School of Engineering & Applied Science

Four hundred years after the death of dramatist William Shakespeare, enduring questions remain about whether the Bard of Avon had an uncredited co-writer on some of his world-famous plays. A team of Penn researchers has found an answer—in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, of all places.

Nearly two years out from the first awarding of the University of Pennsylvania President’s Engagement Prizes, communities in the United States and around the world are beginning to reap the benefits.

Interactions between an animal cell and its immediate environment, a fibrous network called the extracellular matrix, play a critical role in cell function, including growth and migration. But less understood is the mechanical force that governs those interactions.

Graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon in sheets just one atom in thick, has been the subject of widespread research, in large part because of its unique combination of strength, electrical conductivity and chemical stability.

Ten professors from the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are among a class of 391 members honored for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

University of Pennsylvania researchers Nadia Heninger, Ted Chinburg, Brett Hemenway and Zach Scherr are tr

The base pairs found in DNA are key to its ability to store protein-coding information, but they also give the molecule useful structural properties. Getting two complementary strands of DNA to zip up into a double helix can serve as the basis of intricate physical mechanisms that can push and pull molecular-scale devices.

The question of whether William Shakespeare truly wrote every word in every scene of his plays has been circulating since the time of The Bard himself.

Crystals are defined by their repeating, symmetrical patterns and long-range order. Unlike amorphous materials, in which atoms are randomly packed together, the atoms in a crystal are arranged in a predictable way. Quasicrystals are an exotic exception to this rule.

University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann and David L. Cohen, chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees, invite Penn students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and friends, as well as the region’s business and tech community, to a ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony from 12:30 to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28.