School of Arts & Sciences

When a 2013 study published in Science concluded that reading literary fiction for as few as 20 minutes could improve someone’s social abilities, it made quite the splash.

By Patrick Ammerman Evolution tends to create simple rules that can work in organisms of all kinds. These rules are often all that nature needs to build some of the most complicated parts of biology through thousands of years of adaptation.

By Patrick Ammerman Scientists can seem set apart from other disciplines, interpreting the rules of the natural world without the involvement of the social sciences and the humanities. But a new initiative at the University of Pennsylvania is trying to change that by fostering new collaborations around the lynchpin issue of energy.

Charlotte Matthai found inspiration for her University of Pennsylvania senior thesis project during a research venture that took her to museums in three states.

Take a glance around the oceans, rivers and lakes of today and you’ll confront an astonishing diversity of fish, from narrow-bodied eels to the 25-foot-long giant oarfish to delicate, fluttering seahorses. The vast majority of fish alive today — approximately 96 percent — are known as teleosts, a group of ray-finned fish that emerged 260 million years ago.

By Patrick Ammerman  A high school mentoring program at the University of Pennsylvania designed for local first-generation students helped two sisters navigate the college-appication process. That path ultimately led both back to Penn.

Just as summer was winding down, around the time when many students were wrapping up internships and checking packing lists for a return to campus, 13 University of Pennsylvania undergraduates flew across an ocean and began acclimating to the thin air of the Swiss and Italian Alps.

The English Language Programs at the University of Pennsylvania often teaches in traditional classrooms, but, in a unique situation instructing international professional athletes, the language laboratory is sometimes on a soccer field. 

Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania has named 25 undergraduates as the inaugural cohort of World House Student Fellows.  The group of sophomores, juniors and seniors will participate each week in seminars, research projects, leadership opportunities and activities focused on pressing global issues. 

A new collaborative study led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania provides the first psychometric measure to assess attitudes about rape in China.