Life at OSU

The Oregon State University Board of Trustees on Friday approved spending nearly $277 million on seven remodeling, renovation and new construction projects on  the university’s Corvallis and Bend campuses.

Oregon State University has been awarded $8.8 million to help lead a 3½-year effort to make the volumes of data arising from cancer research more accessible, organized and powerful.

Fossils preserved in Dominican amber reveal a new family, genus and species of microinvertebrate from the mid-Tertiary period, a discovery that shows unique lineages of the tiny creatures were living 30 million years ago.

The brains of people with congenital deafness may be rewiring themselves in ways that affect how those people learn, suggesting a need to develop new teaching techniques tailored toward those who have never been able to hear.

The 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami launched a flood of debris across the Pacific Ocean. At the Corvallis Science Pub on October 14, Jessica Miller, professor in fisheries and wildlife at Oregon State University, will discuss what she and other scientists learned about the nearly 300 invasive species that hitchhiked their way on the debris to Hawaii and the Northwest.

Pet cats form attachments with their human owners that are similar to the bonds formed by children and dogs with their caretakers.

Researchers using electronic tags were able to monitor blue and fin whales off the coast of Southern California over multiple weeks, providing new insight into the feeding behaviors of the two largest whale species. The researchers also found evidence of differences in the feeding intensity and habitat use of males and females of both species.

Oregon State University is ranked 33rd in the nation and first among colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest for innovation, according to rankings released today by U.S. News and World Report.

Storms, boat traffic, animal noises and more contribute to the underwater sound environment in the ocean, even in areas considered protected, a new study from Oregon State University shows.

A new study provides valuable insights into pollen abundance and diversity available to honeybee colonies employed in five major pollinator-dependent crops in Oregon and California.

Clinical research funding continues to lag for the U.S. population of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, even though the nation’s largest biomedical funding agency has pledged to prioritize research on diverse populations, a new study from Oregon State University shows.

Silicone cat tag developed by Oregon State University scientist measures cats' exposure to chemicals.

The most productive places on Earth for solar power are farmlands, according to an Oregon State University study.

Researchers have opened up a possible avenue for new cancer therapies that don’t have the side effects that oftentimes accompany many current cancer treatments by identifying a protein modification that specifically supports proliferation and survival of tumor cells.

New acoustic observations mapping the changing face of the LeConte Glacier in southeast Alaska show that the rate of submarine melt is much higher than previously predicted by scientific theory.

Warming temperatures and changes in ocean circulation and salinity are driving the breakup of ice sheets in Antarctica, but a new study suggests that intense storms may help push the system over the edge.

An Oregon State University scientist has received a $2.3 million, five-year grant to build on his promising research into a debilitating muscle-wasting syndrome that kills as many as 30% of the cancer patients it afflicts.

In his research for a book on the cultural history of animal diseases, Ray Malewitz encountered a reference to the Great Epizootic of 1872, the most widespread and destructive horse flu epidemic in North American history. Shortly after, Malewitz, an associate professor in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film at Oregon State University, came across the word “ooperzootics,” which he came to learn means a fit of craziness in humans. This led him to wonder: Are these two words related to the word “oops?”

The most extensive and systematic insect monitoring program ever undertaken in North America shows that butterfly abundance in Ohio declined yearly by 2%, resulting in an overall 33% drop for the 21 years of the program.

A compound with potential as a treatment for ALS has gained further promise in a new study that showed it improved the condition of mice whose motor neurons had been damaged by an environmental toxin known to cause features of ALS.

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed an improved technique for using magnetic nanoclusters to kill hard-to-reach tumors.

Broader monitoring of patients is needed to reduce the number of people who develop a urinary tract infection after being discharged from the hospital, new research by Oregon State University suggests.

A tidepool crustacean’s ability to survive oxygen deprivation though it lacks a key set of genes raises the possibility that animals might have more ways of dealing with hypoxic environments than had been thought.

