News from

School of Arts & Sciences

Visit the School's Site
Reset All Filters
3713 Results
When a fix for one vision problem causes another
A person sitting in front of a computer and a machine that tests vision.

The lab of neuroscientist Johannes Burge (above) focuses on how the human visual system processes the images that fall on the back of the eye. This line of work, closely related to a 100-year-old illusion called the Pulfrich effect, could have serious public safety and public health implications.

When a fix for one vision problem causes another

Aging diminishes the ability of the eyes to focus up close. New Penn research reports that monovision, a common prescription lens correction to mitigate this issue, can cause dramatic misperceptions of depth and 3D direction for objects in motion.

Michele W. Berger

‘Smart aviary’ poised to break new ground in behavioral research
outside the smart aviary

‘Smart aviary’ poised to break new ground in behavioral research

A collaboration that has brought together biologists, engineers, and physicists to study the reproductive behavior of birds using machine learning in a custom-built aviary at Pennovation Works.

Katherine Unger Baillie

With summer field course, students get their hands dirty learning about soils
Group of students with professor standing in a soil pit, five feet deep, with vegetation surrounding

Shoulder deep in a soil pit at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center, Alain Plante (in red cap) and his students investigate the soil profile of this part of Chester Country farmland. (Photo: Hannah Kleckner/Penn Vet)

With summer field course, students get their hands dirty learning about soils

Taught by the School of Arts and Sciences’ Alain Plante, Field Study of Soils gives students skills and familiarity with different soil types, including some on University property.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Art and activism
Student standing on a sidewalk.

Srinidhi Ramakrishna, a rising sophomore, is a summer intern at ArtWell, a Philadelphia nonprofit. 

Art and activism

Combining her interests in art and activism in her summer internship, rising sophomore Srinidhi Ramakrishna is working at ArtWell, a Philadelphia nonprofit that uses art, poetry, and music to reach young people in underserved communities.
Penn chemists to lead NSF-sponsored center for sustainable metals supply chains
subotnik, anna, and schelter posing in a chemistry lab wearing googles, schelter is holding a round-bottomed flask

Penn chemists to lead NSF-sponsored center for sustainable metals supply chains

The Center for Sustainable Separations of Metals will conduct research on metals recycling to reduce pollution, greenhouse-gas emissions, and energy usage while promoting political and environmental sustainability.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Historical treasures of ‘most talented woman in 20th-century philosophy’ come to Penn
Three people standing over a book in a library setting.

Philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe was both a divisive figure and one of the most important female philosophical minds of her time. Notebooks filled with old postcards and scrawled responses, like those viewed here by graduate student Paul Musso (left), associate professor Errol Lord, and graduate student Marie Barnett, reveal Anscombe’s thought process as she corresponds with Anthony Kenny, a philosopher and priest, about God and faith.

Historical treasures of ‘most talented woman in 20th-century philosophy’ come to Penn

On loan from the Collegium Institute, an archive of materials written to and by Elizabeth Anscombe will be at the Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections for the next three years.

Michele W. Berger

Marketing music at a Philadelphia nonprofit
Student sitting outside holding a coffee cup and smiling.

Rising Penn sophomore Teresa Xie is a summer intern working at the Settlement Music School through the RealArts@Penn program. She is producing videos for the marketing and development departments.

Marketing music at a Philadelphia nonprofit

Although an accomplished concert pianist, rising sophomore Teresa Xie of Chicago is not playing the ivories at the Settlement Music School during her RealArts@Penn summer internship. Instead, she is using her photography skills while learning about marketing music for the Philadelphia nonprofit.
Preventative measures against mass violence
young child kneeling on ground lighting a candle surrounded by heart balloons at night, at a vigil for a mass shooting.

Preventative measures against mass violence

Richard Berk, professor of criminology and statistics and chair of the Department of Criminology, taps into perpetrator patterns to forecast crime.

Penn Today Staff

Remembering the past while looking forward
lunar landing boot print

Buzz Aldrin’s boot print from the Apollo 11 mission, one of the first steps taken on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon on July 20, 1969. (Photo: NASA)

Remembering the past while looking forward

As the nation celebrates the Apollo 11 mission, a look at Penn’s connection to the historic event and how the Moon impacts science, politics, and culture.

Erica K. Brockmeier