Growing Impact
Episodes
Managing India's groundwater crisis
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
India is the world's largest groundwater-based economy, with more than half its 1.5 billion population depending on agriculture for their livelihoods ...
Microplastics in the marsh
01 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Microplastics are turning up in unexpected places, including tidal freshwater marshes. Researchers are uncovering how these ecosystems trap plastics b...
Decoding wildfire smoke forecasts
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Long-distance wildfire smoke is emerging as a serious health risk in the Northeast U.S., where many residents have little experience navigating hazard...
Energy saving smart windows
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you keep a building comfortable without wasting energy? A Penn State team is tackling that question with an innovative smart window. Using a re...
Indigenous communities and Amazon oil
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Amazon, home to rich biodiversity and vital carbon-storing ecosystems, is also the ancestral land of Indigenous communities who are grappling with...
Climate change, extreme heat, and infant health
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Heat significantly affects pregnant women and infants, increasing risks like dehydration, heat exhaustion, and developmental issues in children. Expec...
Cooling high-performance buildings
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cooling is energy-intensive, with air conditioning consuming a significant portion of electricity in homes and commercial buildings, while also contri...
Measuring nitrous oxide emissions
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas with nearly 300 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide, making even small emissions highly impactful. ...
PFAS and human health
01 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
PFAS, synthetic chemicals found in countless everyday products, have made their way into humans and animals around the globe. Although their health ef...
Seismic sensing with fiber optics
01 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Earth can shift suddenly, with sinkholes and landslides posing serious risks to people and property. Scientists are now using existing fiber optic...
Low-carbon cement from farm waste
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cement, a major component of concrete, is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions. Researchers are exploring agricultural waste as a pote...
Feeding a changing world
01 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Smallholder farmers are the unsung heroes of our food system. Tilling tiny plots, they produce a staggering one-third of the world’s food and up to ...
Visualizing flood risk
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Flooding is the world's most devastating natural disaster, causing widespread destruction and loss of life. Millions of Americans live in high-risk fl...
Converting CO2 into fuel
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is abundant and stable, making it difficult to convert into something useful without a lot of energy. Researchers are using advan...
Growing Impact: Season 5
01 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our planet is at a critical crossroads. In Season 5 of Growing Impact, we delve into groundbreaking research with the power to transform our world. Th...
Floating offshore wind energy
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wind power has come a long way from its humble beginnings as water pumps and windmills. Today, it's a major contributor to our electricity generation....
Evaluating lighting efficiency
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Before the early 20th century, light measurement lacked a standard, repeatable approach. At that time, scientists developed a spectral sensitivity cur...
Underground carbon storage
01 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Storing carbon dioxide underground could offset the record amounts of CO2 that humans emit each year. If this technology is successful, it could be an...
Investigating thawing permafrost
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Once a frozen haven, climate-driven rising temperatures are rapidly thawing the Arctic permafrost, posing a major threat to communities and infrastruc...
Youth climate leadership
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The global push to involve youth in climate action is gaining momentum, harnessing their innovative spirit, deep investment in the future, and strong ...
Low-cost PFAS filtration
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) have been a staple in products from detergents to cosmetics, making items more durable and res...
Community-powered solar farming
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Solar energy's surge, driven by cost efficiency and climate change urgency, is prompting a rapid transition to a renewable energy source with substant...
Climate, Crops, and the Colorado River
01 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Colorado River passes through five states on its way to Mexico, supplying water to municipalities, farms, and industry. It supports more than a tr...
Contrails and Climate Change
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Contrails, the cloud-like streaks left in the sky by jets, are artificial clouds that are similar in nature to natural cirrus clouds, the thin, high-a...
Restoring Malawi's Forests
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Malawi, like many countries in Africa, is facing environmental challenges including deforestation, soil erosion, and unsustainable farming practices. ...
Solar-Powered Water Treatment
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wastewater treatment plants serve approximately 75% of Americans—more than 248 million people. However, many people do not recognize the energy burd...
Upcycling Plastics with Fungi
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Plastic is part of virtually every aspect of our lives. However, our relationship with this hydrocarbon-based material is complex. As much as we use p...
Growing Impact: Season 4
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In season four, Growing Impact is expanding: more team members from different disciplines and deeper conversations around the challenges their project...
