Latest News

August 22, 2017

Penn State research teams working on two promising discoveries -- a new, energy-efficient treatment to kill destructive insects in wood and new tomato varieties bred for Pennsylvania conditions -- each have won $75,000 Research Applications for Innovation, or RAIN, grants to bring their discoveries to market.

August 19, 2017

As conditions warm, fish and wildlife living at the southern edge of their species' ranges are most at risk, according to Penn State researchers who led a major collaborative study of how wood frogs are being affected by climate change.

August 17, 2017

With more than two dozen companies in Pennsylvania manufacturing potato chips, it is no wonder that researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have developed a novel approach to more efficiently convert potato waste into ethanol. This process may lead to reduced production costs for biofuel in the future and add extra value for chip makers.

August 17, 2017

A group of faculty, students, energy providers, and vegetation-management companies are looking at how to best maintain right-of-ways under utilities to protect those utilities and promote wildlife at the same time.

August 16, 2017

With water quality in the Chesapeake Bay suffering from excess nutrients and fish populations in rivers such as the Susquehanna experiencing gender skewing and other reproductive abnormalities, understanding how to minimize runoff of both nutrients and endocrine-disrupting compounds from farm fields after manure applications is a critical objective for agriculture.

August 14, 2017

A virus that infects a species of malaria-transmitting mosquito could help scientists gain a better understanding of mosquito biology and eventually could lead to methods for stopping or slowing the spread of the disease, according to a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Jason Rasgon, professor of entomology, has received a grant of $1.9 million from the National Institutes of Health to study the virus, called AgDNV.

August 3, 2017

A team of Penn State scientists has developed a potential game-changer in the war against bedbugs — a naturally derived, fungal-based pesticide that uses the bugs’ own natural tendencies to humankind’s advantage.

August 2, 2017

David Geiser and Seogchan Kang, professors of plant pathology and environmental biology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, received a grant from the National Science Foundation to perform the first new synthesis of taxonomy for species of the genus Fusarium in the past 30 years.

August 2, 2017

Ailanthus, also called tree-of-heaven, is a voracious invasive plant species that is rapidly affecting more and more forests in the United States, according to plant pathologists. These researchers recently found that Ailanthus not only produces lots of viable seeds, but also that the species produces seeds earlier in its lifespan and keeps producing seeds, in some cases, more than a century later. Recognizing the invasive potential of Ailanthus may help forestry experts control it.

August 1, 2017

Snowshoe hares in Pennsylvania — at the southern end of the species' range — show adaptations in fur color and characteristics, behavior and metabolism, to enable them to survive in less wintry conditions than their far northern relatives, according to a team of researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

July 20, 2017

Pigs have gut bacterial profiles and immune systems similar to humans. Using a pig model, in addition to mice models, may help minimize the failure rate of drugs for diseases linked to high-calorie diets, such as colon cancer and type 2 diabetes, say researchers.

July 20, 2017

Vast swaths of Pennsylvania forests were clear-cut circa 1900 and regrowth has largely been from local native plant communities, but a team of researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has found that invasive, non-native plants are making significant inroads with unconventional natural gas development.

July 19, 2017

Ice cream with higher fat amounts are typically called "premium" ice creams. However, Penn State researchers found that most people can't tell the difference between ice creams with certain levels of fat. The findings may help ice cream producers and entrepreneurs make recipes that are tasty, but less expensive.

July 17, 2017

Guangqing Chi, associate professor of rural sociology and demography and public health sciences in Penn State's Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education and director of the Computational and Spatial Analysis (CSA) Core in the Social Science Research Institute, and his team have collected over 30 terabytes of geo-tagged tweets over the last four years.

July 10, 2017

A grant from the National Science Foundation will enable a Penn State-led team of entomologists to develop and disseminate a technology they say could bring gene-editing capabilities within reach of everyday scientists, regardless of the arthropod species they study. The $2.5 million award is part of NSF's Enabling Discovery through GEnomic Tools (EDGE) program.

July 6, 2017

Ecosystem and bioproduct researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences are working with professional sports franchises to make their venues "greener" and reduce the environmental impact of their events.

June 28, 2017

A study conducted by researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences showed it is possible for avian and human influenza viruses to infect little brown bats, the most widely spread bat species in North America.

June 26, 2017

Slowed as much by extremely low oil prices as supply-chain and technological challenges, the effort to integrate biofuels into the nation's aviation fuel supply is nonetheless progressing, according to a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

June 22, 2017

The popularity of the craft beer industry has caught the attention of researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, including Greg Roth, who's spearheading research in malting barley -- a key ingredient in craft beer production -- with a goal of helping Pennsylvania farmers benefit.

June 19, 2017

Researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences are spearheading a four-year-old collaborative effort to assess the impact of a warming climate on the Eastern red-backed salamander, a creature that lives on or under the forest floor.

June 19, 2017

A compound made from grape skins and grape seeds killed colon cancer stem cells in mice, according to researchers. The study, along with previous studies on the low incidence of colon cancer in populations that tend to eat plants, may also offer clues to the role that foods play in suppressing and treating cancer.

June 15, 2017

Francisco Diaz, associate professor of reproductive biology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and Pak Kin Wong, professor of biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering, have received a grant through the Grand Challenges Explorations program — an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — to develop a novel approach to contraception.

June 14, 2017

An entomologist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study and compare how various pest-management regimes affect the health of soils. John Tooker, associate professor of entomology, will lead the project, which is titled "Exploring Soil Health and Pest Management Trade Offs to Maximize Crop Productivity."

June 9, 2017

Americans drink more than 6 billion gallons of milk per year, and another 10 billion gallons are used to produce cheese, not to mention the milk that goes into products such as ice cream and yogurt. Yet, it's safe to say, most consumers take the wellbeing of dairy cows for granted. But the country's 65,000 dairy farmers don't -- they can't afford to.

June 6, 2017

Recent media reports have suggested that tick populations in Pennsylvania may be particularly high this year, leading to an increased risk of Lyme disease in the state. Although it is unclear whether the number of ticks actually is higher this spring — and if so, why — it nonetheless is always a good idea to take precautions to avoid ticks and the diseases they can transmit, according to entomologists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

June 6, 2017

In keeping with Penn State's recent focus on microbiome research, the University will join the International Alliance for Phytobiomes Research as a sponsoring partner, both organizations announced on June 6. An international, nonprofit consortium of academic institutions, large and small companies, and governmental agencies, the Phytobiomes Alliance was established in 2016 to coordinate public-private research projects on various aspects of agriculturally relevant phytobiomes.

June 4, 2017

A few degrees, on average, can make a huge difference in lakes and streams as aquatic species struggle to compete and in some cases survive, and that's why a warming climate is of concern to fisheries managers.

May 30, 2017

PROSPER, a community-based preventive intervention system, delivered in middle school, shows that participants had up to a 41 percent reduction in substance abuse during the first year after leaving high school.

May 23, 2017

The recent announcement by the Pennsylvania Game Commission that it found 25 more wild deer with chronic wasting disease last year underlines the importance of studies being conducted by a team of researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

May 23, 2017

Marvin Hall, a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, is currently working a project to bring highly productive life back to damaged land by planting a crop — switchgrass — that can be used as an alternative fuel source.