Read the latest news about research conducted by investigators in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Our faculty and students are continually advancing technology, creating solutions and expanding knowledge with new and innovative research.
11/18/2021
Demonstrating that a material thought to be always chemically inert, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), can be turned chemically active holds potential for a new class of catalysts with a wide range of applications, according to an international team of researchers.
11/17/2021
For years, researchers believed that the smaller the domain size in a ferroelectric crystal, the greater the piezoelectric properties of the material. However, recent findings by Penn State researchers have raised questions about this standard rule.
11/11/2021
The mechanism behind one of the first stages of coal creation may not be what has long been thought, according to a team of researchers who found that microbes were responsible for coal formation and production of methane. The finding has implications for methane fuel recovery from some coal fields.
11/09/2021
A team of Penn State researchers led by Parisa Shokouhi, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics, demonstrated that deep learning algorithms, which train with data to generate predictions, could make the ability to predict future earthquakes more attainable.
11/08/2021
The person staring back from the computer screen may not actually exist, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) capable of generating convincing but ultimately fake images of human faces. Now this same technology may power the next wave of innovations in materials design, according to Penn State scientists.
10/25/2021
Air humidity is more important than soil moisture in influencing whether it rains in the United States Corn Belt, an agricultural area in the Midwest, stretching from Indiana to Nebraska and responsible for more than 35% of the world's most important grain crop, according to a new study by Penn State researchers.
10/22/2021
Penn State researchers created a prototype device that could lead to less intrusive glucose monitoring could becomming the norm.
10/21/2021
The flooding caused by Hurricane Ida across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions provides a glimpse at the disasters threatening coastal communities as the climate warms.
10/20/2021
Faults along the central portion of the Caribbean-South American tectonic plate boundary are primed to produce a powerful earthquake, posing a potentially serious hazard to northern Venezuela, according to an international team of scientists.
10/20/2021
Erica Smithwick, Penn State distinguished professor of geography and associate director of the Institutes of Energy and the Environment, was selected as an Administrative Fellow for the 2021-22 academic year.