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It is no longer hump day, according to new research in the current issue of the journal Science. Research that included Stanley Harpole of Iowa State University challenges a widely-accepted idea from the 1970s showing as plant biomass produced in a system increased, so did the number of plant species, to a point. After that point, the number of plant species is thought to decline. When plotted on a graph, the result is a hump shape, with maximum species richness occurring at the point of intermediate productivity. But, now it's time to get over the hump.

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Iowa State's Curtis Struck wrote a commentary -- "Astrophysics: Rough times in the Galactic countryside" -- published in the Sept. 15 issue of Nature. He notes the Milky Way's past may not have been as peaceful as astronomers thought.

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Researchers from Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have developed chemistry and procedures that astronauts can use to test the quality of their drinking water at the International Space Station.

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An Iowa State University communications professor who worked on President Obama's Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program also knows how users can better protect their privacy online.

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The NSF is investing $20 million to build Iowa's research capacity in sustainable energy systems. Iowa's public universities -- Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa -- will make up the core of the project.

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A sociology professor and 9/11 book author anticipates the 10th anniversary of the tragedy will stir Americans' emotions again, particularly following the death of Osama bin Laden.

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According to a new analysis of plants in grasslands around the world, 84 percent of plant species are important to their ecosystem. Brian Wilsey and Stanley Harpole, both in Iowa State University's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, are authors of a study on plant diversity published in today's issue of the journal Nature. The study's lead author, Forest Isbell, is a former graduate student of Wilsey who now works at McGill University, Canada.

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Iowa State University Professor of Economics Dan Otto knows from experience that the economic obstacles in the nation's great debt ceiling debate aren't as difficult as they may appear, since he had students tackle those same problems last spring for a class project.

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The prospect of rising temperatures in Iowa and the Midwest is predicted to lead to a dramatic decline in corn yield. With a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Iowa State University researchers Alan Myers and Tracie Hennen-Bierwagen are looking to develop a corn variety that maintains the region's high yields even as temperatures rise. The study is part of the response within the scientific community to challenges issued by the National Research Council in their report, "New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the United States Lead the Coming Revolution."

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The Supreme Court ruled this week against a California law requiring parental approval before selling violent video games to kids. Two video games researchers advise parents to not misinterpret the ruling in their op-ed.

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Although parents appreciate having media ratings systems to help protect their kids from questionable content, the current age-based system doesn't meet their needs according to a study published online today in Pediatrics.

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Some Midwestern communities are bucking the outmigration trend according to two new reports that profile those communities, their amenities and some of the keys to their economic vitality.

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An Iowa State University study has found that the U.S. industry's "fast fashion" focus has resulted in diminishing returns on market share -- both at home, and abroad in Japan.

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ISU researchers have discovered a new arm of the pathway by which plants activate a response to environmental stress caused by adverse environmental conditions, such as drought, flood and heat. These stresses affect yield more than crop pests and diseases. Finding a way to maintain high yields for plants under stress is a goal of plant breeders and other agriculture stakeholders.

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Team PrISUm, Iowa State's solar car racing team, will be back on track in early May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year's Formula Sun Grand Prix is part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500.

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An Iowa State University researcher is one of a team of scientists who have recently researched the fly family tree -- one of the most complicated in the animal world. It turns out that houseflies have more than 152,000 cousins. And those are just the ones we know about.

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Iowa State University researchers have developed a virtual biorefinery control room. The system is designed to teach students and workers to efficiently run a biorefinery that produces ethanol, biodiesel or, as technologies develop, advanced biofuels.

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NASA's Kepler spacecraft is allowing Iowa State University's Steve Kawaler and an international team of astronomers to study changes in the brightness of 500 stars like our sun. Their findings are published in the April 8 issue of the journal Science.

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A gene newly discovered by Eve Wurtele and Ling Li introduced into soybean plants has increased the amount of protein in the plant's seed by 30 to 60 percent. People with protein-starved diets around the world could benefit.

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Iowa State University's Steve Kawaler is part of research collaborations that have used data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft to see into the core of red giant stars. The teams' findings have been published in Science and Nature.

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April 12 will be the 50th anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human to journey to space and an Iowa State University historian has become a noted author and scholar on Soviet space exploration.

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Humans had been believed to be different from other primates in the measure of how mortality increases with advancing adult age, but this research shows that is not the case.

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Iowa State's Sri Sritharan is just back from New Zealand where he studied buildings damaged by the February 22 earthquake. He was part of a team that is trying to learn more about earthquakes and how to engineer buildings that resist earthquake damage.

