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Spring 2024

Washington State Magazine

Coug students celebrate Campaign for Washington State University. Photo Robert Hubner
Winter 2015

A billion reasons to celebrate

WSU’s fundraising efforts reach a lofty goal

WSU student Selena Alvarado is heading to Costa Rica, but it isn’t for a vacation. As part of the Backpack Journalism program in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, she will investigate issues that face Costa Ricans, then send back videos and print stories for Pacific Northwest media outlets. The hands-on program wouldn’t exist without scholarships and support from a number of donors.

At the WSU Tree Fruit Research Station in Wenatchee, apple breeder Kate Evans and her research team identify traits that can improve Washington’s signature fruit. Using genetic markers and research orchards, they seek an … » More …

Talk Back
Winter 2015

Talkback for Winter 2015

 

Refreshing

Thank you for continuing to publish Washington State Magazine at such a high level. I read the Fall 2015 issue from cover to cover and rate it as outstanding in every respect. The redesign of the magazine with sustainability in mind is commendable. Mostly, however, the content was what gave me the feeling that I am still connected to WSU almost 50 years after I graduated.

As it happens, there were also multiple articles that connected with me personally. I took an ecology course from Rexford Daubenmire and continued to refer to his classic texts on autecology and synecology during my own 40-year … » More …

LIGO Observatory at Hanford. Courtesy National Science Foundation
Winter 2015

Eureka! on the horizon

The silence is unnerving. Not another car in sight as I drive through the desolate Hanford nuclear area. The road unfolds in an eerie lacework of tarred concrete until finally I see it gleaming in the distance—the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO.)

LIGO is home to Earth’s most sensitive optical instrument, uniquely designed to intercept gravity waves. These elusive cosmic waves—or ripples in space-time—are so miniscule that Einstein thought them impossible to view and measure. And so far, he’s been right. Yet if detected, gravitational waves could transform our fundamental understanding of the universe.

They also, incidentally, play a starring role in the hit … » More …

Carl Maxey (Courtesy Gonzaga University)
Winter 2015

Black Spokane

Dwayne Mack was, to say the least, skeptical when his faculty mentor at Washington State University, LeRoy Ashby, suggested he write his doctoral dissertation on Spokane’s black history.

“I thought to myself, ‘Wow, every time we pay a visit to Spokane, we rarely even see black people,’” recalls Mack, who was brought up in Brooklyn and received his master’s degree from a historically black college, North Carolina Central University. “There couldn’t be enough black people to do a study.”

Then he started researching Spokane’s African-American history and realized he had “struck gold.” Spokane’s African-American community was small—historically averaging between 1 and 2 percent of Spokane’s … » More …

WSU Emeritus Professor and writer Alex Kuo. Courtesy Alex Kuo
Winter 2015

Triple Shanghai

Alex Kuo’s writing confronts censorship both explicit and hidden

In a pivotal moment from Alex Kuo’s new novel shanghai.shanghai.shanghai, several Chinese card players watch a team of Americans publicly disavow George W. Bush’s administration in front of an international audience. Struck by the brazen criticism, a pickpocket known as Bogota Man questions how such anti-government opinions could ever be voiced openly.

He contends that political dissent in China can mean life in solitary confinement. A friend quickly responds that in America the defiant act of protest is more likely to be completely ignored.

“I’m not sure which is worse,” she says.

» More …

Bubbling cider
Winter 2015

The drink that built a nation

Bubbling a revolution in Washington State

It’s canning day at Tieton Cider Works in Yakima. Tall, red cans of Rambling Route cider pass through a pasteurizing unit as they come off the conveyor belt of the mobile canning truck. Sold in four packs, the company’s first canned product is intended to reach the masses, perhaps even enticing craft beer drinkers with a moderately-priced, portable cider.

The label on a can of Rambling Route cider describes the journey apples made across the country to Washington: “When it reached the land that would be called Washington, the apple knew.” It knew it had found a home in … » More …