Life at OSU

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The critically-acclaimed play “Birth” opens Oct. 9 at Oregon State University. “Birth” tells the birth stories of eight women, painting an alarming picture of how low-risk, educated mothers are giving birth today. Hailed as “The Vagina Monologues for birth” by women’s health expert Christiane Northrup, performances of the play are used to raise awareness and money for childbirth choices.

NEWPORT, Ore. – Should the Pacific Northwest take advantage of its clean, cold ocean water and its links to Pacific Rim countries by developing an offshore aquaculture program?

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Contrary to 40 years of conventional wisdom, a new analysis to be published Friday in the journal Nature suggests that old growth forests are usually “carbon sinks” – they continue to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change for centuries.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A multimedia guide for establishing "basis" on forestland, produced by Oregon State University Forestry Extension, can help reduce federal tax liabilities for forestland owners.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – An analysis of the global carbon cycle and climate for a 70,000-year period in the most recent Ice Age shows a remarkable correlation between carbon dioxide levels and surprisingly abrupt changes in climate.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A researcher at Oregon State University has used a new method of combining multiple sources of data to identify counties in Oregon with high numbers of methamphetamine-related problems per capita, giving officials a new tool in fighting the illegal drug.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – More than 125 years ago Charles Darwin first reported that most plants grow in a spurt during the night, not the day – and this week, scientists are reporting the discovery of the genes that control this phenomenon.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A leading group of botanists and plant experts from around the world will meet in Oregon this week at the 19th New Phytologist Symposium, to discuss the explosion of knowledge in recent years about genetic controls of plant processes, agricultural advances and many other topics.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Robert Thurman, considered the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism, is the first speaker in the inaugural Hundere Religion and Culture lecture series.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University’s production of “The Mikado,” will return for three performances starting Oct. 3.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - The College of Agricultural Sciences of Oregon State University is holding its 27th annual Art About Agriculture regional art competition. The exhibit will open next April with the artists' reception and awards presentation in OSU’s LaSells Stewart Center.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University launched its 2008-09 academic year on Thursday (Sept. 18) with its annual University Day celebration.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State University Open Source Lab, home to growing open source communities, today announced the formation of its new advisory council. Featuring leaders from global open source projects and vendors such as Apache, Perl, Drupal, the Linux operating system, Google, Novell, Acquia and Joost, the advisors will assist the Open Source Lab with its overall strategy, service development and outreach to industry partners.

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Microbiologists at Oregon State University have developed a new technology to detect illness-causing bacteria – an advance that could revolutionize the food industry, improving the actual protection to consumers while avoiding the costly waste and massive recalls of products that are suspected of bacterial contamination but are perfectly safe.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – According to a new study, bathers suffer from millions of severe illnesses each year due to coastal water contamination in Southern California.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University Honors College student Dann Cutter was awarded the Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education Fellowship at Stanford University for fall 2008.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Noted language-policy expert James Crawford will speak at Oregon State University on Saturday, Oct. 18, as part of the three-day annual meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – When a newly developed technology for producing hydrogen gas from biowaste is brought to commercial use – as researchers believe it can be – then it appears the world will have plenty of energy if it can just solve the stubborn shortage of sewage.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Recipes are a snapshot of a nation's history.

ALBANY, Ore. – The Oregon State University Extension Service in Linn County will hold an open house on Oct. 18 that will feature prizes, short workshops, a plant diagnostic booth and a composting demonstration using worms.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Maria Stefanovich is the recipient of the inaugural Robert E. Malouf Scholarship, awarded annually to a graduate student of an Oregon University System institution to support work that is compatible with the mission of Oregon Sea Grant, which Malouf directed.

NEWPORT, Ore. – The newest prototype of a wave energy device being developed by Oregon State University and Columbia Power Technologies was successfully tested last month in the ocean off Newport, Ore., providing valuable data and moving the research program closer to commercialization.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – With the higher cost of food these days, many families are finding it more difficult to eat healthy.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Using 10 years of coastal measurements and a sophisticated computer modeling system, scientists from Oregon State University have created a new service that forecasts ocean temperatures and currents for three days.

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- As part of Oregon State University’s "National Coming Out Week" observances, a coalition of campus and community organizations are sponsoring a panel discussion of lesbian, gay and bisexual athletes in professional and collegiate sports.

