Pam Silver News Today

Hardly a day goes by without another piece praising the potential for gene editing to help solve climate change. Nevertheless, the possible contributions of biology and biotechnology have been conspicuously underplayed in most of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) analyses. This is, perhaps, at least partly because it is no small thing to carry an idea from inception to delivery; to bridge the valley of death and deliver a functional solution to a specific problem. Bu...

Church is one of the leaders of an initiative called the Genome Project-­Write, or GP-Write, which is organizing the efforts of hundreds of scientists

A gender gap exists at virtually every stage of the innovation life cycle, where women are less likely than men to disclose inventions, file patents and start companies. A recent study from Osage University Partners found that only 11% of university

Symbiosis is everywhere. From the Greek for "living with," symbiosis is simply a close association between two different species in nature. These relationships can be mutualistic, parasitic, or somewhere in between.

Paper cups of mimosas in hand, Briarwood Beach residents walked across the grass on Saturday morning to peer into a white

Programming cells with computer-like logic on Wyss Institute | By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Synthetic biologists are converting microbial cells into…

As COVID-19 restrictions are eased and CDC guidance evolves again, four faculty members at Penn State Behrend dicuss about the pressure on the scientific community and the new public scrutiny of the scientific process.

Shannon Nangle’s ambitions are out of this world. She thinks the bioplastic that she is developing using metabolically engineered microbes will not only help sustainability efforts on Earth, but will one day help humans survive on Mars. Learn more about Shannon and her work in this month’s Humans of the Wyss.

Image: Penn State Behrend April 26, 2021 ERIE, Pa. — Penn State Behrend’s annual Honors and Awards Convocation recognizes excellence in scholastic achievement and student engagement in academic-focused co-curricular and professional activities. More than 120 students were honored at this year’s program, which was presented in a virtual format. “Our students work hard both inside and outside the classroom,” said Pam Silver, associate dean for academic affairs at Behrend. “...

Today, let’s look at an alternative to carpet-bombing Midwestern corn fields with around 150 pounds per acre of nitrogen fertilizer, in hopes that the plants will take up about half of that, en route to a big corn yield.  Leaving aside the debate over what happens to runoff nitrogen as it enters the rivers of America — there’s the question of cost, and could we do better on cost? After all, the cost of nitrogen can head up to nearly 40 cents per pound, and the resulting $60 an acre cost ...