The cosmic microwave background, the faint afterglow of the Big Bang that fills all of space, passes through massive galaxy clusters whose motion slightly alters the light, allowing scientists to measure how fast the clusters are moving toward one another and test how strongly gravity pulls across the largest distances in the universe.
(Image: Courtesy of Lucy Reading/Simons Foundation)
Gravity follows Newton and Einstein’s rules, even at cosmic scales
By tracking galaxy clusters hundreds of millions of lightyears apart, Penn physicist Patricio Gallardo and collaborators find that the laws of gravity written by Newton and Einstein still hold, leaving little doubt that invisible dark matter exists.
As investor withdrawals and liquidity concerns rattle a $1.8 trillion market, Wharton’s Itay Goldstein explains how private credit works, why experts are uneasy, and what it could mean for your finances.
At the DumoLab, research associate Yasaman Amirzehni is working to develop a biocomposite suitable for indoor and outdoor cladding applications, which could eventually serve as true structural components like load-bearing columns.
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Turning peels into pavers: How Penn designers turn food scraps into biodegradable building materials
The Weitzman School’s Laia Mogas-Soldevila and Yasaman Amirzehni transform unavoidable food waste—like fruit peels and eggshells, which account for 14.8% of post-consumer restaurant food waste—into durable, biodegradable building materials in collaboration with Penn Dining.
Mapping catalyst failure to advance clean hydrogen fuel production
A new study co-led by computational Penn engineering professor Aleksandra Vojvodic and collaborators offers an unprecedented view of the complicated degradation process of a material based on one of the rarest elements, iridium. Their findings, which show how this catalytic agent breaks down at the atomic scale, pave the way for better hydrogen fuel production.
(Top, from left) Cherie Kagan, Daniel Krashen, and George Pappas. (Bottom, from left) Kai Tan and Patrick Walsh.
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Five from Penn named 2025 AAAS Fellows
Five faculty researchers representing the School of Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Perelman School of Medicine have been elected 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows. They are among the nearly 500 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines who are being recognized for distinguished achievements.
Penn’s third annual AI Month spotlights the evolving frontier of human-centered AI
A monthlong series of talks, workshops, symposia, and more highlights how recent advances in artificial intelligence are reshaping robotics, health, education, and public life, all the while keeping human values at the center.
2025 President’s Innovation Prize recipients Melanie Herbert and Alexandra Popescu are leveraging AI and privacy-focused computing to address the crisis of an aging population and overburdened health care staff.
The Dark Energy Survey used a 570-megapixel camera mounted on the 4-metre Victor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile to image 5,000 square degrees of southern sky. The survey discovered more than 1,000 supernovae and mapped millions of galaxies to help astronomers better understand the accelerating expansion of our universe.
(Image: Courtesy of Dark Energy Survey Collaborative)
Mapping the expanding cosmos: Dark Energy Survey unveils clearest picture yet
The Dark Energy Survey collaborative, including Penn researchers, recently released an analysis that gives the clearest picture yet of how dark energy is driving the universe’s expansion and how matter—including galaxies and groups of galaxies—has been organized over cosmic time.
Why do modern humans carry small amounts of Neanderthal DNA almost everywhere in their genome except on the X chromosome? A new study by Alexander Platt and Daniel Harris in the lab of geneticist Sarah Tishkoff suggests the answer lies in ancient attraction. (Pictured) An illustration of a normal karyotype, the full complement of chromosomes arranged in homologous pairs.
(Image: quantic69 via Getty Images)
How ancient attraction shaped the human genome
Research led by geneticist Sarah Tishkoff’s finds that prehistoric mating preferences is a likely explanation for why modern humans have small amounts of Neanderthal genetic elements on their X chromosomes, challenging the idea that human evolution was driven solely by survival of the fittest.
Image: Sciepro/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
No brain, no gain: Neuronal activity enhances benefits of exercise
Research led by Penn neuroscientist J. Nicholas Betley and collaborators finds that hypothalamic neurons are essential for translating physical exertion into endurance, potentially opening the door to exercise-mimicking therapies.
