Latest News

Academic researchers interested in exploring the commercial potential of their technological innovations are invited to apply for a National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) short course to be held in State College from April 5-19. Applications are due by 5 p.m. EST on Friday, March 29.

An extract from the seeds of avocados exhibited anti-inflammatory properties in a laboratory study, according to Penn State researchers, and it represents a potential source for novel anti-inflammatory compounds that could be developed as a functional food ingredient or pharmaceuticals.

Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), in collaboration with the Institute for CyberScience (ICS) and the College of Information Sciences and Technology, has awarded over $100,000 in funding to support six new interdisciplinary teams of Penn State researchers whose work is aimed at developing innovative research programs using Twitter data. Faculty from the College of Agricultural Sciences are a part of three of these teams.

Consumer preference or aversion to wines made from native grapes — such as Concord, Niagara and Catawba, which are mostly grown in eastern North America — may depend on early exposure to the fruits' sweet, ultra "grapey" taste and aroma, according to researchers who conducted sensory tests with wine drinkers in Pennsylvania and California.

Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has named Jayson Harper, professor of agricultural economics, as interim director of the Fruit Research and Extension Center, effective March 1.

Returning to civilian life can be challenging for veterans. While there are many programs and services aimed at helping them readjust, some veterans do not take advantage of these supportive resources. A Penn State-led research team examined factors that are associated with program non-use among veterans who recently left active duty service.

Pests and diseases are taking a substantial bite out of the world’s five major food crops — in some cases, up to 40 percent — according to a recently released publication, one of the first to inventory the impact on a global scale.

Carabid beetles produce caustic chemicals they spray to defend themselves against predators, and the compound that protects their bodies from these toxic substances shows promise for use in bioengineering or biomedical applications, according to Penn State researchers.

Penn State's Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has named Alexander Hristov, professor of dairy nutrition in the College of Agricultural Sciences, as a distinguished professor. Hristov is an internationally recognized scholar in livestock greenhouse gas mitigation and production and in amino acid nutrition of dairy cows.

Have you ever wondered about the series of events that led to your birth? According to Troy Ott, professor of reproductive biology at Penn State, these events are really, very improbable.

Employing advanced genetic-tracing techniques and sharing the data produced in real time could limit the spread of bacteria — Bacillus cereus — which cause foodborne illness, according to researchers who implemented whole-genome sequencing of a pathogen-outbreak investigation.

Of Pennsylvania’s 28 million acres, 17 million are forests. Seventy percent of those forested lands are managed by private landowners, two of whom are Tony and Jeanne Riley of Baltimore, Maryland.

An anaerobic digester being constructed as part of the Department of Animal Science’s renovation project at its farms is a part of its total nutrient management program that will also support Penn State’s sustainability goals.

The abilities of various bee species to disperse influences the pattern of their population's genetic structure, which, in turn, can constrain how they respond to environmental change, as reported by an international team of researchers.

Widespread adoption by dairy farmers of injecting manure into the soil instead of spreading it on the surface could be crucial to restoring Chesapeake Bay water quality, according to researchers who compared phosphorus runoff from fields treated by both methods. However, they predict it will be difficult to persuade farmers to change practices.

When Tomas Lowenstein of Agricola La Reina, a mushroom farm in Miranda, Venezuela, needs spawn, or "seed," to grow his crops, his chosen point of contact isn't around the corner or even in the country. It's more than 2,200 miles away in a laboratory on Penn State's University Park campus.

Designating relatively small parcels of land as protected areas for wildlife with no habitat management — which has frequently been done in urban-suburban locales around the world — likely does not benefit declining songbird species, according to a team of researchers who studied a long-protected northeastern virgin forest plot.

Changes in the distribution of Pennsylvania's population — largely toward the state's southeastern quadrant — reflect challenges that policymakers need to address to promote and maintain statewide prosperity, suggests a new report compiled by economists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.