Orange you glad you have scientists?

Although many students know the Linus Pauling building, few know of the ridicule he faced towards the end of his career for pursing the effects of high dose Vitamin C on the human body and its implications for cancer treatment. Fast-forward a few decades and the tune has changed in scientists around the world as we begin uncovering the mechanisms of how Vitamin C influences cancer cell propagation. One of these projects is led by our guest this week Matt Kaiser who began this research project as an undergraduate which has helped make sense of why these pharmacological dosing levels of Vitamin C aid in targeting tumor cells while simultaneously allow the functioning of normal cells to remain uninhibited.

Matt has already presented at a professional conference in Boston, was an invited speaker at OSU’s TEDx event in 2015, helped start a philanthropy to donate money to OHSU, and pursued a six-month internship with one of the largest medical institutions in the country.. and he’s not done yet!

Currently Matt is working under Nancy Kerkvliet in the department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology on a new project that can have breakthrough immunotherapy applications to help treat individuals with autoimmune diseases such as diabetes or multiple sclerosis.

You can see some of Matt’s photography work that helped contribute to Phil Knight’s Cancer Challenge by finding him on Instagram @backyard_oregon or on his website.

Join us Sunday, January 10^th at 7PM to hear more about Matt’s research and his astonishing undergraduate career that has launched him to fame on the TED stage. Tune in to KBVR Corvallis 88.7FM or stream the show live!

Happy New Year

Happy new year from all of us at Inspiration Dissemination. It’s been an incredible year for us all and we will be back starting Sunday, January 10th, 2016. Stay tuned and stay inspired!

Word cloud summary of all the research from our guests in 2015

Looking For the Link Between Centromeres and Cancer

DNA, the “building blocks of life”, can be bent and broken. While it is the source code for every creature on the earth, DNA is also the source of some of the most difficult diseases that plague humanity. Tonight at 7PM PST, Steve Friedman joins us from the department of Biochemistry and Biophysics to discuss characterizing centromeres of a filamentous fungi called Neurospora crassa. Centromeres, the part of the chromosome that is targeted by proteins that aid in cell division, are studied to understand how genetic mutations and resulting abnormalities in cells can lead to genetic disease and cancer.

Flasks containing strains of Neurospora crassa

Fungi serve as a model organism for the study of centromeres in Steve’s work because their genetic code is more complex than the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that have been used in older studies, but still easier to study and understand than the complicated human genome.

Understanding how the human genetic code controls the production of proteins that are implicated in diseases like cancer, and how these proteins relate to centromeres that are crucial parts of a natural and healthy process of cell division, is the long term goal of such research.

To learn more about Steve and his work, tune in at 88.7 KBVR FM, or stream the show live!

Microscopy images of GFP/RFP tagged centromere proteins (taken in Galya Orr’s Lab at PNNL).

Steve enjoys some time away from the lab

Fighting Fire with Flora

It has been a record breaking year for wildfires, with over 900,000 acres burned in Washington alone. This past summer in the Pacific Northwest families went to sleep wondering very seriously if they would need to evacuate before morning. Not all of their prayers were answered. Some abandoned land and possessions. In towns like Wenatchee, WA and John Day, OR people lost their homes and in the dense forests of the Cascades some firefighters lost their lives. Each year the damage done by wildfires grows in this country, and if climate models prove correct, this danger will only increase in the future.

Today the question of what to do with burned over land is deeply divisive in the state of Oregon. The damage wrought by wildfires is especially concerning because it affects both commercial timber stands and protected, often old growth, forest land.

Studying the question of what to do with burned over lands far from Corvallis, Lea Condon get her hands dirty in the deserts of Nevada. In an area called The Great Basin, Lea studies soil crusts, communities of organisms that live right on top of the soil which are important for ecosystem health among the cheat grass and native plant communities of The Great Basin.

Dinner in the works in eastern Nevada

Mosses and lichens under survey

In the field sites were Lea works, raising grazing animals is crucial to local economies. The increasing frequency of destructive wildfires, and the wear and tear on soil crusts caused by large animals grazing, has a disruptive effect on mosses and lichens that are important for maintaining optimal ecosystem health. A graduate student in Oregon State’s Botanty and Plant Pathology department, Lea studies under David Pyke, hoping to discover how these mosses and lichens can be restored after damanging events like wildfires occur.

Lea, moss growth experiment

To learn more about Lea’s story and research, tune in tonight at 7PM PST to 88.7 FM, or stream the show live here!

When you can’t see the soil for the forest

Did you know that December 5th is World Soil Day? It’s only fitting that we would feature Kris Osterloh, a 3rd year Ph. D. student of Jay Noller in the department of Crop and Soil Science.

