A slippery rough surface (SRS) inspired by both pitcher plants and rice leaves outperforms state-of-the-art liquid-repellent surfaces in water harvesting applications, according to a team of researchers at Penn State and the University of Texas at Dallas.

Carpenter ants infected with a specialized parasitic fungus are not subjected to aggression or isolation from their nest mates, and they continue to share in the colony's food resources until they leave the nest for the last time to die, according to a study led by Penn State researchers.

Producing the perfect color images we need and love often requires multiple, heavy lenses so that each color focuses in exactly the same plane. Now Penn State engineers have developed a new theory that solves the problem using a single thin lens comprised of gradient index materials and metasurface layers to properly direct the light.

Controlled burning of forestland helped limit the severity of one of California's largest wildfires, according to Penn State geographers.

A new study of methane emissions from livestock in the United States — led by a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences — has challenged previous top-down estimates.