Most people think there's little they could learn from a fruit fly. But Dr. Trudy Mackay knows better. In her research laboratory at North Carolina State University, Mackay studies the genetic basis of complex traits in fruit flies, with the aim of applying that knowledge to better understanding human genetics
The state-of-the-art animal waste biofilter in a North Carolina State University research facility looks, at first glance, a little like a bunch of old-fashioned hair curlers packed together. But there's nothing old-fashioned about what the filter can do.
Research by renowned linguist Dr. Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University's William Friday Distinguished Professor of English, and a team of researchers indicates that while the Lumbee in North Carolina's Robeson County lost their ancestral tongue generations ago, they have developed a unique Lumbee English dialect.
The best architects, designers and scientists have always immersed themselves in their work. But now, thanks to a new virtual reality theater at North Carolina State University, they can take it to a whole new level.
When the 20th anniversity edition of Star Wars opens in theaters Jan. 31, will Generation X, raised on the murky paranoia of The X-Files and state-of-the-art special effects of blockbusters like Independence Day, embrace a sweet-tempered film about a hero in white, a plucky princess and a mystical power called The Force? It's a good bet they will, says Dr. John Kessel, an award-winning science fiction writer at NC State University. "Star Wars is a larger-than- life, quasi-medieval, Errol Flynn swashbuckler with non-stop action and special effects, and a core message that good always triumphs over evil. You couldn't ask for anything more."
Testing a new aircraft can be costly and risk. But a new scale-model, remote-piloted test plane developed at NC State University with funding from the U.S. Navy may help reduce those risks and costs by letting researchers identify potential problems before they occur in manned flights. The test plane, a 17.5 percent scale version of the U.S. Navy's newly updated F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet strike fighter, was developed by a team of NC State researchers led by Drs. Charles Hall and John Perkins.
A roundup of NC State University research, teaching and outreach activities. For use by the media as briefs or as background for stories. Stories include: From Fish, Come Clues on Sexual Behavior; Paper From Cornstalks; Better Housing for Migrant Workers; Nanotubes May Pave Way for Space Elevator; Edible Film Fights Food-Borne Disease; and more.
On March 30, Dr. Anne Schiller, NC State University assistant professor of anthropology, will be featured in Ntional Geographic Explorer's "Borneo Beyond the Grave," a documentary about how the Nagju Dayak people, once legendary head-hunters, prepare the remains of deceased family members for the afterlife in the festive and complex ritual call tiwah. Since 1983 Schiller has been traveling to Central Kalimantan Province in Indonesian Borneo to study tiwah. She has published a book on nine years of research, also to be released on March 30.
A quarterly roundup of NC State University research, teaching and outreach activities. For use by the media as briefs or as background for stories. 1) Life and Death Among the Headhunters of Borneo; 2) A Caution Flag for Transgenic Cotton; 3) Detox' Treatment for Harmful Fumes; 4) A New Slant on Static Cling; 5) When Homework's Online, the Dog Can't Eat it; 6) Shedding New Light on a Supernova; 7) Early Detection for Late Blight; 8) Smog Alert; 9) Designing Students; more.
Imagine getting your clothes dry-cleaned using carbon dioxide and detergents. There are no toxic dry-cleaning solvents involved, no toxic fumes, and your clothes are as clean as if they'd been cleaned using the traditional process. You can see it in Las Vegas -- and at North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus.
Trying to figure out what kind of career you want to pursue is hard enough. But it can also be expensive to get help. That's why Dr. Lawrence K. Jones at North Carolina State University has placed on the Internet a career interest evaluation and other helpful materials that people can use for free. The site, called The Career Key, allows anyone from middle school students to adults to get help identifying their career interests. The service is usually only available through a school or a professional career counselor.
A new study coauthored by a North Carolina State University botanist shows for the first time that electrical signals can trigger rapid gene expression in plants. The study, published this month (June 1997) in the European science journal Planta, shows when an electric stimulus is used to wound a tomato leaf, bioelectrical signals are rapidly transmitted from the injured cells to other cells throughout the plant.
Breeding trees that can be more easily processed into paper, with less harm to the environment, has long been a goal of researchers. Now, thanks to the discovery of abnormal, brown-colored wood in a mutant pine tree, scientists at North Carolina State University may be a step closer to achieving that goal.
