Skip to Content Skip to Content

Faculty

Can data from the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?
Close-up of ATLAS detector at CERN.

ATLAS’s wheel-like end-cap reveals the maze of sensors primed to catch proton smash-ups at the LHC. Researchers comb through billions of events in search of fleeting “ghost” tracks that might expose cracks in string theory.

(Image: Courtesy of CERN)

Can data from the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?

Theoretical physicist Jonathan Heckman of the School of Arts & Sciences has put a spin on ideas related to testing string theory: Rather than looking to verify it, he and his collaborators sought a novel way to falsify it. Heckman and Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Hicks explain string theory, researchers’ quest to unify physics, and what their new paper puts forward.

10 min. read

How to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate
A map of precipitation anomalies in Central America.

Precipitation anomalies in the Dry Corridor in Central America. Regions in red show significant drying during El Niño summers.

(Image: Courtesy of Environmental Innovations Initiative)

How to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate

Irina Marinov, associate professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, leads a research community focused on understanding global climate impacts, risks, and vulnerabilities to enable local action.

From the Environmental Innovations Initiative

2 min. read

‘Leukemia-on-a-chip’ could transform CAR T blood cancer treatments
The actual chip of human leukemia bone marrow where chambers and channels were filled with food dyes.

The actual chip of human leukemia bone marrow where chambers and channels were filled with food dyes.

(Image: NYU Tandon Applied Micro-Bioengineering Laboratory/Courtesy of Weiqiang Chen)

‘Leukemia-on-a-chip’ could transform CAR T blood cancer treatments

In a collaborative effort with NYU, Penn researchers have helped pioneer a novel 3D platform that mimics the human bone marrow and immune environment, enabling more predictive testing of cancer immunotherapy success in patients, including CAR T cell therapies.

3 min. read

Teaching robots to build without blueprints
A simulation of the mathematics of a bee colony.

Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed mathematical rules to simulate robots to behave like bees, building complex shapes without instructions, pointing to a new manufacturing frontier.

(Image: Courtesy of Jordan Raney and Mark Yim)

Teaching robots to build without blueprints

Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed mathematical rules to simulate robots who behave like bees, building complex shapes without instructions, pointing to a new manufacturing frontier inspired by nature.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

Penn engineers turn toxic fungus into anti-cancer drug
Qiuyue Nie and Maria Zotova, from left, purify samples of the fungus in a lab.

First author Qiuyue Nie (left) and coauthor Maria Zotova purify samples of the fungus.

(Image: Bella Ciervo)

Penn engineers turn toxic fungus into anti-cancer drug

Penn-led researchers have isolated a new class of molecules from Aspergillus flavus, a toxic crop fungus, and modified it into a promising cancer-killing compound

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

Heat domes and flooding have nearly tripled since the ’50s
Everett Clayton looks at a digital thermometer on a nearby building that reads 116 degrees while walking to his apartment on June 27, 2021 in Vancouver, Washington.

Record-breaking temperatures lingered over the Northwest during a historic heatwave in June, 2021 in Vancouver, Washington.

(Image: Nathan Howard via AP Images)

Heat domes and flooding have nearly tripled since the ’50s

New research led by Michael E. Mann links a surge in stalled jet stream events to human-driven climate change, with major implications for future heatwaves, wildfires, and floods.

7 min. read

Creating a classroom democracy
Assistant Professor of History Sarah Gronningsater teaching Hamilton’s America to Penn students.

nocred

Creating a classroom democracy

Through a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia course, assistant professor of history Sarah Gronningsater and her students resuscitate early American history.

Kristina García

2 min. read