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Penn State

Pennsylvania State University, a public research university in University Park, PA, known for research in engineering, agriculture, and sciences.

Known aliases

  • Penn State
  • Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences
  • Penn State Department of Food Science
  • Penn State Eberly College of Science
  • Penn State Engineering
  • Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences
  • Penn State University
  • Penn State University Park
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • The Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
  • The Pennsylvania State University
  • University Park campus

Current stories

scienceOne report1 publisher

Nearly a decade of tower data puts Indianapolis gas leakage near 2%

Penn State researchers estimate that about 2% of the natural gas piped into Indianapolis leaks, based on nearly a decade of tower data. They say most of it likely comes from homes and other buildings, not exterior pipelines.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence55
scienceOne report1 publisher

Layered silver-and-gold nanoparticles give a pilot syphilis test lines 19% to 46% stronger

Penn State-led researchers built a pilot syphilis test that detects lower antibody levels and draws lines 19% to 46% stronger than comparable devices. The team says that could mean earlier interventions and fewer appointments.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence50
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence55
scienceOne report1 publisher

Leg weights worn in youth spared guinea fowl the extra energy cost of carrying a load

Penn State researchers found guinea fowl raised with leg weights later carried the load at no added energy cost, while untrained birds used 23% more. The comparison is controlled and the groups are small, so it supports a narrow causal claim about leg loading in one species.

Publishers:sciencedaily.com

Reality

Evidence50
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+30
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence45
scienceOne report1 publisher

Enzyme-cut lentil protein makes nonfat yogurt mechanically similar to whole-milk yogurt

Penn State researchers report that 0.05% enzyme-cut lentil peptide gives nonfat yogurt mechanical texture similar to whole-milk yogurt. Removing fat makes yogurt thinner and changes its mouthfeel, so a plant additive that restores structure addresses a known cost of nonfat dairy.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence55
scienceOne report1 publisher

Penn State-led team builds an oxide film that uses chemical disorder to produce magnetic effects

Penn State-led researchers report an oxide thin film whose chemical disorder produces complex magnetic properties, in Advanced Materials. The authors say it could support faster, lower-power electronics and plan to take it to industry.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence35
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+40
Incentives55
Confidence45
scienceOne report1 publisher

Co-digesting crops with manure cuts a modeled dairy digester's break-even support from 47% to 4%

Penn State's model of a 1,000-cow dairy found co-digesting crops with manure cut break-even capital support for a digester from about 47% to as little as 4%. The figures come from a model, and even the best case still needs some grant or loan support to break even.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence40
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence45
scienceOne report1 publisher

One in three bee species on Colombia's first national checklist is a new country record

Penn State-led researchers list 738 bee species in Colombia's first national checklist, 246 of them new records for the country. Their estimate of roughly 1,400 species lends weight to the team's view that thin sampling explains part of the tropics' apparent bee shortfall.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+5
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence60
scienceConfirmed3 publishers

Six years of satellite radar suggest Masaya volcano draws on more than one magma reservoir

Penn State researchers found Masaya's caldera sank then rose across six years of satellite radar, while its Santiago crater deflated throughout. The authors read that as two reservoirs behaving separately, something monitoring has to account for at a volcano within 21 km of 2 million people.

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers
Builder
Builder 38%
Operator
Operator 57%
Investor
Investor 5%

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+22
Incentives20
Confidence58
scienceOne report1 publisher

Penn State team adapts image-generator diffusion to forecast flash floods by the hour

Penn State researchers trained a diffusion model, the method behind AI image generators, on more than 500 US river basins to forecast hourly flash-flood risk. It takes in new gauge readings without retraining, so a warning service could keep it current.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+30
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence40
buildOne report1 publisher

Renaming agent tools shifts attack-success scores by up to 13 points in Penn State tests

Penn State researchers moved agent attack-success rates by up to 13.21 points by renaming tools, with the attack, task and policy held fixed. The size of the shift varied by model and benchmark, so a robustness score only describes the tool names and schemas it was measured on.