Flooding, Addiction, and Resilience
01 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Substance use is similar to extreme weather due to climate change in multiple ways. Both have had impacts in rural towns and big cities. Both can impa...
Urban embodied carbon
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every material that makes up a building, be it steel, concrete, wood, or plastic, has a greenhouse gas emission associated with it. This is called emb...
Cities cooled by trees
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As cities are built, a lot of vegetation is replaced with building materials such as concrete and brick. These materials absorb the sun's heat and the...
Climate and health policy solutions
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Creating laws and policies informed by science and facts was not always the primary method used by legislators and policymakers. Until around 2000, po...
Battery energy from waste heat
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Waste heat has been a challenge that scientists and engineers have been pondering for decades. What can be done with this lost energy and can it be ha...
Fuels from waste
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Combustible fuels have been around ever since humans realized that they could burn wood. Over time, we discovered new energy sources—fossil fuels, w...
Cleaner community air
01 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of our lives is impacted by the air we breathe, both inside and outside. And where we live is an important factor in this equation. For those li...
The art of renewable energy
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As Mihyun Kang sees it, if renewable energy is the future, then it should be engaging and appealing. She combined that idea with her passion for natur...
Farms of the future
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to get a piece of steak or chicken to someone's table? The amount of time, energy, water, land, and the resulting carbon footprint m...
Climate signals from wetlands
01 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Wetlands are some of the richest ecosystems in the world. They support an extensive variety of plants and animals, from the smallest of microbes to th...
Food-energy-water dynamics
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The groundwater level in India is consistently dropping year to year. In fact, India uses more groundwater than any country in the world. However, it ...
In pursuit of energy equity
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cleveland, like many cities, aims to become greener in the coming decades by decarbonizing infrastructure and using renewable energy. However, impleme...
Vanishing tree
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What happens to a community or a livelihood when a key resource disappears? In Southwest Madagascar, the farafatse tree, a tree of great importance in...
Water's plastic problem
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Plastic of all shapes and sizes is showing up in bodies of water around the world, including microplastics, which are 5mm or less in size. But how the...
When the levee breaks
01 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A team of researchers seeks to better understand the social effects associated with flooding, such as whether racial and ethnic minorities, children, ...
Healthy habitat hurdles
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Melissa Bopp and her colleagues examine the role of the built and natural environments and their influence on physical activity, healthy eating, and a...
One Health
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A transdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers is exploring how One Health, an approach that recognizes the interconnectedness among human health,...
Visualizing history's future
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As sea-levels rise due to climate change, historical monuments and landscapes near bodies of water are at risk. A new research project will provide de...
Got methane?
01 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The latest episode of the Growing Impact podcast features a research team that is designing and building a biofiltration system that can reduce greenh...
Moving away from coal
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of Growing Impact features Emily Pakhtigian, assistant professor of public policy and the Jeffrey L. and Sharon D. Hyde-McCourtney Career...
A cache of coastal carbon
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lisa Emili, an associate professor of physical geography and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona, discusses her project titled “Coastal Carb...
In-Tune lighting
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Penn State researchers, Julian Wang and Anne-Marie Chang, discuss their seed grant project that investigates how indoor lighting can be adjusted to sa...
Building with fungi
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
According to reports, the building industry is responsible for a lot of the carbon emissions in the world, about 37% in the U.S. This includes the pro...
Accelerating renewable energy
01 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen requires a lot of energy. By introducing catalysts into the process, these renewable energy sources can be cr...
A guide to decarbonization
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In order for the world to meet the challenge of climate change, decarbonization and negative emissions must be part of the discussion. Wei Peng looks ...
Unlocking a world of energy
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Some countries in Africa and Asia have been locked into contracts that prevent improvements to existing electricity systems. Mohamed Badissy and his t...
Wind energy's dirty secret
01 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Chmely and Chris Costello discuss how wind energy has a dirty secret surrounding the wind turbine blades and their disposal. The research team i...
Green stormwater infrastructure
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Green storm water infrastructure uses the power of plants and soils to improve water quality. More than that, Lauren McPhillips disc...
Climate change on the Hudson
01 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kirk French talks about his newest project, "Climate Change on the Hudson: A Century After Nanook." In the discussion, Kirk talks about the importance...