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Penn State bee research pollinates next generation of scientists

Penn State is playing a critical role in training the next generation of scientists to address entomology issues. Penn State's Center for Pollinator Research, directed by entomologist Christina Grozinger, helps prepare students to collaborate with diverse stakeholders. "I learned from researchers across a wide spectrum in entomology, ecology, the social sciences and other fields, who looked at things from different angles," said Elina Lastro Niño, apiculture extension specialist at the University of California, Davis. 

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Latest Sustainability News From Penn State

Airborne research on flow of greenhouse gas takes off

Chasing storms and satellites with a plane — that’s what Penn State researcher Ken Davis and his NASA-funded research team will spend part of their summer doing. The team is studying how weather transports greenhouse gases across the U.S. Davis, professor of atmospheric and climate science, is leading the Atmospheric Carbon and Transport–America project, which received a five-year, $30 million grant from NASA. Its main objective is to advance our ability to predict and manage climate change by improving our ability to quantify the sources and sinks of methane and carbon dioxide. “What we need to know is whether a particular ecosystem is, over the course of a year, a net sink or source,” said Davis.

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Pollinators, pesticides in focus at Fruit Research and Extension Center

For David Biddinger and his colleagues at Penn State’s Fruit Research and Extension Center, an apple orchard in bloom carries the promise of a future in which bees and pesticides can work in harmony. The group's work is part of efforts across the College of Agricultural Sciences and throughout the University to develop a holistic approach to pollinator health, an area in which Penn State has built a strong reputation. “What we’re trying to do is learn from field experience, using the same spraying methods and timings as a grower, to see what a bee is actually exposed to,” said Biddinger.

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Paint the town: Penn State Beaver students to help restore several blighted city blocks

On Saturday, Aug. 20, Penn State Beaver students will paint the town — literally. As part of New Student Orientation, Beaver’s Class of 2020 will join community members and artists in Aliquippa to paint wooden pallets, which will be affixed to broken windows and doors, turning a few blighted blocks along Franklin Avenue into a sea of color. “(Franklin Avenue) is the most traveled road in the county,” said Valerie McElvy, director of Serving U Beaver County. “We want people to see that things are changing.”

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College of Communications plans downsizing event July 26 

A daylong downsizing and sustainability event, planned for July 26 in the College of Communications for faculty and staff, represents the latest in a series that regularly provides the opportunity for people in the unit to trim electronic and paper clutter. Organizers believe the fourth “Toss it, Shred it, Trash it!” will be productive — just as a similar events have been in the past.

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'The most singular of all things that we have found': Cloud study alarms scientists

From the Washington Post: According to leading climate scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan a new study showing that clouds already are shifting their distributions across the Earth, and in a way predicted by climate change models, stands out. And not in a good way. “This work is yet another example of how, as we resolve some of the outstanding uncertainties, we find additional confirmation of our basic physical understanding of climate change,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State.

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Morgan Advanced Materials partners with Penn State to establish R&D facility

Morgan Advanced Materials, a U.K.-based global leader in engineered carbon and ceramic materials, has announced a precedent-setting industrial partnership with Penn State to establish a local research and development center at Penn State. The Carbon Science Center of Excellence aims to drive global developments in the field of carbon research around Morgan’s core competencies, materials and application engineering. Neil Sharkey, vice president of research at Penn State, explained: “The collaboration is a win-win situation for all involved.”

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Trees rely on a range of strategies to hunt for nutrient hot spots

Trees may look stationary, but their roots are constantly on the hunt for food, according to an international team of researchers. The precision of the nutrient-seeking strategies that help trees grow in temperate forests may be related to the thickness of the trees' roots and the type of fungi they use, according to David Eissenstat, professor of woody plant physiology, Penn State. "What we found is that different species get nutrients in different ways and that depends both on that species' type of root -- whether it's thin or thick -- and that species' type of mycorrhizal fungi," said Eissenstat.

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Digital plant diagnosis: Turning a mobile app into an agricultural game-changer

From the USDA: Dr. David Hughes, assistant professor of entomology and biology at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, is the co-creator of a new app, PlantVillage. The app provides access to a computerized plant diagnostic system that boasts an algorithm capable of diagnosing 26 diseases in 14 crops with 99 percent accuracy. In essence, computers have been “taught” to diagnose plant diseases by comparing the images of healthy and diseased leaves.

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Climate change may affect the habitability of other planets

From Air and Space Magazine: A new study by Jacob Haqq-Misra of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science and his co-authors shows how climatic swings narrow the habitable zone of other solar systems — to the point where planets around some types of stars may be unsuitable for complex life. The research team included James Kasting of Penn State.

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