Hats on for Easter Island statues
How do you put a 13-ton hat on a giant statue? That's what a team of researchers is trying to figure out with their study of Easter Island statues and the red hats that sit atop some of them.
Research
Research
Distinguishing dense tissue from cancerous tumors
5/7/18
Sean Knecht, assistant teaching professor in the School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs, was recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition to develop a real-time, portable photoacoustic imaging system that can effectively distinguish dense breast tissue from cancerous tumors.
Research magazine photo contest seeks entries
5/4/18
Calling all researcher-photographers! Entries are now being accepted for the contest to select a research-related image to be published in the Fall 2018 issue of Research/Penn State magazine. Here are the details.
Biofuels lab opens at Penn State Behrend
5/3/18
HERO BX, an Erie-based biodiesel company, has opened a $1 million research lab at Penn State Behrend. Students will work with the company's chemists to develop cleaner, cheaper fuels.
A designer’s toolkit for constructing complex nanoparticles
5/3/18
A team of chemists at Penn State has developed a designer’s toolkit that lets them build various levels of complexity into nanoparticles using a simple, mix-and-match process.
Parents may help prep kids for healthier, less violent relationships
5/2/18
Warm, nurturing parents may pass along strategies for building and maintaining positive relationships to their kids, setting them up for healthier, less-violent romantic relationships as young adults, according to researchers. In a study, adolescents who reported a positive family climate and their parents using more effective parenting strategies tended to go on to have better relationship problem-solving skills and less-violent romantic relationships as young adults.
Posting, commenting and customizing on Facebook involves, empowers older adults
5/1/18
It's easy to look at social networks as something that is either all bad, or all good. But, researchers suggest it's how you use the network that matters. Older adults who post personal stories, customize their profile, and comment more often indicate the site makes them feel more empowered and gives them a better sense of community. These features, then, might help ease isolation for older adults who are less mobile.
Virus inhibits immune response of caterpillars and plants
5/1/18
It is well known that certain wasps suppress the immune systems of their caterpillar hosts so they can successfully raise their young within those hosts. Now researchers at Penn State show that, in addition to suppressing caterpillar immune systems, wasps also suppress the defense mechanisms of the plants on which the caterpillars feed, which ensures that the caterpillars will continue to provide a suitable environment for the wasps' offspring.
Nuclear detectives: Penn State awarded $1.8 million grant from DoD
5/1/18
The United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a division of the Department of Defense, has awarded the Penn State Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering a $1.8 million grant to further the fundamental data for nuclear forensics.
Deer fawns more likely to survive in agricultural landscapes than forest
5/1/18
The cruel truth is that throughout the white-tailed deer's range only about half of all fawns live to see their first birthday — most are killed by predators. However, they have a much better chance of surviving if they are born in farmland rather than in forest, according to Penn State researchers, who collaborated with Pennsylvania Game Commission deer biologists.
Smeal research: success of female CEOs influenced by male predecessors
4/30/18
The Academy of Management, the largest global association devoted to management and organization research, published a new study recently that found the success of female CEOs can be influenced by their mostly male predecessors. Under specific conditions and by leveraging their own status and power within an organization, predecessor CEOs can be a formidable force in facilitating the subsequent success of female CEOs.
Department head teaches, researches in Japan as part of Fulbright experience
4/30/18
A. Catharine Ross, professor of nutrition and physiology, and head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, spent five months in Tokyo, Japan as a Fulbright lecturer and researcher. Ross taught an advanced nutrition course, gave lectures to graduate students on United States food policies and implications, and presented invited lectures at several universities and research institutes. She also conducted research on the traditional Japanese diet.
Thwaites glacier focus of international program
4/30/18
The National Science Foundation and the United Kingdom's National Environmental Research Council are the forces behind eight new initiatives in Antarctica to determine how quickly a massive glacier could collapse. Penn State is part of two of these projects, GHOST and MELT.
Penn State Flower Trials aid industry, consumers in picking posies
4/27/18
Each May, the expression "flower power" takes on a new meaning at Penn State's Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Manheim, Lancaster County, when an 85-year-old tradition — the Penn State Flower Trials — gets underway. Samples also are evaluated at collaborative sites around the state.
A simple method etches patterns at the atomic scale
4/26/18
A precise, chemical-free method for etching nanoscale features on silicon wafers has been developed by a team from Penn State and Southwest Jiaotong University and Tsinghua University in China.
Invent Penn State's Venture & IP Conference showcases disruptive innovations
4/25/18
The 2018 Invent Penn State’s Venture & IP Conference, held April 19-20 at the Penn State Hotel and Conference Center, attracted more than 600 participants, including 80 startup companies and more than 40 venture capitalists and industry advisers — all working together to drive innovation, foster collaboration and enable startup companies to take their businesses to the next level.