Penn Science Café explores one biomolecule at a time
Everyone from hardcore material scientists to "Jersey Shore" celebrities benefit from nanotechnology, the next great field of engineering expected to change everything from drug delivery to the way we apply sunscreen. But actually understanding this world-changing field of science is a bit more difficult than it appears, since scientists themselves have only begun to scratch the surface of its possibilities.
For the curious among us, Yale E. Goldman (pictured), a professor in the Department of Physiology and associate director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center at Penn, presents, “Nature’s Nanotechnology: Biomolecules Explored One at a Time,” on Wednesday, Oct. 20, as part of this season’s Penn Science Café.
Nanotechnology has the potential to miniaturize computers, communications devices, sensors, actuators and drug delivery vehicles. The challenge currently confronting researchers is developing new manufacturing concepts essential to capturing the promise of the industry. So, science is looking to nature.
Nature has already solved the design and assembly issues in making robust nanometer-sized machines. Macromolecules and supramolecular assemblies carry out myriad cellular roles, producing motion, shape changes, signaling and processing of genetic information with remarkable agility.
Goldman will discuss these natural nanomachines and how advances in technology help to understand their adaptation to their nano-scale environment.
The Penn Science Café is a lecture series that transports science out of the lab and into one of University City’s most premiere event spaces, the MarBar at 40th and Walnut streets, 2nd floor above the Marathon Grill. All lectures begin at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
To RSVP, contact Jacquie Posey at 215-898-6460 or email jposey@upenn.edu.
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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.
