Latest News

July 1, 2020

Three research projects that have great potential to be successful in the marketplace have received grants through a Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences program designed to spur innovation.

June 30, 2020

The Center for Security Research and Education (CSRE) has selected 13 interdisciplinary projects through its spring 2020 seed grant program. CSRE is providing a total of $300,000 in funding for the projects, with an additional $300,000 in matching and supplemental funding from other colleges, departments, and institutes.

June 29, 2020

A study documenting bees that are reported to occur in Pennsylvania has found the presence of 437 species, including 49 never before recorded in the state.

June 26, 2020

Penn State is part of a research team conducting surveys with fishery participants and residents to better understand the costs and benefits of varied mitigation policies and developing pandemic preparedness scenarios in Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to the world's largest commercial sockeye salmon fishery.

June 23, 2020

Conservation efforts that open up the canopy of overgrown habitat for threatened timber rattlesnakes are beneficial to snakes but could come at a cost, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State.

June 17, 2020

Recent alarming news reports aside, Asian giant hornets — sometimes referred to, hyperbolically, as "murder hornets" — are not an immediate concern in the Northeast, nor are they likely to be for a long time, if ever, according to an entomologist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

June 15, 2020

The number of human tuberculosis cases that are due to transmission from animals, as opposed to human-to-human transmission, may be much higher than previously estimated, according to an international team of researchers. The results could have implications for epidemiological studies and public health interventions.

June 10, 2020

A forest's ability to store carbon depends significantly on the bedrock beneath, according to Penn State researchers who studied forest productivity, composition and associated physical characteristics of rocks in the Appalachian ridge and Valley Region of Pennsylvania.

June 10, 2020

Researchers at Penn State aim to help minimize the risk of COVID-19 spread by identifying specific subway stations in which intervention resources — such as setting up testing sites, allocating additional personnel to disinfect frequently touched surfaces in subway stations, and distributing masks and hand sanitizer — could be of greatest benefit.

June 8, 2020

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have all become aware of how a global crisis can affect our access to food. But imagine the food security impacts of an even worse scenario — an all-out nuclear war, a large asteroid strike or a supervolcano eruption. Such catastrophes could block out sunlight, alter rainfall patterns and contaminate water supplies, which could drastically affect our food systems. An interdisciplinary team of Penn State professors has received $3 million from Open Philanthropy to study food resilience in the face of such catastrophic global events.

June 8, 2020

Muskrat populations have declined sharply across North America over the last 50 years or so, and wildlife scientists have struggled to understand why. A new study by a Pennsylvania research team is investigating whether pathogens, parasites, environmental contaminants and disease may be contributing to this decline.

June 3, 2020

The Latin name for brook trout — Salvelinus fontinalis — means "speckled fish of the fountains," but a new study by Penn State researchers suggests, for the first time, that the larger streams and rivers those fountains, or headwaters, flow into may be just as important to the brook trout.

May 28, 2020

Plant pathologists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences are lending their expertise to a multi-institutional research project designed to stop a destructive bacterial disease in lettuce.

May 27, 2020

For the past three years, WPSU, Penn State University Park’s local NPR affiliate station, and the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP) have collaborated to host the statewide Inc.U undergraduate student startup competition. The competition culminates in the six finalists competing head-to-head on the live “Shark Tank-style” TV show, "The Investment."

May 26, 2020

After a severe drought gripped the Prairie Pothole Region of the U.S. and Canada in the 1980s, populations of almost all dabbling duck species that breed there have recovered. But not northern pintails. Now a new study by a team of researchers suggests why — they have been caught in an ecological trap.

May 26, 2020

Farmers whose operations have been impacted negatively by changing precipitation patterns — either too much or not enough water — are more likely to acknowledge the link between extreme weather conditions and climate change. That is one of the findings of a study examining farmers’ perceptions of resource availability and climate change, published recently in Organization and the Environment.

May 26, 2020

Bill Bahnfleth, co-principal investigator (PI) and professor of architectural engineering, is joining co-PI Suresh Kuchipudi, clinical professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, to study the ability of optical radiation to disinfect surfaces and reduce transmission of viruses.

May 20, 2020

The seed for Penn State’s Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science was planted well before the COVID-19 outbreak. The concept had been growing in the College of Agricultural Sciences for about two years when the pandemic emerged.

May 18, 2020

Researchers in the Center for Economic and Community Development in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have developed an online StoryMap, titled "Vulnerable Pennsylvanians in the Context of a Pandemic," that they hope will facilitate engagement and help communities become stronger in the wake of COVID-19.

May 13, 2020

For many of us, especially older adults, one of the biggest challenges of COVID-19 is coping with the isolation that can result from social distancing. Matt Kaplan, an expert on intergenerational engagement, talks about how to connect—and why we should—even when we can't get together in person.

May 6, 2020

Researchers in Penn State’s College of Engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences and College of Medicine say direct LTP treatment and plasma-activated media are effective treatments against bacteria found in liquid cultures and have devised a way to create plasma directly in liquids.

May 6, 2020

The Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, in conjunction with several Penn State colleges, awarded more than $725,000 in seed grants to fund 32 new computational and data sciences projects. The 57 researchers involved in the awards represent 12 Penn State colleges and 31 academic departments.

May 5, 2020

By manipulating the expression of one gene, geneticists can induce a form of “stress memory” in plants that is inherited by some progeny, giving them the potential for more vigorous, hardy and productive growth, according to Penn State researchers, who suggest the discovery has significant implications for plant breeding.

May 4, 2020

Wide-scale use of insecticide-treated bed nets has led to substantial declines in global incidences of malaria in recent years. As a result, mosquitos have been shifting their biting times to earlier in the evening and later in the morning. In a new study, an international team of researchers has found that mosquitoes are most likely to transmit malaria in the early evening, when people are exposed, then at midnight, when people are protected by bed nets, or in the morning. The findings may have implications for malaria prevention initiatives.

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.