School of Arts & Sciences

If dark energy is hiding in the form of hypothetical particles called “chameleons,” a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley, plans to flush them out.

University of Pennsylvania researchers have made strides toward a new method of gene sequencing a strand of DNA’s bases are read as they are threaded through a nanoscopic hole.  In a new study, they have shown that this technique can also be applied to proteins as way to learn more about their structure.

There is a theory that RNA, instead of DNA, is the original building block of all life. Yet many RNA molecules remain mysterious, their true nature and function little understood.

Amidst the religious, political and social unrest in Israel, one student from the University of Pennsylvania got a look at a diverse group of learners who explored the possibilities for a peaceful coexistence.

At a rock outcropping in southern France, a jagged fracture runs along the granite. The surface in and around the crevice is discolored black, as if wet or covered in algae.

In small plastic tubs lining the shelves of a basement laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, a million organisms live in complex societies.

As a child, Suzy Bernstein spent her summers at Camp Modin in Belgrade, Maine. This summer, the rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania is using her experience as a former camper and the many skills that she’s learned at Penn to further strengthen her leadership abilities. 

Miranda Lupion’s interest in Russian language, history and culture began at a young age and has deepened during her time as a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Her elementary school offered basic Russian language instruction teaching the alphabet and singing songs, and she began listening to stories in Russian in the fourth grade.

Fiona Moreno is not from France. But the French-speaking, Ph.D. student from Switzerland, says she was and still is startled by how confidently people deem her to be French, solely based on hearing her accent. The realization that many people aren’t aware of the diversity of the Francophone world prompted her to found the Francophone Community Partnership.

This summer for the first time, the University of Pennsylvania launched an international student pre-orientation program in China for new students from China.