The six bundles of Holstein joy born at the Penn State Dairy Barns in April of last year — the outcome of a research project to improve genetic diversity in the breed — have garnered a fan following.
Hillary Peterson is every brown marmorated stink bug's worst nightmare. The Penn State doctoral degree student does not intend to rest professionally until she and other entomologists devise a way to reduce burgeoning populations of the invasive insect, originally from Asia, which are damaging crops and aggravating people. The goal of their research is to develop biological controls to interfere with the pest's reproduction.
Penn State Extension Master Gardeners across the state are helping to restore bee populations through their Pollinator Preferences and Pollinator-Friendly Gardener Certification programs.
The food-safety practices that Americans take for granted — such as washing hands with soap, refrigerating perishables, and not cutting raw meat and vegetables on the same surface without disinfection — may not be practiced widely in other places around the world,” said Cutter, professor of food science and Penn State Extension assistant director for food safety and quality programs. She and her colleagues in the College of Agricultural Sciences want to change that.
Use of the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 could help to breed cacao trees that exhibit desirable traits such as enhanced resistance to diseases, according to Penn State plant scientists.
The Centre County 4-H Robotics Club recently brought home the gold after winning the FIRST Robotics Competition — the first Pennsylvania team to capture the title. Robotics clubs are among Penn State Extension's 4‑H science programs that provide youth the opportunity to learn about science, technology, engineering and math through fun, hands-on activities and projects.
Each May, the expression "flower power" takes on a new meaning at Penn State's Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Manheim, Lancaster County, when an 85-year-old tradition — the Penn State Flower Trials — gets under way.
Nathan Pearlman, a food science major in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has savored his senior year, thanks, in part, to an internship with the Penn State Berkey Creamery.
Sarah Xenophon, recent Penn State alumna and watershed technician in the University's Agriculture and Environment Center, talks about the impact of her work, including facilitation of efforts to restore polluted waterways in Pennsylvania.
In this Q&A with Matthew Royer, director of the Agriculture and Environment Center at Penn State, we explore the ongoing work to improve the health of Pennsylvania's waterways, and by extension, the pollution problem in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Penn State Extension organized a recent trip to study state-of-the-art crop management in Brazil — one of the world's leading producers of soybeans — for Pennsylvania soybean growers and industry representatives.
Grape growers, orchardists, nursery operators, homeowners and others in southeastern Pennsylvania are bracing for the spring emergence of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect from Asia that appeared for the first time in the United States in Berks County nearly four years ago. Penn State Extension educators and College of Agricultural Sciences researchers are working with state and federal agriculture officials to stop the pest's spread.
An innovation that could have a huge impact on water quality problems in the United States, a system capable of removing almost all phosphorus from stored livestock manure, was developed by a team of researchers from Penn State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.
Manipulating the temperature and the length of time under which cocoa beans are roasted can simultaneously preserve and even boost the potency of some bioactive and antioxidant compounds while protecting desired sensory aspects of chocolate, according to Penn State researchers.
Janelle Thompson, a junior majoring in biorenewable systems with a minor in sustainable leadership, has found her niche at Penn State with the help of the opportunities she has had through undergraduate research.
A mobile app designed by Penn State researchers to help farmers and others diagnose crop diseases has earned recognition from one of the world's tech giants. PlantVillage, developed by a team led by David Hughes, associate professor of entomology and biology, was the subject of a keynote video presented at Google's TensorFlow Development Summit 2018, held March 30 in Mountain View, California.
Research in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences aims to fortify foods people frequently eat — eggs and chicken — with heart-healthy, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.
Leading the worldwide effort to get a better handle on methane emissions from animals, an international consortium of researchers devised more accurate models to estimate the amount of the potent greenhouse gas produced by dairy cattle.
Investing in public education may boost upward economic mobility — and ease income inequality, something that is becoming a big concern for economists and policymakers in the United States.
The Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State, in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Davis; the University of Minnesota; and Dickinson College will receive more than $2 million from the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research and the United States Department of Agriculture to translate basic research into online decision support tools to help beekeepers and land managers maintain and expand populations of managed and wild bees.
Valentine's Day may have passed for this year, but if you're in love with sweet, firm, antioxidant-rich — and award-winning — tomatoes that will perform well in your garden this season, you're in luck, thanks to a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. "Valentine," a new variety of grape tomato that germinated in the breeding program of plant scientist Majid Foolad, now is available commercially after nearly two decades in development.
Carpenter ants infected with a specialized parasitic fungus are not subjected to aggression or isolation from their nest mates, and they continue to share in the colony's food resources until they leave the nest for the last time to die, according to a study led by Penn State researchers.
The 16th annual Penn State Equine Science Showcase and Quarter Horse Sale will take place Saturday, April 28, at the Snider Agricultural Arena, University Park.
A good way to describe ramps, it has been said, is to note what they are not. Ramps are not leeks, nor are they scallions or shallots. Ramps look like scallions, but they're smaller and have one or two broad, flat leaves.
Following 25 years of measurement, management and continued improvement, the quality of beef is high, but there is still an opportunity to make it better, according to a beef cattle specialist with Penn State Extension.
Josh Hersl, a senior forest ecosystem management major in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has experienced a few roadblocks and detours on the road to reaching his dreams.
A new, safe treatment for bed bugs developed by Penn State entomologist Nina Jenkins already is seeing a strong sales response from pest application professionals in the few months since it hit the market.
Sky Templeton, a junior majoring in forest ecosystems management with a minor in biology, is passionate about forestry, education and minority representation, and is exploring all three interests as a student in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
If you have been to the Penn State Berkey Creamery recently, you might have noticed some of the ice cream containers are sporting a new look.
Helping undergraduate students understand scientific knowledge through participation in research is a top priority for faculty in the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
