In a single new scientific publication, 24 new species of lizards known as skinks, all from islands in the Caribbean, have been discovered and scientifically named. According to Blair Hedges, a professor of biology at Penn State University and the leader of the research team, half of the newly added skink species already may be extinct or close to extinction, and all of the others on the Caribbean islands are threatened with extinction. The researchers found that the loss of many skink species can be attributed primarily to predation by the mongoose -- an invasive predatory mammal that was introduced by farmers to control rats in sugarcane fields during the late 19th century. The research team reports on the newly discovered skinks in a 245-page article published April 30 in the journal Zootaxa. (more)
Scott Phillips, an assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State and holder of the Martarano Career Development Professorship, has been honored with an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow award in recognition of his research accomplishments. Sloan Research Fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members in seven fields of science: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics. (more)
Scott Phillips, assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State and holder of the Martarano Career Development Professorship, has been honored with a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The CAREER award is the most prestigious award given by the NSF in support of junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent teaching, and the integration of education and research. The CAREER award provides five years of funding and is given to assistant professors by the NSF directorates at different times during the year. (more)
Students in Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology who are interested in protecting data from hackers and saboteurs will soon be able to apply for a program in which they will receive scholarship money and expert training for their chosen field. (more)
Using a new technique in which models of primitive cells are constructed from the bottom up, Penn State scientists have demonstrated that the structure of a cell's membrane and cytoplasm may be as important to cell division as the specialized machinery -- such as enzymes, DNA or RNA -- that are found within living cells. The study, which will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, may provide important clues to how life originated from nonlife and how modern cells came to exhibit complex behaviors. (more)
Obesity appears to impair normal muscle function in rats, an observation that could have significant implications for humans, according to Penn State researchers. (more)
IceCube, the world's largest observatory ever built to detect the elusive sub-atomic particles called neutrinos, has just been completed in the crystal-clear ice at the South Pole. Trillions of neutrinos stream through the human body at any given moment, but they rarely interact with regular matter, and researchers want to know more about them. The observatory provides an innovative means to investigate the sources and properties of neutrinos, which originate in some of the most spectacular phenomena in the universe. (more)
Iron furnaces that once dotted central Pennsylvania may have left a legacy of manganese enriched soils, according to Penn State geoscientists. This manganese can be toxic to trees, especially sugar maples, and other vegetation. (more)
For the first time, scientists have been able to "freeze in time" a mysterious process by which a critical enzyme metabolizes drugs and chemicals in food. By recreating this process in the lab, a team of researchers has solved a 40-year-old puzzle about changes in a family of enzymes produced by the liver that break down common drugs such as Tylenol, caffeine and opiates, as well as nutrients in many foods. The breakthrough discovery may help future researchers develop a wide range of more efficient and less-expensive drugs, household products and other chemicals. The scientists' findings were published in the journal Science on Nov. 12. (more)
New research, which reveals the activity of nerve cells in a songbird's brain as the bird sings a specific song, is helping scientists to understand how birds string together sets of syllables -- and it also may provide insight into how the human brain learns language and produces speech. "Unlike dogs and cats, whose vocalizations are innate and unlearned, songbirds learn a song in much the same way as humans learn a language," said Dezhe Jin at Penn State. (more)
