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<p>Breastfeeding, and a longer duration of breastfeeding, had a positive impact on the mother’s parenting quality and, in turn, on the infant’s secure attachment to the mother, according to a new study by researchers from the Penn State Department of Human Development and Family Studies. The researchers also found that the support of a co-parent could help the infant develop a secure attachment, whether or not the mother breastfed.</p>

February 05, 2025

Supportive co-parenting may help secure infant attachment development
<p>If an extraterrestrial civilization existed with Earth-like technology, would they be able to detect Earth and evidence of humanity? If so, what signals would they detect and from how far away? A new study by a team that includes Penn State astronomers and alumni investigated Earth’s detectability from across the cosmos.</p>

February 05, 2025

Could an Earth-like alien civilization detect us?
<p>People’s bodies can be old or young for their chronological age, depending on the amount and types of stressors they have experienced. Scientists can estimate people’s biological age, but whether they use oral tissue or blood to make the measurement matters, according to a new study led by researchers in the Penn State Department of Biobehavioral Health.</p>

February 05, 2025

Understanding aging requires more than counting birthdays
<p>Roderick Lee, associate professor of information systems at Penn State Harrisburg and affiliate associate professor of higher education at University Park, was recently elected the inaugural chair of the advisory council and named as a board member for The PhD Project Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating access and opportunities for economically disadvantaged, underrepresented and underserved communities to pursue doctoral degrees.</p>

February 05, 2025

Harrisburg faculty member named to leadership roles at The PhD Project
<p>How far would leaf-eating insects go to dine on their favorite food? Perhaps the other side of the world, according to researchers at Penn State who found insect damage on fossil leaves from South America that is nearly identical to what is seen today on those trees’ living relatives in Australia.</p>

February 04, 2025

Fossils show leaf-eating insects tracked gum trees for millions of years
<p>The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers recently awarded Mohammadreza Abbasi, an electrical engineering doctoral student in the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Microwave Theory and Technology Society Graduate Fellowship.</p>

February 04, 2025

Electrical engineering student awarded fellowship from international society
<p>Proposals are now being accepted for the 2025 M. G. Whiting Indigenous Knowledge Research Awards. Current graduate and undergraduate students are invited to submit proposals to conduct research between May 2025 and March 2026 on topics that focus on aspects of Indigenous knowledge.</p>

February 03, 2025

Applications sought for 2025 M. G. Whiting Indigenous Knowledge Research Awards
<p>Maternal vitamin D levels in the first trimester were related to both prenatal growth and pregnancy outcomes, according to a new study led by researchers in the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences.</p>

February 03, 2025

Vitamin D matters during first trimester, researchers find
<p>Penn State engineers developed a bio-based, "living" material that mimics certain behaviors within biological tissues, a potential step forward for advance regenerative medicine, disease modeling, soft robotics and more.</p>

February 03, 2025

Novel ‘living’ biomaterial aims to advance regenerative medicine
<p>Nature journaling, a recreational activity where people capture an observation while outside in nature, can help adults reconnect with communities, according to a new study led by researchers in the Penn State Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management.</p>

January 30, 2025

Nature journaling provides differing benefits to adults, youth
<p>With an electric current and hydrogen peroxide, researchers at Penn State have developed a more efficient way to extract lithium, a key component in the batteries used in electric vehicles and portable electric devices, directly from ore found in the common mineral spodumene.</p>

January 30, 2025

New method for sustainable lithium extraction could reduce emissions by 75% 
<p>As he approaches the end of his two-year term as student trustee on the Penn State Board of Trustees, Kevin Schuyler is leading the charge to identify his successor. The student trustee serves on the 38-member Board of Trustees, which is responsible for the governance and welfare of Penn State at the highest level. In this Q&amp;A, Schuyler talks about the responsibilities and benefits of the position for those interested in becoming the next student trustee.</p>

January 30, 2025

Q&A: Student trustee Kevin Schuyler ‘carries the voices of 88,000 peers’
<p>Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and its international agriculture and development dual-title graduate program (INTAD) is inviting members of the Penn State community to explore their “ag love language” at this year’s Global Gallery symposium. The event will occur from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, in 223 HUB-Robeson Center on the University Park campus.</p>

January 30, 2025

Annual Global Gallery symposium puts spotlight on global food systems, Feb. 14
<p>The Penn State Global Careers Institute, a professional development program designed to help the University's international and domestic undergraduate and graduate students prepare for career success in the global marketplace, will be held April 4-5 on the University Park campus. The priority deadline for application for the institute is Feb. 28; applications open during the first week of February.</p>

January 29, 2025

Penn State Global to host Global Careers Institute at University Park April 4-5
<p>Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan and his team are advancing the imaging capabilities by developing contrast agents to target specific molecules and processes that may reveal more about disease progression than traditional scans.</p>

