Bill Moos was announced as the new Washington State University athletic director on Feb. 24, 2010. Watch some of the highlights of the press conference, and then read a profile of Moos in the summer 2010 issue of Washington State Magazine, “Back from the ranch,” by Jim Moore ’78.
Video by Matthew Haugen, WSU News Service
Washington State University neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp discusses how a simple web search can be driven by one of the brain’s most fundamental impulses.
Read what other WSU professors say about reading and thinking in the digital world in “Dear reader” in the Summer 2010 issue of Washington State Magazine.
Patty Ericsson, director of the Digital Technology and Culture program at Washington State University, talks about the past, present, and future of chip-driven communications.
Read what other WSU professors say about reading and thinking in the digital world in “Dear reader” in the Summer 2010 issue of Washington State Magazine.
Meet the WSU Researcher: Michael Neff
Part 2: A new biofuel crop for Washington farmers?
Washington State University botanist Michael Neff discusses how to transform camelina as a possible biofuel crop in Washington.
Neff’s lab works on camelina, an oilseed used for lamps from the Iron Age that can grow on marginal farmland and not compete with food crops.
Neff shows how his work uses transgenic seeds to make camelina a better fuel crop, complete with rose-colored glasses and green LEDs to see which seeds have been changed.
Read more about Neff’s work in “Seeing red (and far-red).”
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Meet the WSU Researcher: Michael Neff
Part 1: What Plants See…Changes How They Grow
Washington State University botanist Michael Neff studies the way plants sense light and plants around them, and change their growth patterns accordingly. Plants use photoreceptors sensitive to far-red light to determine their proximity to other plants. These photoreceptors are different from infrared receptors used for photosynthesis.
“What I’ve been interested in forever is how plants use light as a source of information,” says Neff. “Plants have photoreceptors that are completely independent of photosynthesis and chloroplasts, that read their environment and say, ‘I am in full sunlight, I’m in the shade of … » More …
Native American artist Ric Gendron discusses his portrait of Sherman Alexie. The portrait appears in the Spring 2010 issue of Washington State Magazine, as part of the feature article “Desperately Seeking Sherman.”
Washington State University women’s rugby team members explain the basics of the game. In the 2008-09 season, the Cougs took third in the nation for Division II women’s rugby after going undefeated in league play and regionals.
Read about their team and more about rugby in “Ruggers,” Washington State Magazine‘s Spring 2010 issue.
Fifty years ago James F. Short Jr., a young sociologist at Washington State University, was asked to lead a study of Chicago gangs.
In this narrated slideshow, Short tells the stories behind photos of the groundbreaking 1956 study. You can read the story “Gangs of Chicago” here.
Can trumpet players improve by changing the position of their feet and body? At Washington State University, honors student Leah Jordan and music professor David Turnbull measured trumpet students’ breathing and playing to analyze the difference a change of posture can make.
“Anyone who has taken music lessons has probably absorbed enough instructions about posture to feel like a raw recruit at basic training: Stand straight! Head up! Toes forward!
Leah Jordan, who is starting her senior year at Washington State University, says not to worry about forcing yourself into the “proper” position for playing an instrument. In fact, she says you’ll probably play better … » More …