My two girls were digging under the tree on the side of our house while I furiously attempted to remove tangles of creeping charlie from our yard. And I heard my older daughter shout, “MOM! You’ve GOT to see this!”…And then I did what any red-blooded American would do: I took a picture of it with my iPhone and posted it on Facebook with the caption “What is THIS?”…I also got a bit of useful advice which was to call the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County, a research-based educational program based in Lawrenceville. The “Extension” helps residents make informed decisions regarding quality of life, community and environment.
Archives for August 2014
Seeing red: 7 ways to savor Jersey tomatoes
You’ve gobbled them straight from the vine (not recommended, but who can resist?), chopped them up for salads and salsa, slid them in your sandwiches, and stuffed, sauteed and skewered them. It’s tomato season here in New Jersey, and we’re always on th…
Jet Stream Changes Driving Extreme Weather Linked Again To Global Warming, Arctic Ice Loss [VIDEO]
California is suffering through its worst drought on record, while the East Coast sees off-the-charts flooding. Both types of extremes are worsened by global warming as scientists have explained for decades…A number of studies in recent years have li…
NJ torrential rainfall: telltale images
Did you encounter dangerous floodwaters last week? The torrential rains that led to flash flooding on Aug. 12-13 were quite rare in some areas of New Jersey and New York, according to experts…In New Jersey, the 8.94 inches of rain that fell at the Mi…
From Tour of Duty to Reaping the Bounty: Green Job Skills and Entrepreneurship the Focus of RCE Program for Veterans
Unemployed U.S. veterans are often an underserved, vulnerable population that can benefit from job training. Through a partnership coordinated by Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) of Essex County, unemployed New Jersey veterans have been trained through a green job skills program focused on sustainable landscaping and stormwater management. At the East Orange Veterans Affairs Hospital, veterans […]
How the Game of Golf Adapts to Global Warming
Want to see the future of turf grass? It’s growing at Rutgers University in a “library” of grasses on thousands of 4-foot by 6-foot research plots – 12,000 plots exclusively for bent grasses destined for golf courses…”We have by far the largest reserve of genes of cool-season grasses anywhere in the world,” said William Meyer, director of Rutgers’ turf grass breeding program. “Our whole breeding objective is to develop turf grasses that require lower inputs – of energy, fertilizer, fungicide, and insecticide. We’re working on all angles.”
Alumni Story: Phillip Alampi, ‘Mr. Garden State’
Editor’s Note: One of the most prestigious honors conferred on alumni of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is induction into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni (HDA). The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences is proud of its 16 HDA honorees. This is one of a series of stories about them. A first-generation American, […]
Female Farmers Focus of Webinar
In 1900, almost half of U.S. residents made their living on farms. Now it is barely 1 percent. There are about 800,000 full-time farmers in America today. According to the last census, fewer than 20 percent are women. In 2011, Annie’s Project N.J. star…
Cinnamon May Fight E. Coli Outbreaks
For centuries, cinnamon has been used to enhance the flavor of foods, but new research shows that the spice could also help make foods safer. According to a study by Meijun Zhu and Lina Sheng, food safety scientists at Washington State Univ. in Pullman, the ancient cooking spice could help prevent some of the most serious foodborne illnesses caused by pathogenic bacteria…Zhu and Sheng’s objective throughout the study was to explore plant-derived compounds that can control foodborne pathogens – something food safety microbiologist Don Schaffner of Rutgers Univ. in New Brunswick, New Jersey said has been a popular, and important, topic in the food safety world. “In general, this kind of research has been going on for a long time,” Schaffner said. “There’s been a lot of interest in spices for centuries.”
Graduate Students Affiliated with Haskin Lab Score Scholarship “Trifecta”
Three Rutgers graduate students affiliated with the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Amanda Wenczel, Jason Morson and Jenny Paterno, have each been awarded a George Burlew Scholarship Grant from the Manasquan River Marlin and Tuna Club to help support their marine science research. This grant was previously awarded to high school students and college students but […]