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Summer 2004

A Vision Thing: Diagnostic tools and a vaccine for paratuberculosis

Bill Davis, professor of veterinary microbiology and pathology at Washington State University, exhibited true vision in the 1970s, when he recognized the potential for veterinary science of monoclonal antibody technology.

Antibodies are proteins produced by cells of the immune system. They help neutralize pathogens and produce immunity. Most pathogens stimulate their hosts to produce a population of diverse antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies, on the other hand, are populations of identical antibodies and are created in the laboratory. A given monoclonal antibody might be specific for an individual cell type, its state of activation, the strain of a pathogen, such as the 0157:H7 component of the infamous … » More …

Summer 2004

A Quick Test for a Killer

While Listeria monocytogenes accounts for only 1/100th of 1 percent of all food-borne illnesses in the United States, it's responsible for a whopping 28 percent of annual deaths. Development of a quick test for the pathogen promises to drastically reduce that statistic. » More ...

Summer 2004

Be nice: GRACe examines gender

GRACe examines the many aspects of gender. » More ...

Summer 2004

Listening to His Heart

As a student at WSU in the late '60s, Ken Alhadeff questioned authority with zeal. "I was part of a group of folks that marched down the streets of Pullman to President Terrell's house with torches, demanding that the Black Studies Program not be eliminated. It was a war between us and those insensitive, bureaucratic regents," says Alhadeff . . . who is now a regent.

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Summer 2004

All that Remains

Nearly two-thirds of the Lewis and Clark Trail is under man-made reservoirs. Another one-quarter is buried under subdivisions, streets, parks, banks, and other modern amenities. Almost none of the original landscape is intact. No one appreciates this contrast like author and historian Martin Plamondon II, who has reconciled the explorers' maps with the modern landscape.

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Summer 2004

Short Shakespeareans

In a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Demetrius calls for a sword. His request produces instead a yellow rubber chicken tossed from off stage.

“Shakespeare should be fun,” says Sherry Chastain Schreck, founding director of the “Short Shakespeareans.” Children in the drama troupe are 4 to 15, most of them pre-teenagers. In the 25 years since making their debut, the thespians have become a community treasure in Wenatchee.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a favorite of the Short Shakes. “The children love it. It is easy for young people to follow and understand,” Schreck says.

While the cast of characters has changed over the … » More …

Summer 2004

Full Circle

Steve Jones and Tim Murray want to make the immense area of eastern Washington, or at least a good chunk of it, less prone to blow, less often bare, even more unchanging. The way they'll do this is to convince a plant that is content to die after it sets seed in late summer that it actually wants to live. » More ...

Spring 2004

Late history professor, chairman was popular with students, faculty peers

Raymond Muse became a teacher at the urging of his father, a farmer in the Ozarks, who didn’t want to see his son spend the rest of his life “looking at the hind end of a team of mules.”

During more than three decades at Washington State University, the history professor earned “favorite teacher” status from thousands of students. Faculty peers praised his leadership. His tenure as chairman was the longest in the department (1956-79).

Muse died October 28, 2003 in San Diego after a long illness. He was 88.

His teaching career began at age 18 in a rural one-room school, not far from … » More …

Spring 2004

Cougar finds a home in faternity house

After roughly 45 years, S.J. “Bill” Monro’s prized Cougar has a new home. The longtime San Francisco restaurateur donated the stuffed animal to the Washington State University chapter of Sigma Nu Fraternity.

His wife, Barbara, discovered the specimen among a number of stuffed Northwest animals on auction in San Francisco nearly a half-century ago. She purchased the five-foot long, 300-pound cat as a gift for her husband. It has occupied a prominent spot in the “Cougar Room” of the family home.

“It should be a good conversation piece for the Sigma Nus,” he says.

The Monros returned to Pullman in late April with other members … » More …

Spring 2004

Cougar cruise spreads good will on 1,700-mile voyage

To many, Washington State University is a landlocked university. But Tom and Barbara Wilson beg to differ. The Seattle sailors covered 1,700 nautical miles last summer aboard their 53-foot boat powered by twin 700-horsepower Caterpillar engines. The Wilsons started their “Cougar Country Cruise” in Shelton and ended it at Clarkston, before returning home to Seattle. En route they visited WSU Vancouver and WSU Tri-Cities via the Columbia River. And came within 25 miles of the Pullman campus at Wawawai Landing on the Snake River.

Tom Wilson’s goal as 2003-04 commodore of the 300-member Cougar Yacht Club is to put on a CYC event in all … » More …