In circumstances when plastic petri dishes are necessary for laboratory work, Preston ensure that they are properly cleaned and sorted for recycling. Reducing waste of all kinds, however, is the number one goal.
Green labs group strives to make science more sustainable
With a Green Labs working group, Elicia Preston of the Perelman School of Medicine and the University’s Sustainability Office in Facilities and Real Estate Services are striving to make the pursuit of scientific research a more eco-friendly endeavor.
Scientists have succeeded in sending an HIV patient into long-term remission, only the second time such a feat has been documented. Pablo Tebas and Bridgette Brawner discuss what this means for HIV research and for people living with the virus.
Passing College Hall, the Anennberg (Lunchtime) Running Club turns attention to featured speaker Sean Brown (far left). The club organizes two Ideas in Motion lecture series, one held while running and the other while walking.
Campus running club benefits the body and the brain
Three times a week runners gather in Annenberg Plaza to work their bodies and stretch their minds. Through regular runs and monthly running and walking lectures, the group fosters community and health while promoting intellectual exchange.
AA 10-day-old Arabidopsis seedling displayed no defect in forming new organs (main image), unless they lacked the key genes MP, ETT, and ARF4. In that case, a small stubby plant (inset) that cannot form new organs is the result. (Image: Wagner lab)
The ‘off’ button that lets plants make flowers
Flowers aren’t just pretty to look at; without them, plants couldn’t reproduce. Investigating the critical process of flower formation in plants, School of Arts and Sciences biologist Doris Wagner and colleagues discovered how a key gene is shut off in order for blooms to form. “Identity is not just what you are; it’s what you aren’t,” she says.
California’s Joshua Tree National Park suffered damage during the government shutdown, but stands to benefit from a conservation package that recently passed the Senate. (Photo: National Park Service/Kurt Moses)
An old-school green deal
A major public lands package passed the U.S. Senate Feb. 12 with massive bipartisan support and is expected to pass the House later this month. Cary Coglianese shares insights into the bill’s contents—which entail the largest expansion of wilderness area in a decade.
Showing off the broad, tropical leaf of a banana plant, Samara Gray (left), greenhouse coordinator, highlights the diverse collection of the middle room of the Biology Department’s facility. During the tours, Gray and other staff point out specialized adaptations of certain plants, such as the water-conserving features of succulents, or the unusual features of carnivorous plant species.
Hands-on learning in the greenhouse
A revamped lesson in plant diversity added a tour of the campus greenhouse for students in introductory biology courses. Greenhouse coordinator Samara Gray worked with Linda Robinson and Karl Siegert to enhance the curriculum, incorporating lessons about plant biology and taxonomy that rely on the wide range of specimens present.
With the help of a local translator, Simon Thompson (in blue plaid shirt) from Sarah Tishkoff’s lab and Dawit Wolde-Meskel (in yellow shirt), a collaborator from Addis Ababa University, explain the research project on African population genetics to the Argobba population, Ethiopia. After the project is presented, the researchers answer any questions. (Credit: Tishkoff lab)
A shared past for East Africa’s hunter-gatherers
PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff, Laura Scheinfeldt, and Sameer Soi use data from 50 populations to study African genetic diversity. Their analysis suggests that geographically far-flung hunter-gatherer groups share a common ancestry.
Threespine stickleback, which occupy lakes across the northern latitudes, are a tiny fish with an outsize impact on evolutionary research. Penn biologist Seth Rudman has found that a single gene affects the way they interact with their environment. (Photo: Seth Rudman)
How one gene in a tiny fish may alter an aquatic ecosystem
Linking genomics to evolution to ecology, the work takes an unusual approach to reveal broad implications of how species adapt to their local environment.
A new mobile unit for Penn Vet's Shelter Medicine program is getting rolling this spring, bringing state-of-the-art veterinary care into animal shelters and underserved communities. Veterinarians Brittany Watson and Chelsea Reinhard led the program’s efforts.
Shelter medicine is on a roll
The School of Veterinary Medicine’s Shelter Medicine Program just got a lot more nimble. They’ve unveiled a state-of-the-art mobile clinic that will expand their services to the animal shelter community.
