A team of geoscientists traveled to the Gulf of Mexico to investigate the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The team, including Penn State doctoral student in biogeochemistry Uyen Nguyen, wanted to quantify the time that it takes for oil to break down at various depths. Source: Penn State Bacteria and microbes consume [...]
A faculty member at Penn State University (PSU) has won a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award to create special statistical models of extreme weather. Benjamin Shaby, assistant professor of statistics and Penn State Institute for CyberScience faculty co-hire, will be looking at how to build infrastructure and prepare for events like forest fires and heavy [...]
At the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts this past July, Penn State University (PSU) professor Denice Wardrop joined the Art of Discovery booth to showcase relationships between humans and plastics. Wardrop is a professor of ecology and geography and helped the booth with the plastics project as a follow up to an exhibit at the [...]
Sarah Xenophon is a watershed technician in the Agriculture and Environment Center in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State. She creates large-scale watershed assessments and meets with farmers, land owners, municipalities and others to restore polluted or otherwise “sick” bodies of water in Pennsylvania. The center works with key stakeholders to proactively build partnerships to improve the [...]
Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences' Center for Professional Development has partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to educate agriculture teachers from across the state on the importance of watershed education. 170 high school agriculture teachers visited Harrisburg to learn about Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences, which are investigative or experimental projects focused on teaching students about [...]
Researchers at Penn State University and the US Dept. of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have developed a new technology that removes phosphorous from manure, which could have a huge impact on water quality issues. Image: Hristov Research Group / Penn State The system is called Manure Phosphorous Extraction (MAPHEX for short) and uses a [...]
Contaminants from pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, and steroids are becoming increasingly common in surface and drinking water sources, having an effect on human and aquatic health. To reduce this pollution, researchers at Penn State University have developed a filtration system that removes contaminants from hospital wastewater. "Biogenic manganese oxide-coated coir fiber collected from the coal mine drainage [...]
