Write About Now

And it was at that age… Poetry arrived in search of me.

I don’t know, I don’t know where it came from, from winter or a river.

I don’t know how or when,

No they were not voices, they were not words, nor silence,

But from a street I was summoned,

From the branches of night, abruptly from the others,

Among violent fires,

Or returning alone,

there I was without a face

and it touched me.

– Pablo Neruda

As humans, writing—whether it is fiction, history, of even science and technology—is one of the primary ways in which we communicate and describe the world around us. Tomorrow evening, Sunday, October 10th, André Habet of the School of Writing, Literature, and Film joins us on Inspiration Dissemination to discuss his thesis on rhetoric and composition teaching style in classrooms in Belize.

After falling in love with poetry in High School in Belize, where he was raised, André decided to pursue a creative writing degree in the United States. Now André studies how the process of writing itself is taught in the classroom, something that has a rich literature in the United States, but has been very little attention in the country of Belize. In writing, composition is the form and style of putting a written work together. Different ways of teaching composition in school have different theoretical foundations and different ideological agendas, and these can sometimes have a powerful impact on the way we grow up to view the world around us.

To lean more about André’s research and his personal journey, tune in on Sunday night to 88.7FM KBVR Corvallis at 7PM PST, or stream the show live online at http://kbvr.com/listen!

The Sweetest Genes

Tonight we have the pleasure of speaking to Natalia Salinas who comes all the way from South America to work on producing more (and delicious) strawberries! Think about how often you see strawberries in the grocery store, but strawberries typically only produce one harvest per year. Some of Natalia’s work focus on identifying if the seeds’ DNA have the perpetual flowering characteristic so there are more potential harvests throughout the year. Just as important as quantity is quality; a second aspect of Natalia’s work is searching DNA markers to try and predict the sugar content in strawberries.

Ideally growers would like many harvests and sweeter strawberries, so tune in tonight at 7PM Pacific time to 88.7FM KBVR Corvallis or stream the show live at http://kbvr.com/listen to find out how Natalia can help your next milkshake be even more delicious!

Natalia is working to amplify the DNA sequences in strawberries to identify desirable traits.

The fruits of Natalia’s labor. Yum!

The ABCs of colony health

Think about the last time you bit into a nice, juicy apple. The crisp flesh and sweet flavor has been enjoyed for centuries. These are quite literally the fruits of the labor of pollinators. Since the mid-2000’s, however, honeybee health has been quite a concern with the onset of a widespread phenomena known as pollinator decline that includes such disorders such as Colony Collapse Disorder. One potential culprit for pollinator decline is the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are a new class of systemic insecticides.

Stephanie measuring the protein content of bees’ hypopharyngeal glands (which produce food for the honey bee larvae) in response to the pesticide treatments (photo courtesy S. Parreira)

Stephanie scrapes newly-emerged honeybees for experimentation (photo courtesy S. Parreira)

Tonight at 7PM PST, Stephanie Parreira, a Masters student in the department of Horticulture, will talk with us about how she became interested in colony health. In particular she’s interested in finding out how neonicotinoids affect colony health when they consume it from pollen. Tune in on 88.7FM or stream at http://kbvr.com/listen to find out how a first-generation college student came to do first class research to help understand our pollinators’ plight.

A Bridge over Troubled Water: Connecting Policy Makers and the Public

As a graduate student in public policy, Misty Freeman has a passion for bridging the communication gap between decision makers at the state and local level and the people who are affected by their policies. Working underneath Dr. Denise Lach, Misty’s dissertation work has focused specifically on the issue of water usage. As the climate continues to change and droughts on the West Coast worsen, Misty’s work becomes ever more important. By comparing the needs and resource availability of water among different rural areas in Oregon, Misty hopes to contribute to initiatives across the United States bringing critical thinking about rural needs to resource management policies at the state level.

To lean more about Misty’s research and her personal journey, tune in tonight to 88.7FM KBVR Corvallis at 7PM PST, or stream the show live online at http://kbvr.com/listen!

Modifying Textile and Design to Make a Modern Hijab

The hijab is a veil, covering the head and chest typically worn by Muslim women’s as a symbol of modesty and privacy around the world. Although it is usually only worn for short periods of time in Saudi Arabia, there are more dynamic situations they face in western countries where this attire can hinder everyday actions like navigating a fall thunderstorm, driving a car, and playing sports. A group of Muslim women in the US have thus modified the traditional hijab for comfort and fashion. Our guest today is Elham Maqsood who will describe her tremendous journey from Saudi Arabia to the US where she seeks to introduce these designs to other Muslims and help increase the quality of life of the next generation of Muslim women. Elham is entering the last year of her Ph.D. program in Design and Human Environment and will return to Saudi Arabia to become a university teacher to potentially start her own fashion line!

Tune in tonight at 7PM Pacific Time to 88.7FM KBVR Corvallis or stream the show live at http://kbvr.com/listen and hear how Elham is helping a new generation of Muslim women feel more comfortable in their own skin and how textile modification can make all the difference!

