Oregon State University
The next time you're at a party with the love of your life, don't spend a lot of time trying to identify other couples in love - chances are, you aren't very good at it. Golfers may be able to identify a sweet swing, and runners admire a lengthy stride in others, but a new study has found that when it comes to identifying couples in love, no one is worse than - well, couples in love. "Love is truly blind," said Frank J. Bernieri, professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Oregon State University and one of the authors of the study.
The newest studies on the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the coast of the Pacific Northwest have identified a "clustering" of great earthquakes of the type that would cause a major tsunami, yielding a historical record with two distinct implications - one that's good, the other not. According to scientists at Oregon State University, this subduction zone has just experienced a cluster of four massive earthquakes during the past 1600 years, and if historical trends continue, this cluster could be over and the zone may already have entered a long quiet period of 500 to 1,000 years, which appears to be common following a cluster of earthquake events.
Researchers at Oregon State University and Hewlett Packard have reported their first example of an entirely new class of materials which could be used to make transparent transistors that are inexpensive, stable, and environmentally benign. This could lead to new industries and a broad range of new consumer products, scientists say. The possibilities include electronic devices produced so cheaply they could almost be one-time "throw away" products, better large-area electronics such as flat panel screens, or flexible electronics that could be folded up for ease of transport.
The type of devastating tsunami that struck the southern coast of Asia is entirely possible in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, but might not cause as much loss of life there because of better warning systems, according to experts at Oregon State University. OSU is home to the Tsunami Wave Basin at the Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, one of the world's leading research facilities to study tsunamis and understand their behavior, catastrophic effects and possible ways to reduce the destruction they can cause.
A new report concludes that wood is one of the most environmentally-sensitive building materials for home construction -- it uses less overall energy than other products, causes fewer air and water impacts and does a better job of the carbon ''sequestration'' that can help address global warming. The research showed that wood framing used 17 percent less energy than steel construction for a typical house built in Minnesota, and 16 percent less energy than a house using concrete construction in Atlanta. And in these two examples, the use of wood had 26-31 percent less global warming potential.
What do you get when you cross an egg white with a crabshell? You get a thin film that prevents food from spoiling and can be eaten along with the food that it wraps. No joke. It can even be fortified with vitamins and minerals so the food and the film together make a more nutritious fare.
For the second time in three years, a hypoxic ''dead zone'' has formed off the central Oregon Coast. It's killing fish, crabs and other marine life and leading researchers to believe that a fundamental change may be taking place in ocean conditions in the northern Pacific Ocean. The event appears similar to one in 2002, when an area of ocean water with low oxygen content formed in the nearshore Oregon coast between Newport and Florence, causing a massive die-off of fish and invertebrate marine species. The fact that it's happening again is triggering concern among marine scientists.
A huge, largely underground industry has been built on the moss that drapes some forest trees, raising ecological concerns, questions about export of potentially invasive species, and other issues that have scientists, land managers and businesses unsure about how to monitor, regulate or control this market amid so many uncertainties.
The gradual subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate beneath the North American plate puts tremendous stress on the seafloor, creating cracks and fissures, hydrothermal vents, seafloor spreading, and literally hundreds of small earthquakes on a near-daily basis. Now a North American team of scientists has documented for the first time a new phenomenon -- the creation of a void in the seafloor that draws in -- rather than expels -- surrounding seawater.
A new study has found that a gene called SIRT1 can reduce the development of new fat cells and increase the metabolism or use of fat within existing fat cells. SIRT1 is the topic of considerable recent research, and other studies have also shown that its activity level can be significantly increased by the presence of a compound found in red wine.
Recent advances in food safety research are enabling plant pathologists to gain insight into how dangerous human pathogens, such as strains of E.coli and Salmonella, can survive on fresh fruits and vegetables and what can be done to control future outbreaks. According to Steve Scheuerell, faculty research associate at Oregon State University's Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, there has been an increase in reported human disease outbreaks associated with fresh produce over the last couple decades. ''When an outbreak occurs, most of the infected produce has already been consumed,'' said Scheuerell. ''Usually recalls won't help. This is why prevention is key to keeping food safe,'' he said.
The exposure of amphibians to damaging levels of ultraviolet-B radiation in sunlight is likely a significant part of global amphibian declines, researchers say, despite some recent suggestions to the contrary and a scientific controversy about what role UV-B actually plays in this crisis. Scientists from the United States, Canada and Spain have outlined their understanding of UV-B's biological effects on amphibians in an article in Ecology, a professional journal.
New research has revealed that phytoplankton may be one of the main historic controls on global warming, and that fertilizing the oceans with iron results in increased phytoplankton productivity ? a hypothetical way to offset the effects of global warming. Through photosynthesis, these tiny, free-floating aquatic plants can convert carbon dioxide to organic carbon, and there appears to be a prehistoric relationship between iron in the ocean and atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide.
Researchers have created purple-fruited tomatoes that include anthocyanins ? the same class of health-promoting pigments in red wine that function as antioxidants and are believed to prevent heart disease. Domestic tomato varieties grown and consumed in the United States do not normally produce fruit containing any anthocyanin, explained the project's lead scientist. The success in producing anthocyanin-containing tomatoes ? through traditional breeding techniques ? could help researchers develop even more new varieties of tomatoes with other nutrients, both for home gardeners and for the food industry, he added
A new study has found that cereal fortified with vitamin E has a very high rate of absorption into the bloodstream, whereas pills taken separately with the same food have inconsistent effects, and taking the supplements alone is largely useless. The research was just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by scientists from the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.
