Earth and Environmental Science

At the annual meeting of the Global Water Alliance, faculty, students, and practitioners shared solutions and challenges around the issues of water access, sanitation, and hygiene in the U.S. and around the world.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・March 26, 2019

Painstaking work by Penn Museum archaeobotanist Chantel White and students has verified what the Bartrams sold and exported to Europe in the 1800s, and shed light on the family’s daily dietary habits.

Michele W. Berger ・March 18, 2019

The witchhazel is a species of flower that blooms in cold temperatures and lives around campus, and in abundance at the Morris Arboretum. The Arboretum’s Anthony Aiello talks the ins and outs of the strange species.

Brandon Baker ・February 12, 2019

Linking genomics to evolution to ecology, the work takes an unusual approach to reveal broad implications of how species adapt to their local environment.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・February 6, 2019

Eight Penn faculty share their favorite general interest books about science.

Erica K. Brockmeier ・December 19, 2018

Caring for the trees on Penn’s campus—an official arboretum since last year—is no small undertaking. Staff from Facilities and Real Estate Services and the Morris Arboretum lead the way in ensuring that the University’s trees remain safe, vibrant, diverse, and beautiful.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・November 16, 2018

Coral reefs are envisioned as the seats of great biodiversity, but they may not be where all that diversity got its start. In a new study in Science, paleobiologist Lauren Sallan and colleagues reveal that the earliest fish may have diversified in shallower waters near shore.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・October 25, 2018

Reto Gieré of the School of Arts and Sciences and colleagues say the new mineral, isolated from a sample of igneous rock in central Madagascar, may help immobilize nuclear waste.

Jacob Williamson-Rea October 25, 2018

Reto Gieré is working with collaborators across the world to identify an overlooked but significant factor in traffic-related air pollution: Tiny bits of tires, brake pads, and road materials that become suspended in the air when vehicles pass over.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・September 10, 2018

Jacob Rivkin, an artist-in-residence for the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities and an instructor in the School of Design, will present a public art installation on the Schuylkill River called “Floating Archives,” starting this weekend. (Video)

Katherine Unger Baillie ・September 6, 2018