The body’s immune system exists to identify and destroy foreign objects, whether they are bacteria, viruses, flecks of dirt or splinters. Unfortunately, nanoparticles designed to deliver drugs, and implanted devices like pacemakers or artificial joints, are just as foreign and subject to the same response.

PHILADELPHIA — NASA has nominated three U.S. science teams to participate in the European Space Agency's planned Euclid mission, a space telescope designed to probe the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter and scheduled to launch in 2020.

PHILADELPHIA — For decades, researchers thought that blood plasma behaved like water. But, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania and Saarland University in Germany, plasma is more elastic and viscous than water, and, like ketchup, its flow properties depend on the pressure it is under.

Penn has long played a leadership role in the search for two of the most elusive phenomena in astronomy: dark matter and dark energy. The two related concepts try to explain the apparently “missing” mass of the universe, and why the universe’s expansion is accelerating, rather than slowing down due to gravity. 

What happens when you pair business-minded Wharton students with tech-savvy Penn Engineering students, and ask them to come up with a $5,000 idea?

PHILADELPHIA — After more than 30 years on the job, Susan Davidson has some perspective on her discipline.

PHILADELPHIA — Beyond serving as the backbone of modern biology, DNA has come to be a molecule of great interest to engineers. That a DNA sequence will naturally bind only with a complementary sequence could make it part of a configurable, and potentially programmable, building material.   

On Saturday, Feb. 2, student volunteers from Penn and Drexel will come together for a growing annual tradition: Philly Materials Science and Engineering Day.

PHILADELPHIA — Wear is a fact of life. As surfaces rub against one another, they break down and lose their original shape. With less material to start with and functionality that often depends critically on shape and surface structure, wear affects nanoscale objects more strongly than it does their macroscale counterparts.

PHILADELPHIA — Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are participating in a massive, interdisciplinary collaboration known as the TerraSwarm Research Center, which will study the potential applications — and risks — of “swarm-based” computing and robotics.