College of Science

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Arachnophobia can make humans flee at the sight of a brown recluse, black widow or even a daddy long legs, but animal predators of spiders know no such fear.

That’s why, paleobiologist George Poinar Jr. explains, some spider species have developed the defense of deception. They masquerade as a much less desirable prey – ants – and Poinar’s recent paper in Historical Biology presents an early record of an ant-mimicking spider in fossilized resin.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A product used to control pest slugs on farms in multiple countries is deadly to least one type of native woodland snail endemic to the Pacific Northwest, according to scientists who say more study is needed before the product gains approval in the United States.

Dee Denver of the Oregon State University College of Science led a 10-week laboratory project that showed the effect of a biotool marketed as Nemaslug on the Pacific sideband snail. The study was published today in PLOS One.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Scientists led by an Oregon State University chemistry researcher are closing in on a new tool for tackling the global problem of weedkiller-tainted groundwater.

Kyriakos Stylianou of the OSU College of Science led an international team that identified a material known as a metal-organic framework, or MOF, that showed an ability to completely remove, and also break down, the oft-used herbicide glyphosate.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A chemical element so visually striking it was named for a goddess shows a “Goldilocks” level of reactivity – neither too much nor too little – that makes it a strong candidate as a carbon scrubbing tool.

The element is vanadium, and research by Oregon State University scientists has demonstrated the ability of vanadium peroxide molecules to react with and bind carbon dioxide – an important step toward improved technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University researchers have discovered vitamin B₁ produced by microbes in rivers, findings that may offer hope for vitamin-deficient salmon populations.

Findings were published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The discovery related to gravitational waves which made international headlines earlier this year and was predicted by Albert Einstein more than a century ago will be the topic of Oregon State University’s Science Pub on Dec. 6.

Jeff Hazboun, an astrophysicist at Oregon State and one of the scientists who led the project that resulted in the gravitational wave astronomy breakthrough, will talk about the discovery and future directions for the research at 6 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Old World Deli in Corvallis. It can be viewed in person or online.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – One hundred million years ago, as iguanodons and triceratops fled from hungry tyrannosaurs, another biological drama played out on the ground where the giant reptiles trod: Male beetles using their supersized antennae in combat for mates.

Researchers have identified a new species of beetle from Burmese amber, a specimen with antennae nearly 8 millimeters long attached to a 2.3-millimeter body.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Science have demonstrated the potential of an inexpensive nanomaterial to scrub carbon dioxide from industrial emissions.

The findings, published in Cell Reports Physical Science, are important because improved carbon capture methods are a key to addressing climate change, said OSU’s Kyriakos Stylianou, who led the study.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A fossil arthropod entombed in 100-million-year-old Burmese amber has been identified as a new genus and species of froghopper, known today as an insect with prodigious leaping ability in adulthood following a nymphal stage spent covered in a frothy fluid.