News

Female athlete health, well-being focus of updated report

When active and athletic girls and women don’t eat enough food to meet their body’s energy needs, it can disrupt key systems in the body and lead to irregular or absent menstrual cycles and impaired bone health, including osteoporosis and bone stress injuries.

Charlene Shupp Espenshade, executive director of the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation, prepares to sample microgreens cultivated at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences during the college’s recent Legislative Research Tour. She is joined by graduate students Auja Bywater and Rishi Ravichandran. Credit: Sean Duke / Penn State. Creative Commons

College of Ag Sciences research tour explores connection between food, health

Government and industry stakeholders got a literal taste of the future of agriculture by sampling hydroponically grown greens at one of several presentations during the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences’ annual Legislative Research Tour, held Sept. 25 at the University Park campus.

A crowd gathers to watch a field machinery demonstration Aug. 13 during Ag Progress Days 2025. Credit: Michael Houtz/Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. All Rights Reserved.

Penn State’s 2025 Ag Progress Days a success in showcasing innovation, impact

Penn State’s Ag Progress Days, held Aug. 12-14 at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, was a successful showcase of agricultural innovation, research and technology, according to leaders in the College of Agricultural Sciences, which sponsored the event.

Study lead author Sophia Kenney, postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Animal Science, samples a maternity pen for Salmonella Dublin. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Bacteria strains infecting cattle and humans in US are highly similar

Researchers report dangerous, often antibiotic-resistant pathogen called Salmonella Dublin is circulating among animals, humans and food-associated environments.

Logo of the Eberly College of Science's Science Matters: Spotlight Sessions. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Eberly College introduces Science Matters: Spotlight Sessions outreach events

The Penn State Eberly College of Science is introducing a new series of outreach events — titled Science Matters: Spotlight Sessions — to provide a unique opportunity for the community to engage directly with the brilliant minds working on the front lines of discovery to create positive, real-world impact.

Visitors browse the displays in the College of Agricultural Sciences Exhibits Building during Penn State's 2024 Ag Progress Days expo. Credit: Michael Houtz/Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. All Rights Reserved.

Ag Progress Days displays showcase advanced technology, animal health, invasives

A new initiative aimed at developing emerging and advanced technologies to enhance food production, agricultural ecosystems and natural resources will be one of the focal points of the College of Agricultural Sciences Exhibits Building at Penn State’s 2025 Ag Progress Days, Aug. 12-14.

Nanyin Zhang, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Chair in Brain Imaging and professor of biomedical engineering, of electrical engineering and of engineering science and mechanics; Patrick Drew, professor of engineering science and mechanics, of biomedical engineering, of neurosurgery and of biology; and Nikki Crowley, associate professor of biology and of biomedical engineering, Huck Early Career Chair in Neurobiology and Neural Engineering and director of the Penn State Neuroscience Institute at University Park, received a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to gain insight into the purpose of dreams. Credit: Keith Hickey/Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

When dreams turn dark: Neuroscientists to study nightmares and mental health

Dreams, and likely nightmares, are experienced universally across humans and animals, but neuroscientists still do not know why. Now, with a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Penn State will study the underlying mechanisms of nightmares and their relationship with anxiety-related mental health disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Graduate student Chad Smies and postdoctoral scholar Jiyeon “Joan” Baek manipulate a solution that will be used to visualize protein expression in the mouse brain. Credit: Michelle Bixby / Penn State. Creative Commons

The breadth of the brain

Researchers in the Penn State Neuroscience Institute study the brain’s many aspects in a variety of ways, with implications from mental health to aging and disease.

Postdoctoral fellow Laurel Seemiller studies the biology and long-term consequences of adolescent alcohol usage.  Credit: Michelle Bixby / Penn State. Creative Commons

Q&A: Does adolescent alcohol use impact future risk of addiction?

Postdoctoral fellow Laurel Seemiller studies the biology and long-term consequences of adolescent alcohol usage. In this Q&A, Seemiller spoke about her research and her experience at Penn State.

Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Nutritional sciences faculty receive national recognition for research

Three Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences faculty members were recently recognized for their research contributions to the field with prestigious awards by the American Society for Nutrition (ASN).