Mar 30, 2018 WRAL

Dinosaur eggs found by NCSU paleontologist now at Museum of Natural Sciences

A researcher at North Carolina State University has recovered a clutch of rare dinosaur eggs from cliffs in Utah. The football-sized oviraptorosaur eggs were in sediment estimated to be 97 million years old, said Lindsay Zanno, who also is head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The site also contained evidence of… 

Mar 30, 2018 Scientific American

The Fight to Keep Tobacco Sacred

But tobacco companies have modified N. tabacum to enhance certain traits for flavor or growth. So today’s version—much like other commercialized crops—bears little resemble to its ancestors, says Ramsey Lewis, a professor of crop science who focuses on Nicotiana genetics at North Carolina State University. Now, he says, N. tabacum is rarely found in nature. 

Mar 30, 2018 The Irish Times

Foiling fatbergs, the elephants in the sewer

Well the idea of a sewer is that waste keeps moving through it, but if a fatberg blocks the sewer, then the waste moves more slowly or stops altogether and begins to back up, and you might get sewage bubbling up through outlets to the surface or into rivers and causing environmental damage. I have… 

Mar 30, 2018 Fast Company

Why You Should Recruit Older Workers

A 2013 study from North Carolina State University looked at the reputation scores of programmers in an online forum called Stack Overflow, which has more than 1.6 million members. Researchers found that, on average, programmer reputation scores increased relative to age well into the 50s and that they exhibited expertise in more areas than did younger users. 

Mar 29, 2018 Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News

Altering Gut Microbiome May Increase Resistance to C. difficile infection

North Carolina State University scientists using a mouse model found that antibiotic use creates a veritable “banquet” for Clostridium difficile (C. diff) by altering the native gut bacteria that would normally compete with C. diff for nutrients. 

Mar 29, 2018 BBC News

Ghostly galaxy may be missing dark matter

As it has greater mass than normal matter, dark matter is believed to hold the necessary gas together while galaxies are forming. “So this galaxy would have to form a different way: maybe from interactions within gas that’s flowing into or blowing out of a larger galaxy,” North Carolina State University astrophysicist Dr Katherine Mack… 

Mar 29, 2018 Popular Mechanics

The United States’ Next Tank Could Be Protected by ‘Steel Foam’

Scientists at North Carolina State University and the US Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate have invented what they call Composite Metal Foam (CMF). “Metal foam” is exactly what you think it is—metal with sponge-like holes in it. This not only makes CMF lighter than normal metal, but it also makes CMF spongy, allowing it to… 

Mar 29, 2018 WRAL

Trump census question about citizenship could impact NC representation, federal funding, officials say

Richard Mahoney is the director of the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University. “The constitution requires a count of every free human being, that’s what is says, in each state,” Mahoney said. He said the census is extremely important for two reasons: money and representation in the Electoral College. According… 

Mar 29, 2018 Today

Can blueberries boost your memory? A closer look at the summer fruit

Having been grown in Maine for over 10,000 years, wild blueberries are known to be one of America’s oldest indigenous crops. And when it comes to heart health and cancer prevention, healthy eating advocates say this delicious little fruit can make a big impact. “When you break open a wild blueberry or eat it you’ll… 

Mar 29, 2018 BBC

A Poisonous Business

Food poisoning meets economics in this episode of the Food Chain. And it’s a toxic mix. With Lee-Ann Jaykus 

Mar 28, 2018 WRAL TechWire

Promising new cancer therapy could beat back tumors with limited side effects

Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and North Carolina State University have created an injectable gel-like scaffold that can hold a combination of chemo and immunotherapeutic drugs and deliver them locally to tumors. Researchers say the approach may “Beat back tumor development with limited side-effects.” 

Mar 28, 2018 Gulf News

For weight loss that lasts, eat mindfully

In the journal Current Obesity Reports, nutritionist Carolyn Dunn and colleagues from North Carolina State University performed the first review of research papers on mindful eating and weight loss. “All studies showed weight loss results” with mindful eating, they reported. In addition, four of five studies over a follow-up period found continued weight loss. The… 

Mar 28, 2018 Fayetteville Observer

For those exposed to GenX, an agonizing wait for answers

Among the issues researchers are trying to determine is how much GenX has gotten into people’s bodies. Led by N.C. State University, researchers are testing the blood, urine and tap water of more than 300 people living in the Wilmington area, where public water was contaminated by GenX for years. 

Mar 28, 2018 TBJ

How N.C. State protects itself (and its IP) from cyber criminals

The DOJ wouldn’t identify schools impacted by the cybertheft, but N.C. State University was not among them. That’s according to Marc Hoit, the university’s chief information officer, who says the feds confirmed the Raleigh institution was not one of those impacted by the attack. According to the feds, the campaign resulted in the theft of more… 

Mar 28, 2018 NPR

This Farmer Wants To Make Quinoa A ‘Thing’ In Rwanda

He owes it all to his mom — and a 25 cent loan that he used to start a candy business. Those are the keys to the success of Cedric Habiyaremye, who’s gone from a miserable youngster in a refugee camp in Tanzania to a Ph.D. student studying crop science at Washington State University. This…