Category: Research Highlights

Liang Dong recently completed research on a device that can help scientists find more effective ways to protect crops and combat Parkinson’s disease by studying, of all things, worms.Nematodes possess simple nervous systems, but still share important characteristics with the nervous systems of humans. By studying nematode nerves, researchers can learn more about the human nervous … Continue reading ECPE Researcher Completes Lab on a Chip Device

David White, the Richard L. Handy Endowed Associate Professor in geotechnical/materials engineering, has invented a sewer pipe made of recycled plastic soda bottles, plastic fibers and fly ash.“America’s infrastructure currently has about 600,000 miles of sewer pipes, much of which is older than 30 years and in need of repair,” White says. “I feel that … Continue reading Professor Invents Sewer Pipe Made of Recycled Plastic, Fly Ash

Microbes are working away in an Iowa State University laboratory to ferment biofuels from the sugar and acetate produced by rapidly heating biomass such as corn stalks and sawdust. But it’s not an easy job for E. coli and C. reinhardtii. The bacteria and microalgae, respectively, don’t like something in the bio-oil produced by fast … Continue reading Evolving Microbes Help Iowa State Engineers Turn Bio-Oil into Advanced Bio-Fuels

Around 2 p.m. on August 14, 2003, an overhead transmission line carrying 345 kilovolts of electricity near Walton Hills, Ohio sagged too close to a nearby tree and shorted out. By 4 p.m., more than 50 million people were affected by one of the largest blackouts in history.In September 2011, an Arizona Public Works employee, … Continue reading Quantifying Cascading Power Failure

Xinwei Wang had a hunch that spider webs were worth a much closer look. So he ordered eight spiders – Nephila clavipes, golden silk orbweavers – and put them to work eating crickets and spinning webs in the cages he set up in an Iowa State University greenhouse. Wang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State, studies … Continue reading Iowa State Engineer Discovers Spider Silk Conducts Heat as well as Metals

It’s not exactly dinner-table conversation, but cyber insecurity is bearing down on everyone from company CEOs to generals at U.S. military bases overseas.Recent incidents, particularly the hacking of government websites by the group Anonymous and the theft of confidential data from online retailers like Zappos, have raised questions about Internet safety. Congress’ recent introduction of … Continue reading ISU Professor takes on Threat of Espionage via Hacked Smartphones