Today’s Penn freshmen should consider themselves lucky, if for no other reason than this: The Bowl Fight is a thing of the past.
For more than four decades, stretching from the late 19th century through the early 20th century, Penn freshmen were subjected to the perils of this violent Penn tradition—an event that saw sophomores and freshmen brawl on campus to the great amusement of upperclassmen.
The rules of the Bowl Fight changed over the years, but the basic premise remained the same: Sophomores attempted to capture one unlucky frosh (the “Bowl Man”) and place him inside the “Bowl” (hence, the name of the event). Freshmen, meanwhile, worked to defend their classmate and break the bowl. If the Bowl Man was captured, the sophomores won. If the bowl was broken before the Bowl Man was put inside, however, the freshmen won.
The struggle took place at a variety of venues over the years, including the Quad and Franklin Field, but one aspect of the event went unchanged: It was always brutal and often bloody. It was stopped for good in 1916.
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.
