Washington State University researcher has found. The discovery opens a new possibility for dealing with the element as it continues to warm the Earth’s atmosphere. One hitch: Most of that carbon is concentrated deep beneath the […]
For decades, scientists have been intrigued by a black hummingbird that appears to be singing, its throat and jaw moving in all earnestness, but without making any obvious sound. Augusto Ruschi, a naturalist who catalogued dozens of hummingbirds in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, first noticed it in 1959. The bird, called a black Jacobin, appeared to […]
WSU Vancouver cultural anthropology major Emma Johnson has received a prestigious and nationally competitive Udall Undergraduate Scholarship in its tribal public policy category. “The Udall (Scholarship) is incredibly important to me,” said Johnson. “Completing all the work to apply and then being successful, it’s a really huge deal. It is helping me complete my education.” Johnson, […]
Eighty years ago, on the evening before Halloween, radio audiences across the country were shocked, thrilled, or panicked by a radio drama depicting an invasion by beings from the planet Mars. That radio drama was “The War of the Worlds,” directed by and starring Orson Welles. First heard on Oct. 30, 1938, “The War of […]
A Washington State University researcher has completed the most thorough analysis yet of The Great Drought — the most devastating known drought of the past 800 years — and how it led to the Global Famine, an unprecedented disaster that took 50 million lives. She warns that the Earth’s current warming climate could make a similar drought […]
Political polarization, decreasing trust in government, and rising populist rhetoric, have made political civility a hot-button topic. WSU’s Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service has been tackling this issue head-on for quite some time. Pursuing that goal, Cornell Clayton, director of the Foley Institute, announced that the institute has joined the National […]
On the southern slope of Mount Adams in Washington, Kevan Moffett and her students are working to learn how soils recover moisture following wildfires so that trees and plants can sprout again. The field area has suffered three fires in the last 14 years—the McDonald Ridge fire of 2004, the Cold Springs fire of 2008 […]
Before riding off in search of the Oregon Territory, the rangers stood and joined the audience in one final chorus of the famous words from the mysterious masked man known as The Lone Ranger: “Hi-yo, Silver! Away!” Applause erupted for the 11 voice actors and Foley artists dressed for the Old West. The lights of […]
The rapid adoption of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, poses new threats to the stability of modern power systems across the United States and worldwide. To address these risks and help ensure a steady supply of energy to homes and businesses, a Washington State University mathematics professor has received a $200,000, three-year […]