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Could the age of the universe be twice as old as current estimates suggest?
Thousands of small galaxies appear across this view. Their colors vary. Some are shades of orange, while others are white. Most appear as fuzzy ovals, but a few have distinct spiral arms. In front of the galaxies are several foreground stars. Most appear blue, and the bright stars have diffraction spikes, forming an eight-pointed star shape. There are also many thin, long, orange arcs that curve around the center of the image.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is rich with detail.

Thousands of galaxies—including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared—have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it.

Webb’s Near-Infra Red Cam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus—they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features.

(Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI)

Could the age of the universe be twice as old as current estimates suggest?

Penn Professors Vijay Balasubramanian and Mark Devlin offer a broader understanding of a recent paper’s claim that the universe could be 26.7 billion years old.
Operatic notes: One student’s research on opera in society
Thomas Sharrock standing on the steps outside a building

Sharrock asked patrons to complete the research survey two hours before each of the seven opera performances, and during the intermission.

(Image: Shea Roggio) 

Operatic notes: One student’s research on opera in society

Rising second-year Thomas Sharrock attended seven operas this summer at the Royal Opera House in London, studying audience perceptions of opera in the United Kingdom.
Disability in America
Judy Heumann is applauded during her swearing-in as U.S. Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Service in 1993.

Judy Heumann, center, is applauded during her swearing-in as U.S. Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Service by Judge Gail Bereola, left, in Berkeley, California, on June 29, 1993. At left is Berkeley Mayor Loni Hancock with sign language interpreter Joseph Quinn, and Julie Weissman, right, in attendance. Heumann, a renowned disability rights activist who helped secure legislation protecting the rights of disabled people, died on March 4, 2023.

(Image: AP Photo/Susan Ragan)

  • Q&A

    • Disability in America

    In a Q&A, history and sociology of science professor Beth Linker discusses the history of disability in America.

    Kristina García

    Nudge Cartography: Building a map to navigate behavioral research
    Linnea Gandhi working on a white board

    (On homepage) Gandhi also shares her lessons from industry with the students she teaches in her summer lab course. It equips the students with hands-on experience in applied behavioral science and experimentation, where small teams are paired with external organizations.

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    Nudge Cartography: Building a map to navigate behavioral research

    Ph.D. candidate Linnea Gandhi of the Wharton School and research assistant Anoushka Kiyawat discuss the development of their team’s innovative research tool.
    One year post-Dobbs, what’s actually happened?
    Protesters both pro- and anti-choice holding signs in Washington D.C. Abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion advocates demonstrate at the U.S. Supreme Court.

    (Image: DJ McCoy/iStock)

    One year post-Dobbs, what’s actually happened?

    Four takeaways from Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences researchers in the aftermath of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion.

    Michele W. Berger

    Starstruck on the Cannes red carpet
    two students standing on the red carpet steps with many people behind them

    Naiburg-Smith (left) and Sweeney on the fabled Lumière Theater red-carpet stairs at Cannes.

    (Image: Courtesy of Isabel Sweeney)

    Starstruck on the Cannes red carpet

    The 30 students who attended the Cannes Film Festival through a Penn Summer Abroad course were able to watch screenings of at least three to four films a day. For the most sought-after American film premieres they waited in “last-minute” lines for hours.
    Becoming American: A ceremony for new citizens
    Newly naturalized U.S. citizens raise their right hands to take the oath of citizenship in the Harrison Auditorium at the Penn Museum, with officials on a stage in front of them and an American flag on the right side of the stage.

    The naturalization ceremony at the Penn Museum’s Harrison Auditorium featured 37 new American citizens.

    (Image: Courtesy of Penn Global)

    Becoming American: A ceremony for new citizens

    In keeping with its motto of “bringing the world to Penn and Penn to the world,” Penn Global hosted a naturalization ceremony on campus for 37 new citizens.

    Kristen de Groot

    Leading the charge: new research unveils the future of energy-efficent power delivery
    Digital illustration of lithium ions passing through two-dimensional channels within a crystal structure

    The rapid movement of lithium ions along the 2D vertical channels in the T-Niobium oxide (T-Nb2O5) thin film results in unique property changes and a chase transition. The blue and purple polyhedra show T-Nb2O5 lattices, without and with lithium, respectively. The bright green spheres represent lithium ions.

    (Image: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics / Patricia Bondia)

    Leading the charge: new research unveils the future of energy-efficent power delivery

    Penn’s Andrew Rappe and collaborators explore high-quality thin films to propel power into the future.
    Supporting less commonly taught languages
    Feride Hatiboglu poses for a photo at Penn.

    The School of Arts & Sciences’ Feride Hatiboglu, who coordinates the Turkish Language Program, has been elected president of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages.

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    Supporting less commonly taught languages

    Recently elected president of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, Turkish Language Program coordinator Feride Hatiboglu discusses the value of learning languages beyond Spanish, French, German, and Italian.
    The ‘true value of women’s work’
    wages for housework archives display

    The new building on Wayne Ave. includes posters, banners, and ephemera from the movement’s 50-year history.

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    The ‘true value of women’s work’

    The Wages for Housework movement is a precursor to the Child Tax Credit and guaranteed income, says sociologist Pilar Gonalons-Pons. A community center in Germantown houses their 50-year archive and carries on the work.

    Kristina García