"Research Milestones: We are...innovative" is the theme of an exhibit on display through Jan. 15, 2013, in the Hintz Family Alumni Center's Robb Hall on Penn State's University Park campus. By focusing on the accomplishments of 32 Penn State faculty researchers, the exhibit documents more than 150 years of distinguished faculty research and creative achievements. Topics span the gamut of scholarly inquiry and creativity, and are as diverse as art education, computer technology, the Penn State Heart, legal forensics, dementia and cinematography.

People are more likely to trust health messages tweeted by doctors who have a lot of followers, but not the messages they retweet, according to researchers. A study of the credibility of health messages on Twitter showed that credibility dips when doctors who have a large number of Twitter followers passed on messages, instead of composing their own tweets, according to Ji Young Lee, a Penn State master's degree graduate in media studies. The study shows how people infer credibility and trust based on certain cues, said S. Shyam Sundar, distinguished professor of communications and co-director of Penn State's Media Effects Research Laboratory, who worked with Lee on the study.

A research project deep in the Gulf of Mexico, led by Penn State University Professor of Biology Charles Fisher, the project's lead scientist, and James Brooks of TDI Brooks International, the project's manager, has been honored with the Excellence in Partnership award by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), an organization established by the U.S. Congress. The results of the research include new discoveries of coral communities in the deep Gulf of Mexico, new findings on the ecology and population genetics of the deep-water corals and communities, marine archaeological discoveries, and new data on growth rates of corals on oil platforms and shipwrecks. A primary purpose of the work is to gather data that will inform environmental review and decision making for the protection of deep-water corals and other hard-bottom communities in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Photos and more information are online at
http://www.science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2012-news/Fisher8-2012.

Mini-courses designed to increase creative stimulation and variety in physicians' daily routines can sharpen critical thinking skills, improve job satisfaction and encourage innovative thinking, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers who piloted a series of such courses.

Why do adults continue to play throughout their lives while most other mature mammals cease such behavior? According to researchers at Penn State, playfulness may serve an evolutionary role in human mating preferences by signaling positive qualities to potential long-term mates.

Similar women's and men's Olympic sports might look alike on television but how those competitions -- and their competitors -- are portrayed during broadcasts often differs significantly, according to a study by researchers at Penn State and Elizabethtown College. Researchers found women were often discussed positively as role models during the Olympics. At the same time, though, TV commentary often suggested that male competitions and participants paved the way for the women's success.

Public schools are increasingly moving toward a system known as the PreK-3rd approach, in which pre-kindergartens, full-day kindergartens, and primary grades are organized as a coordinated system of education. According to Penn State researcher James Johnson, the approach is lauded as a way to help solve the problem of the achievement gap. "The PreK-3rd vision is new and emerging and is a reality in many districts," said James E. Johnson, professor of early childhood education, "and hopefully it can become more common in our colleges' and universities' teacher education programs -- in Pennsylvania and nationwide -- to further its successful implementation. That the achievement gap can be thereby reduced is a prayer behind the vision."