Hundreds of people call Dr. JoAnn Burkholder's office at North Carolina State University each week seeking answers to questions about Pfiesteria piscicida, the toxic organism that, since 1991, has killed millions of fish in Mid-Atlantic coastal waters and, in some cases, been linked to human illnesses. Now, a new Web site may help them get the information they need with a few keystrokes and the click of a mouse.
Scientists are one step closer to identifying one of the major toxins produced by the fish-killing organism Pfiesteria piscicida, which has been blamed for killing millions of fish along the East Coast. In a series of experiments completed earlier this month, researchers at North Carolina State University have for the first time successfully isolated and purified a water-soluble toxin component from Pfiesteria.
He's a smooth operator, the type of guy who knows his way around. He's cool -- a little cocky even -- but kind and quick with his praise. Some new Hollywood hero? No, he's Cosmo the Internet Adviser, the wormlike, wise-cracking animated star of a new interactive software program being developed at North Carolina State University to teach teens and preteens about the inner workings of the Internet.
A roundup of NC State University Web or Internet-based research and outreach activities. For use by the media as briefs or as background for stories.
A North Carolina State University biochemist has developed a blood test that provides a quicker and much more accurate way of predicting the likelihood of heart disease than other blood analysis methods.
A book by a North Carolina State University political science professor could become required reading for international policy makers who are serious about protecting the air we breathe. Dr. Marvin Soroos' timely book, The Endangered Atmosphere: Preserving Global Commons
NC State News Tips: A roundup of NC State University research and outreach activities. For use by the media as briefs or as background for stories.
On Dec. 1, more than 100 countries will send delegations to the United Nations Kyoto Conference of the Parties to discuss limiting greenhouse gas emissions. North Carolina State University experts have researched this important environmental issue, taken part in worldwide conferences debating the actions needed to help ensure the world's environmental health, and have studied the policies motivating the politics. Call on them if you'd like to localize your coverage of the Kyoto Conference.
He's a smooth operator, the type of guy who knows his way around. Some new Hollywood hero? No, he's Cosmo the Internet Adviser, wise-cracking animated star of a new interactive software program being developed at North Carolina State University to teach teens and preteens about the inner workings of the Internet.
"Living in Our World," the first and only social studies program for grades 4-7 designed exclusively to meet North Carolina's unique geography-based curriculum, is ready to roll off the presses.
The desire for effective family planning is as old as Eve, herself, says Dr. John Riddle, professor and head of the history department at North Carolina State University. From the earliest times, women sipped herbal teas and potions made from rue, pennyroyal or Queen Anne's lace to prevent or terminate pregnancies.
Since 1983 Dr. Anne Schiller has been traveling to Central Kalimantan Province in Indonesian Borneo to study tiwah, the essence of which involves disinterring the bones of kin, cleaning them and placing them in above-ground bone repositories in preparation for life in the Prosperous Village. She has published a book on nine years of research, "Small Sacrifices: Religious Change and Cultural Identity Among the Ngaju of Indonesia."
Since 1992, with funding from NC State, the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the NC State University linguists have been visiting Ocracoke Island on North Carolina's Outer Banks, interviewing, recording, and making friends with the islanders in an effort to preserve some of the rich dialects' heritage.
People and the environment constitute a fragile partnership. How that partnership will evolve and how it can be strengthened will be the focus of the 1998 Emerging Issues Forum at North Carolina State University's McKimmon Center on Feb. 26-27.
When politics and science clash, science -- and ultimately society -- are the losers. So says Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, a North Carolina State University aquatic ecologist whose pioneering research on the fish-killing toxic marine microorganism, Pfiesteria piscicida, was one of 1997's top science stories and also fodder for one of the year's most contentious public debates about the role science should play in shaping environmental policy.
Worried about food safety? A new Web site launched at North Carolina State University makes it easy for you to quickly get answers to your questions, in language you can understand. The site is located at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/foodsci/agentinfo.
Most people use eggs to make omelets. North Carolina State University researcher Dr. James N. Petitte wants to use eggs to make drugs. Petitte, associate professor of developmental biology and biotechnology, is developing a process that uses early avian embryo cells to produce transgenic chickens, from which proteins can be extracted for making drugs.
