Three industry-led teams including Penn State and four other research universities have received contracts to provide a range of research and engineering services to the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The collective value of the three contracts is expected to exceed $465 million over a five-year period. NETL, part of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratory system, conducts research in coal, natural gas and oil technologies. Penn State faculty and graduate students will collaborate on carbon capture and sequestration, unconventional fossil fuel sources, highly efficient energy conversion technologies, environmental and economic impacts and similar areas that figure prominently in the nation's quest for cleaner sources of energy and energy security. (more)
Cell phones to their ears, a team of research participants will report their interpersonal interactions in real time to provide a better view of human behavior thanks to a $1 million grant from the National Institute of Aging as part of the National Institutes of Health's American Recover and Reinvestment Act funding. (more)
Search engine use is not just part of our daily routines; it also is becoming part of our learning process, according to Penn State researchers. The researchers sought to discover the cognitive processes underlying searching. They examined the search habits of 72 participants while conducting a total of 426 searching tasks. They found that search engines are primarily used for fact checking users' own internal knowledge, meaning that they are part of the learning process rather than simply a source for information. They also found that people's learning styles can affect how they use search engines. (more)
Penn State has launched a new Web site as part of its ongoing efforts to inform citizens about how federal economic stimulus funds are supporting research across the University. To date, Penn State has received more than $71 million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), aimed at creating and retaining jobs, and making sure the nation has the human and technological resources for long-term economic and scientific growth. (more)
Technological advances in DNA sequencing make it possible to determine how living things are related by analyzing the ways in which their genes have been rearranged on chromosomes. However, inferring these evolutionary relationships from rearrangement events requires massive computing impossible even on the most advanced computing systems available today. (more)
Couples who bring thoughtful words to a fight release lower amounts of stress-related proteins, suggesting that rational communication between partners can ease the impact of marital conflict on the immune system. "Previous research has shown that couples who are hostile to each other show health impairments and are at greater risk of disease," said Jennifer Graham, Penn State assistant professor of biobehavioral health. "We wanted to know if couples who use thoughtfulness and reasoning in the midst of a fight incur potential health benefits." (more)
Sensors, communications devices and imaging equipment that use a prism and a special form of light -- a surface plasmon-polariton -- may incorporate multiple channels or redundant applications if manufacturers use sculptured thin films. "Everyone uses surface plasmon resonance sensors. They are a multi billion-dollar industry worldwide," said Akhlesh Lakhtakia, the Charles Godfrey Binder (Endowed) professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State. "This type of sensor provides a fairly quick way to see what you have. It can tell you the concentration of chemicals, but in order to test for more than one chemical today, manufacturers have to use more than one sensor." (more)
Penn State's research expenditures in fiscal 2009 reached a record $765 million, a 6.7 percent increase over the previous year and a 74 percent increase since fiscal 2000, said Eva J. Pell, senior vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School, in a report to the University's Board of Trustees on Nov. 6. The funding supports a broad range of research activity in such diverse areas as renewable energy, cybersecurity, materials science and engineering, environmental science, and translational medicine. (more)
Longer toes and a unique ankle structure provide sprinters with the burst of acceleration that separates them from other runners, according to biomechanists. "At the start of a sprint the only way a runner can speed up is through the reaction force that results from the action of leg muscles pushing on the ground," said Stephen Piazza, associate professor of kinesiology, Penn State. "Long toes provide sprinters the advantage of maintaining maximum contact with the ground just a little bit longer than other runners." (more)
Glaciers, water under the glaciers, seismic activity and robotic rovers are all part of three National Science Foundation Polar Program grants awarded to Sridhar Anandakrishnan, professor of geosciences, Penn State. The grants, which total nearly a million dollars, are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. (more)