Katherine Unger Baillie

Autism spectrum disorder, which appears to be more common than previously believed, remains frustratingly mysterious to doctors, researchers, and parents of children who are affected by the developmental condition.

PHILADELPHIA — To a room full of academics and Ph.D. students in the notoriously polluted city of Beijing, the University of Pennsylvania’s Iliana Sepúlveda presented ideas for increasing the use of energy-efficient technology that may one day help lessen the burden of fossil-fuel combustion in that city, as well as many others across the globe.

This year, members of the Penn community have the opportunity to support one of their own as part of the 2013 Penn’s Way Campaign.

When Chyke Doubeni was in high school, he thought he might become an economist, like his older brother.

Most scientific experiments are carefully planned and plotted, controlled, and contained. But in a recent study led by geologists at Penn, such was not the case. Instead, the research focused on an event that researchers could not control: the Mississippi River floods of 2011.

PHILADELPHIA — The extensive system of levees along the Mississippi River has done much to prevent devastating floods in riverside communities. But the levees have also contributed to the loss of Louisiana’s wetlands.

PHILADELPHIA — Six professors from the University of Pennsylvania, representing four schools, have been elected members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the nation's highest honors in biomedicine.

It’s almost as far away from Philadelphia urban life as one can imagine. Or, to be precise, it’s a 14-hour plane ride followed by a 16-hour bus ride capped by a 40-minute ride in a truck away from the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Made famous by the television show “Seinfeld,” the real “bubble boy” was no joke. David Vetter, the boy who lived in a plastic bubble until his death at the age of 12, suffered from a disease known as Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, or SCID.

It’s not always easy for pet owners to take time off from work to ensure that their animal companions get the veterinary care they need.