Cell phones, Internet, car horns, children, commercials—all carry information and all work together to create in us what social scientist Herbert Simon calls "a poverty of attention." How do you rise above the din to capture what is most important? You may be surprised to learn that one of the oldest forms of communication is still one of the best.
» More ...
With memory notebooks and smart apartments that use motion technology to track their residents' daily behaviors, WSU neuropsychologists are exploring ways to help patients and their families cope with age-related memory loss. Meanwhile, two scientists have discovered a means to restore neural connectivity.
» More ...
We used to believe, says neuropsychologist Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, that if a person lived long enough, he or she would develop dementia.
Now we know better, she says. Whether caused by Alzheimer’s or other disease, dementia is not a normal aging process. Many people, such as G. Roger Spencer and colleagues pictured here, remain completely alert and engaged well into their 80s and 90s and older.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the chance of someone over 85 having the disease is nearly 50 percent. Other dementia-causing diseases raise that risk even higher. So what is it that enables someone to escape the dementia odds?
Besides age, … » More …
Noriko Kawamura , Yoichiro Murakami, and Shin Chiba, editors
University of Washington Press, 2011
The idea of “peace” in our complex and conflicted world sometimes seems out of reach or even antiquated. The authors in this collection recognize these realities and make a concerted effort to build a new theory of peace studies.
Noriko Kawamura, a WSU assistant professor of history, co-edited the volume, which includes contributions from a number of Washington State faculty along … » More …
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has an interactive soil map that can help determine the soils for an area of 100,000 acres or less. Zoom into to your desired location and select the area to see what soils cover that land.
Read more about Washington’s soils in “A Fine Thin Skin.”
An increasing number of families know the stress of trying to deal with an elderly parent or spouse who is losing his or her ability to live independently. How can we maintain dignity for those who are having trouble completing daily tasks? How do we keep our elders safe, and who takes care of them?
A WSU research team, led by Diane Cook, Huie-Rogers Chair Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, professor in the Department of Psychology, will be studying approximately 10-20 residents in Horizon House, a Seattle-based continuing care retirement community, for three years as part of … » More …
For people living on the margins of U.S. society, struggling with both poverty and job loss,there is still a desire to conceive of themselves as inheritors of some version of the American Dream.
» More ...Opinion articles written by students Sam Reed and Sam Hunt for the November 4, 1966 issue of WSU’s student newspaper the Daily Evergreen represent their opinions of that year’s national and state elections from the perspective of the WSU Young Republicans and the WSU Young Democrats. Sam Reed ’63, ’68 is now Washington’s Secretary of State, and Sam Hunt ’67 is a state representative for Olympia and surrounding areas. Read more about them in “Civility in Politics and Campaigns.”
You can also view the original page from the 1966 Daily Evergreen in PDF format.
Trova Heffernan
WSU Press, 2010
Every couple of years, we engage in the most basic of democratic activities: voting. Elections typically run smoothly and uneventfully. Sometimes they whip up a tornado of controversy, such as Washington’s whisker-thin gubernatorial election in 2004, following on the heels of Bush vs. Gore in 2000, with Florida’s hanging chads and legal wrangling.
Dino Rossi and Chris Gregoire faced off to be Washington’s next governor in 2004. After the ballot-counting … » More …