Research
Your smartphone pics just helped WSU track grass genetics
You took a picture of a pretty field on a hike, and somewhere in a lab on the Palouse, a scientist just used it to map grass genes. That is not a joke. WSU researchers took genetic data from switchgrass fields and cross-referenced it with photos posted by nature lovers, your smartphone pics, essentially, to track how flowering times change with the seasons. It is the kind of work that sounds too simple to be real science, but it is real, and it is clever. Switchgrass matters for bioenergy, but tracking its bloom across the country takes boots on the ground or, in this case, cameras in pockets. The researchers figured out that the public already had the data they needed. They just had to ask.
This is the kind of story that makes you proud to be a Coug. It is not flashy. It is not a football highlight. It is a bunch of people looking at the world differently and sharing what they find. WSU does that a lot. If you want to see more of that same stubborn, practical problem-solving, check out our piece on how rural schools are swapping diesel for sun, the whole town breathes easier when the bus fleet goes solar. Same spirit, different field.
Go Cougs.
