News
Oct 14, 2021
Douglas Cavener named Huck Chair in Evolutionary Genetics
Douglas R. Cavener, Penn State professor of biology and former Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Eberly College of Science, has been named Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Distinguished Chair in Evolutionary Genetics by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
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Oct 14, 2021
Pioneering Penn State virologist Marilyn Roossinck retires
After a fascinating and productive scientific career, Penn State professor Marilyn Roossinck, a trailblazing researcher in virology, has announced her decision to retire.
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Oct 08, 2021
New, environmentally friendly method to extract and separate rare earth elements
A new method improves the extraction and separation of rare earth elements — a group of 17 chemical elements critical for technologies such as smart phones and electric car batteries — from unconventional sources.
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Oct 05, 2021
New way to image whole organisms in 3D brings key skin color pigment into focus
To understand the biological underpinnings of skin and hair pigmentation and related diseases such as albinism or melanoma, scientists and doctors need quantitative, three-dimensional information about the architecture, content and location of pigment cells. Penn State College of Medicine researchers have developed a new technique that allows scientists to visualize every cell containing melanin pigment in 3D, in whole zebrafish.
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Oct 05, 2021
Warm, wet autumn could mute and delay foliage display in Pennsylvania
Because of the warm, wet summer, trees in Pennsylvania are mostly in great shape. But for the state’s forests to exhibit their most vibrant colors, conditions need to be cooler and drier in the next few weeks, according to a Penn State expert.
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Oct 04, 2021
Vasant Honavar named Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and AI
Vasant Honavar, professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, has been named the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence by the University’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
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Sep 30, 2021
Coral microbiome is key to surviving climate change, new study finds
Researchers tease apart contributions of symbiotic bacteria and algae to corals’ heat tolerance and identify genes involved in stress response.
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Sep 29, 2021
New tool predicts changes that may make COVID variants more infectious
The first key step in SARS-CoV-2 infection is when the virus’ spike protein binds to the ACE2 receptor on human cells. Researchers at Penn State have created a novel framework that can predict with reasonable accuracy the amino-acid changes in the virus’ spike protein that may improve its binding to human cells and confer increased infectivity to the virus.
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Sep 28, 2021
Small but mighty: Microgreens go from trendy vegetables to functional food
Starting decades ago as fashionable, high-value gourmet greens, today microgreens have gained popularity among consumers for their nutritional profile and high content of antioxidant compounds. Now, a new study suggests that the tiny plants have the potential to help provide global nutrition security.
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Sep 27, 2021
Male giraffes are more socially connected than females
Although female giraffes have closer “friends” than male giraffes, male giraffes have more “acquaintances” than females, according to a new study by an international team that includes a Penn State biologist. The study demonstrates that giraffes form a complex multilevel society that is driven by differences in the social connections among individuals, which could have conservation implications for the endangered giraffes.
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