Penn State @penn-state-university - Tumblr Blog

Using straightforward chemistry and a mix-and-match, modular strategy, researchers have developed a simple approach that could produce over 65,000 different types of complex nanoparticles, each containing up to six different materials and eight segments, with interfaces that could be exploited in electrical or optical applications. These rod-shaped nanoparticles are about 55 nanometers long and 20 nanometers wide — by comparison a human hair is about 100,000 nanometers thick — and many are considered to be among the most complex ever made.

Learn more at Penn State News.

#Penn State #PennState #research #nanoparticles #nanoparticle #electric #opitcal #cation exchange

Transparency discovered in crystals with ultrahigh piezoelectricity

Use of an AC rather than a DC electric field can improve the piezoelectric response of a crystal. Now, an international team of researchers say that cycles of AC fields also make the internal crystal domains in some materials bigger and the crystal transparent.

"There have been reports that the use of AC fields could significantly improve the piezoelectric responses — for example by 20% to 40% — over DC fields and the improvements have always been attributed to the smaller internal ferroelectric domain sizes that resulted from the cycles of AC fields," said Long-Qing Chen, Hamer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, professor of engineering science and mechanics, and professor of mathematics at Penn State. "About three years ago, Dr. Fei Li, then a research associate at the Materials Research Institute at Penn State, largely confirmed the improvement of piezoelectric performances from application of AC fields. However, it was not clear at all how the internal ferroelectric domains evolved during AC cycles.

According to researchers, the work “presents a paradigm to achieve an unprecedented combination of properties and functionalities through ferroelectric domain engineering, and the new transparent ferroelectric crystals reported here are expected to open up a wide range of hybrid device applications, such as medical imaging, self-energy-harvesting touch screens and invisible robotic devices."

Learn more about this research at Penn State News!

#research #Penn State #PennState #piezoelectricity #crystals #crystal #electric fields #electric field #AC cycles #DC cycles #transparency #ferroelectric domain engineering #transparent ferroelectric crystals #energy-harvesting

Persistent environmental contaminant changes the gut microbiome of mice

IMAGE: © iStock Photo / royaltystockphoto

An industrial chemical — phased out since 2002, but previously used in stain and water-repellent products and firefighting foam — alters the gut microbiome of mice and could have implications for human health, according to an international team of researchers.

Perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, persists in the environment and in the bodies of living organisms. While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated PFOS a “contaminant of emerging concern” and its production was voluntarily ceased in the United States by producers, it is still detected in the blood of up to 99% of the U.S. population.

“We know that chronic exposure to some environmental chemicals, including persistent organic pollutants, can impact the gut microbiome, and we are actively assessing whether these interactions can impact health,” said Andrew Patterson, Tombros Early Career Professor and professor of molecular toxicology, Penn State. “Our study shows that PFOS alters the composition and function of the microbiome, which suggests that this chemical and perhaps related chemicals, have mechanisms of action outside our own cells. Exploring how chemicals impact the microbiome is an important and emerging area of study.”

Read more about this work at Penn State News!

#Penn State #PennState #research #Perfluorooctane sulfonate #PFOS #gut microbiome #microbiome #water-repellent #firefighting foam #industrial chemical

Novel composite antimicrobial film could take a bite out of foodborne illnesses

A novel composite film — created by the bonding of an antimicrobial layer to conventional, clear polyethylene plastic typically used to vacuum-package foods such as meat and fish — could help to decrease foodborne illness outbreaks, according to researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Raw beef (shown here), raw chicken breast and ready-to-eat turkey breast were inoculated with pathogens then vacuum packaged with the composite antimicrobial film, sealed and placed into refrigerated storage. The composite antimicrobial film significantly reduced foodborne pathogens on the experimentally inoculated surfaces of the raw and ready-to-eat muscle foods.

The novel composite antimicrobial film stopped pathogens from growing on this ready-to-eat turkey breast.

Learn more at Penn State News.

#research #PennState #Penn State #foodborne illnesses #antimicrobial film #Salmonella #Listeria #E. coli #Lauric arginate #Staphylococcus aureus

Researchers have discovered that neonicotinoid seed treatments are driving a dramatic increase in insecticide toxicity in U.S. agricultural landscapes, despite evidence that these treatments have little to no benefit in many crops.

During the past 20 years, insecticides applied to U.S. agricultural landscapes have become significantly more toxic — over 120-fold in some midwestern states — to honey bees when ingested, according to a team of researchers, who identified rising neonicotinoid seed treatments in corn and soy as the primary driver of this change. The study is the first to characterize the geographic patterns of insecticide toxicity to bees and reveal specific areas of the country where mitigation and conservation efforts could be focused.

According to Christina Grozinger, Distinguished Professor of Entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research, Penn State, this toxicity has increased during the same period in which widespread decline in populations of pollinators and other insects have been documented.

“Insecticides are important for managing insects that damage crops, but they can also affect other insect species, such as bees and other pollinators, in the surrounding landscape,” she said. “It is problematic that there is such a dramatic increase in the total insecticide toxicity at a time when there is also so much concern about declines in populations of pollinating insects, which also play a very critical role in agricultural production.”

You can read more about this work at Penn State News!

#Penn State #PennState #research #honey bees #Christina Grozinger #honeybees #bees #neonicotinoid #neonicotinoids #seed treatment #corn #soy #insecticide toxicity

Fibers that become colder when they are untwisted could inspire more environmentally-friendly fridges

“I think this [study] really opens a very new field for people to look into how to use a mechanical force to generate cooling in very conventional material,” says Qiming Zhang, a materials scientist and electrical engineer at Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the new paper.

#Penn State #PennState #In the News #expert placement #refrigeration #sustainability #cooling #environmentally-friendly fridges #greenhouse gases #twist fridges #global warming

Birthplaces of high-energy particles identified

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory in Sierra Negra, Mexico.  

The cosmic sources of nine high-energy gamma rays have been identified by members of the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory collaboration, that includes Penn State scientists. All of the sources identified produce gamma rays with energies over 56 trillion electron volts (TeV) and three emit gamma rays extending to 100 TeV and beyond, making these the highest-energy sources ever observed in our galaxy.

These sources constitute a new catalog that will help explain where the particles that produce high-energy gamma rays originate and how they are accelerated to such extreme velocities. It may also provide important insight into the origins of cosmic rays — high energy particles that rain down on Earth’s atmosphere and may cause electronic problems in satellites and other machinery.

Read more about this research at Penn State News!

#research #Penn State #PennState #High-Altitude Water Cherenkov #Gamma-Ray Observatory collaboration #HAWC #gamma rays #gamma ray #gammaray #gammarays #high-energy particles #high energy particle #cosmic rays #cosmic ray

Climate change and extreme weather causing flight delays

Ever wondered why your flights always seem to be delayed? Research has just shown that one reason behind the delays is climate change. The change in climate is leading to constant changes in the summer jet stream, according to Michael Mann, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center.

Read more about Mann’s research at Bloomberg.

#PennState #Penn State #In the News #inthenews #research #climate change #climate #flight #flight delays #global warming

“Severe weather has strong interactions with the ground, but we haven’t had the capability to study the coupling between the atmosphere and the solid Earth...With this new technology, we can utilize existing fiber-optics networks to clearly see how thunderstorm energy passed through campus.”

Penn State professor, Tieyuan Zhu and a team of researchers turned miles of cables under campus into virtual sensors capable of detecting seismic events caused by thunder echoes. This research can provide information on the Earth’s interior and the impact of other natural hazards.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Penn State