News Service
Wednesday, June 26
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Designing better products for off-grid, backcountry situations
A group of Iowa State University industrial design students recently spent two weeks “off grid” in the American Southwest — an experience that has sparked a slew of ideas for new products the students are now designing for backcountry adventures.
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Four approaches to understanding and moving beyond dysfunctional deliberation
It may feel like we have reached an impasse in the debate over divisive issues such as gun violence, climate change and immigration. Improving the level of discourse is not impossible, says Craig Rood, an assistant professor of English at Iowa State University, but he admits it will not be easy. Rood offers four strategies for working toward understanding.
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Formula racers earn a top-10 finish, analyze the data to find even more speed
The student-engineers of Iowa State's Formula SAE team have been spending sunny summer days trying to trim a few tenths of a second from the times posted by their race car. The students recently finished eighth overall at a competition in Canada. They're hoping for an even better performance this week at a competition in Lincoln, Nebraska.
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Iowa State researchers studying slow-release fertilizer to feed crops, improve water quality
A research project looking for ways to add value to biochar may have found an unexpected application for the black power that's a co-product of thermochemically converting biomass to a liquid bio-oil. The researchers have found biochar could be a slow-release fertilizer that delivers nutrients to crops while keeping those nutrients from washing away in the rain or leaching into groundwater. More uses for biochar could make thermochemical biofuel production a more economically attractive technology.
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Antioxidant puts up fight, but loses battle against toxic protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease
New research may explain why an antioxidant that protects the brain is also associated with deterioration in areas susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease. The antioxidant, superoxide dismutase or SOD1, improves cognition, but an Iowa State University research team found SOD1’s protective benefits dramatically weaken when levels of tau proteins – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease – increase.
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Iowa State's Geetu Tuteja selected for Pew Scholars Biomedical Research Program
Geetu Tuteja, assistant professor in Iowa State's department of genetics, development and cell biology, has been selected to join the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. She is the first Iowa State researcher to receive this honor. Tuteja is one of 22 promising scientists nationwide selected by the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts to receive a four-year, $300,000 grant to conduct biomedical research aimed at advancing human health.
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New economic study shows combination of SNAP and WIC improves food security
Forty million Americans, including 6.5 million children, are food insecure. Given the extent of food insecurity, a team of Iowa State University economists developed a methodology to analyze potential redundancies between two food assistance programs -- SNAP and WIC. Their research shows that participating in both programs compared to SNAP alone increases food security by at least 2 percentage points and potentially as much as 24 percentage points.
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Iowa’s wet spring conforms with climate trends outlined in major 2018 assessment
Wet and cool weather throughout May delayed planting and slowed the emergence of crops, according to an ISU agronomist. The weather falls in line with trends outlined in last year’s National Climate Assessment, and slow emergence could remain a problem throughout the 2019 growing season.
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ISU experts look at long-term impact of tariffs on supply chain, consumers
Businesses are preparing for the long-term impacts of the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China. Consumers may not recognize the complexity and level of disruption created to points along the supply chain, but they are paying for it, say experts in Iowa State University’s Ivy College of Business. Cost is just one the consequences they expect to see in the fallout from the tariffs.
Postcard from Campus: Summer Tour
Change Agent: Debra Marquart
The path Debra Marquart followed to becoming a writer was far from ordinary. And yet, it is hard to imagine how the Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of English could have taken any other route and achieved as much. With all she has accomplished as a singer, songwriter and author, Marquart is starting a new role as Iowa's Poet Laureate.