Bringing Humanities Back to the Hospital: Bioethics and Narrative Medicine

Tonight, at 7PM Pacific Time, tune in to Inspiration Dissemination to discover how Kate Swenson is connecting philosophy, story telling, and medicine. A recent graduate with a Philosophy degree from Oregon State, Kate came to OSU to complete a unique Medical Humanities certificate program as well as her pre-med program requirements. Studying underneath Doctors Anita Helle and Courtney Campbell while working on her undergraduate thesis in narrative medicine (itself a new and rare discipline), Kate focuses on how we relate to our bodies and wellness in and outside of the examination room, hoping to improve the medical experience for doctor and patient alike!

Set your dial to 88.7FM KBVR Corvallis or stream the show live at http://kbvr.com/listen tonight and hear Kate read some of her work, and to learn more about how story telling and literary technique can make for better bedside manner and better clinical technique!

Printing Parts for Planes and Hearts

From medical implants to aerospace engineering, Ali Davar Panah is working with new technology in incremental forming (similar to 3D printing) that might allow thermoplastics and biodegradable polymers to be customized and produced for a variety of applications. Similar to dissolving stitches, items made from biopolymers could be of great medical value. Once in the body they would serve their purpose and dissolve entirely with no surgical removal required. Biopolymer printing would also be valuable for producing any number of disposable plastic items (coffee lids or plastic silverware, for example) which would decompose completely if buried. Because this type of incremental forming is a a room temperature operation, it is also useful for producing complex geometric surfaces made from heat sensitive plastics, such as those used on the insides of airplanes or space shuttles.

Ali is a doctoral student working underneath Dr. Malhotra in the Advanced Manufacturing program here in OSU’s Mechanical Engineering department. Tonight, tune in to 88.7FM KBVR Corvallis at 7PM PST, or stream the show live online at http://kbvr.com/listen to learn more about Ali’s work and his story!

Yes, This is being recorded: Having a conversation about 21st century technology with 20th century tape recordings

In the 21st century, the advent of cell phone video recordings and social media has made it easier for the voices of protesters to be heard. From the Arab Spring to the Ferguson protests, new technology has been instrumental in showing the world an unfiltered glimpse into the events as they happened. This method of communication did not exist before, but it had influences.

Tonight at 7PM PST, we speak with Rich Collins, a Masters student in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film about the influence of Zora Neale Hurston, Hunter S. Thompson, and gonzo journalism on the documentation of 21st century protests. We’ll walk through Collins’ journey about how his passion and deep interest for gonzo journalism has lead him to trying to studying literature and culture here at Oregon State University.

Tune in on 88.7FM in Corvallis at 7PM PST or you can stream it live online at http://kbvr.com/listen

Can Trees Take the Heat? Climate Tolerance in Conifers and Coffee

As the average temperatures all over the world steadily increase year by year, there may be detrimental effects to economically valuable plant species. Although we here in Oregon are far from the equator and enjoy a generally temperate climate, shrinking habitat ranges and the physiological effect of heat stress on plants are a global concern. Joining us tonight on the show is Danielle Marias, a PhD student at Oregon State University studying underneath Rick Meinzer in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. Danielle’s research examines the influence of environmental stress from climate phenomenon such as drought on plants. Specifically, she studied the importance of heat alone in coffee plants and conifer seedlings.

All pictures courtesy Danielle Marias, OSU Forest Ecosystems and Society, 7.25.2015

Danielle grew up in Connecticut, and didn’t always know that she wanted to study plant physiology and ecology, but she new that she was interested in applying her undergraduate work on the subject to something with a large impact related to current issues. As a first generation college student, Danielle knows well (as many students do) how complicated it can be to find your way in the world of higher education. She participates in a blog called GradHacker which features the stories of graduate students from many different schools, sharing in their successes and their struggles. The blog is a great resource for any graduate student looking for ideas as to how to advance their academic career, or to get a simple reminder that you aren’t alone, which is sometimes crucial to maintaining your sanity in grad school! The blog is also a great resource for undergraduates who might be trying to find out more about what grad school is like, or how to best prepare for and be successful in higher education.

Tune in tonight at 7pm on 88.7 KBVR Corvallis, or stream live online to hear more about Danielle’s research on climate tolerance in coffee and conifers, and her unique personal journey!

The way you(r medicine) move(s through you)

When you take medicine for a headache, it goes through your stomach into your bloodstream. The blood with the medicine eventually goes to your head, relieving you of your pain. Of course, on the way to the brain, the medicine also has to move through other organs including your liver and your heart. How is this medicine affecting your body? How is your body affecting the medicine on its journey? How long does the medicine linger in the other parts of your body? These are the questions that Oregon State University graduate student Wenjing Li is trying to answer. Her research combines pharmacology and statistics to create a mathematical model of how medicine travels through the body.

Tonight, at 7PM PST, Wenjing Li will talk about her journey combining her love of math and background in pharmacology to studying pharmacokinetics here at Oregon State University. On the way, we will discuss the opportunities she has encountered and the many challenges she has faced as an international student from China. Listen to the conversation on 88.7FM in Corvallis or stream live at http://kbvr.com/listen