Latest News

May 19, 2017

Penn State President Eric Barron joined providers of entrepreneurship resources in celebrating innovative Penn State startup, Phospholutions, on Thursday, May 18, at the Penn State Golf Course in State College.

May 18, 2017

Do the microbes associated with apples help keep the doctor away? This is one of the many questions that will be investigated at a May 24 workshop titled "An Apple a Day!" The event, hosted by the Microbiome Center at Penn State, will enable participants to learn about and discuss the "apple microbiome," from seed to soil to the human gut and beyond.

May 17, 2017

A group of institutions led by Penn State has received nearly $2.2 million for the first year of a planned four-year, $5 million project aimed at developing a model for engaging communities and stakeholders to ensure adequate supplies of good-quality water both for and from agriculture. Partners include the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, Arizona State University and the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

May 16, 2017

The nearly century-old effort to employ selective breeding to rescue the American chestnut, which has been rendered functionally extinct by an introduced disease — Chestnut blight, eventually will succeed, but it will take longer than many people expect.

May 15, 2017

As Colombia emerges from 50 years of violence, Penn State scientists are helping poor farmers switch from growing coca, the stuff of cocaine, to growing cacao, the principal ingredient in chocolate. Cacao for Peace, the international partnership they are a part of, seeks to transform Colombia's rural Caribbean coast in a cacao-growing hotspot.

May 15, 2017

Researchers at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences are among a group of researchers examining how the use of high and low tunnels and plastic coverings extend the growing season for strawberries and raspberries, and as a result, increase yields while also reducing pesticide use and improving berry quality and shelf-life.

May 8, 2017

Holstein calves recently born at Penn State may help to reintroduce valuable genetic variance thanks to research conducted by Chad Dechow and Wansheng Liu, researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

May 4, 2017

A team of food science researchers from Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences are launching a promising new venture to produce a line of all-natural, vibrant food colors, dubbed AvoColor, using a compound derived from the seed of the avocado.

April 27, 2017

In 2000, when a team of scientists led by Robert Ross studied the response of birds to the beginning of hemlock tree decline in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Matt Toenies was just seven years old, and the ecological havoc wreaked by invasive species was the farthest thing from his mind.

April 27, 2017

Cullen Dixon, a plant sciences major, participates in a lab that tests the effectiveness of secondary metabolite compounds produced by sorghum as potential biopesticides in combating foliar diseases of Zea mays, or corn.

April 26, 2017

A diet supplemented with soy protein may be an effective adjunct therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases, Penn State researchers reported after completing a study that included mice and cultured human colon cells.

April 24, 2017

Researchers at Penn State have received more than $1 million in first-year funding from the National Institutes of Health to investigate malaria transmission in Southeast Asia with a goal of working toward the disease's elimination in the region. They will receive up to approximately $9 million over seven years for this project.

April 20, 2017

Whole-exome DNA sequencing -- a technology that saves time and money by sequencing only protein-coding regions and not the entire genome -- may routinely miss detecting some genetic variations associated with disease, according to Penn State researchers who have developed new ways to identify such omissions.

April 19, 2017

Fragmentation of ecologically important core forests within the northern Appalachians — driven by pipeline and access road construction — is the major threat posed by shale-gas development, according to researchers, who recommend a change in infrastructure-siting policies to head off loss of this critical habitat.

April 16, 2017

A researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is reaching out to Master Gardeners, teachers, students and other interested parties to participate in a citizen-science project that ultimately could benefit growers, crops, pollinators and the environment. "The Great Pumpkin Project" is aimed at describing the geographic distribution of important crop plants and the insects and microbes with which they interact.

April 16, 2017

Cover crops long have been touted for their ability to reduce erosion, fix atmospheric nitrogen, reduce nitrogen leaching and improve soil health, but they also may play an important role in mitigating the effects of climate change on agriculture, according to a Penn State researcher.

April 7, 2017

There is a popular saying that contends, "You don't want to see how the sausage is made." But Jonathan Campbell, assistant professor of animal science at Penn State, doesn't buy it.

March 31, 2017

Funded by a $50,000 grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences are conducting an 18-month study of the forest herb goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) in Pennsylvania.

March 29, 2017

Attracting college graduates and improving natural amenities -- parks, hiking trails, cleaner air -- can combine to boost economic growth. Penn State researchers suggest the factors may reinforce each other -- a clean environment attracts college grads who want to improve the environment.

March 24, 2017

Deer fawns in Pennsylvania face a cruel reality -- only half of them survive until their first birthday, and much of that mortality results from predation.

March 22, 2017

A fungal biopesticide that shows promise for the control of bed bugs is highly effective even against bed-bug populations that are insecticide resistant, according to research conducted by scientists at Penn State and North Carolina State universities. The study suggests that Aprehend, a mycoinsecticide developed at Penn State, likely will provide an important new tool for managing bed-bug infestations, which have surged in recent years.

March 22, 2017

A new biopesticide developed by Penn State scientists has the potential to turn the bedbug control market on its ear, thanks to a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem taking root at Penn State that’s helping to push crucial discoveries out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.

March 21, 2017

Poultry and animal disease experts in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences are urging commercial poultry producers and small-flock owners in Pennsylvania to ramp up their vigilance and biosecurity in the wake of recent outbreaks of avian influenza in several states.

March 15, 2017

The effectiveness of Head Start in preparing children for elementary school is currently being debated, but in Pennsylvania, the program has benefited from several Penn State initiatives.

March 10, 2017

Growing sustainable energy crops without increasing greenhouse gas emissions, may be possible on seasonally wet, environmentally sensitive landscapes, according to researchers who conducted a study on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land.