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Michele W. Berger
Senior Science News Officer
mwberger@upenn.edu
Anthropology
Connecting students with Indigenous leaders
Connecting students with Indigenous leaders
People of the Land, a new Penn Global seminar taught by political science Professor Tulia Falleti, enables students to learn from Indigenous community members in South America.
To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data
To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data
The project, called LandCover6k, offers a new classification system that the researchers hope will improve predictions about the planet’s future and fill in gaps about its past.
Penn Museum announces the repatriation of the Morton Cranial Collection
Penn Museum announces the repatriation of the Morton Cranial Collection
The remains of Black Philadelphians within the Samuel G. Morton Cranial collection will be repatriated or reburied, based on a report that outlined recommendations from the Morton Collection Committee.
Transcending movement with Philadanco!
Transcending movement with Philadanco!
In a live virtual performance, principal dancers from Philadanco! performed “Oshun” before sitting down to a conversation on dancing, choreography, and choice.
Eviction linked to depression risk in young adults
Eviction linked to depression risk in young adults
Research from sociologist Courtney Boen and anthropologist Morgan Hoke shows that this issue, compounded by the toll of the pandemic, disproportionately affects low-income households and communities of color.
Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor
Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor
The world-renowned archaeologist has joint appointments in the Department of Anthropology, the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and the Department of City and Regional Planning, and the Penn Museum as a curator in both the Asian and Near East sections.
Uncovered burial ground reveals history of 36 enslaved Africans in 18th-century Charleston
Uncovered burial ground reveals history of 36 enslaved Africans in 18th-century Charleston
According to the research, many of these individuals originated in sub-Saharan Africa, in line with historical accounts of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This work, the largest DNA study of its kind to date, was co-led by anthropologist Theodore Schurr and conducted with support from and at the request of the local community.
Pizza, a nascent dairy industry, and infant health in the Peruvian highlands
Pizza, a nascent dairy industry, and infant health in the Peruvian highlands
Research from anthropologist Morgan Hoke shows that in homes that produce their own foods, children exhibit better growth rates and mothers report more autonomy and economic control.
‘Living with the Sea’
‘Living with the Sea’
A student-led exhibition at the Penn Museum features objects from the rarely seen Oceanian collection.
Southeast Asian megadrought dating back 5,000 years discovered in Laos cave
Southeast Asian megadrought dating back 5,000 years discovered in Laos cave
In a Q&A, Penn archaeologist Joyce White discusses the partnership with paleoclimatologists that led to the finding, plus possible implications of such a dramatic climate change for societies at that time.
Media Contact
In the News
Discover Magazine
Don’t count on evolution to save us from toxic chemicals and pollution
PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff spoke about how humans continue to evolve. For example, she said, a genetic variant that enables lactose tolerance didn’t emerge until somewhere between the past several hundred and 2,000 years. “When you’re talking about evolutionary time scales, that’s like a flash.”
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Science
Africans begin to take the reins of research into their own genomes
PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff spoke about her research sampling the genes of remote populations in various African regions. “Our studies combined are just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
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Science
Humans were drinking milk before they could digest it
PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff spoke about the anthropological origins of dairy farming and consumption. “If you have cows, you have a source of liquid and proteins and nutrition,” she said. “As long as you can keep your cattle alive, of course.”
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Science
Ancient megadrought may explain civilization’s ‘missing millennia’ in Southeast Asia
A team led by Joyce White of the School of Arts & Sciences studied stalagmites in a Laotian cave and identified a drought that lasted for more than a millennium, one of a series of megadroughts that affected Asia and Africa between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.
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Science
Experts question study claiming to pinpoint birthplace of all humans
PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff said mitochondrial DNA is a poor tool for tracking ancient population history in Africa, as it only traces genes passed from mothers to children over time.
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The Atlantic
The mystery of ‘Skeleton Lake’ gets deeper
Kathleen Morrison of the School of Arts and Sciences weighed in on the origins of human remains found in India’s Skeleton Lake. “I suspect that they’re aggregated there, that local people put them in the lake,” she says. “When you see a lot of human skeletons, usually it’s a graveyard.”
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