News

Aug 23, 2024

Honey bees may play role in spreading viruses to wild bumble bees

Honey bees may play a role in increasing virus levels in wild bumble bees each spring, according to researchers at Penn State who analyzed seasonal trends of parasite and virus transmission in bees.

Full Article

Aug 09, 2024

Ecology Student Wins Award from Phycological Society of America

Caleb Butler, an Ecology graduate student working in Todd LaJeunesse's lab, won an award for their presentation at a Seattle-based meeting of the Phycological Society of America.

Full Article

Jul 25, 2024

Jeff and Ann Marie Fox name Graduate School with $20 million commitment

The Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the naming of the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School in recognition of the couple and the endowment they have created to provide support, in perpetuity, for graduate students and faculty and for initiatives that enhance the academic caliber of graduate education at the University.

Full Article

Jul 19, 2024

Penn State professor named to advisory board of National Smell and Taste Center

Penn State sensory expert John Hayes has been appointed to the external scientific advisory board of the newly established National Smell and Taste Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Full Article

Jul 19, 2024

Twenty-two students receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Three Huck graduate students are among twenty-two Penn State student recipients of the prestigious grant program for the 2024-25 academic year.

Full Article

Jun 20, 2024

New tomato, potato family tree shows that fruit color and size evolved together

Fruits of Solanum plants, a group in the nightshade family, are incredibly diverse, ranging from sizable red tomatoes and purple eggplants to the poisonous green berries on potato plants. A new and improved family tree of this group, produced by an international team led by researchers at Penn State, helps explain the striking diversity of fruit colors and sizes and how they might have evolved.

Full Article

Jun 20, 2024

Unexpected diversity of light-sensing proteins goes beyond vision in frogs

Frogs have maintained a surprising diversity of light-sensing proteins over evolutionary time, according to a new study led by a Penn State researcher. Light-sensing proteins, called opsins, enable vision in sighted animals, and are responsible for many more biological functions like regulating circadian rhythms. The researchers explored the evolution of nonvisual opsins in frogs, finding that most modern species examined in this study retained a shocking number of these proteins.

Full Article

Jun 03, 2024

Combining pest treatments may be key to helping honey bees survive the winter

Winters can be tough on managed honey bee colonies, with beekeepers in the United States reporting that one-third of their colonies die each winter. A new study by Penn State researchers has found that using not one but multiple pest treatments may help bees make it to spring.

Full Article

May 30, 2024

Local disparities may prevent national vaccination efforts for rubella

When public health officials make policies about when and how vaccination programs are implemented, they must weigh the benefits and risks of how infectious diseases spread throughout the country. However, these analyses are often based on national-level data and, in some countries, may overlook nuances at the local level.

Full Article

Apr 16, 2024

Huck trainees recognized at graduate school awards

Four Huck graduate students were recognized with distinctions at the recent 2023-24 Graduate Student Awards, hosted by the Graduate School at Penn State.

Full Article