New strategies for river management are needed to maintain water supplies and avoid big crashes in populations of aquatic life, researchers argue in a perspective piece published today in Nature.

Large-scale land transactions in which nations sell huge, publicly owned parcels to foreign and domestic corporations negatively affect local women more than men, a new study by Oregon State University shows.

A startup founded with technology developed at Oregon State University has entered into a co-marketing agreement with a leading manufacturer of analytical scientific instruments, a development that will benefit scientists studying everything from cancer-fighting drugs to methods for detecting explosives.

Antibiotics prescribed by dentists as a preemptive strike against infection are unnecessary 81% of the time, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open.

The Oregon State University College of Forestry is inviting the public to participate in discussions regarding the Elliott State Forest next month in North Bend, Reedsport and Roseburg.

The Oregon State University Board of Trustees will meet Friday, May 31, to consider the university’s operating budget for the coming fiscal year and work to reclaim a previous pumice mine and a landfill that adjoin the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend. The board also will consider a presidential leadership profile, which will be used to recruit candidates for the search underway to select OSU’s next president.

An Oregon State University researcher is part of a $1.94 million grant to look for possible connections between the human microbiome and autism spectrum disorder.

An international team of researchers has developed a standardized measurement for pediatric facial palsy that will improve the care for current and future patients with the condition.

New Oregon State University research shows that juvenile northern red-legged frogs that have experienced climate-related stress as tadpoles are less likely to move on land, putting their survival at risk.

Researchers are chipping away at solving a biological mystery on the central Oregon coast: the existence of an isolated population of a small but fierce forest predator that makes its home in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.

Without sound decision-making, responses to seeming environmental tragedies can often make matters worse, according to ethicists who analyzed a controversial goat removal program on an Australian island.

Matthew Betts, a professor of landscape ecology in Oregon State University’s College of Forestry, will talk about the movement of hummingbird species across tropical forest landscapes and the pollination of plants within those landscapes Monday, May 13, at Science Pub Corvallis. The presentation will start at 6 p.m. at the Old World Deli, 341 2nd St. in Corvallis.

Oregon State University researchers deployed chemical-sampling wristbands to individuals on three continents and found that no two wristbands had identical chemical detections – but the same 14 chemicals were detected in more than 50 percent of the wristbands.

An Oregon State University scientist is part of a $10.7 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop a vaccine for gonorrhea.

Findings by a team led by an Oregon State University geotechnical engineer are paving the way toward engineering techniques that could keep Pacific Northwest residents more safe during the eventual Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.

A groundbreaking two-year study in southern Oregon found greater abundance and diversity of wild bees in areas that experienced moderate and severe forest fires compared to areas with low-severity fires.

The plant that adds flavor, color and bitterness to beer also produces a primary compound that thwarts cancer cells, and two important derivatives of the compound do as well, new research at Oregon State University shows.

David Wrathall, an assistant professor in Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, will talk about how climate change affects human migration Monday, April 8, at Science Pub Corvallis. 

Chemistry researchers at Oregon State University have patented a method for making anti-leukemia compounds that until now have only been available via an Asian tree that produces them.

A newly discovered parasitic cycle, in which ocean bacteria keep phytoplankton on an energy-sapping treadmill of nutrient detoxification, may offer a preview of what further ocean warming will bring.

Oregon State University has named Clare Reimers, Mas Subramanian and Virginia Weis as its 2019 Distinguished Professor recipients, the highest academic honor the university can bestow on a faculty member.

Survey results show that the vast majority of Oregon’s school districts have implemented key integrated pest management practices, including reduced pesticide use, through training provided by Oregon State University.

Encasing insecticides in microscopic plastic capsules – a common formulation for many pest sprays on the market – could lead to unintended consequences.

By tapping nutrients from bedrock, red alder trees play a key role in healthy forest ecosystems.

A collaborative effort among the fishing industry, scientists and resource managers has led to a significant reduction in seabird bycatch in Alaskan longline fisheries since 2002, a new study documents, but researchers say that bycatch incidents are now increasing.