Washington State Magazine

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• Spring 2007 •

Cover Story
ART AND EVOLUTION
Bright plumage against green foliage: the grandeur and beauty of evolution

by Michael Webster

Some have told me that evolutionary explanation robs nature of beauty. This attitude puzzles me, because all the evolutionary biologists whom I know are driven by a love for nature, and to them nothing is more exciting than to uncover some hidden aspect of a natural system.

Features
Ray Troll: A story of fish, fossils, and funky art by Hannelore Sudermann Ray Troll '81 has a species of ratfish named after him, Hydrolagus trolli. He calls Darwin "Chuckie D" and paints pictures of him driving around in an Evolvo. This is a man who has embraced his past and paints it wildly and beautifully.
Evon Zerbetz
Darwin was just the beginning: A sampler of evolutionary biology at WSU by Cherie Winner All of modern biology and medicine is based on the theory of evolution, and every life scientist arguably is an evolutionary biologist. So where to start in exploring evolutionary biology at WSU? How about with dung beetles, African violets, and promiscuous wrens?
Resources, links, and other cool stuff
Zoology 61: Teaching eugenics at WSU by Stephen Jones Eugenics was the dark side of our understanding of human evolution. American eugenicists were united by the idea that the human race was degenerating because inferior people were breeding more quickly than those who were “well born.” Zoology 61, Genetics and Eugenics, was finally dropped from the course catalog at Washington State College in 1950.
Why Doubt? Skepticism as a basis for change and understanding by Will Hamlin Skepticism can forestall a too-willing acquiescence to the-way-things-are; it can distance us from dogmatism and ward us away from zealotry; it can expose our mistakes.
WSU welcomes a new president by Hannelore Sudermann Elson S. Floyd was named the 10th president of Washington State University in December. He and his wife, Carmento, will be moving to Washington from Missouri this spring.
A week in Malawi by V. Lane Rawlins In a country wracked with poverty, AIDS, and overpopulation, WSU's president finds vitality and hope.
The longest view by Cherie Winner The Hubble Space Telescope yields the deepest view yet of deep space.
Welcome to Mildew Manor (And you think your house needs work.) by Cherie Winner illustration by David Wheeler No one would knowingly build a house this way. But this is Mildew Manor. And building it wrong is building it right.
Gaylen Hansen: Three decades of paintings A new exhibit celebrates 30 years of painting by Gaylen Hansen.
Panoramas
Vaulting ambition
Just like it was yesterday
Foraged foods: Serving up a traditional meal from the Columbia plateau
What Robbie Cowgill eats
Spillman memorial rededicated
Viticultural art
Tracking the Cougars
An interview with Horace Alexander Young, musician and teacher
Phyllis Campbell: Being about forever
John Leitzinger: Racing with the wind

WEB EXCLUSIVES

Strollin' and Trollin': A tour of Ray Troll's Ketchikan, with music unlike anything you've ever heard before

He draws. He paints. He writes songs and--oh lord--he sings them! Hear him for yourself as you tour the world of Ray Troll '81 via an audio slide show produced especially for Washington State Magazine Online.

Flying With the Dragon

Know anyone with crayons? If so, we have a coloring treat for you: an Evon Zerbetz '82 original, uncolored.

Horace Alexander Young plays "That Kind of Girl"

Listen to a performance by WSU music faculty member Horace Alexander Young on a track from his CD, Acoustic Contemporary Jazz.

Forgetting gravity

An exclusive video of WSU student Todd Griffiths performing gymnastics atop a stationary, then a cantering, horse.

A Conversation about Art and Biology with Ellen Dissanayake ’57

Independent scholar and WSU alumna Ellen Dissanayake is author of Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began, Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why, and What Is Art For? WSM editor Tim Steury talked with her about her belief that the arts, far from being evolutionary “cheesecake,” as some evolutionary psychologists believe, are essential to human survival.