Desert kites, stone wall structures that date back 5,000 to 8,000 years like those shown above, were used to trap gazelle and other similar animals. The dry desert of eastern Jordan preserved many of them, but agricultural expansion in western Jordan dismantled or destroyed many more.
Declassified images from U2 spy planes reveal bygone Middle Eastern archaeological features
Researchers from Penn and Harvard are the first to make archaeological use of U2 spy plane imagery, and have created a tool that allows other researchers to identify and access the Cold War-era photos.
Karen Reivich (seen here in March 2019) is director of resilience training at Penn’s Positive Psychology Center. She teaches an online Coursera course, Resilience Skills in a Time of Uncertainty, that’s now free and available to the public. (Image: Eric Sucar)
Weekly paid professional staff learn resilience through free, online opportunity
Offered through the Online Learning Initiative and the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, the course teaches participants resilience, gratitude, authenticity, and more.
Behind the scenes, complex disease surveillance is protects the campus community
Beyond promoting vaccines and overall health education, Campus Health, the public health arm of Student Health Service, is watching for clusters of common illnesses, unusual diagnoses, and anything out of the ordinary.
A report authored by Dennis Culhane of the School of Social Policy & Practice and David Metzger of the Perelman School of Medicine shows that shuttering two camps led to many new addiction-treatment slots and some successful placements in permanent or temporary housing. (Photo: City of Philadelphia)
Can closing homeless encampments help Philadelphia’s opioid problem?
According to a new report, the city’s recent effort opened up treatment spots for people with opioid addiction and offered permanent and temporary housing options.
Painstaking work by Penn Museum archaeobotanist Chantel White and students has verified what the Bartrams sold and exported to Europe in the 1800s, and shed light on the family’s daily dietary habits.
U.S. fertility is at an all-time low, but is that a bad thing?
Researchers from the Population Studies Center dissect the latest CDC numbers and explain the role of migration patterns, better family planning, and delayed parenthood.
When Amazon announced plans to bring its headquarters (seen here) to Seattle a decade ago, it promised eco-friendly infrastructure and encourages a sustainability ethos to go along with it. But according to new research from Penn and others, its arrival likely led to gentrification and stable or increased carbon emissions.
When green ‘fixes’ actually increase the carbon footprint
New research shows that when tech companies move in, they often encourage a sustainability mindset, but lead to gentrification and stable or higher emissions.
Linguistics professor Kathryn Schuler (right) wanted her students to think big. Throughout the semester, they worked on passion projects, following a Google X model to allow for unconstrained ideas to solve grand problems.
Shooting for the moon
In her Language and the Brain course, linguistics professor Kathryn Schuler asked 30 undergrads to think big about big problems—and their solutions didn’t disappoint.
Diane Spatz is a professor of perinatal nursing and the Helen M. Shearer Professor of Nutrition at the School of Nursing, and a nurse scientist for the lactation program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. (Image: Eric Sucar)
College campuses are thinking about lactation spaces—but could be doing more
Breastfeeding mothers in higher-education environments can typically find a place to pump, but only recently have institutions begun to prioritize access to this resource.
