Katherine Unger Baillie

A new group on campus is helping students from underrepresented minorities feel at home pursuing science at Penn.

Last week, a small group of Penn graduates, surrounded by loved ones, was feted for their rigorous training and bright future in a ceremony punctuated by enthusiastic barks.

Last month, as the clip of Jimmy Kimmel describing the frightening ordeal of his newborn son, who was born with a congenital heart disease, went viral, many parents likely shared a similar sentiment: “What if that were my child?”

When a close friend shares bad news, our instinct is to help. But putting ourselves in a friend’s shoes, imagining how we would feel if we were the one suffering, may have detrimental effects on our own health, according to a new study led by the University of Pennsylvania’s Anneke E. K. Buffone.

Earlier this year, five states in the southern United States reported outbreaks of avian influenza, a respiratory disease that infects both wild and domestic farmed birds.

Soil holds the largest terrestrial pool of carbon on the planet, with tropical soils containing the most carbon of any type. Activities that cause soil to release its hold on this carbon can thus increase levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and augment the effects of climate change.

Girls who go through puberty and develop physically earlier than their peers are at risk of low self-esteem as well as emotional and behavioral problems. Research has also indicated that they are at a heightened risk of experiencing physical or sexual violence.

In a huge study of female rhesus macaques, a team of researchers led by the University of Pennsylvania’s Michael Platt found those with many close female relatives have a higher life expectancy.

Data is the currency of scientific discovery, but when packaged in complex spreadsheets or figures with obscure unit measurements, many can find it intimidating to interpret.

An ancient sink hole in eastern Tennessee holds the clues to an important transitional time in the evolutionary history of snakes. Among the fossilized creatures found there, according to a new paper co-authored by a University of Pennsylvania paleontologist, is a new species of snake that lived 5 million years ago.