PHILADELPHIA, January 24, 2023 — Adults who suffered any head injury during a 30-year study period had two times the rate of mortality than those who did not have any head injury, and mortality rates among those with moderate or severe head injuries were nearly three times higher, according to new research from the Perelman […]
Penn State
Posted inLife
Loggers, landscapers face deadly danger felling trees in forests and urban areas
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Tree felling — whether by professional loggers in a forest setting or by landscapers in urban and rural landscapes — is the most dangerous job in what are two of the most dangerous industries, according to Penn State researchers who conducted a new study of associated deaths. The Occupational Safety and […]
Posted inCalifornia
Past fires may hold key to reducing severity of future wildfires in western US
Previous fires may hold the key to predicting and reducing the severity of future wildfires in the western United States as fire activity continues to increase, according to researchers from Penn State and the U.S. Forest Service. “We have a good understanding of how fire used to interact with dry, forested landscapes before we implemented […]
Posted inLife
Virtual gatherings may be best way to celebrate holidays together
November 5, 2020 – Dr. Glenn Buchberger is giving his patients sobering advice these days. “Unfortunately, I do not have many happy answers this year to questions about staying healthy at the holidays,” said Buchberger, an internist and pediatrician at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “This is a tough year for families to […]
Posted inEnviro
New acid mine drainage treatment turns waste into valuable critical minerals
August 5, 2020 – A new way to treat acid mine drainage (AMD) could help transform the environmental pollution problem into an important domestic source of the critical rare earth elements needed to produce technology ranging from smart phones to fighter jets, according to Penn State scientists. “Acid mine drainage has been a significant environmental […]
Posted inUS
Initial COVID-19 infection rate may be 80 times greater than originally reported
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. June 23, 2020 – Many epidemiologists believe that the initial COVID-19 infection rate was undercounted due to testing issues, asymptomatic and alternatively symptomatic individuals, and a failure to identify early cases. Now, a new study from Penn State estimates that the number of early COVID-19 cases in the U.S. may have been […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Political ‘oil spill’: Polarization is growing stronger in the U.S. — and getting stickier
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. June 10, 2020 — Experts have documented that political polarization is intensifying in the United States. However, a Penn State sociologist now suggests that this separation isn’t just more intense, but it is also growing broader, coagulating into an ideological slick of opinions. In the study of data from a national opinion […]
Posted inSci/Tech
China’s control measures may have prevented 700,000 COVID-19 cases
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA, March 31, 2020 – China’s control measures during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 epidemic may have delayed the spread of the virus to cities outside of Wuhan by several days and, by interrupting transmission nationwide, prevented more than 700,000 infections across the country, according to an international team of researchers. […]
Posted inLife
American households waste, on average, almost a third of the food they acquire
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Jan. 23, 2020 – American households waste, on average, almost a third of the food they acquire, according to economists, who say this wasted food has an estimated aggregate value of $240 billion annually. Divided among the nearly 128.6 million U.S. households, this waste could be costing the average household about $1,866 […]
Posted inUncategorized
Interactive map reveals that lynching extended far beyond the deep South
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. May 22, 2019 – An interactive map of lynchings that occurred in the United States from 1883 to 1941 reveals not just the extent of mob violence, but also underscores how the roles of economy, topography and law enforcement infrastructure paved the way for these brutal, violent outbursts, according to researchers. Although often thought […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Medicaid Expansions Linked to Slower Rises in Overdose Deaths
PHILADELPHIA October 1, 2018 – The United States in recent years has increased healthcare access by broadening Medicaid coverage, but some worry that these Medicaid expansions lead to more abuse of prescription painkillers and thus worsen the opioid epidemic. A new study suggests that Medicaid expansions may, in fact, have the opposite effect. In a […]
Posted inRegional
Controlled burns limited severity of Rim Fire
December 8, 2017 – Controlled burning of forestland helped limit the severity of one of California’s largest wildfires, according to Penn State geographers. The researchers studying the Rim Fire, which in 2013 burned nearly 400 square miles of forest in the Sierra Nevada, found the blaze was less severe in areas recently treated with controlled […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Sea-level rise, not stronger storm surge, will cause future NYC flooding
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA, Oct. 23, 2017 – Rising sea levels caused by a warming climate threaten greater future storm damage to New York City, but the paths of stronger future storms may shift offshore, changing the coastal risk for the city, according to a team of climate scientists. “If we cause large sea-level rise, that […]
Posted inRegional
Parents and teachers encouraged to have children watch eclipse on video feeds on TV and the internet
Aug. 18, 2017 – Much attention is focused on the potential dangers that the upcoming solar eclipse will pose to the unprotected eye. But health experts caution there’s at least one other – and more prevalent – way to do lasting damage to one’s vision. At some point, most children figure out how to burn […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Extreme weather events linked to climate change impact on the jet stream
March 27, 2017 – Unprecedented summer warmth and flooding, forest fires, drought and torrential rain — extreme weather events are occurring more and more often, but now an international team of climate scientists has found a connection between many extreme weather events and the impact climate change is having on the jet stream. “We came […]