Science & Technology

Penn Team Reverses Signs of Naturally Occurring Chronic Periodontitis

Periodontitis, a gum disease present in nearly half of all adults in the United States, involves inflammation, bleeding and bone loss. In its severe form, it is associated with systemic inflammatory conditions such as atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Balancing Privacy and Security in Network Analysis

In the digital age, data is ubiquitous. The increasing ease with which every online interaction can be stored, compared and analyzed has transformed a wide swath of business and led to the formation of new ones.

Evan Lerner

Penn Science Café: ‘Studying Climate Change in a Land of Nomads’

WHO:           Brenda Casper                     Professor and Chair                     Department of Biology

Katherine Unger Baillie, Gina Bryan

A Voyage of Discovery for Freshmen at Penn

Ian Petrie is not a maritime historian. And none of the 12 students who enrolled in his freshmen seminar had substantive experience with handwritten 19th-century manuscripts.

Katherine Unger Baillie



In the News


Newsweek

Man does DNA test, not prepared for what comes back ‘unusually high’

César de la Fuente of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Perelman School of Medicine says that Neanderthal DNA provides insights into human evolution, population dynamics, and genetic adaptations, including correlations with traits such as immunity and susceptibility to diseases.

FULL STORY →



The Washington Post

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.

FULL STORY →



Technical.ly Philly

Penn professor on gen AI’s rapacious use of energy: ‘One of the defining challenges of my career’

Benjamin Lee of the School of Engineering and Applied Science says that hardware and infrastructure costs are growing at high rates for generative AI.

FULL STORY →



SciTechDaily

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.

FULL STORY →



WHYY (Philadelphia)

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.

FULL STORY →



Associated Press

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.

FULL STORY →



Big Think

Can we stop AI hallucinations? And do we even want to?

Chris Callison-Burch of the School of Engineering and Applied Science says that auto-regressive generation can make it difficult for language learning models to perform fact-based or symbolic reasoning.

FULL STORY →



Salon.com

“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.

FULL STORY →



CNET

How the solar eclipse will affect solar panels and the grid

Benjamin Lee of the School of Engineering and Applied Science says that the electrical grid will have to figure out how to match supply and demand during brief windows where the energy source goes away.

FULL STORY →



Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Scientists struggle to explain ‘really weird’ spike in world temperatures

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that tendencies to exaggerate climate science in favor of “doomist” narratives helps no one except the fossil fuel industry.

FULL STORY →