CAS Connection - Oct 2025

In the latest episode of Deep Green, created in partnership with Momentum, Avi Rajagopal sits down with University of Oregon physicist Richard Taylor, whose research underpins our understanding of fractal patterns’ impact, and Anastasia and Martin Lesjak of 13&9, who apply this research in their designs—including a new wallcovering collection for Momentum called Renaturation.

Dr. Christopher Hendon, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon and co-author of the book Water for Coffee: Science Story Manual, talks with Serious Eats about coffee. He says that the specific compounds you lose over time depend on the coffee itself, but you're generally losing aromatics (the things that make coffee smell good): "If you like the smell of the coffee when you grind it, that's what you're losing [when you allow it to cool]."

A Newport, Oregon resident accidentally became interested in fossil hunting; now, he likely holds the largest private fossil collection in the state. Kent Gibson’s dog, Bart, found a rock while hunting in the late ‘90s that turned out to be a porpoise skull. Now, Gibson’s amassed thousands of fossils, a treasure trove of significant importance to the state. “Kent is an excellent Oregonian and deserves respect and admiration for the work he has done to conserve our fossil history,” said Edward Davis, an associate professor of earth sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. “A lot of times, people who approach me like that are mistaken, and they have rocks that look kind of like fossils,” Davis told The Statesman Journal. “(Gibson) showed me the back of the truck and there was just skull, skull, skull, skull.”