Inspired by a glaring void in a growing academic field, doctoral students from four colleges at North Carolina State University have launched the first online research journal devoted to the role of technology in middle school education.
Even though Americans enjoy the world's safest food supply, highly publicized occurrences of bad hamburger, tainted raspberries and other contaminated foods have shaken public confidence in recent years. Heat, chemical washes, refrigeration and preservatives are among the most common weapons used to combat the germs that cause these occurrences. But scientists at North Carolina State University are taking a different tack: They're fighting fire with fire, by using beneficial bacteria to stop the growth of harmful bacteria on fresh produce.
Advance warning can spell the difference between life and death for persons living in a tornado's path. But forecasters in the Southeast have long worked at a disadvantage. Their forecast tools and training are based largely on tornado research in the Midwest, where the super-cell storms that spawn most twisters are different than tornadic storms here. Meteorologists at North Carolina State University and the National Weather Service at Raleigh are identifying those differences and developing new tools and training programs geared specifically to forecasting Southeastern tornadoes.
Researchers at North Carolina State University are looking at new ways to treat atopic dermatitis that are less stressful for dogs and more effective in the late phase of the disease, when steroids sometimes don't help.
A team of scientists from four universities, including North Carolina State University, has identified a gene that allows soybean cyst nematodes (SCN) to attack and infect young soybean plants' roots, causing irreversible damage that can drastically reduce yields.
Meet Mr. Mom. He's as comfortable doing the weekly run to the grocery store with kids in tow as he is doing a production cost analysis. He can hug a toddler, wipe away tears and apply a bandage as well as he can ngeotiate a tough contract for his company.
Pediatricians and parents have long suspected that children with Down syndrome are more likely to suffer from malnutrition than other kids. But scientists' efforts to investigate this hypothesis have been hindered by the lack of a viable, nonhuman model organism to use in experiments. Now, a two-year study led by scientists at North Carolina State University has identified a suitable model.
Two North Carolina State University engineers are devising a better way to sterilize "juice boxes" -- the staple of school lunches and afterschool snacks -- The new technique makes the boxes safer for consumers and less expensive to manufacture.
A North Carolina State University biochemist has developed a blood test that allows doctors to assess a person's risk of heart disease more accurately than before, according to a new study published this month in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
The media wield a powerful influence on public opinion and have a critical role to play in promoting racial reconciliation in America, according to a new report on race and the media, released today (July 29) at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) meeting in Washington, D.C.
A study by North Carolina State University researchers show, for the first time, that RNA can control gene expression.
A North Carolina State University junior will send a science experiment into space on NASA's shuttle Discovery, which is slated to lift off on Oct. 29 from Kennedy Space Center.
An NC State University archeologist discovered what was believed to be the oldest Christian church in the world in Jordan last summer. "All lines of evidence are converging to support the date of the church and its place in history."
A North Carolina State University scientist has developed the first procedure to genetically engineer duckweed, a common aquatic weed, to produce therapeutic proteins like insulin.
News that Cesar Chavez will be inducted into the U.S. Labor Department's Hall of Fame on Jan. 28 came as no surprise to one North Carolina State University scholar, who for decades has studied and written about Chavez's lifework.
A roundup of NC State University research activities. For use by the media as briefs or as background for stories.
In today's world of fast-paced communication,, who has time for old-fashioned love letters? Just about everybody, says a professor of communication at North Carolina State University and one of the nation's top experts on the use and abuse of interactive media. The ease and speed of e-mail is helping revive the art of intimate correspondence, he says.
Future generations of faster, smaller computers and information processing devices may owe their existence to tiny molecular devices being developed by North Carolina State University chemists. The devices -- including a five-molecule-long wire that measures just 9-billionths of a meter end to end -- could help engineers make computer circuits up to 100 times smaller than current sizes.
Some critics of Social Security reform fear that a policy mandating individual retirement accounts would have a negative economic impact on women. That's not the case, says a North Carolina State University professor of economics and business management, who is helping policy makers defuse the emotionally charged debate with research-based information.
Veterinary researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new vaccine for cryptosporidiosis in cattle that prevents calves from getting the disease and reduces the economic loss faced by cattle growers.
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