#inthenews
Ever wondered why your flights always seem to be delayed? Research has just shown that one reason behind the delays is climate change. The change in climate is leading to constant changes in the summer jet stream, according to Michael Mann, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center.
Read more about Mann’s research at Bloomberg.
Underground fiber-optic cables don’t just connect us to one another by giving us access to telephones and the internet; they also can serve other purposes.
Through testing underneath the University Park Campus, a team of Penn State researchers discovered that by sending a laser sensor down the cable, they were able to detect the smallest changes in ground pressure.
“If there is any change in the external energy on the ground above, even walking steps, you will have a very small change that’s going to stretch or compress the fiber,” said Tieyuan Zhu, assistant professor of geophysics at Penn State.
This multi-functional technology can help detect changes in the ground during all kinds of natural disasters and help lead to better preparation to protect buildings and people.
Read more at IFLScience.
Have you ever wondered why there always to be room to eat some dessert? The answer is something called “sensory-specific satiety.” Barbara Rolls, director of the Penn State Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior, has been researching this since the 1980s. Sensory-specific satiety not only explains why there is always room for dessert but also why you tend to eat more at a buffet or eat more French fries with condiments.
Read more about why this phenomenon might make you eat more at Vox.
People often feel that they need romance to find happiness, but research is saying that “romantic love” isn’t necessarily tied to being happy. A recent Penn State study– led by Zira Oravecz and Timothy Brick – found that “feeling love” and psychological well-being “everyday life presents many experiences that can make people feel connected to another and leave them feeling loved.”
Read more at Psychology Today.
Worldwide, billions of people lack access to adequate toilet facilities, leading to many sanitation-related illnesses and deaths. Water scarcity plays a significant role in this, as many low-resource environments are not able to clean and maintain their toilets.
To design more sustainable toilet facilities, Penn State researchers have developed an ultra-slippery coating for the inside of toilet bowls to keep waste from sticking. While most research aims to create high-tech solutions, this coating is a simple way to half the amount of water needed by toilets.
Read more about the potentially life-saving research at Scientific American.
