D. Julian McClements, Distinguished Professor in food science, comments that researchers have found new ways to improve food using nanoparticles. “There has been a revolution in the design of food-grade microparticle and nanoparticle delivery systems,” he says. (Chemical & Engineering News, 11/13/19)
News from the Media
Researchers Dicovering New Ways to Improve Food Using Nanoparticles
November 14, 2019
Climate Change May Make Massachusetts More Hospitable to Pests
November 12, 2019
Stephen M. Rich, microbiology and director of the Laboratory of Medical Zoology, comments in a news story about climate change and how it has an impact on pests, including ticks. (Daily Hampshire Gazette, 11/10/19)
Plants Get Creative to Fend off Foraging Insects
November 12, 2019
Jennifer Van Wyk, post-doctoral research associate, biology, is lead author of an article reporting that some plants may trap pollen in their fuzzy leaves as a way of luring pollen-loving insects that then defend the plant against other predators. (Inside Science, 11/7/19)
UMass Study: Invasive Grassess Contributing to Wildfires Across U.S.
November 6, 2019
There is widespread news coverage of a first national-scale analysis where ecologists at the UMass Amherst, (lead author, post-doctoral student, Emily Fusco, along with colleagues at the University of Colorado-Boulder), report that across the United States, invasive grasses can double the number of fires. ( SierraClub 11/18/19; KTSA (San Antoino) 11/6/19; NOVA, Voice of America, New York Times, The Boston Globe; Jackson Hole News and Guide, KSBY-TV 6 [Calif.], 11/4/19; News Office release)
Cranberry Farmers Eye Solar Solutions
October 31, 2019
Plummeting cranberry prices and the country's ongoing trade wars have America's cranberry industry eyeing a possible new savior: solar power. Some cranberry farmers in Massachusetts are proposing to build solar panels above the bogs they harvest each fall. ( Star Tribune, The Seattle Times, Herald-Whig [Illinois], 11/27/19) Wisconsin State Farmer 10/21/19; The Washington Post; Chicago Tribune; WTOP; NECN; Reading Eagle [Penn.]; The Herald News [Fall River]; 10/30/19, Fox Business; Christian Science Monitor; Daily Hampshire Gazette; Portland Press Herald [Me.]; USA Today; 10/30/19)
Local Legislators Visit UMass Solar Energy Farm
October 23, 2019
A local solar energy equipment supplier spoke to legislators at UMass South Deerfield farm on how to integrate solar power with active local farms. (Recorder 10/23/19; WWLP-TV 22, 10/21/19
Crabapple Trees Attacked by Apple Scab and Leaf Splotch
October 21, 2019
Nicholas J. Brazee, UMass Extension, says there are two fungi that are attacking crabapple trees in the area: apple scab and leaf blotch. He also says they are both difficult to control but not fatal to trees. (Daily Hampshire Gazette 10/18/19)
This Fungus Mutates. That’s Good News if You Like Cheese.
October 22, 2019
John G. Gibbons, food science, says the discovery of how a fungus evolves into edible mold that is the key to making French cheeses such as Camenbert shows both how a favorite food item evolved and how fungus can be manipulated without genetic engineering. (New York Times 10/15/19; Yahoo! News 10/16/19)
Cranberry Market Seeks to Develop New Products, Hilary Sandler Comments
October 10, 2019
Ocean Spray wades into new waters with a line of cranberry-based tea tonics and oat milk elixirs. Hilary Sandler, director of the UMass Cranberry Station, a research laboratory weighs in. (Globe 10/10/19)
Deep Soils Have Dual Role In Global Carbon Cycle: Keiluweit Reports
October 9, 2019
UMass Doctoral student, Mariela Garcia-Arredondo, with her advisor, biogeochemist Marco Keiluweit, UMass Amherst’s Stockbridge School of Agriculture, and others, report how their new model is designed to predict how deep soil carbon responds to environmental change and to offer a better understanding of the mechanisms controlling soil carbon storage at depth. (Scienceblog 10/8/19)
