Apr 3, 2024 WRAL

Mosquito season expanding in Raleigh, posing health risks from disease transmission

North Carolina is becoming a hot spot for mosquitoes, increasing health risks from the diseases they can carry. Michael Reiskind is an entomology professor at North Carolina State University who says mosquito season is getting longer. “In addition to the planet getting warmer, we also have land use change and invasive species, and all those… 

Apr 3, 2024 WUNC

Black workers’ resistance in 1980s Rocky Mount reverberates today

The 1980s were an important, and too often overlooked, decade for Black worker resistance, according to NC State history professor Ajamu Dillahunt-Holloway, who recently wrote about the struggles faced by Schlage Lock workers in Rocky Mount in 1988, as well as about their victory. Dr. Dillahunt-Holloway talks to co-host Leoneda Inge about how organizing in the… 

Apr 3, 2024 Wilmington Star

As the Wilmington area continues to grow, is the Fort Fisher-Southport ferry ready?

And then there’s the larger economic question of whether the DOT and legislators will continue to support subsidizing money-losing ferry routes. According to a 2009 N.C. State study, passenger revenue covers only about 6% of the ferry division’s costs. The Fort Fisher route, one of three tolled ferries out of seven routes in the state’s ferry… 

Apr 2, 2024 USA Today

April’s total solar eclipse will bring a surreal silence and confuse all sorts of animals

With a full solar eclipse coming to a large swath of the United States in April, scientists are gearing up to observe animals at multiple zoos in the path of the totality, in part because they were so surprised at what they discovered in 2017 during the last total solar eclipse in the U.S. “I thought it was going… 

Apr 1, 2024

The Problem With Microplastics from the Ocean and the Structures of Nanoparticles with Orlin Velev and Nathan Crook

Orlin Velev and Nathan Crook of NC State University share their interdisciplinary work to begin offering solutions to the problem of microplastics and nanoparticles in the environment. 

Apr 1, 2024 Cosmos

Autonomous vehicles and the need for a fourth traffic light

A modelling study conducted by the North Carolina State University (NCSU) was based on how autonomous vehicles (AVs) could communicate with each other. The researchers believe that adding a fourth light to traffic signals would shorten wait times for road-users. 

Apr 1, 2024 TechXplore

Smart utility meters drive down manufacturing costs—if managers use them

“We had two goals with this study,” says Patrick Flynn, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of human resources at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management. “First, we wanted to see how effective smart utility meters are at reducing energy consumption in the manufacturing sector and which… 

Apr 1, 2024 HortiDaily

New software boosts accuracy of tech to measure crop health

There is a tremendous amount of research being done that focuses on developing new plant varieties that are better able to withstand challenges such as drought, high temperatures, and so on,” says Michael Kudenov, co-author of a paper on the new software and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University. 

Mar 29, 2024 News & Observer

When is it safe to wash your car? Here’s when the pollen will stop falling in NC

When will the yellow haze clear? It turns out there’s a mathematical formula for that. Dr. Robert Bardon, associate dean of extension and a professor of Forestry & Environmental Resources at N.C. State University, has tracked the release of pollen in the Raleigh area since 2015. The formula he uses to predict when the trees… 

Mar 29, 2024 Family Handyman

Sustainable Wood: What Is It, How To Find It and Everything Else You Need To Know

“Forests provide habitat for animals and plants, clean and regulate the water system, regulate the climate, provide recreational opportunities to people, and provide wood and non-timber products we can harvest,” says Frederik Laleicke, a wood products extension specialist at North Carolina State University. “Some forests are protected sites for Indigenous people and others are the… 

Mar 29, 2024 Science Times

‘Courtship’ Gene Exhibits Different Ways of Working in Two Different Species of Fruit Flies, Study Reveals

According to a new study, a gene that is linked to courtship behavior among fruit flies works differently in two different species. The study shows how conserved genes, which are the same genes that can be found in different species, do not always function in the same way across species. Christa Baker, a former doctoral… 

Mar 29, 2024 Southeast Farm Progress

A positive feedback loop builds corn yields

Ron Heiniger, North Carolina State University Extension corn specialist, stresses that crops like corn need the right environment at planting to emerge from seed and immediately take up nutrients to stimulate cell division, achieve more roots and root growth to reach maximum yield potential. 

Mar 28, 2024 Audubon

Why Is it So Hard to Keep Cats Indoors?

Yet finding after finding continues to place paw prints all over the ecological scene. I got the idea to track Bad Kitty from North Carolina State University zoologist Roland Kays, who worked with scientists and cat owners to uncover the secret lives of 925 felines in six countries in 2020. The pets rarely traveled more… 

Mar 28, 2024 Grist

The Fescue Fighters

Matt Poore, a professor of animal science at North Carolina State University, chairs the Alliance for Grassland Renewal, a national organization dedicated to eradicating toxic fescue. Yet Poore, who also raises cattle, has only converted 30 percent of his fields, preferring to do it slowly. 

Mar 28, 2024 USA Today

Is the April 2024 eclipse safe for pets? Why experts want you to leave them at home.

“About half of the people wrote that their dogs started barking or howling during the eclipse but half of the people said their dogs stopped barking and howling,” said Adam Hartstone-Rose, the professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University who conducted the research and who studies animal behavior during eclipses. The responses could…