A circular cutout of a thin spherical cap carefully deposited onto a pool of water. The sheet forms a complex pattern of wrinkles to accommodate the change in geometry from a sphere to a plane. (Image: Monica Ripp, Paulsen Lab, Syracuse University)
When curved materials flatten, simple geometry can predict the wrinkle patterns that emerge
The findings—from a collaboration between Penn, Syracuse, and the University of Illinois Chicago—have a range of implications, from how materials interact with moisture to the way flexible electronics bend.
Katherine Cotter and James Pawelski (not pictured) surveyed more than 200 curators, educators, researchers, security guards, exhibit designers, and others working at art museums to gauge how museums can impact visitors’ well-being.
Do art museums prioritize visitor well-being enough?
Research from the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project in Penn’s Positive Psychology Center reveals that the people working in these institutions want to see greater emphasis on human flourishing, but they feel ill-equipped to make it happen.
Gross and Elitzur-Leiman are studying some intact, pristine bowls and others, like the one above, that are in pieces. “The sherds tell a story, too,” says Blanchard.
The story the bowls tell
In an ambitious new project, historian Simcha Gross and Harvard’s Rivka Elitzur-Leiman are studying hundreds of ancient incantation bowls housed at the Penn Museum. They hope to better understand the objects and eventually, build a database of all these bowls worldwide.
Eiffert situates a headset on participant Maggie Compton. The metal contraption holds an ultrasound probe in place under Compton’s chin, to capture images of her tongue placement in the mouth.
Singing, speech production, and the brain
This summer, rising second-years Audrey Keener and Nicholas Eiffert worked in the lab of Penn linguist Jianjing Kuang studying vowel articulation in song, running an in-person experiment and built a corpus of classical recordings by famous singers.
Kimeze “Dickson” Teketwe is a master’s student in the International Education Development program at the Graduate School of Education. He is also a graduate fellow in the Center for Africana Studies and lecturer in the Penn Language Center in the School of Arts & Sciences.
Who, What, Why: Kimeze Teketwe brings Luganda to Penn
The GSE master’s student from Uganda taught the first ever course on this language in the spring of 2022. This fall the program continues with another intro class, followed by an advanced class next spring.
President Joe Biden hands the pen he used to sign the Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022. (Image: AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Understanding the Inflation Reduction Act
Penn experts explain the climate, health care, and economic aspects of the legislation that President Biden signed into law this week, plus the politics of getting it passed.
The Polarization Research Lab, a new initiative from Annenberg’s Yphtach Lelkes and colleagues at Dartmouth and Stanford, will work to answer that question through surveys and partnerships with community organizations.
Marrying models with experiments to build more efficient solar cells
Penn chemist Andrew M. Rappe, in collaboration with former postdoc Arvin Kakekhani and researchers at Princeton University, has gained insight into how the molecular make up of solar cells can affect their properties and make them more efficient.
Sophia Zehler recently earned her master’s degree from the Fels Institute of Government. The first-generation Cuban American also spent the year as Penn’s mascot, her third mascotting position in five years.
An international effort to curb provider burnout and improve patient care
In a Q&A, Penn Nursing’s Linda Aiken describes how a hospital earning Magnet designation creates a better, safer experience for patients and clinicians, plus the push to expand such credentialing beyond the U.S.
Kimeze “Dickson” Teketwe is a master’s student in the International Education Development program at the Graduate School of Education. He is also a graduate fellow in the Center for Africana Studies and lecturer in the Penn Language Center in the School of Arts & Sciences.
