School of Arts & Sciences

a close-up of chemical reactions written on a glass screen with a person in a lab coat working in the background

Pushing the boundaries of fundamental chemistry

A team of chemists has created “impossible molecules” inside water- and oxygen-free environments.

Student looking closely at a rare document in a plastic sleeve he is holding, while seated in a library.

Walt Whitman up close

As part of the Penn Manuscript Collective, students transcribe rare documents and original works by Walt Whitman in the University’s collection. Their discoveries will be included in an international symposium at Penn this spring, Whitman at 200, led by the Penn Libraries marking the anniversary of the poet’s birth.

orange with GMO sticker sliced in half with different colored orange segments inside

What do opponents of genetically modified foods really know about the science?

The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, found that the strongest critics actually know less—a pattern similar for gene therapy, but not for climate change.

Free Thinking

The free, public Lightbulb and Science Cafes for spring 2019 will feature professors talking about everything from the Middle East peace process to translating “The Odyssey.”

Writers House reborn

Renovations were recently completed at Kelly Writers House to expand its premier Arts Cafe and make the space more technologically friendly.

Librarian examines several playbills spread out on wood conference table in a historic library room lined with bookshelves filled with books.

Historic Philly playbills get modern-day crowdsourcing

An innovative online crowdsourcing project led by Laura Aydelotte of the Penn Libraries allows the public to transcribe digitized 19th-century Philadelphia theater playbills. An upcoming conference will explore digital approaches to researching theater history.

Two square panels, the left labeled "vehicle" and the right labeled "resperine." The vehicle panel has both blue and green dots and markings throughout, while the resperine panel has only blue markings.

Hindering melanoma metastasis with an FDA-approved drug

A drug approved by the FDA 65 years ago for blood pressure control may aid in preventing cancer from spreading to distant organs. New research led by Serge Fuchs revealed that this drug disrupted formation of a fertile environment for metastasis by protecting healthy cells from harmful vesicles released by tumors.

A classic hat trick

In one year, Sheila Murnaghan, Alfred Reginald Allen Memorial Professor of Greek, published a translation of Medea and books on the Beat generation and classics for children.

a satellite flying above earth with the moon in the distant background

Q&A

Solar system exploration Q&A with Cullen Blake

Blake, an observational astronomer at Penn who specializes in the search for exoplanets, discusses the busy start of 2019 in the research of solar system exploration.

landscape of mountains made with small colored dots

The nanotopography of an atomic world

Physicists offer insights into the structure of atomically thin materials using nanoscale images of 2D membranes.

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