5/10
Earth and Environmental Science
Looking to mud to study how particles become sticky
A collaboration of geophysicists and fluid mechanics experts led to a fundamental new insight into how tiny ‘bridges’ help particles of all kinds form aggregates.
Philly water straight from the tap
A collaborative city-wide campaign that included ImpactED and the Water Center at Penn helped spread the word that Philadelphia tap water is safe and healthy to drink.
Coral reef resilience
With coral reefs under threat from climate change, marine biologist Katie Barott studies how some corals may prove resilient to warming temperatures and acidifying oceans.
Side Gigs for Good, part three
The final 2019 installment in our series highlighting impactful work Penn faculty and staff do.
A missing link in haze formation
Hazy days don’t just block the view; they mean the air contains particulate matter that can compromise human health. Chemists have discovered a way that alcohols can balance out the formation of new particles, a finding that could improve the accuracy of air-quality forecasts.
Immersive stories to spur action on climate
Organized by the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH), a two-day festival, “Environmental Storytelling and Virtual Reality” begins Friday, and will explore how virtual reality and other immersive storytelling might inspire action on climate change.
A second life for leaves
Taking a scientific approach to managing campus land, Facilities and Real Estate Services is partnering with soil scientists and ecologists to study how mulching plots with leaves fares for soil health and biodiversity.
A focus on environmental inequities
A Penn symposium will confront issues of inequitable access to a clean and safe environment and the unequal burden borne by vulnerable communities, particularly low-income and underrepresented minority populations, when it comes to environmental threats.
Leading the way in the field of energy policy
During two decades at Penn, Mark Alan Hughes has made the University a leader in the field of energy policy—and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
Weighing the environmental impacts of a byproduct of biofuel combustion: plant skeletons
The School of Arts and Sciences’ Reto Gieré and Ruggero Vigliaturo and colleagues found that phytoliths—small, silica-containing deposits present in many plant species—are emitted during biofuel combustion.
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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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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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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Here’s why experts don’t think cloud seeding played a role in Dubai’s downpour
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that many people blaming cloud seeding for Dubai storms are climate change deniers trying to divert attention from what’s really happening.
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“Record-shattering” heat wave in Antarctica — yep, climate change is the culprit
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that persistent summer weather extremes like heat waves are becoming more common as people continue to warm the planet with carbon pollution.
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