Washington State Magazine

Book Review: Sugar Birds

When Agate “Aggie” Hayes, a spirited and outdoorsy 10-year-old who sketches birds and climbs trees too high, unintentionally causes a devastating fire, she flees in an inflatable boat and hides out in the backwoods, riddled with guilt, dodging bird dogs, and evading rescue. She survives on cattails, salmonberries, and her own instincts and resourcefulness⁠—until someone […]

Virginia Woolf library: a special collection jewel

In 1967, English professor John Elwood took a sabbatical to England with his wife, Karen, and their three sons, Sean, Eric, and Kirk. It would become the most important sabbatical ever for the Washington State University Libraries. While in England, the Elwoods met Fred Lucas, a bookstore owner, who in turn introduced them to author […]

Medical Big Data

Currently, there is a shortage of data wranglers and analysts. Just in time to meet the needs of what could be a revolution in healthcare, WSU is bringing up to speed one of the few data analytics programs in the country. Under the direction of entrepreneur-scientist Nella Ludlow, WSU’s new data analytics program is training […]

Inside Outside

Biophilia, our innate affinity for and connection to nature, is not only for children—parents, too, are taking time from hectic schedules to unwind with meditative forest bathing, and many doctors now prescribe visits to the park instead of pills. Getting kids outside is nothing new to Jeff Sanders, WSU associate professor and environmental historian. He […]

Bear Watching

The headlines paint a dire picture: By the 2030s, global warming could completely melt Arctic sea ice, imperiling the 19 known polar bear populations that range across the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway. Could, as some fear, the trend spell extinction for Ursus martimus?

Knowing malice beyond the pale

Pete Simi’s mother wanted him to understand racism, so when he was 9, they watched a PBS documentary on the Ku Klux Klan. Here’s how he remembers one Klansman who was interviewed. “He spoke with such passion, anger, such strong emotion. And it just struck me, as a young child, trying to understand what was […]

A mother’s microbial gift

Old assumptions about human breast milk are giving way to new thinking about microbes in milk and their role in children’s health and our immune systems. It happened again, most recently at a conference in Prague. After she gave her talk, a scientist came up to Shelley McGuire, a pioneer exploring the microbial communities found […]