A soil core is carefully measured in the field. The data from this core and the surrounding ecology will help construct a model to understand the soils in the Willamette Valley National Forest

A soil core is carefully measured in the field. The data from this core and the surrounding ecology will help construct a model to map the soils in the Willamette Valley National Forest

Soil is more than just dirt in the ground, it’s rich and vibrant with life, and there are many, many different types of soil on this planet. Our soil is the reason civilization can exist, or as FDR so eloquently put it:

The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.

– Franklin D Roosevelt, 1937

Tonight at 7PM, Kris Osterloh will talk about his passion for soils and his research using computer models to rapidly map and understand the development of soils in the Willamette National Forest. With this knowledge in hand, we can understand how we can better manage the land to protect the soil and everything that comes from it.

Tune in Sunday, December 6th at 7PM Pacific on 88.7FM or stream at http://kbvr.com/listen to hear Kris’ tale of adventure, leadership, and science!

Kris Osterloh pauses for reflection.

Are You Listening? For Whale’s Sake, Keep it Down!

Our guest tomorrow night, Selene Fregosi PhD student in Fisheries and Wildlife, investigates noises produced by marine mammals and in particular, whales. Selene employs an under water microphone to record the bioacoustics produced by marine mammals over large spatial and temporal scales. Attached to remote controlled marine gliders, these microphones can record bioacoustics of marine mammals, some of which produce sounds of inaudible frequencies. Marine gliders limit the time and expense of whale monitoring from the deck of a marine vessel. This cost effective alternative allows Selene to collect oceanographic measurements like temperature and salinity and her audio recordings remotely through satellite transmitted programing. Selene’s explorations through her project will provide information about the effectiveness of this technology for future research with marine mammals.

Selene getting the glider ready with the help of Alex Turpin.

In addition to the practical aspects of this research, Selene is interested in how noise pollution from ships, submarines, and other vessels affects the behavior of charismatic mega fauna. By examining the sound spectra of an audio recording, Selene can identify each species by their characteristic sound patterns. After deciphering bioacoustics obtained from the microphoned-gliders, Selene can understand whale behavior during different times of year or different locations around the world. In fact, some of Selene’s recordings are the first ever to record whale behavior and movement off the coast of Guam!

Characteristic sound pattern of a beaked whale.

Selene hopes that in the future, her work will aid the conservation of whales and other marine mammals. Deciphering bioacoustics can allow for the identification of when and where specific species are breeding, and conservationists can then work to reduce noise pollution. As our oceans become noisier from human activities, Selene’s research could provide accurate and specific information to limit disruption of crucial population maintenance and growth.

Learn more about Selene’s and other interesting research from the Klinck lab at OSU by visiting their blog.

Join us Sunday, November 22 at 7 pm to hear more about Selene’s research and her unique journey to graduate school. Tune in to KBVR Corvallis 88.7 FM or stream the show live!

From the River to the Sea: Rare metal cycles and the Circle of Life

Sometime around 3.4 billion years ago, the planet earth was covered in an atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon dioxide poisonous to life as we know it today. Then something changed. Tiny photosynthetic organisms called cyanobacteria started converting carbon dioxide to oxygen, and over billions of years seaweed, kelp, and finally terrestrial plants with roots systems covered the globe, making the entire history of animal life of Earth possible. We know this because a rare metal called molybdenum, found in ocean floor sediment cores, can be measured to show when the atmosphere changed.

Or maybe not. Maybe we’re wrong about all of that. Who can say? Here to challenge the accepted timeline of life as we know it is Elizabeth King. This Sunday Liz will walk us through a comparative study she has been working on in Oregon and the Big Island, Hawaii, underneath Dr. Julie Pett-Ridge. A Graduate student in Ocean Ecology and Biogeochemistry (CEOAS), and working with the Crop and Soil Science deparment through her advisor, Dr. Pett-Ridge, Liz hopes to uncover the truth about molybdenum. Showing that this metal travels from rivers to the ocean and back through precipitation in a cycle that is dependent on the soil and weathering processes in these different volcanic regions, Liz argues that scientists haven’t been seeing the big picture of molybdenum’s environmental history.

Liz at a sampling location

Molybdenum is increasingly recognized as an important agricultural nutrient, and understanding how it travels through the soil, streams, and waters of the Pacific Northwest and the world is highly valuable in keeping our land fertile and productive. To learn more, tune in Sunday night at 88.7 FM Pacific time, or steam the show live!

Liz at the mouth of a river she studies on the Big Island, Hawaii.

