2026-07-17 US News and World Report

Will the World Cup Bring an Economic Boost to Host Cities?

“From an economic perspective, depending on where expectations were legitimately with host cities, I think that they will certainly be disappointed with the economic returns on hosting the event,” said Michael Edwards, a sport management professor at North Carolina State University.

2026-07-17 Earth.com

Streams can look healthy while hiding serious problems

Researchers at North Carolina State University (NC State) tested the Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (SVAP), which relies largely on what people can see. They found that while the method captures visible physical conditions, it often misses important clues about the water itself. “Our goal with the project was to assess the health of urban streams in the region using both SVAP and water quality tests done in a lab,” said study co-author Abigail Finch, a former undergraduate at NC State.

2026-07-17 Slate

Why Is It Always Lettuce?

Even if lettuce doesn’t turn out to be the perpetrator this time, it quite often has been in the past. What is it about this vegetable that makes it the stuff of bathroom nightmares? To discuss why lettuce and leafy greens are often spotted at the scene of foodborne crime, I spoke to Lee-Ann Jaykus, a food microbiologist with experience in many different organisms—including nonculturable organisms, such as Cyclospora—and a professor emerita at North Carolina State University. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

2026-07-17 Sentient Health

U.S. and Mexico Unveil A New Weapon To Fight Screwworm, the Parasite Threatening Cattle Herds

“I think they did a good job slowing the progression through Mexico, considering what they had was 100 million flies,” Maxwell Scott, an entomologist at North Carolina State University who’s worked extensively on screwworm, tells Sentient.

2026-07-16 Morning Ag Clips

Could Duckweed Solve One of Hog Farming’s Biggest Challenges?

North Carolina is the nation’s third-largest hog-producing state, and a big challenge hog farmers face is lagoon overflow on their farms. A new approach by an NC State University professor aims to make animal producers’ waste management practices more sustainable and less stressful. Ryan Sartor’s idea involves leveraging domesticated duckweed (Lemna) varieties in wastewater lagoons to prevent overflows on farms and harvesting the duckweed as a by-product.

2026-07-16 WUNC

The Painted Bunting is turning heads at Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Park

Christopher Moorman is a professor of fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology at North Carolina State University. In a story published through the university’s College of Natural Resources website, he said that the painted bunting is one of the most attractive birds in the Western Hemisphere. It’s also extremely rare to see one as far inland as Raleigh. The bird is a neotropical migrant that arrives in mid- to late-April. The reason Picasso likely has favored Dorethea Dix Park is because of the habitat: Buntings like semi-open shrubland with dense, low vegetation. The park has all this to offer, plus it’s close to the Rocky Branch Creek.

2026-07-16 AZO Materials

Researchers Extend the Limits of Twistronics. Literally.

“The field of twistronics was developed using 2D materials that are bonded by weak van der Waals forces,” says Ruijuan Xu, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University. “Our work here demonstrates it is possible to use layers of oxide materials that are connected by strong chemical bonds – while precisely controlling the twist angle between crystalline oxide membranes.

2026-07-16 The Assembly

Before She Took Historic Moon Photos, Christina Koch Honed Her Skills in N.C.

A flip through the online archives of NC State University’s Technician from the start of the millennium pulls up headlines and scenes you’d expect from a student newspaper. University administrators meeting with student leaders. A new director of the alumni association. Updates on campus construction projects. Eagle-eyed readers might spot a familiar name attached to the pages’ photos: Christina Hammock. That’s how she was known before she married and became Christina Koch, the name more closely associated with a history-making NASA career in which she recorded the longest spaceflight by a woman, participated in the first all-female spacewalk, and became the first woman to orbit the moon. Koch attended NC State from 1997 to 2002 and earned undergraduate degrees in physics and electrical engineering, as well as a master’s degree in the latter. That’s a combination of disciplines that one of Koch’s physics professors described to The Assembly as one of the most difficult at the university, but her studies apparently didn’t prevent her from staying busy outside the classroom. Among other activities, Koch was a member of the sailing club, participated in community service, and took up rock climbing.

2026-07-15 WISH-TV

Robotic prosthetics offer hope for a pain-free future for amputees

Most people think once an amputee is walking again the problem is solved. However, researchers say that’s only the beginning. “Actually, there are many additional things that we are probably not aware of,” Helen Huang, PhD, Biomedical Engineer at NC State University said. One of the biggest? The body is constantly compensating, forcing amputees to overuse their hips, back and other joints. That’s why Professor Huang’s team at NC State is developing robotic prosthetics that use motors, sensors and computer controls.

2026-07-15 Bay News 9

N.C. State helping Duke develop food bank delivery app

Students at NCSU have been working with Leila Hajibabai, an associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, to develop an app called SoFreh. Hajibabai stated that the app’s name is Persian and refers to a food-serving tablecloth around which people gather for a meal of respect. She said the app is just a small part of the Smart and Connected Communities project by the U.S. National Science Foundation. “The whole project is about partnering with food bank entities and different pieces of this project,” Hajibabai said. “We try to work with a food bank, partners and see what challenges they are dealing with… ”

2026-07-15 Forbes

FIFA—Not U.S. Economy—Is Big World Cup Winner So Far

Discussions about economic impact in sports “follow a very similar pattern, and it’s almost always used to justify a transfer of public spending to benefit private entities,” Michael Edwards, professor of sports management at North Carolina State University, told Forbes.

2026-07-15 Forbes

The Leadership Skill We Need Most Right Now: Hope

While I was traveling in Africa, through Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, I read about a recent study out of North Carolina State University that suggests that hope may be even more powerful than mindfulness during difficult times. The study's co-author wrote about the participants in the study, saying, “Those who maintained a hopeful outlook reported higher levels of work-related resilience and engagement.”

2026-07-14 The Packer

How NC State Researchers Use AI and Genomics to Fight Devastating Strawberry Disease

Neopestalotiopsis (NeoP) has become a devastating disease in strawberries, and a research team at North Carolina State University seeks to understand more about it and how the state’s growers can better understand and detect the pathogen. First identified in Florida commercial fields in 2017, NeoP was discovered in North Carolina in 2022.

2026-07-14 WSOC-FM

Blue-Glowing Firefly Found in Mecklenburg County Could Be New Species

Two teachers at a Mecklenburg County park stumbled upon a blue-glowing firefly. It might be a completely new species. An expert at N.C. State University is examining the bug to determine whether it's a known species in a new location or something science hasn't seen before.

2026-07-14 Phys.org

AI helps scientists improve prediction of which DNA sequences bind to each other

"We often think about binding as a very simple relationship—Molecule A binds to Molecule B," says Albert Keung, co-corresponding author of the study in Nature Communications and an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University. "But in biological systems, it's far from simple. Molecule A may bind to dozens of other molecules, to varying degrees.