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A multi-page list of all research press releases since 1997

Crowdfunding Campaign Underway to Support Student Research on Sustainable Agriculture: 18 July 2014 — A group of Penn State students led by Assistant Professor of Biology Charles Anderson has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support their new research project in sustainable agriculture, Fast Farming: Feeding a Hot, Dry World. The campaign is the first to launch under a new partnership between Penn State and USEED, a crowd funding platform that partners with universities to enable researchers to invite friends, family members, colleagues, alumni, and the public to support projects that are important to them.
Controversial Clues of Two 'Goldilocks Planets' That Might Support Life are Proven False: 03 July 2014 — Mysteries about controversial signals coming from a dwarf star considered to be a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life now have been solved in research led by scientists at Penn State University.
Live Webcams: Scientists Studying Corals Damaged by Oil in the Gulf of Mexico: 25 June 2014 — How are the corals doing now, four years after they were damaged by the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? You can find out by watching live webcams and by sending messages to the scientists on a research ship that will be in the Gulf until July 4. The research expedition is led by Chief Scientist Chuck Fisher, a Penn State University professor of biology. Interact with the research crew, listen in, and watch as they explore the ocean floor. The 24/7 live webcams are on the expedition's website, Nautiluslive.org. You also can participate on Facebook (facebook.com/nautiluslive) and Twitter (@EVNautilus).
Super-stretchable Yarn is Made of Graphene: 20 June 2014 — A simple, scalable method of making strong, stretchable graphene oxide fibers that are easily scrolled into yarns and have strengths approaching that of Kevlar is possible, according to Penn State and Shinshu University, Japan, researchers.
Photos of New Comet Approaching a Very Close Encounter with Mars: 19 June 2014 — Photos of a comet racing toward an astonishingly close encounter with Mars are helping scientists to better estimate the comet's size, according to a NASA team that includes Penn State astronomers. The photos were made with a telescope on board NASA's Swift satellite, for which Penn State University controls the science and flight operations from the Mission Operations Center at the University Park campus.
Burst of Mutations During Initial Infection Allows Bacteria To Evade Human Immune Response: 13 June 2014 — Bacteria that cause ulcers in humans undergo accelerated evolution during the initial stages of infection, allowing them to evade the immune system, according to new research by an international team of researchers including Penn State scientists. The study shows, for the first time, and in real-time, the interplay between the human immune system and invading bacteria that allows the bacteria to counter the immune response by quickly evolving.
Rescue of Alzheimer's Memory Deficit Achieved by Reducing 'Excessive Inhibition': 13 June 2014 — A new drug target to fight Alzheimer's disease has been discovered by a research team led by Gong Chen, a Professor of Biology and the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences at Penn State University. The discovery also has potential for development as a novel diagnostic tool for Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia and one for which no cure has yet been found.
Until Death Do Us Part: Genetics Reveal that Threatened Reef Corals and Their Symbiotic Algae Live Together but Evolve Independently: 10 June 2014 — New research reveals that Caribbean corals and the algae that inhabit them form a remarkably stable relationship -- new knowledge that can serve as an important tool in preserving and restoring vital reef-building corals. A scientific paper describing these new findings by a team of marine biologists at Penn State University will be published as a cover article in Molecular Ecology on 10 June 2014.
NASA Ranks Swift Satellite Number One: 28 May 2014 — NASA's top ranking among its astronomy satellites, not including the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, has been awarded to the Swift observatory, a project that involves Penn State scientists. Swift carries two telescopes whose lead scientists are Penn State astronomers and a third telescope led by a NASA scientist. Science and flight operations for Swift are controlled by Penn State from the Mission Operations Center at the University Park campus.
X-Ray Satellite Delivers Surprising New Clues about Formation of Clusters of Sun-like Stars: 07 May 2014 — An important advance in understanding how clusters of stars like our Sun are formed has been made by a team that includes seven astronomers at Penn State University and two at other universities. Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared telescopes, the astronomers have shown that earlier theories about the process that creates star clusters in giant clouds of gas and dust cannot be correct. "Our findings mean we need to develop new ideas, based on these new data, about how stars like our Sun form within large clusters of stars," said Konstantin Getman, the senior research scientist at Penn State who led the study.
