Oregon State Science Pub

Every time you rely on your phone to translate a foreign language, you ask your smart speaker to do something or your car skids on black ice, you’ve taken advantage of artificial intelligence. While Hollywood may pose a fearful future in which humans battle wily robots, the reality is that this technology faces significant limitations. Initiatives to create self-driving cars and swarms of flying drones occasionally capture headlines, but daunting hurdles remain.

Distinguished Professor William J. Ripple discusses how his conservation research and concern about the global environment and climate change led to him publish the Scientists' Warning to Humanity paper, which has been signed and endorsed by more than 20,000 scientists from 184 countries. He shares his journey from ecological research to science advocacy, providing suggestions for how the planet might avert an impending environmental crisis.

Whether it's genetically modified crops that grow without any interference from pests, or mobile apps that a landowner can use to calculate the amount of grass available in their field, technology allows farmers to save time and money.

Whether scrambled, fried or baked in a cake, eggs are a mainstay in homes and restaurants, but in recent years, the industry has seen major changes in production practices. James Hermes, Associate Professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences, discusses the history of the chicken industry in Oregon and the impacts of the shift to “free range” and other methods of producing eggs.

Sean Fleming, book author and courtesy professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, discusses how rivers interact with the land in the Northwest and around the world.

Larry Landis, director of the Special Collections and Archives Research Center at Oregon State, discusses the origins of OSU research and its connections to contemporary issues.

Unlike their close relatives, which include puffins and murres, the marbled murrelet is a bird of two worlds. It gets its food from the ocean but raises its young up to 50 miles inland in mature forests. Jim Rivers, assistant professor in the College of Forestry, discusses an ongoing Oregon State University research project to learn more about the behavior of this endangered species.

Hops chemistry expert Tom Shellhammer shares a glimpse into the future of craft beers as new varieties of hops and barley work their way into brewers' recipes. Recorded 2-12-18

Heather Knight, a researcher in OSU's College of Engineering studies how humans and robots interact and explores what the future holds as these interactions become more frequent.

Author Steve Carpenter explores the fungi found around the Coast Range's tallest peak.

Marli Miller, author of the book Roadside Geology of Oregon and professor at the University of Oregon walks us through the layers of geological history you'll find driving across the Pacific Northwest.

OSU Professor Monique Udell talks about her research into dog behavior with insights into their connections to humans and their links to and differences from their wild cousins.

This August we will experience the first solar eclipse entirely within the boundaries of the continental U.S. since 1776. Join Randall Milstein from the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences to learn about eclipses past and future.

Cakes, breads, biscuits and other baked goods rise to the occasion as they heat up in the oven, and the agents responsible for this feat have a surprising story. At the April 10, 2017 Corvallis Science Pub Sue Queisser discussed the history of leavening agents and offered troubleshooting tips that help bakers achieve better results.

Did the first people come to North America by land or by sea? Did they travel inland or along the coast? How does the human story begin here? At the February 13 Corvallis Science Pub, Loren Davis, anthropologist at Oregon State University, shared the latest evidence for early human occupation along the Pacific slope of the New World and archaeological links between early sites situated around the Pacific Rim.

In the movies the typical robot is as soft as a tin can. But inspired by animals that slither swim and crawl engineers are designing new robotic systems as soft as skin and muscle.

From rhetoric about putting "America First" to arguments about the founding of NATO, global concerns are playing a prominent role in this year’s presidential elections. Polls show that Americans rank foreign relations just behind the economy and terrorism as an important factor in their voting preferences. While public opinion shifts from year to year, the U.S. position in the world has provided fodder for debates since the beginning of the republic. To historians, the concept of a grand strategy — an ambitious organizing principle for the exercise of global power — provides one way to understand how such issues affect our political discourse. A grand strategy is about big ideas, says Christopher McKnight Nichols, OSU historian and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. It’s about connecting means and ends. “A grand strategy,” he explains, “is long-term intellectual framework that structures a big, capacious foreign policy world view.” Originally recorded on 10-10-16

From coastal rainforests to the high desert, Oregon’s diverse landscape produces a stunning variety of plant life. This richness impacts all Oregonians — ranchers, wildflower enthusiasts, gardeners or connoisseurs of local brews. The Oregon Flora Project provides information about the plants of the state in ways that are relevant to all citizens. The project coordinates hundreds of volunteers and scientists who are carefully recording details of the state’s botanical resources. At the Corvallis Science Pub on September 12, Linda Hardison, director of the Oregon Flora Project, showed what they have discovered and how citizens can use the results to launch their own investigations into biodiversity, gardening with natives, weeds, rare plants and more. “Having accurate knowledge about the plants that surround us can help us make good decisions at many levels, from the plants we select for our gardens to the land use policies implemented by our government,” adds Hardison. “A new Flora, coupled with a website that reflects the most current information, is a valuable tool to inform such decisions.” Originally recorded on 9-12-16

Marijuana dispensaries have enabled people to use the federally controlled substance to treat pain, nausea and other illness symptoms. But what do scientists actually know about how marijuana behaves in the body? How is it metabolized? How does it interact with cellular pathways involved in pain perception, appetite and the immune system? Is it biochemically related to other compounds produced in the body? Jane Ishmael is an associate professor in the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy and a member of a task force authorized in 2015 by the State Legislature to study the medical and public health properties of cannabis. At the June 6 Corvallis Science Pub, she will discuss what scientists know about the effects of marijuana on the body and how it interacts with cells and systems.