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Katherine Unger Baillie
Senior Science News Officer
Katherine Unger Baillie covers the School of Veterinary Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine, and in the School of Arts and Sciences, manages media relations for biology, earth and environmental science, and history and sociology of science. She also occasionally covers scientific research coming from other parts of Penn.
Inferno in the rainforest
Satellite images have detected more than 100,000 points of fire in the Amazon this year. Scientists Reto Gieré and Alain Plante illuminate some less obvious impacts of the fires, including health threats and climate impacts.
Climate lecture series will call for ‘unprecedented action,’ 1.5 minutes at a time
With a nod to the stated goal of the Paris Agreement of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst effects of climate change, a new 90-second lecture series kicks off today to give faculty and students a platform to briefly share how their work addresses climate change, and what we can do to help.
Dragon boating, on the world stage
Computer and information science doctoral student Barry Slaff trains six days a week for dragon boating on the Schuylkill River, and is headed to Thailand to compete in the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships.
Making insights into ancient marine ecosystems with 3D-printed shells
If you’re a snail hoping to survive an encounter with a hungry fish, it helps to have a strong shell. Paleoecology doctoral student Erynn Johnson is using 3D printing to understand how predator-prey interactions may have played out hundreds of millions of years ago.
‘Smart aviary’ poised to break new ground in behavioral research
A collaboration that has brought together biologists, engineers, and physicists to study the reproductive behavior of birds using machine learning in a custom-built aviary at Pennovation Works.
With summer field course, students get their hands dirty learning about soils
Taught by the School of Arts and Sciences’ Alain Plante, Field Study of Soils gives students skills and familiarity with different soil types, including some on University property.
The beauty and nuances of Iceland, through a multidisciplinary lens
Tracing a circular path around Iceland, the students in Alain Plante’s Penn Global Seminar saw firsthand the nation’s unique geology, culture, politics, energy, people, and wildlife.
Social solutions to antibiotic resistance
Research by sociologist Julia Szymczak of the Perelman School of Medicine is aimed at understanding, and eventually changing, behaviors that lead to the overprescribing of antibiotics.
Toxins from the tap
In Pennsylvania and hundreds of other locations around the country, manmade chemicals known as PFAS have been found in drinking water. Howard Neukrug discusses the potential harm, how local and federal agencies are responding, and the many related questions that remain unanswered.
Meaningful science, with students at the helm
With CANINE, a collaboration between the School of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences’ Biology Department, undergraduates are breaking new ground in immunology.