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A new type of eco-friendly glass developed by researchers at Penn State offers higher crack resistance, potentially allowing for thinner, lighter and more sustainable products.

Penn State has named Morgan Advanced Materials, a global manufacturer of ceramics and carbon materials, as its 2024 Corporate Partner of the Year. The annual award celebrates corporate partners that have demonstrated exceptional commitment in the promotion and support of Penn State, have excellent track records of philanthropy and research, and actively engage Penn State students and alumni in the workplace and the classroom.

Medical imaging is no longer in Kansas, Toto, as a team led by Penn State researchers brings traditional black and white diagnostic images of X-rays and traditional CT scans into technicolor. The researchers developed novel contrast agents that target two proteins implicated in osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease commonly characterized as wear-and-tear arthritis. By marking the proteins with the contrast agents comprising newly designed metal nanoprobes, the researchers can use advanced imaging called “K-edge” imaging or photon-counting computed tomography (CT) to simultaneously track separate biological processes in color that, together, reveal more about the disease’s progression than a traditional scan.

An old physical phenomenon, known as the Hall effect, has revealed some new tricks, according to a team co-led by researchers at Penn State and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They reported their findings, which they said have potential implications for understanding fundamental physics of quantum materials and developing applied technologies such as quantum communication and harvesting energy via radio frequencies, this week (Oct. 21) in Nature Materials.

For graduate students, college can be a trying and difficult time. Students are often far away from their lifelong support system of families and friends. An effort that began three years ago in the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) is helping to elevate the experiences of graduate students within the college.

Penn State’s total research expenditures reached a record high of $1.337 billion in fiscal year 2023-24, an 8% increase or $99 million jump from the previous year, bringing the research expenditures of external and internal funding to the largest total in the University’s history. For the first time in Penn State’s history, external funding from sponsored grants and contracts surpassed $1 billion — a nearly 11% increase over the last fiscal year.

Robert Hickey, associate professor of materials science and engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, will receive the American Physical Society’s 2025 John H. Dillon Medal, the society announced today, Oct. 15.

A recently developed electronic tongue is capable of identifying differences in similar liquids, such as milk with varying water content; diverse products, including soda types and coffee blends; signs of spoilage in fruit juices; and instances of food safety concerns. The team, led by researchers at Penn State, also found that results were even more accurate when artificial intelligence (AI) used its own assessment parameters to interpret the data generated by the electronic tongue.

The 2024 Nelson W. Taylor Lecture in Materials will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Heritage Hall at Penn State University Park. The theme of this year’s lecture series is "Materials for Energy Innovation."

In the vast and varied research that comes out of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) at Penn State, there’s one thing that’s even more important than discovery: lab safety.