Why is the air hazy today?
Why aren’t fishing conditions as good as they used to be?
And… what is Dioxin, anyway?
Oregon State University is helping the community understand the answers to these questions through their Community Outreach and Education Program. The Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Center and the Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences (MFBS) Center present Unsolved Mysteries of Human Health: how scientists study toxic chemicals.
This kid-friendly site gives us an inside look at the methods and instruments that experts use to solve environmental mysteries. One scenario revolves around two such instruments – the gas chromatograph and the mass spectrometer, working in conjunction to detect chemicals in the air. Another scenario describes the flow cytometer, a device that measures cells in liquid.
The goals of the website include increasing student interest in the field of environmental health science, increasing the public’s understanding of environmental health science research, and highlighting current research being performed at the EHS and MFBS Centers.
