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Participant wearing mobile eye tracker

Researcher looks to eye-tracking device to better understand anxiety in children

2/27/15

For some youngsters, a toy spider is frightening. For others, it’s simply a funny-looking plaything. Why some kids squeal with delight and others with trepidation is what Koraly Perez-Edgar, a researcher in Penn State’s Department of Psychology, is hoping to tap into. Her research team is working with a German technology firm to build an eye-tracking visor that will capture eye gaze information that could lead to a better understanding of anxiety disorders in children.

AMO pattern map

Interaction of ocean oscillations caused 'false pause' in global warming

2/26/15

The recent slowdown in climate warming is due, at least in part, to natural oscillations in the climate, according to a team of climate scientists, who add that these oscillations represent variability internal to the climate system. They do not signal any slowdown in human-caused global warming.

Organic crop research plots

New crop production guide aimed at helping farmers tap growing organic markets

2/26/15

If you are an organic-crop producer in the Northeast or a farmer interested in transitioning to organic, there is a new resource available to help provide the research-based information you need to be successful. The newly published Penn State Organic Crop Production Guide is among the most comprehensive university-produced guides in the country.

Social Science Acoustics Lab

Students use new lab to study how sounds influence human health

2/24/15

The Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at Penn State has established the Social Science Acoustics Lab in Keller Building at the University Park campus. The lab is used in a variety of ways to investigate the impact natural sounds have on human health.

Northern leopard frog

Small predator diversity is an important part of a healthy ecosystem

2/23/15

Biodiversity, including small predators such as dragonflies and other aquatic bugs that attack and consume parasites, may improve the health of amphibians, according to a team of researchers. Amphibians have experienced marked declines in the wild around the world in recent decades, the team added.

Honduran potato workers

Project looks to horticulture value chain to improve outlook for Honduran women

2/23/15

Impoverished families in western Honduras stand to benefit from a new project aimed at improving access to that country's markets for high-value horticultural crops. Researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have received a nearly $1.4 million grant to perform a gender-based analysis of the Honduran horticultural value chain, with an eye toward reducing barriers to participation for women and other marginalized groups, while enhancing family income and nutrition.

Pipetting

Program gives high school students chance to do hands-on lab work with faculty

2/23/15

High school students are gaining hands-on laboratory experience at Penn State thanks to a new program with the State College Area High School Health Professionals Program and the College of Health and Human Development. Students can earn two non-degree credits at Penn State and three credits at State High by spending two semesters in a lab at University Park under the direction of a college faculty member.

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