Staff

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.

Jul 13, 2023

AI Provides Most Accurate Estimate of Africa’s Largest Bat Colony Population

Technology Networks
In a new study, artificial intelligence (AI) has provided the most accurate estimate yet of the bat population in Kasanka National Park, Zambia, recording the presence of between 750,000 and 1 million bats – the largest colony by biomass anywhere in the world.

Jul 12, 2023

Faculty Clusters Fuel a Culture of Excellence at NC State

The Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program has driven interdisciplinary success at NC State for more than a decade. Now university leaders are investing in a new phase of interdisciplinary growth.

Jul 10, 2023

Nature’s Defenses: How the Sitka Spruce Fends Off Weevil Invasion

Earth.com
A study from North Carolina State University reveals how the Sitka spruce tree defends itself against the voracious spruce weevil. The findings will provide insights for breeding more resistant species of this tree, which could ultimately safeguard its survival against the voracious spruce weevil, Pissodes strobi.