News

Rescuing honey bee hives

Honey bee colonies are collapsing in record numbers, and Penn State entomologists -- including Huck Institutes affiliate Christina Grozinger -- are leading the pack of researchers scrambling to figure out why.

David Hughes consulted in production of post-apocalyptic video game "The Last of Us"

Sony and video game developer Naughty Dog have consulted Huck Institutes affiliate David Hughes in making their new PlayStation game "The Last of Us," set in a post-apocalyptic world brought on by a Cordyceps-type fungus pandemic.

Mosquito behavior may be immune response, not parasite manipulation

What appears to be parasite manipulation may simply be part of malaria-carrying mosquitoes' immune response, according to a group of Penn State entomologists including Huck Institutes affiliates Lauren Cator, Simon Blanford, Courtney Murdock, Tom Baker, Andrew Read, and Matt Thomas.

Getting to the bottom of the zombie ant phenomenon

While unraveling a dramatic case of mind control, Huck Institutes affiliate David Hughes is taking calls from Hollywood and gaining new insights into the role behavior plays in spreading disease.

In honor of Lloyd Huck: the Huck Fellowship brings exceptional young scientist-scholars to the Huck Institutes and Penn State

The inaugural Lloyd Huck Fellows and the chairs of the Huck Institutes' Ecology, Molecular Medicine, Plant Biology, and Physiology graduate programs discuss the privilege and possibilities conferred by the Huck Fellowship.

Fighting fire with fire

Research by Huck Institutes affiliate Alan Taylor focuses on whether suppressing naturally occurring wildfires increases the possibility of their eventually becoming severe.

Penn State open online course "infects" learners, causing a "virtual pandemic"

In a free new online course, "Epidemics: the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases," offered by the Eberly College of Science at Penn State, students and members of the public will learn about how infectious diseases spread by playing a real-time epidemic game " a "virtual apocalypse," which instructors will run in parallel with the more traditional lessons.

Computer modeling breaks new ground in study of root architecture

The United Nations estimates that one in every seven people around the world is hungry; fortunately, Jonathan Lynch and Kathleen Brown are getting to the root of this problem using Information Technology (IT).

Social media abuzz about how to breed super queen bees

While honey bee populations dwindle across the globe, Christina Grozinger and other Penn State researchers aim to use communication technologies to spread revolutionary beekeeping techniques that will help offset the effects of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Nine Huck Institutes faculty members featured in Discovery U videos

Peter Hudson, Scott Selleck, David Hughes, Melissa Rolls, Paula Droege, Tracy Langkilde, Phil Bevilacqua, Stephen Schaeffer, and Robert Paulson talk about research that's driving scientific discovery at Penn State.