November 22, 2017
When the northern lights come out, beautiful, colorful patterns stretch across the night sky. But they begin with a star that is millions of miles away: our sun.
See the full answer at the Dr. Universe website.
Science & Technology
November 16, 2017
If you were to travel around the world, the word “science” might look or sound very different. In Spanish, it’s ciencia. In Japanese, 理科. In German, wissenschaft! And in French…
November 13, 2017
In collaboration with William O’Brien from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, assistant professor Julia Day recently published a paper in Energy Research and Social Science, that explores occupant behavior in high efficiency buildings. Their research could lead to better designed and more efficient buildings—that work for their occupants.
November 8, 2017
David James is an expert on caterpillars but his latest work, The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from around the World, is written for a general audience. The beautiful, full-color, life-size photos provide a glimpse into the insect world few might realize exists.
More Science & Technology
November 3, 2017
The discovery could help planetary scientists use the presence of hexagonal diamond at meteorite craters to estimate the severity of impacts.
November 1, 2017
Whether it comes from trees or is made by scientists in a lab, rubber can really bounce. Well, a rubber band or rubber on your shoes might not be very bouncy. But a super bouncy rubber ball? It can really catch some air.
October 26, 2017
When the tides are high in parts of San Francisco, Charleston, and Miami, city streets experience an odd new kind of flooding that happens even on bright, sunny days. Hope Hui Rising and her students at WSU are working on the front lines of sea level rise, developing urban design strategies to help communities adapt.
October 23, 2017
A WSU researcher has found that the mating habits of salmon can alter the profile of stream beds, affecting the evolution of an entire watershed. His study is one of the first to quantitatively show that salmon can influence the shape of the land.
October 17, 2017
The three WSU scientists collaborated with other members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration in multiple ways to make this unique discovery. One of them was to characterize the detectors in order to improve their sensitivity to these weak gravitational-wave signals.
October 10, 2017
As winter approaches, road de-icers are getting a green makeover. Apple, grape, and cherry skins—waste products from Washington’s fruit and wine industries—are being reborn as sustainable ice melt in an effort to reduce the amount of salt used on roads and hightways for controling ice buildup.
October 5, 2017
The process of communicating information is known among anthropologists as cultural transmission, and there was a time when it did not exist, when humans or more likely their smaller brained ancestors did not pass on knowledge. Luke Premo, an associate professor of anthropology, would like to know when that was. Writing in the October issue of Current Anthropology, he and three colleagues challenge a widely accepted notion that cultural transmission goes back more than 2 million years.
August 23, 2017
My friend Tim Miller is a researcher at Washington State University working to help stop weeds from making life difficult for plants we would rather have.
August 17, 2017
You know, most cats like to stay a comfortable distance from water. But when I got your science question about our big ocean, I was ready to jump right in.
August 3, 2017
It just so happens the Great American Eclipse is coming up on Aug. 21. This solar eclipse will be the only one visible from across the lower 48 states in nearly a hundred years.
July 18, 2017
It sure sounds like a nice idea. Print a bunch of money and everyone gets rich. We could buy anything we wanted.