Research

Crows are among the most intelligent animals on the planet. But just how smart are they? A new "study":http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eth.12064/abstract;jsessioni… led by wildlife faculty member Barbara Clucas suggests that they can tell when humans are watching them and adapt their behavior accordingly.

In biology, some creatures are simply evolutionary oddities. Take the aardvark, for example, or the duck billed platypus—animals with distinct, unusual features that make them unique in the mammal world.

Lucia Boyer picked up the tiny jellyfish with tongs and dunked it into a bath of liquid nitrogen. With the cauldron still smoking and sizzling, she transferred the frozen organism into a freeze dryer, where low temperature and a vacuum would eventually transform the ice directly into gas.

Humboldt State University will host the fourth Institute for Student Success, a one-day professional event for staff, faculty and administration, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 20 on the HSU campus.

Humboldt State professor Michael Yellow Bird has co-authored a new textbook titled “Decolonizing Social Work.”

For electric vehicles to take off on the North Coast, Humboldt County would need about 43 charging stations from Orick to Garberville.

The Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University has received a $95,000 state grant to continue experiments aimed at converting biomass—slash from logging and fuel reduction efforts—into energy dense “bio-coal.”

This semester, students in Patricia DuRant’s engineering dynamics class had the chance to design and build their own robots using wheels, plastic gears and other self-designed parts.

Geography student Alina Taalman (’13) has won the Arthur Robinson Award for Best Printed Map in an annual competition hosted by the national Cartography and Geographic Information Society.

What role do native bees play in local crop pollination? And should local farmers establish better habitats to support them?

_The following was provided by the California State University Chancellor's Office_:

An international agency has adopted a new technical standard led by the Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University that harmonizes national quality assurance requirements for solar-powered light-emitting diode devices (LEDs).

Humboldt State University will host its inaugural Earth Day Symposium on Marijuana and the Environment this weekend, centering on a key issue often overlooked in mainstream analysis: marijuana’s environmental effects.

Research findings of medical marijuana dispensaries will be the subject of the last of the spring speaker series of the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research on Monday, April 29, at 5:30 p.m. in the Native American Forum adjoining the Behavioral and Social Sciences Building at Humboldt State University.

We all know the benefits of walking and biking to work or school: improved health, decreased pollution and an increased sense of community. But when it comes time to make the decision to walk or drive, why do so many of us chose the unhealthier alternative?

Parents take note: listening to heavy metal or other fringe music may not have as negative an effect on your kids as you may have thought.

The Redwood Coast Energy Authority in Eureka is the proposed recipient of $1.75 million in state funding for a community-scale renewable energy implementation project, in partnership with Humboldt State’s Schatz Energy Research Center (SERC).

Don’t be alarmed if you begin to see a lot more garbage on North Coast beaches.

Ever wondered if wearing a backpack could affect the way you walk? Two HSU students recently teamed up with Kinesiology Professor Justus Ortega to find out.

Hydrogen experiment kits created by Humboldt State’s Schatz Energy Research Center are now being used by chemistry students at the Florida Institute of Technology.

Vanessa Crandell (’13) has been fascinated by the Earth for as long as she can remember. In kindergarten, she’d fill her backpack with rocks from the playground and bring them home after school. One of her earliest memories was taking a class field trip to a volcano in the second grade. “It was my first introduction to plate tectonics,” she recalls.

_Do our lifestyle choices affect our lifespan? And is our obsession with cleanliness making us sick? HSU students explore these questions and more at HSU’s first undergraduate anthropology research symposium 6 p.m. Nov. 29 in the Native American Forum._

Stephen C. Sillett, the first Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology at Humboldt State University, and his colleagues have confirmed the second-largest tree on earth, about 3,240 years old, above a trail junction in Sequoia National Park, according to the latest edition of National Geographic magazine.

Four Humboldt State University faculty members will speak at the Eureka TEDx event from 1-5 p.m. Sunday Dec. 2 at the Arcata Theater Lounge.

The Humboldt State Anthropology Department will host its first-ever undergraduate research symposium 6 p.m. Nov. 29 in the Native American Forum on the first floor of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Building.