Markus W. Ribbe, a professor of molecular biology, biochemistry and chemistry at the University of California at Irvine, will present the 2012-13 Stone Memorial Lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, April 15, in 101 Althouse Laboratory at Penn State. This free public lecture, titled "Nitrogenase Mechanism and Applications," is sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

On Twitter, a popular microblogging and social-networking service, statements about vaccines may have unexpected effects -- positive messages may backfire, according to a team of Penn State researchers led by Marcel Salathé, an assistant professor of biology. The team tracked the pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine messages to which Twitter users were exposed and then observed how those users expressed their own sentiments about a new vaccine for combating influenza H1N1 -- a virus strain responsible for swine flu. The results, which may help health officials improve strategies for vaccination-awareness efforts, are published in the journal EPJ Data Science.

Children with autism have increased levels of genetic change in regions of the genome prone to DNA rearrangements, so-called "hotspots," according to a research discovery to be published in the print edition of the journal Human Molecular Genetics. The research indicates that these genetic changes come in the form of an excess of duplicated DNA segments in hotspot regions and may affect the chances that a child will develop autism -- a behavioral disorder that affects about 1 of every 88 children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The research collaboration was led by a team from Penn State's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.