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Analyzing roadside dust to identify potential health concerns
Highway sampling.Giere

Sampling containers collected airborne particles from the sides of highways in Germany as part of a study led by Penn’s Reto Gieré. The findings suggest that tire wear is a major contributor to roadside pollution. (Photo: Federal Highway Research Institute)

Analyzing roadside dust to identify potential health concerns

Reto Gieré is working with collaborators across the world to identify an overlooked but significant factor in traffic-related air pollution: Tiny bits of tires, brake pads, and road materials that become suspended in the air when vehicles pass over.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Collective grief over loss from Brazil’s National Museum fire
Fire at the National Museum of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, on September 2, 2018. Photo by Felipe Milanez

Fire at the National Museum of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, on September 2, 2018. Photo by Felipe Milanez

Collective grief over loss from Brazil’s National Museum fire

Members of the Penn Museum’s archeological community discuss the devastation felt over the destruction of an invaluable piece of world history.

Michele W. Berger

Floating art installation brings Schuylkill River history to life
Floating Archives

On three Saturday evenings in September, Jacob Rivkin, an artist-in-residence with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, will be floating on the Schuylkill River, displaying hand-drawn animations on a screen suspended between two canoes. His work reflects past and present narratives about the waterway. (Photo: Aidan Un)

Floating art installation brings Schuylkill River history to life

Jacob Rivkin, an artist-in-residence for the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities and an instructor in the School of Design, will present a public art installation on the Schuylkill River called “Floating Archives,” starting this weekend. (Video)

Katherine Unger Baillie

A squirmy, slimy, crunchy new potential staple of the American diet
Eating Bugs

Psychologist Paul Rozin thinks insects should be the next big food group in the U.S. All it takes, he suggests, is a little more exposure to move beyond the disgust factor.

  • Q&A

    • A squirmy, slimy, crunchy new potential staple of the American diet

    Psychologist Paul Rozin discusses how it’s possible to get past the ick factor of eating bugs (the key is exposure), and how the insects actually taste. It’s all part of his research focusing on the emotion of disgust as it relates to food.

    Michele W. Berger

    Sophomore and junior picnic focuses on friends
    picnic1

    President Amy Gutmann poses at the photo booth with College Board members, including Sophomore College Board President Lizzie Youshaei and Junior College Board President Karim El Sewedy, at the sophomore and junior welcome back picnic.

    Sophomore and junior picnic focuses on friends

    More than 1,250 attended this year’s annual welcome back picnic hosted by the President’s Office on College Green.
    Preserving Philadelphia’s Society Hill
    Penn School of Design professor Francesca Ammon

    Francesca Russello Ammon, a PennDesign assistant professor of city and regional planning, focused on Philadelphia's Society Hill neighborhood for her research on historic preservation. (Photo by Eric Sucar, University of Pennsylvania Communications)

    Preserving Philadelphia’s Society Hill

    The histories of more than 1,500 properties in a storied Philadelphia neighborhood are now accessible on the new website, “Preserving Society Hill.” Working with digital-humanities specialists in the Price Lab and the Libraries, PennDesign’s Francesca Ammon created an interactive map to document this innovative case study in urban renewal.

    Louisa Shepard , Louisa Shepard

    Incoming freshman experience college and community ahead of first semester
    summer_inst

    Incoming freshman experience college and community ahead of first semester

    In its 32nd year, the weeklong Africana Studies Summer Institute brought 65 incoming freshmen to campus in July, introducing them to the program’s courses, professors, graduate students, and fellow undergraduates.

    Louisa Shepard , Louisa Shepard

    Mapping the ocean with marine robots
    Aquatic Robots, Hsieh Lab

    caption here

    Mapping the ocean with marine robots

    M. Ani Hsieh’s robotics lab investigates how to use ocean currents as a natural energy source for marine robots, which would enable widespread exploration.

    Jacob Williamson-Rea

    Camille Z. Charles on the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act
    Camille_Z_Charles

    Camille Z. Charles, the Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences, a professor of sociology, Africana studies, and education, and the director of the Center for Africana Studies.

  • Q&A

    • Camille Z. Charles on the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act

    Camille Z. Charles, professor of sociology, Africana studies, and education, and director of the Center for Africana Studies, talks about residential segregation and the promises and failures of the Fair Housing Act in light of the legislation’s 50th anniversary.

    Penn Today Staff