Portland State Magazine Winter 2013

4 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013 Park Blocks A rise in rankings PORTLAND STATE EARNED a top 10 “up-and-coming” rating in the Best Colleges 2013 guidebook published by U.S. News &World Report . The list recognizes universities making “the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty and student life” based on a survey of college presidents, provosts, and admissions deans. “These rankings reflect a growing recognition among our peers that PSU is an urban research university on the rise,” says PSU President Wim Wiewel. THE SEX LIVES OF MOSSES In a new study published by leading scientific journal, Nature , PSU researchers discovered that female mosses actually produce scents that entice insects called springtails to help spread the plants’ sperm. Before this study, led by biology professor Sara Eppley, moss reproduction was thought to depend on individual sperm swimming through a water layer between male and female plants. Eppley and her colleagues study mosses in the PSU Center for Life in Extreme Environments, which received funding from Barbara ’75 and Duane McDougall.