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.
Spring 2020 EarthTalks series presents science toward solutions
The spring 2020 EarthTalks series, "Societal Problems, EESI Science towards Solutions," features scientists from Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI) and explores the human impacts on the global environment and how to apply this knowledge to decision-making.
Visiting South African scholar wants to rehabilitate old mines
Is there a way to turn waste into a useful resource and at the same time reduce environmental degradation from closed mines? That’s what visiting South African scholar Nemapate Ndivhuwo wants to find out.
Atlantic and Pacific oscillations lost in the noise
The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) do not appear to exist, according to a team of meteorologists who believe this has implications for both the validity of previous studies attributing past trends to these hypothetical natural oscillations and for the prospects of decade-scale climate predictability.
A fast and inexpensive device to capture and identify viruses
A device to quickly capture and identify various strains of virus has been developed, according to researchers at Penn State and New York University.