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Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP)

Participatory Budgeting Project selected for Brown Democracy Medal

4/23/14

A national organization that empowers citizens to exert greater control over public spending was selected as the first recipient of the Brown Democracy Medal, an award that will be presented annually by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy in Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts. The inaugural medal winner, the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP), is a nonprofit organization that promotes “participatory budgeting,” an inclusive process that empowers community members to make informed decisions about public spending. More than 30,000 people in communities across the United States have participated in programs that PBP helped spark over the last five years.

chart comparing sizes of planets

Researchers solve mysteries of a nearby planetary system's dynamics

4/21/14

Mysteries of one of the most fascinating nearby planetary systems now have been solved, report authors of a scientific paper to be published by the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in its early online edition April 22. The study, which presents the first viable model for the planetary system orbiting one the first stars discovered to have planets -- the star named 55 Cancri -- was led by Penn State graduate student Benjamin Nelson in collaboration with faculty at the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State and five astronomers at other institutions in the United States and Germany.

A Hard Day's Night

50 Years of Beatles: Winning over the nonbelievers

4/21/14

In the wake of the Beatles’ triumphant appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on Feb. 9, 1964, the band spent the next several months consolidating their fame, breaking sales records and gearing up for their first world tour. One of the key elements in their coming global onslaught was the production of their first feature film, "A Hard Day’s Night," which completed principal photography some 50 years ago April 24, 1964.

Planet orbiting a star

First Earth-size planet discovered in another star's 'habitable zone'

4/18/14

A team of astronomers that includes Penn State scientists has discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone," the distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery was made with NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. The discovery of this Earth-size planet, now named Kepler-186f, confirms -- for the first time -- that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our Sun.

Patrick_McDaniel-102

Cybersecurity science aims to disarm digital threats

4/17/14

Someday, a military commander will look over a battlefield map to check the position of troops, tanks, artillery emplacements and the enemy, considering every contingency in the complex mission. Then the commander will glance at a monitor that shows the status of the electronic environment -- communications frequencies, computer program security, hacker attacks and the responses to those attacks -- and determine which digital threats require human intervention.

African honeybee on a red flower

East African honeybees are safe from invasive pests … for now

4/16/14

Several parasites and pathogens that devastate honeybees in Europe, Asia and the United States are spreading across East Africa, but do not appear to be impacting native honeybee populations at this time, according to an international team of researchers.

Dr. Jane Wilburne

$1.9M grant will help build teaching, learning capacity at Penn State Harrisburg

4/16/14

Dr. Jane M. Wilburne, associate professor of mathematics education in Penn State Harrisburg’s Teacher Education Program, has received a $1.875 million Eligible Partnership Project grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The three-year award supports partnerships with and professional development opportunities for local school districts to provide innovative, research-based, approaches to improve student teaching experiences.

childs hand

Inhibited children become anxious adults

4/16/14

Koraly Pérez-Edgar's work over the years has demonstrated that extreme shyness observed in children is often a predictor of anxiety later in life. She says that the way shy children behave will evolve as they grow up, "but they can remain uncomfortable in their own skin in new social situations." Pérez-Edgar runs the University's Cognition, Affect, and Temperament Lab.

Probing Question: How were the Egyptian pyramids built?

4/15/14

The Aztecs, Mayans, and ancient Egyptians were three very different civilizations with one very large similarity: pyramids. However, of these three ancient cultures, the Egyptians set the standard for what most people recognize as classic pyramid design: massive monuments with a square base and four smooth-sided triangular sides, rising to a point. (The Aztecs and Mayans built their pyramids with tiered steps and a flat top.)

Ellysa Cahoy

Penn State awarded Mellon grant to study personal scholarly archiving

4/15/14

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a grant of $440,000 to Penn State. The two-year project in collaboration with George Mason University will build upon the 2012-13 research led by Ellysa Stern Cahoy, education librarian, studying how faculty managed and archived their scholarly information collections. Over the next two years, Stern Cahoy, in collaboration with Sean Takats, associate professor of history at George Mason University and director of research projects at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, will direct software development to enhance how faculty organize and archive information, including their own scholarly publications.

buck for CWD research

Researchers identify terrain likely to attract wasting disease-infected deer

4/10/14

A study of the spread of chronic wasting disease among white-tailed deer in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania found that infected deer tend to cluster in low-lying open and developed areas. These results suggest that state wildlife management agencies should concentrate surveillance efforts in such topography and landscapes, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

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