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Keeping rain out of the drain
A scientist kneeling on a lawn checks a well using electronic monitoring equipment

David Vann of the School of Arts and Sciences heads up the research efforts around Shoemaker Green’s stormwater management system. Using sensors placed around the site, he hopes to be able to closely monitor how much water drains out of the system, and how quickly. 

Keeping rain out of the drain

From cisterns beneath Shoemaker Green to the green roof on New College House, special features of campus buildings and landscapes are helping manage stormwater to keep rain from the sewer lines, and scholars are using the infrastructure as a research opportunity.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Who will be the UK’s next prime minister?
Big Ben with united kingdom and european union flags

Who will be the UK’s next prime minister?

Theresa May is out, but who replaces her is tricky to predict, says Brendan O’Leary of the School of Arts and Sciences.

Gwyneth K. Shaw

The untold stories of the National Security Council
John Gans by bookshelf

John Gans, director of communications and research at Perry World House. (Photo courtesy: John Gans)

The untold stories of the National Security Council

John Gans, director of communications and research at Perry World House, discusses his new book that captures the stories and inner workings of National Security Council staff.
Walt Whitman and the People’s Press
close up of ink press

Walt Whitman and the People’s Press

A unique course combining literature and design leads to a mobile printing press that will be part of the poet’s 200th birthday celebration.

Louisa Shepard

Adolph Reed is retiring. But he’s still got more to say
adolph reed, political science professor

Reed's broad influence extended to countless students, who say he was life-altering in the classroom. “I feel like Adolph provided a role model for how to be an academic and still act with integrity in the real world,” former student Gordon Lafer says.

Adolph Reed is retiring. But he’s still got more to say

After more than 40 years as a political science professor, incisive commentator, and mentor to countless students, Reed is ending his teaching career. Now, he can turn his full attention to writing, and the 2020 campaign.

Gwyneth K. Shaw

Predilections of a destructive pest
A person removes a sticky band covered with insects from around a tree

At four areas around The Woodlands, Rohr will be checking weekly to see how many lanternflies he finds. The insect prefers ailanthus trees, but also feeds on dozens of other species.

Predilections of a destructive pest

The spotted lanternfly is emerging as a serious threat to agriculture and forested areas. At The Woodlands Cemetery near campus, Benjamin Rohr hopes to determine the types of trees the insect prefers to shape control strategies moving forward.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Names prompt distinct brain activity in preschoolers
A child wearing an electroencephalogram cap looking at a bright screen, with someone standing nearby.

A child wearing the EEG cap participants used during trials of the study. This child is older than the study group, which ranged in age from 3 to 5 years old and skewed heavily male. (Photo: Suzanne Slattery)

Names prompt distinct brain activity in preschoolers

A study from Penn and CHOP found that when preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder hear their name, their neural patterns match those of their typically developing peers. The finding held regardless of whether the child’s mom or a stranger called the name.

Michele W. Berger

‘Ladysitting’
Professor standing in front of a blackboard.

Lorene Cary, a senior lecturer in creative writing, has written a memoir about caring for her grandmother in her final year, “Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century.” (Photo: Eric Sucar) 

  • Q&A

    • ‘Ladysitting’

    A new memoir by Lorene Cary, “Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century,” describes the year she spent caring for her grandmother in her home.

    Louisa Shepard