News

Yellow-eyed grasses may have more insect visitors than previously thought

Scientists previously believed that a family of flowering plants called yellow-eyed grasses didn’t attract many insect visitors, but the recent discovery of a fungus that hijacks the plant and forms fungal “pseudoflowers” has researchers rethinking this assumption.

Q&A: New technology may help identify neuromotor disease symptoms in infants

A team of researchers led by Huanyu “Larry” Cheng tested the use of wearable sensors paired with a “tiny” machine learning algorithm to automatically monitor and evaluate general movements in infants.

Three Penn Staters earn national Goldwater Scholarships

Penn State undergraduates Nate Carey, Bridget Reheard and Mabel Tong have earned the 2024 Goldwater Scholarship. The national Goldwater Scholarship recognizes undergraduates who show exceptional potential as leaders.

Podcast sheds light on the evolution of disease-causing pathogens

As the ever-growing number of Covid variants has made clear to the global public in recent years, disease-causing viruses can evolve incredibly fast. The same holds true for bacteria that cause many infectious diseases. Andrew Read was interviewed about his career as a prominent researcher in this field.

Forty graduate students honored with prestigious University awards

Forty Penn State graduate students were named recipients of Penn State’s most prestigious annual graduate student recognition awards, administered by the Graduate School in collaboration with several Penn State units.

New sunflower family tree reveals multiple origins of flower symmetry

The sunflower family tree revealed that flower symmetry evolved multiple times independently, a process called convergent evolution, among the members of this large plant family, according to a new analysis.

Vaccine protects cattle from bovine tuberculosis, may eliminate disease

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a livestock disease that results in large economic losses to animal agriculture worldwide. The disease can also transmit to humans and cause severe illness and death.

Andrew Read named senior vice president for research

 Andrew Read, the former director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and a faculty member in the departments of biology and entomology, has been selected to serve as Penn State’s senior vice president for research.

Synthetic material could improve ease and cut cost of gut microbiome research

A team of Penn State researchers has developed a new synthetic material that could enable scientists to more easily study how microorganisms interact with the gastrointestinal (GI) system.

Hughes named recipient of Kopp International Faculty Achievement Award

David Hughes, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Global Food Security and professor of entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences and biology in the Eberly College of Science, is the recipient of the 2024 W. LaMarr Kopp International Faculty Achievement Award.