January 28, 2025

WATCH: Tracking disease progression in technicolor
<p>Videos may be more effective than handouts when educating family medicine patients about ways to improve their diet, according to new research from scientists in the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences and the Penn State College of Medicine.</p>

January 28, 2025

Videos may be more effective than handouts for conveying health information
<p>Strategic corporate social responsibility activities can help hospitality businesses create both social and economic value, according to a new study by researchers in the Penn State School of Hospitality Management.</p>

January 28, 2025

Strategic corporate social responsibility can create social, economic value
<p>Penn State Great Valley has again earned national recognition for academic excellence, securing top rankings in the 2025 U.S. News &amp; World Report "Best Online Programs" list for engineering management, software and systems engineering and IT programs. </p>

January 27, 2025

Great Valley programs rank highly among U.S. News’ 'Best Online Programs'
<p>The Institute of Energy and the Environment presented awards to six Penn State faculty members for their collaborative, interdisciplinary research efforts and mentorship.</p>

January 27, 2025

Researchers recognized for excellence by Institute of Energy and the Environment
<p>Although aquaculture, fish farming, is believed to have been practiced for thousands of years in Asia, the approach is relatively new in Africa, which is facing a “fish deficit” that contributes to a lack of protein in the diets of the populace, according to the international nonprofit WorldFish. To help accelerate fish farming in northern Zambia, a team led by researchers at Penn State investigated local integrated agriculture-aquaculture practices — meaning their management of agricultural resources to supply essential inputs for feeding fish — adopted by farmers.</p>

January 24, 2025

Researchers explore strategies to aid smallholder fish farmers in Zambia
<p>Microorganisms collected from the material in which button mushrooms are grown may benefit the development of future fungi crops, according to a study led by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.</p>

January 24, 2025

Harnessing mushroom microbiomes for better crop development
<p>Led by Parisa Shokouhi, Penn State professor of engineering science and of acoustics, a team of researchers refined an artificial intelligence approach to predicting earthquakes in the laboratory, which may one day help forecast natural earthquakes. </p>

January 23, 2025

Predicting lab earthquakes with physics-informed artificial intelligence
<p>Three computer science researchers in the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are teaming up to build a “honeypot,” a decoy suite of fake networks, devices and domains, to entrap and deceive such hackers. They received a two-year, $557,000 grant from the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command, with the possibility of renewal.</p>

January 23, 2025

Building a ‘honeypot’ of fake cameras, networks to deceive military adversaries
<p>The Penn State Competitive Cyber Security Organization placed third at the Global Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition at the Rochester Institute of Technology.</p>

January 22, 2025

Student cybersecurity team places third in global competition
<p>Several hundred bees in rural Pennsylvania and rural New York are sporting tiny QR codes on their backs to track when they go in and out of their hives. The work, a collaboration among entomologists and electrical engineers at Penn State, is the first step in solving a long-standing mystery of how far bees travel from their hives to collect pollen and nectar. </p>

January 22, 2025

‘Buzz me in:’ Bees wearing itty bitty QR codes reveal hive secrets

January 21, 2025

STEM Libraries announce spring 2025 workshops and events for graduate students
<p>Penn State engineering researchers have developed a portable and wireless device to simultaneously detect vitamin C and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, by integrating commercial transistors with printed laser-induced graphene.</p>

January 21, 2025

Biosensing platform simultaneously detects vitamin C and SARS-CoV-2

January 21, 2025

Penn State to host public health, rural preparedness virtual mini-symposium
<p>The production of fuel cells requires the use of a rapid laser welding process; however, welding at too high a speed results in humping, marked by surface irregularities on the weld seam. A team led by researchers at Penn State has combined observation and analytical modeling to identify the conditions that produce humping at high laser welding speeds and to adjust the process parameters to increase weld speed without causing surface irregularities.</p>

January 21, 2025

Getting over the hump to improve fuel cell manufacturing
<p>The degree programs that Penn State offers online have been ranked among the best of the colleges and universities in Pennsylvania and across the country.</p>

January 21, 2025

Penn State featured in U.S. News’ 2025 ‘Best Online Programs’ rankings
<p>Geese appear to understand when and where hunting takes place but are willing to risk the danger to stay close to resources and their primary habitats, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. </p>

January 21, 2025

Despite knowing where and when people hunt, Canada geese don’t flee far
<p>The delegation of Penn State faculty and students who went to Azerbaijan for the United Nations’ annual climate meeting known as the Conference of Parties, COP29, will take part in a panel discussion from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at Penn State University Park. The event, called Climate Conversation Café, is supported by the Penn State Climate Consortium.</p>

