PULLMAN It does seem like theres something magical about artesian wells.
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| E. Kirsten Peters is a native of the rural Northwest, but she was trained as a geologist at Princeton and Harvard. Follow her at www.rockdoc.wsu.edu and on Twitter @RockDocWSU. This column is a service of the College of Sciences at Washington State University. |
PULLMAN It does seem like theres something magical about artesian wells.
PULLMAN Nothing about Earth history is static or unchanging. Thats particularly true of climate, and thereon hangs more than one interesting tale including recent news of a scientific advance in understanding how past climate has changed.
PULLMAN Little kids are amenable to learning new habits generally much more so than those of us who are set in our ways because this isnt our first rodeo.
PULLMAN If youve made a New Years resolution to eat right and trim down, be forewarned that medical science shows your brain has it in for you and will actively promote your failure on two different fronts.
PULLMAN One of the best parts of baking for me as a kid was the process of "helping" my mama roll out and cut cookie shapes for the oven.
PULLMAN The more we learn about animals, the more complex and interesting is the behavior they exhibit.
PULLMAN As the long season of darkness sweeps over the country, its a natural time to think about lighting and how dependent we are on electricity during this dim time of year.
PULLMAN Mount Rainier in my native Washington state is a stunning site.
PULLMAN Dogs are loyal, playful, loving and sometimes cute as a button.
PULLMAN At first I wasnt sure I was reading the CNN report correctly. The story hinged on special pavement that uses the impact of human feet to generate electricity.
PULLMAN Between the debt-ceiling kerfuffle and Hurricane Irene, you may have missed two bits of summertime news that will be important for what we drive in the coming years.
PULLMAN The laws of physical science teach us we can neither create nor destroy energy.
PULLMAN Once I had a case of influenza so bad I missed close to a month of graduate school.
PULLMAN -- When I was younger, I used to enjoy picking a pint or two of huckleberries in the mountains in the summer.
PULLMAN Its a classic plot device of murder mysteries: an evil killer slips poisonous mushrooms into the frying pan of an unsuspecting victim who dies an agonizing death.
PULLMAN As events in Japan this past March showed us, Big Ones really do happen.
When Richard Knowles, a professor at Washington State University, saw that potatoes treated in an experiment with a naturally occurring compound didn't sprout -- even when they were planted in soil -- he knew he had discovered something akin to a magic wand for the sprouting problem.
PULLMAN One of my mother's friends was raised decades ago on a few acres at the end of gravel road in Idaho.
PULLMAN Scientists have studied natural climate change for quite a while. Part of what we have learned about past climates comes from tree rings, and thereon hangs an interesting tale going back more than a century.
PULLMAN Theres good news all around us. On March 20, well be hitting the first day of spring, known to us geeks as the spring equinox. Thats the point when those of us living on the northern half of the Earth finally start to see daylight overwhelm the darkness of winter.
PULLMAN Geology has surely been in the news lately, with the price of petroleum moving relentlessly upward, a threat to global economic recovery because oil is so central to industrial society the world around.
PULLMAN I often eat without thinking, either while listening to the news or writing.
PULLMAN The pubic is bombarded with news reports saying that young people in the U.S. arent learning enough about science, especially compared to kids in Asia.
PULLMAN The rates of Chinas economic growth are often reported in a wide variety of sectors.
PULLMAN Parts of medical science are highly developed areas where doctors can precisely nail down specific diseases and even sometimes eradicate them.
PULLMAN Theres next to nothing special about the Earths orbit around the sun right now.
PULLMAN -- Heres a classic poem thats dear to me, both for its manic intensity and its meaning in the natural world.
PULLMAN Its that time of year once again.
PULLMAN Im trained in geology, but I dont work in the energy industry.
PULLMAN I came to a sharp fork in the deeply rutted road of my life this fall.
PULLMAN My favorite epoch in Earth history is the Ice Age, the time in which saber tooth tigers and giant mastodons roamed the world.
PULLMAN I remember well when Barbara Mandrell and George Jones sang a fine country and western song about changes in public perspective.
PULLMAN Kids delight in blowing up a balloon and letting it go.
PULLMAN I parked my ample butt on the granite steps and waited in the shade of a campus building.
PULLMAN The Gulf oil spill has shown us just one of the downsides of petroleum.
PULLMAN -- With the price of gold over $1,000 per troy ounce, people have asked me if they should sell Great Aunt Ednas rings and bracelets.
PULLMAN The disaster in the Gulf has been plenty grim.
PULLMAN — Some of us have never found a single dollar bill on the sidewalk.
PULLMAN — Some geologists are heroes.
PULLMAN — At every level, we humans have a natural drive to understand the world around us.
PULLMAN — It’s difficult to know how to compare enormous disasters with one another.
PULLMAN — My finest memory from childhood is sailing a kayak my clever brother had made out of plywood and canvas.
PULLMAN — To me, there’s nothing like a breakfast that involves an egg.
PULLMAN — If you like eating hotcakes or bread (or my own personal favorite, huckleberry muffins), you might want to pay attention to a problem that’s looming over wheat worldwide. It’s a new type of “stem rust” caused by a fungus that cripples wheat plants.
PULLMAN — The time has surely flown by for me.
PULLMAN — Children have always drawn and colored dinosaurs in full, living color.
PULLMAN — The last time I went to Nevada, I stood on the edge of an enormous open-pit mine at noon. The whistle blew. Then the pit erupted in explosive power enough to make the Earth rumble.
PULLMAN — The good citizens of Iceland have two mega-problems this spring.
PULLMAN — When I walk on Sundays with my faithful mutt along the bottom of the Snake River Canyon, I usually hear only the wind in my ears.
PULLMAN — I’ve seen the future of American science and engineering. And, in my humble opinion, it looks very bright.
PULLMAN — What scientists call the “First Law” tells us that energy in our daily lives is neither created nor destroyed — only transformed.