Publishers:dev.to

Reality

Evidence50
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+30
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence45
productOne report1 publisher

DOE puts $1 million into Penn State chemistry on three fission products that hamper molten-salt reactors

Penn State's team won $1 million from the Department of Energy to track samarium, europium and tellurium in molten salt reactors and recycling systems. The money pays for lab measurement of how those elements behave in salt, the step any recycling or corrosion fix has to start from.

Reality

Evidence40
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+35
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence45
scienceOne report1 publisher

Penn State lab modifies sterile-filtration membranes to remove microbes from injectable drugs

Penn State engineers are surface-modifying sterile-filtration membranes to remove microbes from injectable drugs, in work published in Biotechnology Journal. Doctoral candidate Shreya Kapila's own test for a new filter is that it removes organisms while leaving little of an expensive drug behind in the membrane.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence35
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives40
Confidence40
scienceOne report1 publisher

Faults on Katalyst's LINK spacecraft end the attempt to save NASA's Swift observatory

NASA's Swift observatory, in orbit since 2004, will re-enter by year's end after the Katalyst spacecraft sent to boost it developed faults in orbit. NASA now presents the year-long effort as practice for fast commercial satellite servicing.

Publishers:nasa.gov phys.org

Reality

Evidence50
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+30
Incentives75
Confidence60
scienceConfirmed5 publishers

Thunder as a free seismic source, read through fiber already in the ground

A Penn State-led team says it imaged the shallow subsurface using thunderquakes recorded on a 4 km campus telecom cable, with no seismic source and no sensor array deployed.

Perspective Coverage

5 publishers
Builder
Builder 41%
Operator
Operator 49%
Investor
Investor 10%

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+25
Incentives40
Confidence58
scienceOne report1 publisher

Age shapes broiler chickens' resistance genes more than antibiotics, probiotics or essential oils

Penn State found age reshaped the resistance genes of 320 broiler chickens far more than antibiotic, probiotic or essential-oil feed did. With the antibiotic diet also flat, the three-week trial cannot show the alternatives reduce resistance.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence40
scienceOne report1 publisher

Suppressing a frog's skin bacteria made chytrid disease more likely in a Penn State experiment

Penn State researchers suppressed skin bacteria on two Brazilian frog species with antibiotics, and only one of the two then showed more disease from the chytrid fungus. The team also screened about 700 bacterial strains to link each one's identity to its antifungal effect.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence52
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+25
Incentives55
Confidence55
buildOne report1 publisher

Glacian sells $1.91m of a $5m round on megawatts recovered from cooling

A Form D filed on September 17 counts an earlier $150,000 SAFE conversion inside that total, and what it funds is a physics-based twin that recommends cooling setpoints an operator still has to accept.

Publishers:runtimewire.com

Reality

Evidence63
Adoption18
Hype gap+20
Incentives60
Confidence55
scienceOne report1 publisher

A new assay detects living Pseudomonas syringae through the proteins it injects into plants

Penn State researchers built a test, called ELCA, that reacts to effector proteins made only by living bacteria, giving a signal for an active infection at about the cost of a standard ELISA. It is a proof of concept on one crop pathogen.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+25
Incentives70
Confidence55
productOne report1 publisher

Penn State tunes a perovskite film to LED light with 35 percent bromine

Penn State walked the bromine-to-iodide ratio across six metal-halide films to aim the bandgap at indoor wavelengths. The stability run that followed was done under light many times brighter than an office ceiling.

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+28
Incentives62
Confidence55
scienceOne report1 publisher

Passive samplers detected contaminants more often than grab bottles in a Pennsylvania creek

Grab bottles and passive in-stream samplers, run side by side for two growing seasons, produced records that disagree about where contamination concentrates and when it peaks. Penn State's team says a program needs both.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption15
Hype gap+15
Incentives30
Confidence58

Earlier coverage