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Illustration of laptop as a slot machine
Summer 2018

Betting your digital dollar

Vast, haze-filled casino floors where rows of flashing colors light up expressionless faces endlessly feeding coins into a machine. Men sporting Hawaiian shirts rake piles of plastic chips across green felt tabletops, all seeking the hedonistic rush of hitting a jackpot seemingly just out of reach.

This is gambling as many of us know it. However, the combination of luck, wagering, and a chance at a payoff is far from a modern concept. As far back as the Paleolithic era, humans wagered on the roll of crude dice made from knuckle bones. Nonetheless, the staples of contemporary gambling—slot machines, card games, craps tables—may be considered … » More …

A WSU student takes a virtual trip to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Photo Robert Hubner
Summer 2018

Virtually yours

How do you walk through a building in Atlanta when you’re in a classroom in Pullman?

If you can’t be there physically, virtual reality can deliver a new level of engagement, whether it’s watching Shaun White’s snowboard whoosh inches from your head, or working collaboratively on construction projects with students from Georgia.

Virtual reality is also a rapidly growing business. There were an estimated seven million VR headsets in 2016, which is expected to balloon to 47 million by 2020.

That acceleration has pushed companies like Intel to ramp up their VR offerings, including the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. The VR technology … » More …

Wine glass splashing with smoke. Photo Dreamstime
Summer 2018

Smoke gets in your wine

Smoke truly gets under the skin of wine grapes.

As microscopic particles and liquid droplets ooze and eddy through the vineyard, grapes are coated with toxic chemicals. Worse, smoke from forest and range fires manages to get into the plant itself, wreaking havoc with the plant’s internal chemistry.

In self-defense, grape vines attempt to sequester toxic smoke particles that infiltrate berries and leaves by binding sugar molecules to the offending invaders. The plant can then metabolically shuffle the sugar-trapped particles into places where the smoke won’t be as harmful to the vines’ mission: produce grapes and reproduce.

Humans interfere with the vines’ mission when we … » More …

Kimbrough Hall piano with image of woman playing overlaid
Summer 2018

WSU in 100 words

A mini-essay contest

Every Coug has a story. That’s what we’ve discovered over the years—from memorable football games to wedding engagements to midnight donut runs, WSU alumni have got some great memories. Now we’d like to hear your Washington State story in 100 words or less.

Pick your favorite memory and send it to us. The top essays will receive a can of legendary Cougar Gold cheese or a WSU hat.

Send us your 100-word WSU memory by June 1, 2018, through the contact form below, You can also email wsm@wsu.edu, or send a letter.

We’ll print our favorites in the August issue and … » More …

Darwin's finches illustration
Summer 2018

Another look at Darwin’s finches

Darwin developed key aspects of his theory of evolution while pondering finches from the Galapagos Islands. It’s only fitting that reproductive biologist Michael Skinner would choose those same islands to propose a Lamarckian idea—that environment can directly impact inheritance of physical traits.

In this case, the process is driven by epigenetics, he says. “If we think about evolution, we can’t simply think of genetics. We also need to think about epigenetics.”

According to Skinner, epigenetic mutations occur 1,000 times more frequently than do genetic mutations and could help explain why new species emerge more often than expected.

“The reason epimutations exist might be to dramatically … » More …

Keith Jackson at WSU Martin Stadium
Summer 2018

Keith Jackson 1928–2018

When I finally met Keith Jackson ’54 last summer, I felt like I was meeting a friend. He didn’t know it, but we had already spent numerous Saturdays together. While he was calling the biggest games in college football, I was a fan, enjoying not just the games, but the spectacle and excitement that Keith communicated so skillfully to audiences.

Listening to Keith call a game, it was easy to get lost in the excitement of the event. He was a nearly flawless professional—this was obvious to even a casual fan. What set Keith apart from other broadcasters is that he respected the games and … » More …

Man kissing mirror
Summer 2018

Fly on the Wall

 

Podcasts by Squeak Meisel

squeakmeisel.com

 

If you can’t come to the artist, the artist will come to you, thanks to a series of podcasts produced by Washington State University Fine Arts department chair Squeak Meisel.

Called Fly on the Wall, the artists interviewed on Meisel’s podcast have shown their work at some of the biggest venues in the world, such as the Venice Biennial. They come to the Pullman campus, teach for a few days, work one-on-one with undergraduate and graduate students, and give a public lecture.

But Meisel realizes that not everyone has time or ability to … » More …

Summer 2018

Finding identity and expression at WSU

Bob Dlugosh says that he and his roommate, Al, “were always chumming around Pullman together.” Best friends, Bob figured Al for straight, but he liked the guy so much he didn’t let it bother him. Bob did wonder if Al knew he was gay. In 1968, “gay” felt like a brand new word. So it probably wasn’t the one used on the sign Al and Bob found tacked to their Stephenson Hall door: “Bob and Al are gay.”

But that’s what Robert Dlugosh ’71 recalls decades later. The noun was probably something from the much crueler vernacular of the day: They were being called faggots, … » More …

Summer 2018

Evolution evolution

In a word, Michael Skinner is tenacious. Growing up on a ranch outside Pendleton, the former Eagle Scout and college wrestler learned early on that you don’t back down from a little head-butting or controversy. It’s all just part of the game.

The trait has served Skinner ’82 PhD well over the years and enabled him to persevere through the fallout of a chance discovery in his reproductive biology lab in the 1990s. The unexpected findings threw 200 years of scientific ideology into question and initiated a paradigm shift in the understanding of inheritance and evolution. They also sparked a wave of outrage and … » More …