Life at OSU

Pioneering climate scientist Warren Washington, who received his bachelor and master’s degrees from Oregon State University, has been named co-recipient of the 2019 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.

The anopheline mosquitoes that carry malaria were present 100 million years ago, new research shows, potentially shedding fresh light on the history of a disease that continues to kill more than 400,000 people annually.

A changing climate in the 21^st century will significantly alter the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, according to modeling by Oregon State University researchers.

The changing climate is having a significant impact on Oregon, a new report concludes, with the state growing progressively warmer, experiencing more severe wildfires, and undergoing a shift of seasons resulting in less snowpack and lower summer stream flows.

One hundred forty-three species of large animals are decreasing in number and 171 are under threat of extinction, according to new research that suggests humans’ meat consumption habits are primarily to blame.

Alaskan wildlife management that prioritizes reducing bear and wolf populations so hunters can kill more moose, caribou and deer is both backward and lacks scientific monitoring, ecologists say.

A groundbreaking study of more than two dozen rescued dogs, some aggressive and some not, showed a clear link between aggressive behavior and the microbes that live in the dogs’ guts.

Scientists have published a novel method for counting Pacific salmon – analyzing DNA from the slime the fish leave behind in their spawning streams.

Scientists have long struggled to explain how tropical forests can maintain their staggering diversity of trees without having a handful of species take over – or having many other species die out. The answer, researchers say, lies in the soil found near individual trees, where natural “enemies” of tree species reside. These enemies, including fungi and arthropods, attack and kill many of the seeds and seedlings near the host tree, preventing local recruitment of trees of that same species.

Researchers using artificial intelligence and “big data” plan to develop new algorithms that they say will enable them to identify, locate – and eventually predict – crimes committed in the world’s oceans, from illegal fishing off the Patagonia shelf to drug smuggling in Central America to slave labor and human trafficking in the Indian Ocean.

Nanosized cages may play a big role in reducing energy consumption in science and industry, and machine-learning research at Oregon State University aims to accelerate the deployment of these remarkable molecules.

Older adults who added hazelnuts to their diet for a few months significantly improved their levels of two key micronutrients, new research at Oregon State University indicates.

Scientists have documented a two-part climatic connection between the North Atlantic Ocean and Antarctica, a fast atmospheric channel and a much slower oceanic one, that caused rapid changes in climate during the last ice age – and may again.

OSU scientist Jeffrey Barnes and colleagues helped NASA scientists and engineers plan for the tricky landing of Mars InSight, and have been involved with the Mars 2020 mission as well.

The next generation of high-tech adhesives could take some design cues from the tongues of frogs, according to new research led by the Oregon State University College of Engineering.

The discovery of a new gene in zebrafish could lead to a better understanding of how exposure to chemicals leads to disease in humans.

Forests in the Pacific Northwest will be less vulnerable to drought and fire over the next three decades than those in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, computer modeling by researchers in Oregon State University’s College of Forestry shows.

In the first study of its kind, research by Oregon State University scientists shows that the return of large terrestrial carnivores can lead to improved stream structure and function.

Construction of a new Oregon State University-bound research ship that will advance the science of coastal environments, and support research on topics such as ocean acidification, hypoxia, and sea level rise, officially began today in Louisiana.

Oregon State University scientists have found a resource to increase agricultural production on dry, unirrigated farmland—solar panels.

Actively managed conifer forests may also provide important habitat for the pollinators that aid in the reproduction of food crops and other flowering plants around the globe.

Scientists studying the valuable, but vulnerable, black cottonwood poplar have identified the genetic mechanism responsible for the species’ inability to resist a pervasive and deadly disease.

An Oregon State University researcher analyzing debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami has discovered two new species of red algae – one that attaches to plastic debris, the other is found only on glass.

A team of researchers has documented a recent volcanic eruption on the Mariana back-arc in the western Pacific Ocean that is about 2.8 miles below the ocean surface, making it the deepest known eruption on Earth.

Oregon State University President Ed Ray Wednesday named Irem Tumer as interim vice president for research.

Economists have found that in the United States, watershed groups have had a positive impact on their local water quality. 

Oregon State University’s James Watson, an assistant professor who specializes in marine resource management, published a study this week in which he and others outlined the need for aquaculture producers in developing countries to use financial risk management tools to protect their investment.

Oregon State University recently received a four-year, $1.1 million grant from the NOAA Coastal Hypoxia Research Program to work with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, crabbers and other fishermen to map and track the extent of the hypoxia, identify “hotspots” and potential refuge areas, and develop predictive models of when and where low oxygen will occur – and affect Dungeness crabs and fishes.

Scientists have determined for the first time that Amazon’s waterlogged coastal mangrove forests, which are being clear cut for cattle pastures and shrimp ponds, store significantly more carbon per acre than the region’s famous rainforest.

Oregon high school and community college students and teachers will join Oregon State University scientists on the research vessel Oceanus this month to gain at-sea research experience as part of a project to enhance STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills.

Scientists using drones have discovered new behaviors by gray whales off the West Coast, including headstands and swimming upside down.

Oregon State University announced Tuesday that it recorded its second-best year ever in competitive grants and contracts for research that benefits every corner of the state and provides students with opportunities for hands-on experience.

The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park is tied to the recovery of aspen in areas around the park, according to a new study.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act could provide a shield for liberal businesses seeking to support undocumented immigrants, much the same way the law has allowed conservative companies to challenge enforcement of health care and anti-discrimination laws, a researcher from Oregon State University suggests in a new paper.

Scientists have developed a new approach to modeling potentially drought-prone soils in Pacific Northwest forests, which could aid natural resource managers to prepare forested landscapes for a changing climate.

Timber harvested illegally under fraudulent permits is undercutting conservation efforts in the Brazilian Amazon, new research by an international collaboration shows.

Algae and corals have been leaning on each other since dinosaurs roamed the earth, much longer than had been previously thought.

The largest field-based study of genetically modified forest trees ever conducted has demonstrated that genetic engineering can prevent new seedlings from establishing.

Kissing up to the boss at work may help boost employees’ careers but it also depletes the employees’ self-control resources, leaving them more susceptible to behaving badly in the workplace, a new study has found.

Research shows that Kodiak brown bears that sync their stream-to-stream movements to salmon spawning patterns eat longer and more than bears that don’t.

A website focusing on climate change and featuring oral history interviews with a dozen leading figures from OSU is now online.

Researchers have learned the mechanisms behind a means of improved ignition, helping to open the door to better performance in combustion systems ranging from car engines to jet propulsion.

Genetic research at Oregon State University has shed new light on how isolated populations of the same species evolve toward reproductive incompatibility and thus become separate species.

Nanofiber-based wound dressings loaded with vitamin D spur the production of an antimicrobial peptide, a key step forward in the battle against surgical site infections, or SSIs.

A researcher at Oregon State University-Cascades will lead a team working on turning salt water into drinking water as part of a $21 million national effort.

Oregon State University is purchasing a five-acre parcel along the central Oregon coast that will be the shore-based facility for converting wave energy captured from a test site to be located about seven miles offshore into utility-grid accessible power.

A research team has successfully recorded the sound of methane bubbles from the seafloor off the Oregon coast using a hydrophone, opening the door to using acoustics to identify – and perhaps quantify – this important greenhouse gas in the ocean.