Staff

Jul 18, 2023

An Invasive Insect Has Conquered Orange County’s Ash Trees

The Local Reporter
“Most ash trees in Orange County are already infested or will be infested soon,” said Kelly Oten, an assistant professor at NC State University.

Jul 18, 2023

CRISPR Tweaks Tree Genetics To Make Paper More Sustainably

New Atlas
Conventional breeding of trees takes time, but CRISPR gene editing should help speed things up. Now, scientists at North Carolina State University have used CRISPR to adjust the genomes of poplar trees to make them easier to turn into paper products.

Jul 17, 2023

Fowl Future? NC Wild Turkeys Face Potential Climate Threat, Study Says

Winston-Salem Journal
“There are implications here for turkey populations if individuals are inflexible in their ability to shift their reproductive activities, as resources are certainly going to change in the future,” said Chris Moorman, a professor in NC State’s Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology program.

Jul 15, 2023

Scientists Use CRISPR To Make Wood Fiber Production More Sustainable

ZME Science
Paper, an everyday item, comes at a significant environmental cost. Its production involves the breakdown of cellulose fibers in trees using chemicals that generate chemical waste and greenhouse gases. But what if we could redesign trees to ease this process? A team of researchers at North Carolina State University has done just that.

Jul 13, 2023

Ghost Forest Education Focal Point of Public Science Project

Coastal Review
Four NC State undergraduate students worked with three mentors at the university on a ghost forest communication strategy for a senior-level course. The students wrote and designed a brochure as well as a “glideshow” that’s similar to a slideshow, called “Ghost Forests: The Dead Trees Down East.”

Jul 13, 2023

Genetically Modified Trees Could Mean More Sustainable Wood

Popular Science
“We’ve been studying lignin for decades, but the complexity of those polymers inside of wood makes it really hard to modify in ways that are compatible with processing applications for productions,” says Jack Wang, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University’s College of Natural Resources and one of the authors of the study.

Jul 13, 2023

Can This Genetically Engineered Tree Help Solve Climate Change?

Inverse
Scientists like Rodolphe Barrangou and Jack Wang of North Carolina State University weren’t looking to reshape a fruit or vegetable. They had their eyes and genetic engineering tools on the trillions of organisms that make up the very fabric of nature: Trees.

Jul 13, 2023

Gene Editing Trees For More Sustainable Wood Fiber Production

Chemical & Engineering News
Rather than just removing lignin from logs, researchers at North Carolina State University sought to lower the proportion of it from the outset. Using the gene-editing tool CRISPR on poplar trees, they modified some of the genes that produce the chemicals that eventually form lignin.

Jul 13, 2023

CRISPR-Edited Trees Reduce the Energy and Water Required To Make Paper

New Scientist
Making paper is both energy and water intensive, says Jack Wang at North Carolina State University.

Jul 13, 2023

Genetically Edited Wood Could Make Paper More Sustainable

Science Magazine
Jack Wang and Rodolphe Barrangou, biotechnologists at North Carolina State University, and dozens of colleagues built a computer model, based on decades of forest biotechnology studies, to predict how simultaneously changing poplar genes related to lignin production might impact the trees’ wood composition, growth rate, and other factors.