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‘An Atlas for the Green New Deal’
a map of the united states with colored dots showing different types of land usage

‘An Atlas for the Green New Deal’

The McHarg Center releases a new collection of maps and datascapes capturing the spatial consequences of climate change in support of a coordinated national response.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Exploring cryptocurrency and blockchain in Iceland
zane cooper in iceland

Exploring cryptocurrency and blockchain in Iceland

A virtual reality film, photo series, and soundscape from Penn and Rutgers document the effect this fast-growing tech industry is having on the country’s natural resources and people.

Michele W. Berger

Fruit flies’ microbiomes shape their evolution
fruit fly close-up on a piece of vegetation

An ambitious outdoor experiment in fruit flies at Pennovation Works revealed that an altered microbiome can drive evolutionary change. (Photo: Seth Rudman)

Fruit flies’ microbiomes shape their evolution

In just five generations, an altered microbiome can lead to genome-wide evolution in fruit flies, according to new research led by Paul Schmidt and postdoc Seth Rudman of the School of Arts and Sciences.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Inferno in the rainforest
Map of Brazil and other parts of South America showing myriad points of orange

Sensors on NASA satellites Terra and Aqua captured a record of thousands of points of fire in Brazil in late August. The fires pose a threat to the Amazon rainforest and to people living in and around it. (Image: NASA Earth Observatory)

Inferno in the rainforest

Satellite images have detected more than 100,000 points of fire in the Amazon this year. Scientists Reto Gieré and Alain Plante illuminate some less obvious impacts of the fires, including health threats and climate impacts.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Making insights into ancient marine ecosystems with 3D-printed shells
Scientist looks at a 3D printer in a scientific lab

Erynn Johnson monitors the progress of the lab’s 3D printer in Hayden Hall as it produces a resin-based replica of a snail shell. Her research, which relies on mathematical modeling paired with paleontology, gives insights into how shelled marine creatures that lived hundreds of millions of years ago evolved to withstand the crunching jaws of predators.

Making insights into ancient marine ecosystems with 3D-printed shells

If you’re a snail hoping to survive an encounter with a hungry fish, it helps to have a strong shell. Paleoecology doctoral student Erynn Johnson is using 3D printing to understand how predator-prey interactions may have played out hundreds of millions of years ago.

Katherine Unger Baillie

The beauty and nuances of Iceland, through a multidisciplinary lens
iceland class on site in iceland

The beauty and nuances of Iceland, through a multidisciplinary lens

Tracing a circular path around Iceland, the students in Alain Plante’s Penn Global Seminar saw firsthand the nation’s unique geology, culture, politics, energy, people, and wildlife.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Not over the hill: ‘Design With Nature,’ Ian McHarg’s landmark book of ecological design turns 50
WHYY (Philadelphia)

Not over the hill: ‘Design With Nature,’ Ian McHarg’s landmark book of ecological design turns 50

Bill Whitaker of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design spoke about Penn landscape architect Ian McHarg’s influence on ecological design and city planning. “He realized that people paid attention when you had scientific information and you had hard facts,” said Whitaker.

‘Design with Nature,’ 50 years later
Banff National Park, Alberta

‘Design with Nature,’ 50 years later

Beginning on the Summer Solstice, the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology at the Weitzman School is presenting Design With Nature Now, a multi-platform exploration of the legacy of visionary environmental planner and landscape architect Ian L. McHarg.

Penn Today Staff

How one gene in a tiny fish may alter an aquatic ecosystem
a tiny fish swims under green, murky water

Threespine stickleback, which occupy lakes across the northern latitudes, are a tiny fish with an outsize impact on evolutionary research. Penn biologist Seth Rudman has found that a single gene affects the way they interact with their environment. (Photo: Seth Rudman)

How one gene in a tiny fish may alter an aquatic ecosystem

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

Dry conditions may have helped a new type of plant gain a foothold on Earth
Pots on a table in a greenhouse filled with grasses in various stages of growth

Biochemical and paleoclimate modeling revealed that plants with a new photosynthetic pathway known as C4, present in several important crop species today, emerged when atmospheric carbon dioxide was still quite high, roughly 30 million years ago. Water limitations, rather than Co2, drove its initial spread, a Penn-led team found.

Dry conditions may have helped a new type of plant gain a foothold on Earth

Plants reap energy from the sun using two photosynthesis pathways, C3 and C4. A new study led by Haoran Zhou, Erol Akçay and Brent Helliker suggests that water availability drove the expansion of C4 species, which may help to explain how different plant lineages came to be distributed on the planet today.

Katherine Unger Baillie