Eberly College of Science

Living in a neighborhood with lots of noise can make you jittery, especially if you're a lizard that's just a few inches long.

Antimicrobial resistance, including bacteria that have evolved to defy antibiotics, is one of the top 10 global public health threats humanity faces, according to the World Health Organization. A Penn State-led multidisciplinary collaboration may have found a solution in cholestyramine, an oral drug already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce cholesterol levels and remove bile acids…

New research suggests that colliding neutron stars can briefly "trap" ghostly particles called neutrinos, which could reveal new secrets about some of space's most extreme events.

Cellulose, which helps give plant cell walls their rigid structure, holds promise as a renewable raw material for biofuels—if researchers can accelerate the production process. Compared to the breakdown of other biofuel materials like corn, breaking down cellulose is slow and inefficient but could avoid concerns around using a food source while taking advantage of abundant plant materials that might otherwise go to…

The sunflower family tree has 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. The research team, led by a Penn State biologist, resolved more of the finer branches of the family tree, providing insight into how the sunflower family—which includes asters, daisies and food crops like…

The Bachman's warbler, a songbird that was last seen in North America nearly 40 years ago, was a distinct species and not a hybrid of its two living sister species, according a new study in which the full genomes of seven museum specimens of the bird were sequenced. Genome comparisons of Bachman's warbler with the golden-winged and blue-winged warblers also helped researchers identify a new candidate gene involved…

An eastern fence lizard basking in the sun feels a small red ant walk over its back. Not hungry, it ignores the insect. Soon there are lots of ants crawling up its legs, biting the scales that usually protect it and inserting their stingers in its soft underlying flesh.Not having evolved with this t...

Environmental sensors are a step closer to simultaneously sniffing out multiple gases that could indicate disease or pollution. Researchers combined laser writing and responsive sensor technologies to fabricate the first highly customizable microscale gas sensing devices.

We see these galaxies as they were over 13.45 billion years ago, just between 330 and 350 million years after the Big Bang.

The second- and fourth-most distant galaxies ever observed have been discovered in a region of space known as Pandora's Cluster, or Abell 2744, using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Bioluminescent bacteria and the Hawaiian bobtail squid have formed a longstanding mutually beneficial relationship. How the bacteria coordinate their behavior to colonize the squid—through cellular signaling and cues from the environment—is detailed in a new study led by Penn State researchers.

We know more about the Moon than the deep sea. This idea has been repeated for decades by scientists and science communicators, including Sir David Attenborough in the 2001 documentary series The Blue Planet. More recently, in Blue Planet II (2017) and other sources, the Moon is replaced with Mars....

Thirty years ago this month, astronomers first confirmed the existence of planets beyond our solar system. The anniversary comes as NASA's ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope gets ready to begin its work, raising the question: What kinds of extrasolar discoveries await?

In the process of oil extraction, hard mineral buildup inside the pipes and equipment can cause serious operational damage, safety issues such as pipe explosion and significant economic losses. The current methods for descaling mineral buildup, however, can adversely impact the environment.

Chemical structures called cyclopropanes can increase the potency and fine-tune the properties of many drugs, but traditional methods to create this structure only work with certain molecules and require highly reactive—potentially explosive—ingredients.

This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. STATE COLLEGE — Hundreds of Penn State employees are challenging the university president's leadership and

According to new research, the enzyme tokK helps synthesize a chain of methyl groups that allows potent antibiotics called carbapenems to circumvent antibiotic resistance.

Newly developed risk scores synthesize genetic information into an easy-to-interpret metric that could help clinicians identify young children most at risk of developing obesity. The study used a novel statistical methods to establish scoring criteria using data collected from children from birth to three years of age.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub generated look-ahead projections for COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths under specific, policy-relevant scenarios. Those projections were provided to federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local health authorities and the public to help inform decisions like the release of COVID-19 vaccines for children and…

From sensory cues to learned behavior, here's how prey species identify their biggest threats.