In 2024, the OSU Media Relations team wrote press releases about Oregon State research and reach that garnered international attention. Here are the final five of 10 of our most popular stories this year, selected based on importance to the university, media coverage and online and social media attention.
5: Iron key to greener lithium batteries: Iron could be key to less expensive, greener lithium-ion batteries, research finds
May 23, 2024: A collaboration co-led by an Oregon State University chemistry researcher is hoping to spark a green battery revolution by showing that iron instead of cobalt and nickel can be used as a cathode material in lithium-ion batteries.
At present, the cathode represents 50% of the cost in making a lithium-ion battery cell. Beyond economics, iron-based cathodes would allow for greater safety and sustainability.
As more and more lithium-ion batteries are manufactured to electrify the transportation sector, global demand for nickel and cobalt has soared. Iron, in addition to being the most common element on Earth as measured by mass, is the fourth-most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Once storage efficiency is improved, the result will be a battery that works much better than ones currently in use while costing less and being greener.
4: How much water is stored in snow: Oregon State researchers take a deep dive into how much water is stored in snow
March 18, 2024: How much water is held in snowpacks, and for how long? That information, critical to water managers around the globe, has taken on new clarity thanks to a new, more holistic calculation technique developed by researchers in the Oregon State University College of Engineering.
The study by David Hill, a professor of civil engineering, and doctoral student Christina Aragon looked at nearly four decades of snowpack data. Through their new metric, which they call snow water storage, they identified a 22% drop in how much water is held annually in the mountain snowpacks of the lower 48 states.
Because the snow water storage metric can be applied to multiple types of snowpacks, it may become increasingly valuable for monitoring and predicting water resources “amidst a future of increased climate variability.” Hill points out that the past several years in the lower 48 have seen a “feast or famine cycle of extremes when it has come to the where and the when of our snow and rain.” And in general snowpacks have considerably declined over the past 10 to 20 years.
3: Enrollment growth continues: Oregon State University enrollment reaches record for 28th consecutive year
Oct. 9, 2024: Among 108 Public Research 1 universities in America, only Oregon State has produced 28 consecutive years of fall-over-fall enrollment growth, according to an analysis by Jon Boeckenstedt, the university’s vice provost of enrollment management. The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education categorizes institutions as R1 based on the highest levels of research productivity.
With 38,125 students enrolled this fall, Oregon State is the largest university in the state for the 11th consecutive year. The enrollment numbers include students at Oregon State locations in Corvallis, Bend, Portland, La Grande and through the university’s online Ecampus unit. Oregon State enrolls students from 50 states and over 100 countries and from all 36 of the state’s counties.
Ecampus is once again driving enrollment growth, with a 6.6% increase from last fall to reach a total of 11,600 students. That is a 65% increase from five years ago. Enrollment on the Corvallis campus increased 3.3% from last year to 24,900 students this fall. At OSU-Cascades in Bend, enrollment is 1,370 and the number of credit hours students are taking is up 2.2%, continuing a trend towards more full-time than part-time students. (Editor’s note, some of these numbers have been updated since the information was originally released: https://enrollmentmanagement.oregonstate.edu/)
2: Boat striking shark is captured: Researcher record first-ever images and data of a shark experiencing a boat strike
July 24, 2024: Hours after tagging an endangered basking shark off the coast of Ireland in April, researchers captured what they believe is the first ever video of a shark or any large marine animal being struck by a boat.
The data, collected by an activity measurement device similar to a FitBit and a connected camera, provided scientists a unique opportunity to learn more about the impact of vessel strikes on large marine animals, which is a rising concern around the globe, said Taylor Chapple, a shark researcher at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center and lead author of the study.
Video from the camera showed visible damage to the shark’s skin, paint marks and a red abrasion but no apparent bleeding or open wound. Vessel strikes are not always immediately lethal, but even non-lethal injuries can have short- and long-term consequences for the affected animal, the researchers noted. The incident highlights the need for additional research on the interactions between water users and basking sharks in the National Marine Park and other hotspots along the Irish coastline.
1: Fastest rate of carbon dioxide rise: Researchers identify fastest rate of natural carbon dioxide rise over the last 50,000 years
May 13, 2024: Today’s rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years, researchers have found through a detailed chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice. Kathleen Wendt, an assistant professor in Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, is the study’s lead author.
The findings provide important new understanding of abrupt climate change periods in Earth’s past and offer new insight into the potential impacts of climate change today.
Ice that built up in Antarctic over hundreds of thousands of years includes ancient atmospheric gasses trapped in air bubbles. Scientists use samples of that ice, collected by drilling cores up to two miles deep, to analyze the trace chemicals and build records of past climate. They identified a pattern that showed that big jumps in carbon dioxide occurred alongside North Atlantic cold intervals known as Heinrich Events that are associated with abrupt climate shifts around the world.
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