News
Aug 25, 2020
Advanced biofuels show promise for replacing some fossil fuels
Plant-based biofuels can play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and growing these crops in certain landscapes offers net climate benefits compared to other land use options, according to a team of international scientists.
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Aug 25, 2020
Grant to enable creation of AI tools to improve adolescents' diets and nutrition
With a $1.2 million grant from Fondation Botnar, an international team of researchers will assess the feasibility of creating and launching a global-scale artificial-intelligence (AI) app for mobile devices that diagnoses diet-related problems and offers nutritional advice to adolescent girls living in urban settings in Ghana and Vietnam.
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Aug 25, 2020
Faculty funded to study how people's movement impacts COVID-19 transmission
Nita Bharti, Lloyd Huck Early Career Professor and assistant professor of biology at Penn State, and her collaborator Anthony Robinson, associate professor of geography at Penn State, have been awarded seed funding from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State to study how monitoring the movement of people can potentially be used as a predictor or early indicator of COVID-19 transmission and guide health policy decisions.
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Aug 24, 2020
Bull elected fellow of American Phytopathological Society
Carolee Bull, professor of systematic bacteriology and plant pathology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has been elected as a fellow of the American Phytopathological Society, an honor given to members in recognition of distinguished contributions to the discipline of plant pathology.
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Aug 24, 2020
Reducing transmission risk of livestock disease
The risk of transmitting the livestock virus PPRV, which threatens 80% of the world’s sheep and goats, increases with certain husbandry practices but not herd size. A new study, led by researchers at Penn State, investigated how transmission of PPRV might change at different scales and identified specific husbandry practices associated with increased odds of infection — including the introduction of sheep and goats to the herd, sheep or goat attendance at seasonal grazing camps, and the sales or gifting of goats from the herd.
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Aug 24, 2020
New tool for identifying endangered corals could aid conservation efforts
Coral conservation efforts could get a boost from a newly developed genotyping “chip” — the first of its kind for corals. The chip allows researchers to genetically identify corals and the symbiotic algae that live within the coral’s cells, a vital step for establishing and maintaining genetic diversity in reef restoration efforts.
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Aug 19, 2020
Invasive shrubs in Northeast forests grow leaves earlier and keep them longer
The rapid pace that invasive shrubs infiltrate forests in the northeastern United States makes scientists suspect they have a consistent advantage over native shrubs, and the first region-wide study of leaf timing, conducted by Penn State researchers, supports those suspicions.
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Aug 17, 2020
Podcast unpacks potential for social evolution in the midst of crisis
The newest episode of The Symbiotic Podcast welcomes the husband-and-wife team of David Loye and Riane Eisler, experts in how and why societies evolve and devolve, for an examination of multiple global crises occurring simultaneously in 2020.
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Aug 12, 2020
Cover crop roots are key to understanding ecosystem services
To judge the overall effectiveness of cover crops and choose those offering the most ecosystem services, agricultural scientists must consider the plants’ roots as well as above-ground biomass, according to Penn State researchers who tested the characteristics of cover crop roots in three monocultures and one mixture.
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Aug 11, 2020
Physio Student Cesar Matamoros Receives USDA Predoctoral Fellowship and Sloan Scholarship
Physio grad student Cesar Matamoros is the recipient of a grant that aims to develop the scientific workforce in the agricultural sciences, and another which aims to support students from underrepresented minority groups
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