January 17, 2025

Panel discussion will explore outcomes, key takeaways from COP29
<p>The J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Penn State and Penn State Global announce that applications for graduate student international travel grants for the spring 2025 semester are open until Feb 13. Students will be informed of a decision on their application by mid-March. Awards are usable for conferences taking place through February 2026.</p>

January 16, 2025

Penn State Global, Fox Graduate School announce graduate student travel grants
<p>A new storage technique can keep protein-based drugs and vaccines stable without keeping them cold. The discovery, led by researchers at Penn State, could eliminate the need for refrigeration for hundreds of life-saving medicines like insulin, monoclonal antibodies and viral vaccines.</p>

January 16, 2025

Discovery could eliminate need to refrigerate vaccines and protein-based drugs

January 16, 2025

WATCH: Entomology doctoral candidate discusses wasp discoveries
<p>Industrial engineering doctoral candidate Kevin Mekulu has been named to the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the category of health care. He was selected for his work in improving screening for cognitive impairment with his artificial intelligence-based technology, which he developed through his startup, DementiAnalytics. </p>

January 15, 2025

Penn State industrial engineering grad student named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list
<p>The winners of the first-ever "Diagnose-a-thon" were announced by Penn State's Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence. Prizes were awarded for accurate and misleading health diagnoses presented by large language models.</p>

January 15, 2025

Competition highlights generative AI’s power, pitfalls for medical diagnoses
<p>As part of our regular “We Are!” feature, we recognize 21 Penn Staters who have gone above and beyond what’s asked of them in their work at the University.  </p>

January 14, 2025

Sending a 'We Are!' to these Penn Staters — Jan. 14
<p>Community members are invited to engage with graduate students as they present their research and scholarship at Penn State's 40th annual Graduate Exhibition, set for March 28 on the University Park campus. </p>

January 13, 2025

Registration now open for 2025 Graduate Exhibition
<p>The mobile game advertisements that pop up all over social media platforms may promise better, more complete games than they actually deliver. Researchers at Penn State studying these “fake games” — or those that promote inaccurate depictions of their gameplay and development — identified five characteristics that gamers could use when deciding how much time and money to invest in a mobile game.</p>

January 13, 2025

Five ways ‘fake’ mobile games fail to meet advertised expectations
<p>Penn State’s Consortium on Moral Decision-Making and Moral Psychology Research Group recently hosted a conference to highlight interdisciplinary research on moral and ethical decision-making.</p>

January 13, 2025

Interdisciplinary research on ethics and morality focus of recent conference
<p>The development of new drugs is critical in treating cancer — if people have access to them. A team co-led by Penn State researchers identified cancer drugs launched between 1990 and 2022 and found that countries with higher gross national income per capita typically had more launches and shorter launch delays.</p>

January 13, 2025

Fewer delays, more launches of cancer drugs in higher income countries
<p>Penn State startup Fourth State Therapeutics has developed a cold plasma-based technology called the Plasma Patch, intended to tackle chronic wound treatment. Fourth State participated in Invent Penn State's Summer Founders Program and NSF I-Corps Short Course.</p>

January 13, 2025

Penn State startup tackles chronic wounds with 'Plasma Patch'

January 10, 2025

College of Ag Sciences graduate students receive research grant awards
<p>Mingyu Yu, doctoral candidate in materials science and engineering at Penn State, recently received the Graduate Student Research Award from the professional society AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces and Processing for innovative research in two-dimensional materials.</p>

January 10, 2025

Graduate student’s materials science research recognized by national society
<p>The invasive emerald ash borer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was first found in the United States in southeast Michigan in 2002. In the decades since, the wood-boring beetle has spread east and west across the U.S. and Canada, killing tens of millions of ash trees, causing one of the costliest forest insect invasions to date. Researchers at Penn State are working with the U.S. Forest Service and other partners to identify and develop ash trees genetically able to withstand the beetles’ onslaught and strategize how to restore ash to forests.</p>

January 08, 2025

Ash tree variability may offer restoration path post-beetle decimation
<p>A swimming race taught Colin J. Neill a valuable professional lesson about good technique that he took with him as he became a systems and software engineer, then a professor and now chancellor at Penn State Great Valley. Although his students often found it challenging to learn new techniques, Neill often hears them express appreciation for their graduate education and how their studies accelerated their careers. </p>

January 08, 2025

Great Valley chancellor aims to improve students' techniques to accelerate careers
<p>Ferroelectrics are special materials with polarized positive and negative charges — like a magnet has north and south poles — that can be reversed when external electricity is applied. The materials will remain in these reversed states until more power is applied, making them useful for data storage and wireless communication applications. Now, turning a non-ferroelectric material into one may be possible simply by stacking it with another ferroelectric material, according to a team led by scientists from Penn State who demonstrated the phenomenon, called proximity ferroelectricity.</p>

January 08, 2025

Proximity effect: Method allows advanced materials to gain new property