Jordan Reese

PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found a link between some of the world's most common parasites that cause infection and disease throughout the developing world and their attraction to a chemical secreted from human and animal skin.

PHILADELPHIA -- Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania have found a link between a recently discovered protein in the brain and the nervous system's duty to regulate respiration.For decades, researchers have investigated how the brain "unconsciously" controls breathing, a chemical and electrical process considered automatic in the mammalian world.  

PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created low-density aerogels made from carbon nanotubes, CNTs, that are capable of supporting 8,000 times their own weight.  The new material also combines the strength and ultra-light, heat-insulating properties of aerogels with the electrical conductivity of nanotubes.

PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say that practicing even small doses of daily meditation may improve focus and performance.

WHO: Kathryn E. Michel, chief, Section of Medicine School of Veterinary Medicine, University of PennsylvaniaWHAT: The Penn Science Caf lecture series, free and open to the public, takes science out of the laboratory and treats it to a night on the town.  The Caf is your chance to ask leading experts your questions about science.

PHILADELPHIA -- Sand.  A single grain is tiny, but solid, and shares the physical properties of other solid matter.  But pack or transport millions of grains together - as modern society does with coffee grounds, flour and industrial chemicals - and granular materials act differently, baffling engineers.  They take the shape of their containers and flow freely, like liquids.

PHILADELPHIA -- Sanjeev Khanna, professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania, has been honored with a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship.

PHILADELPHIA -- RAVI-bot, a senior design project built by mechanical engineering students of the University of Pennsylvania, is an electromechanical, robotic sitar that mimics the techniques and improvisational style of the North Indian Hindustani classical stringed instrument.

PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University have manipulated the internal, structural components of cells, creating a set of simulated cellular structures with novel mechanical properties, including one that acts like a red blood cell and another that mimics the soft, elastic behavior commonly found in novel synthetic materials called liquid crystal elasto

PHILADELPHIA -- A new robot that could assist climate-change researchers has won the grand prize at the annual PennVention competition for student inventors at the University of Pennsylvania's Weiss Tech House.