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Oregon State University Extension Service's hands-on Master Gardener training will return to Portland in January for the first time in six years.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Spinner dolphins have long been known for their teamwork in capturing prey but a new study using high-tech acoustics has found that their synchronization is even more complex than scientists realized and likely evolved as a strategy to maximize their energy intake.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – For the past year, leaders in the Oregon State University College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) and at other Oregon universities have been exploring the potential of developing a new academic entity: an accredited school or college of public health. The new school would be the only such institution in the state of Oregon.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State University Forensics Team and the British National Debate Team will host a public debate from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at OSU.

YACHATS, Ore. – The Oregon State University Extension office in Lincoln County is receiving an increasing number of inquiries from people who want to know what they can do themselves, on a local level, to become energy self-reliant.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Averill Curdy, V. Penelope Pelizzon and Jeffrey Thomson will read poetry as part of a Symposium of Younger Poets, an event designed to showcase young, diverse poets early in their careers. The event will be held on Friday, Nov. 21, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Valley Library Main Rotunda at Oregon State University.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – “Discovering the World Through GIS,” the eighth-annual GIS Day celebration, is set for Wednesday, Nov. 19, at Oregon State University, and organizers say hundreds of students are expected for the highly interactive, kid-oriented event.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The move towards a degree concept called the professional science masters – a terminal degree that’s a science-oriented version of the MBA – is now picking up speed nationally, as more businesses see the need for graduates who have both business and scientific literacy.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new research program at Oregon State University proposes to tackle one of the major remaining problems with wind energy – how do you provide a steady, or at least predictable flow of electricity when the wind itself is never steady and often unpredictable?

BEND, Ore. –William Ripple, a professor of forest ecosystems and society at Oregon State University, has been selected to receive the 2008 Earle A. Chiles Award, presented by the High Desert Museum in Bend.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – If you're a cancer cell, you want a protein called Bcl-2 on your side because it decides if you live or die. It's usually a trusted bodyguard, protecting cancer cells from programmed death and allowing them to grow and form tumors. But sometimes it turns into their assassin.

CORVALLIS, Ore. –Stephen Sparks, one of the leading volcanologists in the world, will present the 2008 Thomas Condon Lecture at Oregon State University on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Children who don’t get the food they need are at a high risk for life-long health problems. A new online course has been developed by the Childhood Hunger Initiative of Oregon and Oregon State University’s Ecampus program to help teach health care professionals how to better identify families that are experiencing hunger and poor nutrition.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – David S. Luft, the Horning Professor in the Humanities in Oregon State University’s History Department, will give a free public lecture on the humanities on Monday, Nov. 10, at OSU.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study by researchers in Oregon and British Columbia has found that survival of juvenile salmon and steelhead during their migration to the sea through two large Northwest rivers – the Columbia and the Fraser – is remarkably similar despite one major difference.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Helen Diggs, a nationally recognized leader in veterinary medicine and animal welfare, has been named director of the Lois Bates Acheson Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Oregon State University. Diggs, who also will serve as associate dean of OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, will begin her new duties on Feb. 1 (2009).

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Reser’s Fine Foods of Beaverton, Nosler of Bend and Solar Summit of Philomath are among the Oregon companies that will receive the 2008 Excellence in Family Business Awards at a ceremony to be held Nov. 20 at the Oregon Zoo in Portland.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon and Hawaiian researchers have found that a woman’s weight does not seem to affect sexual behavior. In fact, overweight women are more likely to report having sex with men than women considered to be of “normal weight.”

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University professor Marie Harvey has been given the 2008 Carl S. Shultz Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement from the American Public Health Association’s Population, Family Planning and Reproductive Health Section.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Improved techniques have been developed by microbiologists from Oregon State University to assess the threat from whirling disease, a deadly parasitic infection of rainbow trout and other salmonids, and new reports are outlining some of the most likely areas to which it could spread.

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Oregon State University’s commitment to promote diversity on campus has received a national “best practices” award for college programs.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Hal Schudel changed the shape of the Christmas tree – and the entire industry. Founder of Holiday Tree Farms Inc., the largest Christmas tree grower in the world, Schudel popularized the lush, triangle-shaped, plantation-grown conifers that decorate many homes and offices during the holiday season.

SALEM, Ore. – Water experts and owners of wells will meet on Dec. 11 in Salem to learn about and discuss growing concerns over Oregon's limited groundwater and to identify potential solutions.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study suggests that exposure of a fetus to common carcinogens during the late stages of pregnancy may be even more harmful than exposure after birth, causing long-lasting genetic damage that could lead to cancer in childhood, young adulthood or even middle age.