Laura Ferguson has dreamed of being a scientist since she was a child in Illinois, tromping through local streams. Her early explorations instilled a love of nature that led her to foreign countries and provided the necessary skills for her current post.
Oregon may have a reputation for an abundance of rain, but even in the lush Willamette Valley, water shortages are a growing concern.
If environmental catastrophe has you down, call Jana Svoboda. This Corvallis therapist assists people with an array of mental health issues, including sexuality, end-of-life care and even anxieties over a deteriorating environment. Several times a month, she says, patients talk with her about their climate change worries.
Supermarkets always tend to be one or two steps behind the First Alternative Co-op in Corvallis. Since its creation in 1970, this organization successfully led both a buy-local and an organic movement long before they became national trends. With citizens serving as both owners and shoppers, the co-op has its roots spread throughout the community.
For an artist, science can be confusing, full of numbers, variables and technical terms. Whereas for a scientist, art can seem like a fantasy, a distraction from the real world.
On average, an individual encounters about 80,000 synthetic chemicals every day. So says Robert Tanguay, a toxicologist at Oregon State University. Many of those chemicals — from fire retardants in fabrics to drying agents in paint — are untested for toxicity to people. Tanguay and his research team are working to change that. Their results are helping those who make the products we use as well as those who use them.