The Winds of Mars

False-color image of channel-confined TARs in the Amenthes Rupes Region, Mars (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

On our own world, dust storms can carry sands from the Sahara around the globe.On Mars, immense dust storms worthy of a Mad Max reference and formations called Transverse Aeolian Ridges up to a meter tall are common sights. Unlike Earth, where we constantly see geoactive forces like water, ice, and volcanic activity changing the landscape around us, the only force we can see actively changing the landscape of Mars is the wind. With desertification increasing on our own planet dune fields in many locations are moving into existing agricultural areas. Might we eventually be living on a world where the impact of wind on the land is as great as it is on Mars? Can the windswept world of Mars tell us what life will be like someday here on Earth?

Gravel ripple wind-formed bedforms in Puna de Atacama, Argentina (de Silva et al., 2013)

Rover image of Transverse Aeolian Ridges (TARs) in Endurance Crater, Mars (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Michelle Neely, a master’s student in Geology and Geophysics studying under Shan de Silva, is investigating just that. By studying wind shaped formations called symetrical bed forms in the high desert of Argentina, which are the Earth’s closest analog to the ridges formed by the winds of Mars, Michelle hopes to learn how wind processes work on both worlds. If terrestrial desertification leaves our Blue Planet looking a lot more like the Red Planet, this research will prove invaluable.

For more on the geological history of Mars and our own future, tune in to 88.7 FM Sunday November 8th at 7pm PST or stream live to find out!

Pathogens Ruining Your Pinot: Grape Powdery Mildew and Willamette Valley Vineyards

Cracked berries: Grape powdery mildew on chardonnay berries with cracking of berries being a result of heavy infestation.

In the 1960s and 70s Oregon wine makers did something incredible. They began growing pinot grapes in the cold, wet climate of the Pacific Northwest, where it was previously believed they could not be produced. Since then, the Willamette Valley has come to prominence as one of the United States’ premier growing regions, with vineyards harvesting grapes for every kind of wine you can imagine.

However, there are serious challenges to the wine industry in Oregon. A fungus known commonly as grape powdery mildew, which plagues vineyards across the United States, is one of the main culprits. Unlike other places in the United States, the growing season for grapes is completely different in the climate of the the Pacific Northwest. In this environment, traditional strategies for protecting grape harvests from outbreaks of these fungal spores are not as effective.

This is where Lindsey Thiessen comes in. A PhD candidate in Walt Mahaffe’s Botany and Plant Pathology lab, Lindsey studies plant and fungal pathosystems. Pathosystems are the relationships between the disease causing agent (in this case, a fungus) and the host (in this case, the grapes). In order to protect the Oregon wine industry, Lindsey is learning about the ecology of grape powder mildew fungus and grape plants during ‘overwintering’, when the grape buds and fungus go dormant. Lindsey helped devise a spore trapping device for use in the growing season to provide valuable information on fungal threats. This device, along with her own models for potential disease outbreak, should aid vineyard management in developing treatment strategies for their grapes.

Join us tonight at 7PM PST to find out more! You can tune in to 88.7 KBVR or stream the show live online at http://kbvr.com/listen!

Cleistothecia on leaf: Fungal fruiting bodies (cleistothecia, approximately 130 µm diameter) of Erysiphe necator (causal agent of grape powdery mildew) under 20x magnification. Brown/black cleistothecia are mature enough for overwintering, whereas white and yellow fruiting structures are presently being formed.

Sieving: L.T. sieving cleistothecia being collected from leaves in cement mixer-ice water bath.

All photos courtesy of Lindsey Thiessen

Deciphering the Language of the Universe

A diagram demonstrating how information in lake sediment can reveal natural history. Courtesy of Francisco Guerrero

Scientists design experiments to answer a specific question, and usually they already have an informed prediction as to what the answer may be. They set up treatments and make measurements of specific variables that they think will contribute information for the understanding of the problem. In natural systems, however, there are innumerable variables that could also be informative for the system. For Francisco Guerrero, a PhD student in the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management, the leftover material—the unused information—is essential to the understanding of a natural system but may be overlooked by scientists after a specific outcome. Francisco wants to harness all the information in a natural system, identify patterns, and simulate a complete picture of a forest or a watershed. An application of Francisco’s research in the lab of Jeff Hatten utilizes Information Theory to create a mathematical tool that translates that information into a snapshot of a forest ecosystem as it is evolving, allowing scientists to predict where it is headed and past events that have lead to the current state.

Francisco holds a soil sample to be processed in the lab. Courtesy of Francisco Guerrero

Francisco’s academic journey itself has evolved from early dreams of becoming a TV producer to ecologist to engineer. Passionate in his pursuits, our guest this Sunday loves to chase a challenge. To hear about about Francisco’s research and his unique journey, tune in to 88.7 FM KBVR in Corvallis on Sunday, October 18^th at 7PM PST, or stream the show live online at http://kbvr.com/listen!