With celebrations in honor of Ben Franklin’s 300th birthday taking place across the city, it may be difficult to decide where to start. Here’s your answer: the Penn Library.
The library’s new exhibit, “Educating the Youth of Pennsylvania: Worlds of Learning in the Age of Franklin” is an eye-opening look at the state of education in 18th-century Philadelphia. Though Franklin was certainly a leader in the advancement of American education, this exhibit shows he was not alone. Indeed, colonial Philadelphia was a place bursting with intellectual activity, and Franklin was as much a product of that environment as he was a contributor to it. Among the most fascinating artifacts at the exhibit are samples of educational battledoors (pictured at left) and the only known copy of The Friendly Instructor, a book about manners that scholars had long suspected Franklin had written—but, until recently, could not find.
“Educating the Youth of Pennsylvania: Worlds of Learning in the Age of Franklin” runs through May 31 at the Rosenwald Gallery, sixth floor of the Library. For more information, call 215-898-7552 or 215-746-5852.
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.
