Latest News

May 4, 2020

If warming continues unabated in the Midwest, in 50 years we can expect the best conditions for corn and soybean production to have shifted from Iowa and Illinois to Minnesota and the Dakotas, according to Penn State researchers.

May 1, 2020

A $450,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut Research will aid researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences as they explore the potential to empower women farmers in northern Ghana through peanut production.

April 28, 2020

Trees, shrubs and woody vines are among the top food sources for honey bees in urban environments, according to an international team of researchers. By using honey bees housed in rooftop apiaries in Philadelphia, the researchers identified the plant species from which the honey bees collected most of their food, and tracked how these food resources changed from spring to fall. The findings may be useful to homeowners, beekeepers and urban land managers who wish to sustain honey bees and other bee and pollinator species.

April 27, 2020

In the most detailed study to date of epidemic spread, an international team of researchers has modeled measles dynamics based on over 40 years of data collected in England and Wales.

April 23, 2020

Whiteflies are among the most important agricultural pests in the world, yet they have been difficult to genetically manipulate and control, in part, because of their small size. An international team of researchers has overcome this roadblock by developing a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing protocol that could lead to novel control methods for this devastating pest.

April 22, 2020

Many Pennsylvania residents are facing an increased risk for severe symptoms of the novel coronavirus while having limited access to medical services, and policy briefs from Penn State’s Pennsylvania Population Network (PPN) demonstrate why.

April 22, 2020

A common soil fungus might be enlisted as a powerful partner by corn producers to suppress pests and promote plant growth, according to Penn State researchers, who suggest promoting the fungus could be an especially valuable strategy for organic growers who struggle with insect control.

April 20, 2020

To combat COVID-19 in both the treatment and testing arenas, Yong Wang, Penn State professor of biomedical engineering, has received two grants from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences COVID-19 multi-institute seed grant fund.

April 16, 2020

Economic losses due to soybean diseases in the United States from 1996 to 2016 amounted to more than $95 billion, according to a team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences who examined the long-term impact of soybean diseases on production in the U.S.

April 16, 2020

By collecting global Twitter data from the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Penn State researchers developed a dashboard that tracks geotagged tweets to allow the opportunity for researchers and policymakers to assess public reactions to the pandemic.

April 14, 2020

With speed and ingenuity, more than 100 researchers across Penn State are shifting their research programs to address the COVID-19 crisis, thanks to funding from a seed grant initiative led by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. In total, the initiative awarded $2.25 million to 47 teams of researchers from three campuses, eight colleges and more than 25 departments.

April 13, 2020

Farmers and pet owners who may be concerned that they can contract COVID-19 from domestic animals — such as livestock, dogs and cats — have little to worry about, according to a virologist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

April 9, 2020

Commercially prepared baby foods that purport to be loaded with dark green vegetables are sweetened with fruit puree and often don’t contain a high percentage of dark green vegetable content, according to a team of researchers. The resulting lack of dark green vegetable taste matters, said team leader John Hayes, associate professor of food science at Penn State.

April 1, 2020

When Caela Camazine realized that she had suddenly lost her ability to taste and smell on March 17, she thought it was “really weird” because she was not congested.

March 30, 2020

Organic soybean producers using no-till and reduced-tillage production methods that incorporate cover crops — strategies that protect soil health and water quality — can achieve similar yields at competitive costs compared to tillage-based production.

March 26, 2020

As COVID-19 spreads throughout the world, researchers across Penn State are searching for solutions that may save lives, thanks to a multi-institute seed-grant fund. On March 3, these institutes, led by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, launched a lightning-quick  call for research proposals  aimed at funding research with the potential to significantly and rapidly improve human health outcomes. So far, researchers in 21 departments and across seven colleges have been awarded $1.2 million. New proposals will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Friday, March 27.

March 25, 2020

A new Penn State-led study found that veterans from the most junior enlisted ranks who screened positive for a mental health problem were significantly less likely to use a healthcare program of any kind.

March 23, 2020

Compared to veterans of other wars, those who have served since 9/11 have the highest unemployment rate, particularly among young male veterans, according to researchers at Penn State.

March 17, 2020

Pesticide-coated seeds — such as neonicotinoids, many of which are highly toxic to both pest and beneficial insects — are increasingly used in the major field crops, but are underreported, in part, because farmers often do not know what pesticides are on their seeds, according to an international team of researchers. The lack of data may complicate efforts to evaluate the value of different pest management strategies, while also protecting human health and the environment.

March 17, 2020

Roasted soybeans are a common ingredient in the diets of Pennsylvania dairy cows because they are a great source of fat and protein — including protein that escapes the rumen. Farm-grown and locally available soybeans and on-farm or local roasting make soybeans an economical ingredient in many situations.

March 12, 2020

By diversifying their crop rotations to create conditions that promote beneficial, predatory insects to combat pests, farmers can reduce their reliance on insecticides to control early-season crop pests, such as caterpillars, and still produce competitive yields of corn and soybeans.

March 11, 2020

Many aspects of our lives — not only the presence or absence of certain diseases, but conditions like obesity, sleep patterns, even mood — may be determined, to a surprising extent, by the microbes living inside of us. Patterson, Tombros Early Career Professor and professor of molecular toxicology at Penn State, is using one of the newer and more promising of these technologies, called metabolomics, to learn about the microbiome of the human gut.

March 9, 2020

A biological technique used to suppress soilborne pests and pathogens already used in warmer climates, with some modifications, will work in Pennsylvania and other more northern locations, according to a team of researchers.

February 26, 2020

Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences researchers have partnered with several agricultural and governmental organizations to develop a survey that asks producers in Lancaster, York, Franklin and Adams counties to document conservation practices they have adopted to promote water quality and soil health in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

February 21, 2020

Billions of locusts are tearing across East Africa, destroying crops and putting some 19 million people at risk of severe food insecurity. The United Nations has called for a rapid response to this food-security threat. Through a memorandum of understanding with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., David Hughes, Penn State professor of entomology and biology and creator of PlantVillage, an initiative to empower farmers with agricultural knowledge and technologies, is answering this call.

February 21, 2020

Many decades of forest fire prevention and suppression has resulted in a thick buildup of organic matter on the forest floor in many regions of the United States, according to a Penn State researcher, whose new study suggests that the peculiar way that these layers burn should be considered in plans for controlled burns.

February 20, 2020

The addition of 3-Nitrooxypropanol to the feed of dairy cows reduced their enteric methane emissions by about 25% in a recently published study — one in a series of Penn State studies of the investigational substance in the United States — which might be an early step toward it being approved for use in this country.

February 19, 2020

Flooding is the costliest natural disaster, according to environmental economist Katherine Zipp. Over the last 20 years, flooding has caused $500 billion in global damages. In that same time period, flooding in the U.S. caused $60 billion in damages, $45 billion of which has occurred in the past five years. Zipp is part of a team that is studying how floodplain damages affect long-term housing development in high flood-risk areas.

February 18, 2020

The breadth of Penn State’s research expertise surpasses that of any university in the country, according to the latest National Science Foundation rankings of Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) research expenditures by key fields and subfields, released in November 2019.