Features
Research reports with text, graphics, audio, and video.
Ancestral Plants
Claude dePamphilis and colleagues trace the genetic roots of the Earth's most ancient flowering plants.
Going with the Flow
Biology meets physics in a unified theory of how animals move.
A New Test for Breast Cancer?
Raghu Sinha and colleagues hope to identify tell-tale proteins in saliva.
Next of Kin
Webb Miller and colleagues track down the closest cousins of primates.
Killers in the Kitchen
Steve Knabel has a new way of tracking foodborne pathogens.
Fantastic Voyage
ARL researchers are finding new applications for computer simulations of fluid flow.
Flexing Nano-muscles
Tony Huang makes motors out of molecules.
Harvest of Energy
Researchers at the new Biomass Energy Center are homing in on future fuels.
Beetle Juice!
Sequencing the genes in an insect invader's gut may yield answers for bioenergy—and clues to the biology of invasiveness.
Synthetic Cells
Chemist Chris Keating has a whole new approach to cell modeling.
Uplifting a continent
AfricaArray's mission to revive African geophysics and advance understanding of the planet's thermal forces.
Special delivery
A "little gel capsule" made of polymer could replace surgery for treating the diabetic eye.
Old virus, new host
How do retroviruses survive in a hostile new host environment? Mary Poss’s research suggests a key role for the innate immune system.
Welcome to the jungle
There is a plant language, chemically communicated, that drives plants and insects to do what they do.
Small skull, huge controversy
When archaeologists working on the Indonesian island of Flora announced a new species of human, Bob Eckhardt and colleagues set about debunking their claim.
Battling childhood obesity
Leann Birch is leading a strong interdisciplinary response to the epidemic.
The diabetic eye
Thomas Gardner is committed to finding and preventing diabetic eye disease.
Making the invisible visible
Alan MacEachren heads one of five regional centers charged with developing a new generation of visualization and analysis tools for homeland security.
Electron superhighways
Can titania nanotubes outshine silicon? Craig Grimes has a bright idea for solar energy.
A new theory of life
J. Greg Ferry has discovered an ancient bug that may represent the first metabolic cycle on the planet.
The biologist as bibliosleuth
Combining a lifelong love of ancient maps with a biologist's eye for random mutations, Blair Hedges has invented the "print clock."
A better bowl of rice
Iron deficiency is the most common in the world, and Laura Murray-Kolb is part of a team that is searching for solutions.
A model of simplicity
With their model axon, Paul Weiss and Anne Andrews have created a simple system that reproduces some of the oxidative damage seen in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases.
A shared toolkit
Pam Mitchell's studies of developmental "switches" in fruit fly legs may unlock the secrets of analogous genes in humans.
The moral brain
Paul Eslinger and his colleagues are using functional MRI to find the biological basis of selfless behavior.
A bug's nose
Tom Baker is using insects to identify odors.
A mammoth job
Penn State scientists are uncovering the secrets of wooly mammoth DNA.
Turning over an old leaf
In the fossilized evidence of an insect's lunch over 50 million years ago, Peter Wilf can read the story of ancient climate change.
Pandemic evolution?
The United States is braced to join the 51 or more nations coping with a virulent strain of bird flu. Will the H5N1 virus remain an avian disease—or will it make the leap to human transmission?
The logic of organisms
What accounts for the great diversity of life? As Ken Weiss explains, developmental biology is filling in evolution's broad outlines.
Boomers examined
Aging Baby Boomers face political shifts, life-cycle stress and an uncertain financial future.
Rebuilding bone
Adult stem cells hold promise for skeletal repair.
Fighting back
Bullying is epidemic in American schools—but it can be prevented.
Feeding the diabetic brain
Ian Simpson studies how the brain gets and uses energy—and how diabetes disrupts that process.
Future fuel?
The energy source of the future must be cheap, renewable, and environmentally clean. Is hydrogen the answer?
Take a glimpse into the future-building activities of Penn State researchers,
ranging from fundamental materials chemistry to collaborations with Pennsylvania's growing fuel-cell industry.
It's about time
An in-depth look at how time shapes our lives and the universe around us. Based on the
2004 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc.,
and Penn State's Eberly College of Science, and organized by Barbara K. Kennedy, coordinator of college relations.
Beyond Earth
Next stop: Mars? In an era of renewed discovery, experts in space exploration and planetary science are starting to look closely at the technological, social, and political hurdles that remain before humans can live on other worlds. Printed in the May 2003 issue. Also available in PDF format.
Earth: Our Role
From global warming to green economics, scientists are coming to grips with the effects we humans have on planet Earth. Printed in the May 2002 issue. Also available in PDF format.
Decoding Life's Instruction Book
An introduction to genetics and genomics from the 2001 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science. Printed in the September 2001 issue. Also available in PDF format.
Astrobiology: The Search for Life in the Universe
A primer for students and teachers based on the 2000 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science. Printed in the January 2001 issue. Also available in PDF format.
How Things Work (in Science and Technology)
Investigations into genomics, drug design, quantum computing, the Internet, climate change, and astronomy from the 1999 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science. Printed in the May 1999 issue. Also available in PDF format.
Multiple copies of back issues of Research/Penn State are available for classroom use. Contact the editors in 320 Kern Building, University Park, PA 16802-3303; phone 814-865-3477; fax 814-863-5368; email editor@rps.psu.edu.