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L. Keith Woo of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory is looking for cleaner, greener and cheaper catalysts. Woo and his research group are turning to biology for ideas. And they're developing high-throughput methods to find catalysts.

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Invasive plant species have long had a reputation as being bad for a new ecosystem when they are introduced. As it turns out, they aren't any more abundant away from home than they are at home.

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Anumantha Kanthasamy of ISU's College of Veterinary Medicine has discovered a protein pathway that may hold the secret to understanding Parkinson's disease. He has been working to understand the complex mechanisms of the disease for more than a decade and believes this recent discovery offers hope for the cure.

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A research team led by Edward Yu of Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory is identifying the structure of pumps that allow bacteria to resist toxins. Their discoveries are published in the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Nature.

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David Frankel, associate professor of economics, looked at public school enrollments from every school district in the country and found that school segregation between blacks and whites has improved only slightly from 1987 to 2007.

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Iowa State University's Ayman Fayed is working with Rockwell Collins engineers to test a technology that could extend the battery life of portable devices by reducing power consumption.

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The Super Bowl is a prime event for advertisers to debut their flashy, new commercials. But ads with violent content aired during a sporting event containing violence may amplify aggressive thoughts in kids, the authors of a new study say.

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An ISU researcher aims to treat humans prophylactically with drugs to prevent the appearance of significant disease but to be careful not to induce drug resistance.

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President Obama will laud some of his administration's accomplishments in tonight's State of the Union address, but Iowa State University's political science chair reports mixed reviews on the president's foreign policy performance.

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An international team of scientists has released data indicating that greenhouse gas uptake by continents is less than previously thought because of methane emissions from freshwater areas.

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Michael Kessler of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory is researching biorenewable polymers capable of healing themselves as they degrade and crack. The self-healing properties can increase material lifetimes and reduce maintenance.

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So what are the next big things for business in 2011? Brian Mennecke, an Iowa State University management information systems professor, has some ideas.

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Hui Hu, an Iowa State University associate professor of aerospace engineering, is working with engineers from the Goodrich Corp. to test and characterize the next generation of fuel nozzles.

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Companies that have made recent wage and professional development cuts may want to start re-investing in their valued employees if they want to keep them according to a study in December's Journal of Vocational Behavior.

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Researchers from Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory have developed a process for fabricating more efficient polymer solar cells. The result is a polymer solar cell that captures more light and produces more power.

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A new study offers hope for children born with a rare genetic disease, according to a paper published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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Researchers at Iowa State University, China Agricultural University and the Beijing Genomics Institute in China recently re-sequenced and compared six elite inbred corn (maize) lines, including the parents of the most productive commercial hybrids in China and found entire genes that were missing from one line to another.

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Sanjeevi Sivasankar of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory will work with Novascan Technologies Inc. to continue development of a unique microscope that allows researchers to study single molecules.

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Some economic forecasts have projected modest holiday sales increases this year as the U.S. economy shows signs of recovery. But Iowa State University economist Liesl Eathington says attention on holiday retail sales misses the big economic point.

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The National Retail Federation's recent holiday survey of consumers suggests that it might be a slightly better year for retailers, despite the sluggish economy. And two Iowa State University experts provide an overview on what to expect in stores and online, and how to shop within your budget this holiday season.

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James Evans and Patricia Thiel, of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory, say a better understanding of a process called coarsening could improve the stability of nanotechnologies. They describe the emerging field of study in the Oct. 29 Science.

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Analysts predict that the number of women in the U.S. Congress will decline for the first time in three decades. But the director of Iowa State University's Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, isn't so sure.

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Iowa State University political scientist Dave Peterson and psychologist Zlatan Krizan have both studied voting behavior and they have ideas on the reasons behind the potential political shift among the American electorate in Tuesday's midterm election.

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NASA's Kepler Mission is changing how Iowa State University's Steve Kawaler and his fellow astronomers study stars. Kepler, launched in March 2009, is returning data the astronomers say is amazing for its quantity and quality. Kepler, Kawaler said, is "a discovery machine."

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Some Iowa State architecture students are creating a community center out of recycled shipping containers in a Haitian village. Last summer, they spent a week in La Croix, a town of about 15,000 people. Now, they're taking an independent study to develop the details of their design--testing ideas and techniques on a "practice" container near campus.

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Chemists led by Mei Hong of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory have discovered the shuttle mechanism that relays protons from a healthy cell into a flu virus. The proton movement is an important part of the flu virus life cycle.

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Iowa State's Jacob Petrich and his collaborators have discovered that the eyes of sheep infected with scrapie return an intense glow when they're hit with blue light. That suggests tests can be developed to quickly find mad cow and other diseases.