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WSU artists paint the town in array of colors

Vivid displays of color, shape, and beauty are popping up across Pullman, thanks largely to the talents of a group of muralists at Washington State University.

Students and faculty in the fine arts department have worked in recent months with other artists in the community to create a vibrant bouquet of public art on walls of buildings at the center of town and at the Palouse Discovery Science Center on Nelson Court. Six more murals adorn the playgrounds at two local elementary schools.

Joe Hedges.
Hedges

From still life realism to geometric designs, the painted walls are more than mere eye candy—they’re also teaching and learning tools for the artists and viewers, said muralist Joe Hedges, WSU associate professor of painting/intermedia and a strong advocate for art in public places.

“Public art is vital to a community. It makes a place more interesting—more colorful in many ways—and it sparks conversations between neighbors,” he said. “Projects tend to connect business owners and community stakeholders with people and ideas they may not otherwise encounter. The value is as much in the conversations and coalition building that happens behind the scenes as it is in the final result.”

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WSU Insider
Pullman Radio

Honorary doctoral degree awarded to Professor Emeritus William D. Lipe

William Lipe.
Lipe

Washington State University has selected Emeritus Professor William D. Lipe, an internationally recognized leader in the field of archaeology, to receive its highest honor: an honorary doctoral degree. In a career spanning six decades, Lipe has significantly shaped the way archaeological resources are managed and how archaeology is conducted today.

The university will grant the degree to Lipe at the fall Commencement ceremony next Saturday, Dec. 11.

In the 1990s Lipe was president of the Society for American Archaeology, a professional society that he helped to transform into an authoritative resource for archaeological practice and professional ethics. The Society has recognized him with the Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor.

He has sat on the boards of a number of professional societies and is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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WSU Insider

Recent study aims to estimate lynx population in Glacier Park

The first-ever comprehensive lynx population survey in the park, funded by the Glacier National Park Conservancy and conducted in collaboration with Alissa Anderson, John Waller and Dr. Dan Thornton, hopes to finally shed light on mysterious feline’s population densities and preferred habitat inside Glacier National Park.

“It seems like there are lynx in many different parts of Glacier, which we are excited about, but we still don’t know what kind of habitat they really prefer,” said Anderson, a graduate student and researcher at Dr. Dan Thornton’s Mammal Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab at Washington State University. “Hopefully, this study will help us understand why lynx choose to live in certain parts of the park but not in others.”

With the data collection period completed, the researchers are now hard at work attempting to identify individual lynx captured in the images as they pursue population density estimates. While little is known about the overall population of lynx in the United States, which were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2000, the study may be able to help researchers understand how many individual lynx can be found in certain areas of the park.

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Yahoo! news 
Arca Max

The trouble with staying awake: BCOPS study addresses shift work hazards

Chronic fatigue and other ills brought about by irregular work schedules have always been a concern for law enforcement officers. Only relatively recently has there been any scientific analysis of the problem.

The webinar featured several presenters who each broke down data gathered during a longitudinal study of police officers in Buffalo, NY. The Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study followed hundreds of public safety officers between 2004 and 2020, tracking their work schedules and health over the course of the project.

Bryan Vila.
Vila

The seminal work in this area was an unrelated research effort published over 20 years ago. Tired Cops by Bryan Vila (now a Ph.D. and retired professor of criminal justice at Washington State University) detailed some of the health hazards suffered by cops who worked irregular schedules. Some of the situations he studied were brought about by the cops themselves, who insisted on working second jobs or engaged in other pursuits when they should have been sleeping.

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Police1

 

The secret world of nukes in Washington

In 1996, the U.S. signed the United Nations Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, banning live nuclear weapons tests.

The Department of Energy instead turned to computer simulations and laboratory experiments to evaluate its stockpile, and established the Institute for Shock Physics at Washington State University to support these efforts.

Chris Keane.
Keane

This “is very basic science associated with what happens to matter when it’s compressed under very high pressures,” said Christopher Keane, the university’s vice president for research and a professor of physics.

This research, funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration, has contributed to certification of “the nuclear stockpile components over 25 years without nuclear testing,” Keane said. “It’s a tremendous technical achievement.”

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Spokane Public Radio