NC State In the News

Here's a sampling of media reports featuring NC State experts this week:

Rugged terrain

Edmonton Sun, Winnipeg Sun Ottawa Sun

April 15 – Tiny plant packs big punch – Researchers at North Carolina State University have found a tiny aquatic plant can clean up animal waste at industrial farms and be part of the answer for the global energy crisis. Their research shows that growing duckweed on wastewater can produce five to six times more starch per acre than corn. Using duckweed instead of corn to produce ethanol could be faster and cheaper, the researchers said.

Duckweed could replace corn in ethanol

Stock Journal, Queensland Countrylife, The Land

April 14 – Duckweed could be a faster and cheaper resource than corn for the production of ethanol. Researchers at North Carolina State University say the tiny aquatic plant can be used to clean up animal waste at pig farms, as well as municipal wastewater. According to researcher Dr Jay Cheng, growing duckweed on pig wastewater can produce five to six times more starch per acre than corn....

Recession closes in on chicken farmers

Chicago Tribune

April 13 – Four years ago, Andrew Meeks literally bet the farm on chickens. Now he fears he made a losing bet....The worst recession in decades has hammered all types of businesses across the country, farming included. But among the hardest hit are contract chicken farmers in the South and especially in North Carolina, the nation's second-leading poultry producer, where it is a $3.3-billion industry....Last winter, the economic crisis created "pretty much a catastrophe" for contract farmers, said Dan Campeau, a North Carolina State University poultry specialist and extension agent....

Panel appeals for tax cuts for N.C.

Journal Now, FayObserver.com, Myrtle Beach Online, Rocky Mount TELEGRAM.com, Dailyadvance.com, BlueRidgeNow.com, News & Record, The Times News.com, WVEC.com

April 15 – A cadre of North Carolina business leaders appealed yesterday for new momentum on state tax reform, urging legislators to cut overall tax rates this year while simultaneously placing levies more broadly across services and industries. A bipartisan committee formed by the Institute for Emerging Issues at N.C. State University said that the current tax system is outdated and needs to be retooled to reflect an economy that has shifted toward services and technology and away from traditional manufacturing...Roland Stephen, an institute assistant director, said that North Carolina has the lowest tax burden on business in the nation but has relatively high corporate income tax (6.9 percent) and top individual income tax (7.75 percent) rates....

NC State Develops New Test Method to Measure Stored Heat in Firefighter Suits

Textile World, First Science, 680 WPTF

April 14 – Researchers at Raleigh, N.C.-based North Carolina State University’s (NCSU's) Textile Protection and Comfort Center (T-PACC) have developed a test method to evaluate the ability of firefighter turnout suits to prevent and minimize burns caused by heat that is transferred and discharged in the suit materials. "You can compare the burn to when you sit close to a fireplace, and then press down on your jeans and you can feel the heat," said Dr. Roger Barker, professor of textile engineering chemistry and science, and T-PACC director. "Firefighters are getting burns without ever coming in direct contact with the flames. It is a serious issue."...

Plan selected for African-American museum

Sun Herald, The News & Observer, Herald Online, The State, McClatchy

April 14 – The museum design chosen to embody 400 years of the African-American experience uses stalactites of timber and a glimmering bronze corona to convey both the weight of oppression and the soaring optimism of blacks in America...."This great simple base and these wonderful simple forms that come out of it have a feeling of, like, a tribal palace," said Marvin J. Malecha, the president of the American Institute of Architects and the dean of the North Carolina State University College of Design. "One form grows out of the next, and out of the next, which is very much part of the African village culture, which is that everything is connected."...