Dec 20, 2024 Yahoo! News

Researchers work to stave off looming threat putting Christmas tradition at risk — here’s what you need to know

It is clear that Christmas trees can’t adapt quickly enough to our warming climate. Researchers at North Carolina State University are studying how trees use their natural defense mechanisms to cope with the stresses of a changing climate and become more resilient. 

Dec 20, 2024 Prevention

Frito-Lay Recalls Chips Over Possible ‘Life-Threatening Allergic Reaction’

“Food recalls [tend to] occur because of oversight in the system and are a sign that the system is working,” added Ellen Shumaker, Ph.D., a food safety expert and director of outreach for the Safe Plates program at North Carolina State University. In other words, they can be looked at as a good thing. 

Dec 20, 2024 WNCN

How NC State program is improving growth of Christmas trees

“Those trees really only grow well in those endemic regions, so they’re adapted to those climates, but as climates start to increase and temperatures change, where we grew trees 50 years ago may no longer be hospitable for trees,” explains Dr. Justin Whitehill, Director of the Christmas Tree Genetics Program at NC State. 

Dec 19, 2024 ABC News

A power grab by Republicans in North Carolina becomes a referendum on democracy in the states

“This is not how healthy democracies work,” said Steven Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University. “You don’t lose and decide you’re going to change the rules because you don’t like that you lost. It’s corrosive of the basic principles of democracy.” 

Dec 19, 2024 Chemical & Engineering News

A protein-based neural network for cells

“This work adds to the growing body of knowledge showing that complex computational approaches like neural networks can be implemented using synthetic biology and, in particular, proteins,” says North Carolina State University’s James Tuck, who was not involved in the study. “There are many potential downstream use cases of deploying such neural networks in living… 

Dec 19, 2024

Boffins trick AI model into giving up its secrets

Computer scientists from North Carolina State University have devised a way to copy AI models running on Google Edge Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), as used in Google Pixel phones and third-party machine learning accelerators. 

Dec 19, 2024 Prevention

More Than 2,000 Frozen Pizzas Recalled Due to Potential Plastic Contamination

“Plastic contamination often starts on the production line,” he says. “Equipment used to prepare and package food can sometimes break down, shedding fragments of plastic.” Plastic pieces can break off from equipment during any portion of the manufacturing process, says food safety expert Ellen Shumaker, Ph.D., director of outreach for the Safe Plates program at… 

Dec 18, 2024 Morning Ag Clips

How ‘Thirsty’ Trees May Make Forests More Vulnerable to Climate Change

“Due to climate change, we have seen increasing dry periods across the world and regionally. We’re having more periods where it’s just not raining,” said Katherine Martin, associate professor in the North Carolina State University Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources and co-author of a paper on the study. “When you have more of these… 

Dec 18, 2024 Phys.org

How ‘thirsty’ trees may make forests more vulnerable to climate change

“Due to climate change, we have seen increasing dry periods across the world and regionally. We’re having more periods where it’s just not raining,” said Katherine Martin, associate professor in the North Carolina State University Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources and co-author of a paper on the study. 

Dec 18, 2024 CBS News

North Carolina’s Christmas trees impacted by Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene may have hurt some of North Carolina’s Christmas trees grown for Americans across the U.S. Justin Whitehill, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, joins CBS News with more details. 

Dec 17, 2024 Miami Herald

How a hurricane and climate change may impact your future Christmas tree buys in Florida

“Helene was a thing that we hadn’t prepared for, or even knew was possible,” Justin Whitehill, a forestry expert at North Carolina State University, told the Herald. After several days of rain, which scientists say was 10 percent heavier due to human-caused climate change, the Appalachian soil was so saturated that the additional water Helene… 

Dec 17, 2024 New Scientist

Liquid metal particles can self-assemble into electronics

Self-assembling electronics made from liquid metal particles could provide a cheaper way of manufacturing computer chips, simply by harnessing the basic physics of how fluids flow through tiny structures. “The cost of entry in manufacturing electronics and building new chip fabrication plants in the US right now, we’re talking billions of dollars,” says Martin Thuo… 

Dec 17, 2024 The Atlantic

Has Your Cat Closed Its Rings Today?

It’s a problem across the industry, David Roberts, who studies animal-computer interaction at North Carolina State University, told me. “None of these systems have yet cracked the code of how to take what they’re able to measure and derive the kinds of insights that owners want.” 

Dec 17, 2024 Politico

POLITICO Pro Q&A: The scientist ready to take on Trump again

“We’re living in a weird world when looking for objective knowledge is thought of as resistance,” Frey, a professor of environmental engineering at North Carolina State University, told the POLITICO Energy Podcast. 

Dec 17, 2024 EdNC

Perspective | Developing global perspectives for future teachers — and their students

A major way for pre-service educators in teacher prep programs to gain these skills — and provide their students with them — is by engaging in study abroad programs. At North Carolina State University, the Transformational Scholars program took a trip to Costa Rica. The director of Global Programs for the College of Education at…