Two student food product development teams from the Washington State University and University of Idaho School of Food Science won awards at the Institute of Food Technologists Student Association competition in Anaheim last week. In an innovative effort to grow young people's enthusiasm about science, Yukiko Sakai's team won with Erupt-a-Cake. This all-natural, ready-to-bake chocolate cake sports an erupting volcano and gummy dinosaurs. Read more

Beneficial bacteria battle harmful bacteria, hungry fungi threaten to invade, nematodes devour them all. Dr. David Weller, research leader with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and member of Washington State University’s Department of Plant Pathology, studies the narrow band of soil along the roots – the thin brown line – called the rhizosphere where this war takes place. Read more

Engineers at WSU's Capital Planning and Development are testing a robotic technology with possible military and disaster rescue and recovery applications. The patent-pending robotic process blends a little bit of ingenuity from industrial metal cutting, video game technology, civil engineering and battle-bots to help repair underground sewer lines. Read more

WSU and other scientists are reporting the first detailed identification and analysis of a group of abnormal proteins in platelets from diabetic donors. The study could lead to screening tests to detect and monitor these so-called "high risk platelets," to help individuals with Type 2 diabetes. Read more

WSU studies have shown that small quantities of CO2 later reabsorb into concrete, even decades after it is emplaced, when elements of the material combine with CO2 to form calcite. Read more

Children's literature expert Jane Kelley examined the classic story of greedy Rumpelstiltskin in order to analyze how 12 modern writers updated the 300-year-old tale. Read more

Although we won't see that story on tonight's six o'clock news, WSU engineering professor Kelvin Lynn is serious when he says it is possible to harness the power of antimatter. Read story and see video

WSU researchers have found both applied and basic research can lead to unexpected breakthroughs. Read more

WSU doctoral student and instructor Diane Carter is synthesizing earlier lines of research to expand understanding of how adopted children can become commodities in the international adoption process. Read more

Lai-Sheng Wang studies matter a few atoms at a time, especially boron. Why study boron? Read it at WSM online. Read more

Physicist Doerte Blume is looking at the behavior of fermions and bosons in her research to understand the behavior of some of the tiniest fragments of matter. Read more

Washington State University veterinary cardiologist Kathryn M. Meurs has discovered a mutant gene in the Boxer breed that causes a type of heart disease that can be fatal in animals and humans. Read more

A genetic map being developed by scientists at WSU in collaboration with scientists at Japan’s National Agricultural Research Center on the northern island of Hokkaido may speed development of wheat varieties that are more resistant to snow mold. Read more

One of the hottest trends in gardening today is organic gardening which relies on natural processes to grow plants. There is now a growing consensus among scientists that organically grown fruits and vegetables may contain higher levels of nutrients than conventionally grown produce. Read more

Scientists and land managers in Washington and Oregon have received a five-year, $500,000 grant from The Nature Conservancy to field test a bacteria that may give land managers a new tool to suppress cheatgrass and restore degraded rangeland. Read more

New findings by WSU Professors Kenn Daratha and Ruth Bindler show that, while metabolic syndrome was on the rise among teens throughout the 1990s, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in this group has remained stable over the period studied. Read more

WSU Professor Matt McCluskey has discovered a new type of atomic oscillation that could impact solid-state phenomena ranging from diffusion to electronic device performance. Read more

Chang-Lin Xiao, an associate professor of plant pathology and extension specialist at the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, has discovered three previously unknown fungal pathogens in the United States that cause apples and pears to rot in storage. Read more

John Brown, WSU professor, scientist and extension specialist, is leading an award-winning team that is revamping the pattern of insecticides used to protect poplar trees. Read more

Parental neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse - one in three children in the United States is exposed to these types of experiences, which collectively are known as complex trauma. WSU researchers have been exploring ways to improve schools to deal with child trauma. Read more

It takes the new science of bioinformatics to find the needle of knowledge in the haystack of information created by a genome map. In search of the needles that will guide tree-fruit breeders, WSU bioinformaticist Dorrie Main is combing through the haystack of the rosaceae family. Read more

Chemist James Brozik, associate professor at Washington State University's College of Science, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a hands-on summer research experience for undergraduate students to learn more about how chemistry and biology are fundamentally interrelated. Read more

A variety of Washington State University's agricultural research programs across the state, as well as the WSU College of Nursing and a groundbreaking methamphetamine treatment research program in Spokane, will benefit from allocations laid out in the $410 billion omnibus federal spending bill. Read more

The search for life on other worlds goes on, and Dirk Schulze-Makuch has a lot to say about how we should go about it. Read more

Feeling sleepy? That's because parts of your brain are actually asleep, according to a new theoretical paper by sleep scientists at Washington State University. Read more