Katherine Unger Baillie

PHILADELPHIA — Neuroscience, with its brain scans and complex molecular pathways, may seem to have little in common with the law — except perhaps a penchant for obscure Latin phrases.

If the word “yoga” calls to mind twisted limbs in uncomfortable positions, the benefits and ease of a gentle form of the exercise may come as a surprise.

Some high-end cars already help drivers parallel park, but it might not be too long before enhanced cars—even ones that drive themselves—are available to the masses. Right now, researchers like Daniel Lee of the School of Engineering and Applied Science are breaking new ground in designing autonomous robots and vehicles.

PHILADELPHIA — Pompeii-like, a 300-million-year-old tropical forest was preserved in ash when a volcano erupted in what is today northern China.

PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science a $3.5 million grant for the next two years to conduct research and implement technologies for improving the safety and efficiency of transportation.

It’s a basic lesson in biology: DNA is the “blueprint of life,” the genetic code that manifests itself in traits like the shape of our nose or color of our hair. But anthropologist Theodore Schurr has shown he can also transform DNA into a lesson in history.

Parents always think their babies are the cutest and the brightest, but new findings from Penn researchers suggest that moms and dads may, in fact, be underestimating their young children in one crucial way: their ability to understand language.

PHILADELPHIA — At an age when “ba-ba” and “da-da” may be their only utterances, infants nevertheless comprehend words for many common objects, according to a new study.

PHILADELPHIA -- Governor Tom Corbett’s FY2012-2013 Commonwealth budget proposes funding of $26.7 million for the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, the only veterinary  school in Pennsylvania and one of only 28 veterinary schools in the United States.  The recommended funding is equal to the support received for FY2011-2012. 

PHILADELPHIA — Daniel Janzen of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Biology is the recipient of the 2011 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology category.