Sticklers for detail will note that Penn’s toast-throwing tradition isn’t just about toast. Penn supporters throw all manner of baked goods—from bagels to muffins to pumpernickel—onto Franklin Field between the third and fourth quarter of every home football game. The cue to unleash the bread comes on the line, “Here’s a toast to dear old Penn” in a school fight song. Some say it was inspired by antics at screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Others contend that the ritual is an adaptation to the tradition of drinking an alcoholic toast to “dear old Penn.” When alcohol was banned from the stadium, the students decided to interpret “toast” more literally.
In a good season, says Franklin Field supervisor Tony Overend, 20,000 to 30,000 pieces of toast will be thrown per game. A “toast zamboni” picks up the debris at the end of the day.
Novel plant-based approach to a better, cheaper GLP-1 delivery system
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell investigates the use of a lettuce-based, plant-encapsulated delivery platform as a new oral delivery of two GLP-1 drugs previously approved by the FDA in injectable form.
No brain, no gain: Neuronal activity enhances benefits of exercise
Research led by Penn neuroscientist J. Nicholas Betley and collaborators finds that hypothalamic neurons are essential for translating physical exertion into endurance, potentially opening the door to exercise-mimicking therapies.
In honor of Valentine's Day, and as a way of fostering community in her Shakespeare in Love course, Becky Friedman took her students to the University Club for lunch one class period. They talked about the movie "Shakespeare in Love," as part of a broader conversation on how Shakespeare's works are adapted.
In Becky Friedman’s English course Shakespeare in Love, undergraduate students analyze language, genre, and adaptation in the Bard’s plays through the lens of love.
Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion
Dorit Aviv, director of Weitzman’s Thermal Architecture Lab, studies how humans, technology, and design intersect, paving the way for the development of novel approaches to cooling people efficiently.