Star Is Discovered To Be a Close Neighbor of the Sun and the Coldest of Its Kind: 25 April 2014 — A "brown dwarf" star that appears to be the coldest of its kind -- as frosty as Earth's North Pole -- has been discovered by a Penn State University astronomer using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescopes. Images from the space telescopes also pinpointed the object's distance at 7.2 light-years away, making it the fourth closest system to our Sun.
Solved: Mysteries of a Nearby Planetary System's Dynamics: 22 April 2014 — Mysteries of one of the most fascinating nearby planetary systems now have been solved, report authors of a scientific paper to be published by the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in its early online edition on 22 April 2014. The study, which presents the first viable model for the planetary system orbiting one the first stars discovered to have planets - the star named 55 Cancri - was led by Penn State University graduate student Benjamin Nelson in collaboration with faculty at the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State and five astronomers at other institutions in the United States and Germany.
First Earth-Size Planet Is Discovered in Another Star's "Habitable Zone": 17 April 2014 — A team of astronomers that includes Penn State scientists has discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery was made with NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. The discovery of this Earth-size planet, now named Kepler-186f, confirms -- for the first time -- that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our Sun.
The Most Precise Measurement Yet of the Expanding Universe Is Achieved by Astronomers of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: 07 April 2014 — Astronomers at Penn State University and other institutions participating in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have used 140,000 distant quasars to measure the expansion rate of the universe when it was only one-quarter of its present age. This measurement is the best yet of the expansion rate at any epoch in the last 13 billion years during the history of the universe. Measuring the expansion rate of the universe over its entire history is key to determining the nature of the dark energy that is responsible for causing this expansion rate to increase during the most recent six billion years.
WISE Satellite Finds No Evidence for Planet X in Survey of the Sky: 07 March 2014 — After searching hundreds of millions of objects across the sky, NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has turned up no evidence of the hypothesized celestial body in our solar system commonly called "Planet X," according to published scientific papers including a new study in The Astrophysical Journal authored by Kevin Luhman of the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University.
Water is Detected in a Planet Outside Our Solar System: 24 February 2014 — Water has been detected in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system with a new technique that could help researchers to learn how many planets with water, like Earth, exist throughout the universe. The team of scientists that made the discovery includes astronomers at Penn State University and other institutions. The astronomers detected the water in the atmosphere of a planet as massive as Jupiter that is orbiting the nearby star Tau Boötis. The discovery is described in a scientific paper published in the 24 February 2014 online version of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A Key Regulatory Protein Is Discovered To Be Essential for Malaria Parasite Transmission to Mosquitos: 23 February 2014 — Two teams have independently discovered that a single regulatory protein acts as the master genetic switch that triggers the development of male and female sexual forms (termed gametocytes) of the malaria parasite, solving a long-standing mystery in parasite biology with important implications for human health. The protein, AP2-G, is necessary for activating a set of genes that initiate the development of gametocytes -- the only forms that are infectious to mosquitos. The research also gives important clues for identifying the underlying mechanisms that control this developmental fate, determining whether or not a malaria parasite will be able to transmit the disease.
Asteroid Named for Two Penn State Students: 14 February 2014 — An asteroid that orbits the Sun every 4.83 years has been named for two students at Penn State's University Park Campus. The asteroid, first detected on 5 October 2002 in an observation by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, has been designated TimRaySchneider. To receive an official name, an asteroid must be observed for a number of orbits so its future positions can be predicted accurately.
Nanomotors Are Controlled, for the First Time, Inside Living Cells: 10 February 2014 — For the first time, a team of chemists and engineers at Penn State University have placed tiny synthetic motors inside live human cells, propelled them with ultrasonic waves and steered them magnetically. It's not exactly "Fantastic Voyage," but it's close. The nanomotors, which are rocket-shaped metal particles, move around inside the cells, spinning and battering against the cell membrane.
Critical Protein Discovered for Healthy Cell Growth in Mammals: 27 January 2014 — A team of researchers from Penn State University and the University of California has discovered a protein that is required for the growth of tiny, but critical, hair-like structures called cilia on cell surfaces. The discovery has important implications for human health because lack of cilia can lead to serious diseases such as polycystic kidney disease, blindness and neurological disorders.