Sea turtles spend almost their entire lives in the ocean. Even as babies, sea turtles’ bodies have special traits for living at sea, helping them glide and paddle through the water. After emerging from their eggs, baby sea turtles (called “hatchlings”) scramble to the ocean to live the rest of their lives. Only female sea […]
Tanya Cheeke, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, was one of three individuals recently honored for their notable contributions to the campus and community through service, teaching and/or involvement. In addition to teaching and research, Tanya works extensively to mentor students in the biological sciences program. She regularly works with undergraduate and graduate […]
Omar Cornejo, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, was honored as one of the WSU provost’s featured faculty during the Cougars’ football game against New Mexico State. “Teaching at WSU allows me to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to take our newly generated knowledge in wonderful and
Being a human couch potato can greatly increase fat accumulation, hasten the onset of Type II diabetes symptoms, result in detrimental blood chemistry and cardiovascular changes, and eventually, bring about one’s death. Large hibernators such as bears however have evolved to adapt to and reverse similar metabolic stressors they face each year before and during […]
With the help of WSU scientists, hundreds of endangered northern leopard frogs have taken a leap back into the wild in recent weeks at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in Grant County. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) collected northern leopard frog eggs earlier this spring, and after months of growing in conservation […]
Vice President for Research Chris Keane, along with Mike Kluzik, director of the Office of Research Assurances, recently toured the Kelley and Cornejo laboratories in the School of Biological Sciences. Research in the Kelley Laboratory focuses on evolutionary genomics and adaptation to extreme environments. The lab is interested in understanding how populations diverge and adapt […]
In the first study of its kind, WSU researchers found a variety of diseases and other health problems in the second- and third-generation offspring of rats exposed to glyphosate, the world’s most popular weed killer. The researchers saw descendants of exposed rats developing prostate, kidney and ovarian diseases, obesity and birth abnormalities. Michael Skinner, professor […]
Researchers analyzing the genomes of cultivated cacao trees have traced their origin to a “single domestication event” some 3,600 years ago. The discovery opens a new front in a long-running argument regarding when and where humans started growing the source of chocolate. “This evidence increases our understanding of how humans moved and established in America,” said […]
It’s hard to say exactly what would happen if you had three hearts and one of them stopped. Humans, and cats, have just one heart, so we have no experience with this. Octopuses, on the other hand, do have three hearts. When I called my friend Kirt Onthank, a professor at Walla Walla University who […]
Fun fact: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek witnessed the “presence and vigor” of his own spermatozoa, which he called “animalcules,” in one of the first uses of the single-lens microscope. This observation is among thousands in the second edition of the “Encyclopedia of Reproduction,” a magnum opus involving more than 1,000 authors, nearly 600 cross-referenced chapters, and […]