In 1977 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned women “of child-bearing potential” from participating in clinical trials. This was in part due to thousands of children worldwide being born with missing and malformed limbs after their mothers had taken thalidomide — often prescribed in the 1950s for nausea and as a sleep aid. Continue reading Advancing women’s health research
Category Archives: Society & Culture
How Online Field Studies May Save Thousands of Bagels
T. Franklin Waddell, a doctoral candidate in mass communications at Penn State, conducted a huge study — we’re talking a study with thousands of participants — and never needed to schedule lab space or arrange the purchase and delivery of 2,300 bagels and a few hundred gallons of orange juice and water.
How did he do it? Continue reading How Online Field Studies May Save Thousands of Bagels
Shining a spotlight on student research
Even after years of running the series, I’m still always energized by the launch of a new Research Unplugged season. But last week I was even more delighted than usual. Last year, my colleagues and I hatched the idea of inviting an undergraduate student to give one of our six talks each semester. With the help of Nichola Gutgold, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in Schreyer Honors College, we developed a list of potential student speakers.
There’s no lack of outstanding undergraduate researchers at Penn State; in fact, just the opposite. The number of exciting undergraduate research and service projects made it hard to imagine choosing. But one young woman stood out as the top choice for our Spring season. Though only a freshman, Neha Gupta has already captured the admiration and affection of not only Penn Staters, but of the entire world, for the humanitarian work that led to her winning the International Children’s Peace Prize last November.
Life, Death, and Research
When you write about Penn State research, you have to be ready for a lot of knowledge and passion, maybe some controversy, and occasionally a big word or two that you pretend you understand during the interview, but immediately try to find its definition on your iPhone as you run back to the office to start the story. Not that this has ever happened to me.
You learn a lot. But some of the lessons never make it into the story. Continue reading Life, Death, and Research
A Taste for Art in the Big Apple
Last week Research On the Road motored down Route 80 to the Big Apple for two events. The concept of both? Simply this: a number of our School of Visual Arts faculty members live and work in NYC, regularly traveling to Penn State to teach. We thought it would be inspiring to shine a spotlight on a few of these commuting teacher-artists and introduce the public (alumni and non-alums, alike) to a taste of their diverse artistic styles and themes.
