5/18
Penn in the News
A round-up of Penn mentions in local, national, and international media.
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Penn In the News
Let’s talk Super Tuesday
Diana Mutz of the School of Arts and Sciences and Annenberg School for Communication discussed Super Tuesday and the ramifications for the 2020 presidential election.
Penn In the News
Bright lights, big city: How Philly’s new streetlights could make us safer
Erick Guerra of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design explained why night is the most dangerous time for pedestrians. “A lot of things happen at night,” he said. “People are more likely to be drunk, people are driving faster because there’s less congestion, people are paying less attention. We get worse driving on a variety of dimensions.”
Penn In the News
Can algorithms help judges make fair decisions?
Michael Kearns of the School of Engineering and Applied Science said algorithms force us to be more detailed in our decision-making. “You should never expect machine learning to do something for free that you didn’t explicitly ask it to do for you, and you should never expect it to avoid behavior that you want it to avoid that you didn’t tell it explicitly to avoid,” he said.
Penn In the News
Fear and the coronavirus
In response to fear surrounding the coronavirus outbreak, Sudeep Bhatia of the School of Arts and Sciences joined a conversation about how emotions can impede rationality.
Penn In the News
Gnawing question for former Philly teacher: Did my school make me sick?
Peter Merkel and Steven Eliades of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about Cogan’s syndrome, a rare, hard-to-diagnose autoimmune disorder. “A lot of [diagnosis] is patient symptoms, crude measurements, and our gestalt of what’s going on,” said Eliades. The process “can be incredibly frustrating for the patient and, quite honestly, for me.”
Penn In the News
Return of the Rat: Chinese lunar new year honors the trickster
Haibin Wechsler of the Museum spoke about 2020 being the Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac calendar. “A lot of famous writers are rats,” Wechsler said. “Shakespeare is a rat. Truman Capote is a rat. Charlotte Bronte is also a rat.”
Penn In the News
Philadelphia officials are revving up for recreational marijuana
J. Cobb Scott of the Perelman School of Medicine said that people should be aware of the risks of heavy marijuana use for those with a family history of psychosis. “We need to know how to get the word out about that,” he said. “And we need to know who’s at risk.”
Penn In the News
UPenn library acquires the papers of Ashley Bryan, a pioneering African American poet and artist known for children’s books
Lynne Farrington of the Libraries spoke about the acquisition of the Ashley Brian papers, which trace the author and illustrator’s 60-year publishing history. “He sees art as his salvation, as a way to deal with what’s happening in this country,” said Farrington.
Penn In the News
Dental school grads find it hard to beat back student debt
Dean Mark Wolff of the School of Dental Medicine said dental school tuition has increased because dentistry, in general, has gotten more expensive. “You used to get the X-rays in your mouth taken with film, put inside your mouth. Today, we put sensors inside the mouth, capture it directly into the computer,” he said. “Film used to cost a few dollars a pack. That sensor is a $7,000 sensor.”
Penn In the News
After ‘long-term extended loan,’ Penn Museum sends ancient Iraqi artifacts home
The Penn Museum is bringing 3 boxes of ancient artifacts to the Iraq embassy in Washington, D.C. to be returned to their country of origin. “All the tablets were shipped out to be studied because no one in Iraq at the time could read them,” said the Museum’s Brad Hafford.