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Science & Technology
Penn Team Finds Key Molecules Involved in Forming Long-term Memories
PHILADELPHIA — How does one’s experience of an event get translated into a memory that can be accessed months, even years later? A team led by University of Pennsylvania scientists has come closer to answering that question, identifying key molecules that help convert short-term memories into long-term ones.
Compound Derived From a Mushroom Lengthens Survival Time in Dogs With Cancer, Penn Vet Study Finds
PHILADELPHIA — Dogs with hemangiosarcoma that were treated with a compound derived from the Coriolus versicolor mushroom had the longest survival times ever reported for dogs with the disease. These promising findings offer hope that the compound may one day offer cancer patients — human and canine alike — a viable alternative or complementary treatment to traditional chemotherapies.
Penn Researchers Make First All-optical Nanowire Switch
PHILADELPHIA — Computers may be getting faster every year, but those advances in computer speed could be dwarfed if their 1’s and 0’s were represented by bursts of light, instead of electricity.
Penn Dental Welcomes Class of 2016 With White Coat Ceremony
WHO: Dean Denis Kinane, School of Dental Medicine, Dean Afaf Meleis, School of Nursing Dean Emeritus D.
Researchers from Penn, USGS and the Smithsonian Augment Climate Records Using Fossil Pollen
PHILADELPHIA — Ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt’s Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time.
Penn Researchers and Colleagues Create a Cheaper, Cleaner, More Efficient Catalyst for Burning Methane
PHILADELPHIA — As the world’s accessible oil reserves dwindle, natural gas has become an increasing important energy source. The primary component of natural gas is methane, which has the advantage of releasing less carbon dioxide when it’s burned than do many other hydrocarbon fuels.
High school students go for gold in ‘Robolympics’
The night before the Olympic torch was lit in London, a different sort of international competition was beginning at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Charles L. Kane of Penn Awarded the Dirac Medal for Contributions to Theoretical Physics
PHILADELPHIA – Charles L. Kane of the University of Pennsylvania is among three who have been awarded the 2012 Dirac Medal and Prize by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics.
Penn Engineering’s Camp for Girls Grows, Adds Math Classes
PHILADELPHIA — In a ceremony in Levine Hall’s Wu and Chen Auditorium on Aug. 3, the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania graduated its latest class: 70 girls entering the 7th, 8th and 9th grades.
Penn Researchers Show New Way of Assembling Particles Into Complex Structures
PHILADELPHIA — Many recent advances in microtechnology and nanotechnology depend on microscopic spherical particles self-assembling into large-scale aggregates to form a relatively limited range of crystalline structures.
In the News
The world’s oceans just broke an important climate change record
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that the warming of the oceans is helping to destabilize ice shelves and fuel more powerful hurricanes and tropical cyclones.
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New Penn AI master’s program aims to prep students for ‘jobs that we can’t yet imagine’
Chris Callison-Burch of the School of Engineering and Applied Science discusses Penn’s new online master’s program in artificial intelligence.
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The University of Pennsylvania is the first Ivy to offer an AI master’s
The School of Engineering and Applied Science has announced its first master’s degree in artificial intelligence, led by Chris Callison-Burch.
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Penn Engineering rolls out an online master’s degree in AI, first in Ivy League
The School of Engineering and Applied Science has announced the first graduate program in artificial intelligence among Ivy League universities, led by Chris Callison-Burch.
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Penn Engineering announces first Ivy League Master’s degree in AI
The School of Engineering and Applied Science has announced the first graduate program in artificial intelligence among Ivy League universities, led by Chris Callison-Burch.
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Man does DNA test, not prepared for what comes back ‘unusually high’
César de la Fuente of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Perelman School of Medicine says that Neanderthal DNA provides insights into human evolution, population dynamics, and genetic adaptations, including correlations with traits such as immunity and susceptibility to diseases.
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Forecast group predicts busiest hurricane season on record with 33 storms
A research team led by Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences is predicting the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season will produce the most named storms on record, fueled by exceptionally warm ocean waters and an expected shift from El Niño to La Niña.
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Penn professor on gen AI’s rapacious use of energy: ‘One of the defining challenges of my career’
Benjamin Lee of the School of Engineering and Applied Science says that hardware and infrastructure costs are growing at high rates for generative AI.
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Satellite images capture extraordinary flooding in the United Arab Emirates
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences explains how three low-pressure systems formed a train of storms that battered the United Arab Emirates.
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My Climate Story: Philly students take science from abstract to personal
The “My Climate Story” project at the Environmental Humanities Department helps students and teachers learn about climate change’s impact in everyday backyards, with remarks from Bethany Wiggin. The idea is credited to María Villarreal, a College of Arts and Sciences second-year from Tampico, Mexico.
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