Physics Prof Praised!

Congratulations to Prof. Corinne Manogue, who was selected as the 2008 winner of the American Association of Physics Teachers’ Excellence in undergraduate Physics Teaching Award. This award recognizes outstanding achievements by an AAPT member in undergraduate physics teaching, in particular her significant work in the highly-regarded Paradigms Program.

Synthetic Organic Chemistry Star Makes Headlines

Rich Carter is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at OSU. He studies synthetic organic chemistry, publishes like mad, runs a big lab, teaches and oh yes, raises a family. He’s one of those people who, when you meet him, you wonder what the heck you’ve been doing with your life. His latest achievement is his breakthrough with biaryl compounds, which are used in liquid crystal displays, computer monitors and even therapeutic drugs. A new approach to making these organic molecules could expand their range of uses, Rich says.

Thus far, he’s already produced siamenol, an agent being studied as a possible AIDS drug.

Click here for the full story.

Parasites Found on Ducks! Beavers Not Surprised!

Jerri Bartholomew, PhD and professor of microbiology at OSU studies fish parasites. In a study announced today and  published in the International Journal of Parasitology, she identifies nine cases of a newly found species of myxozoa in ducks.

It would be unsportsmanlike to say that we’ve always known that ducks are dirty, but we’ll say so anyway.

Where’d I Put My Keys? The Dog Might Remember.

Associate Professor Tory Hagen studies mitochondria, stress response mechanisms and aging. He’s a biochemist in our Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and is also a member of the Linus Pauling Institute. With colleagues from the University of Toronto, University of California/Berkeley, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, and Juvenon, Inc., he has discovered that nutritional supplements successfully improve the memory, ability to learn and cognitive function of old dogs – and might be able to do the same thing with humans.

Click here for the full journal article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17622567

Faculty from a few departments in the College of Science are members of the Linus Pauling Institute. The relationship between the two units is so close that our new science center, the Linus Pauling Science Center, will be home to LPI, some of the department of chemistry as well as life science instructional facilities. The building will house equipment used by both units, as well as colleagues across campus. Here’s a bit more info on LPI, including a link to subscribe to their newsletter:

The Linus Pauling Institute’s mission is to:

• Determine the function and role of vitamins and essential minerals (micronutrients) and chemicals from plants (phytochemicals) in promoting optimum health and preventing and treating disease
• Determine the role of oxidative and nitrative stress and antioxidants in human health and disease
• Help people everywhere achieve a healthy and productive life, full of vitality, with minimal suffering, and free of cancer and other debilitating diseases.

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/nwltrform.html

Yet Another Coup for Biochemistry and Biophysics

Congratulations to Kevin Ahern! And great news for all of the students who have the good fortune to work with him…

Kevin, a senior instructor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, received the Mentor Award from the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon in November, 2007.

“Kevin has touched the minds and souls of thousands of OSU students, helping them to develop and pursue careers in medicine and biomedical research,” said Dr. John Fitchen, chair of the Medical Research Foundation Committee.

Click here to read more!

OSAC (aka bugs)

The Oregon State Arthropod Collection lives in Cordley Hall and is part of both the College of Science and the College of Agricultural Science. The curator of the collection is entomologist Chris Marshall, who came to OSU from the Smithsonian and has made great strides to make the collection the largest in the PNW.

A particular point of pride for the collection are the butterfly specimens which, like much of the collection, extend back through the early 20th century.

To read more:

Trip Brings Insect Discoveries 

Christopher Marshall examines insects on the back of a three-toed sloth that wandered into camp one night during his trip to the Guyana Shield in 2007.

OSU Beaver Finds Wolverine!

From the Sacramento Bee, this is important news:

The researcher, Katie Moriarty, a graduate student at Oregon State University, wasn’t looking for wolverines. She was studying martens, a slender brown weasel fond of old-growth forests, at the Sagehen Creek Field Station between Truckee and Sierraville, just west of Highway 89.

The work – part of a master’s degree thesis – was going well, according to Zielinski, who was supervising Moriarty’s project from his office in Arcata. By baiting locations with raw chicken and positioning a motion-detecting digital camera nearby, Moriarty was capturing a diverse gallery of Sierra wildlife, including martens, a spotted skunk, bobcat and black bear.

Click the link above to read the entire exciting story!

[wolverine photo: National Park Service]

The Fever

Mark Hixon is one of OSU’s scientists involved in studies of coral reef ecology. He has also been cited as the leading expert in the Western Hemisphere and third in the world, based on journal publications that were most often cited for their scientific significance. Overall, OSU coral reef research programs ranked sixth in the U.S. and eighth globally.

Mark recently gave a talk summarizing the body of science around coral reefs. He concluded his talk by reading this poem, written by Kimiko Hahn:

The Fever

The coral reefs are changing color,
the black and crimson bleached away:
the ocean’s rising fever,

in every drop the seas over,
damages the membrane of symbiotic algae
and coral reefs change their color.

True, it’s less sensational than acts of terror.
True, we can slather sunblock, then sunbathe,
despites the ocean’s rising fever.

After all, the planet isn’t broiling over;
algae is not an inflamed country.
It’s just coral reefs, changing color.

I wonder if it’s, yet again, the ozone layer
ruined by my aunt’s persistent use of hairspray–
this ocean’s rising fever?

I already own my share of vivid jewelry
from Mother’s childhood village on Maui.
Still, the living are losing color
in my ocean’s escalating fever.

Leading Research on Coral Reefs

[photo: Jeff Lovin]