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A two-minute totality, an opportunity of a lifetime
the sun covered by the moon during an eclipse, set against a darkening dusky sky with a black flat horizon in the foreground

A two-minute totality, an opportunity of a lifetime

Graduate student David Sliski observed the July 2 eclipse at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile as a member of a scientific team tasked with imaging the sun’s corona.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Social solutions to antibiotic resistance
Julia Szymczak with a river in the background

Julia Szymczak (Photo: Ashley E. Smith/Wide Eyed Studios)

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.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Unraveling the brain’s reward circuits
Purple and pink illustration of a neuron synapse

The investigation explored the "reward neurons" in the brain. (Image: Amber Alhadeff)

Unraveling the brain’s reward circuits

Food, alcohol, and certain drugs all act to reduce the activity of hunger neurons and to release reward signals in the brain, but alcohol and drugs rely on a different pathway than does food.

Katherine Unger Baillie

The chemistry behind fireworks
a massive blue an orange firework exploding over the Philadelphia skyline
  • Q&A

    • The chemistry behind fireworks

    A Q&A with inorganic chemist Eric Schelter about the chemical reactions that create explosive displays and how different metals are used to create bright and brilliant colors.

    Erica K. Brockmeier

    From soldiers to students
    Students in a classroom seated in a circle respond with interest to a peer

    Through a week of intensive seminars and workshops taught by university faculty, 15 veterans participated in this year’s Warrior-Scholar Project academic bootcamp at the University of Pennsylvania.

    From soldiers to students

    Penn hosted a week of academic bootcamps organized by the Warrior-Scholar Project, a nonprofit that supports enlisted veterans in their transition to college.

    Gina Vitale

    Mary Frances Berry on the 55th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
    Mary Frances Berry

    Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and a professor of history and Africana studies. (Image: Jim Abbott)

  • Q&A

    • Mary Frances Berry on the 55th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Africana Studies professor Mary Frances Berry discusses the history of civil rights legislation, and where the 1964 bill fits in.

    Penn Today Staff

    A conversation about second-generation immigrants and mortality
    A crowd of people on an outdoor staircase in France
  • Q&A

    • A conversation about second-generation immigrants and mortality

    In a Q&A, Penn demographer Michel Guillot discusses recent work showing that male children of immigrants from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia have a mortality rate nearly double that of the native population in France.

    Michele W. Berger

    Inside the scientific glassblower’s studio
    blowing glass in the studio

    Inside the scientific glassblower’s studio

    A glimpse inside Penn’s glass shop and how the art of scientific glassblowing makes the innovative research happening on campus possible.

    Erica K. Brockmeier

    Toxins from the tap
    Gloved hands holding a syringe with groundwater with a background of a body of water
  • Q&A

    • 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.

    Katherine Unger Baillie