Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors

PIK Professor Jay Gottfried commented on a study that suggests some women can smell even if missing parts of the brain associated with the olfactory system. “I am not convinced that the women are indeed missing their bulbs,” he said, noting that MRIs may not adequately detect all evidence of the structures.

PIK Professor George Demiris said virtual reality has shown early promise for dementia patients, though it’s not a substitute for human contact. “We have to look at innovation and different tools to come up with new solutions to address issues of social isolation and loneliness and allow people to stay engaged and active,” he said.

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.

PIK Professor Adrian Raine discusses the new film “Joker” and how it might be used to teach criminology. “It’s really hard to get a true-life story that fits all of these pieces together, let alone a very dramatic and stylized movie that illustrates these factors quite strongly,” he said. “That was really a revelation.”

PIK Professor Herbert Hovenkamp commented on states’ involvement in antitrust lawsuits against tech giants. “It’s ... not because the federal government isn’t doing enough,” he said. The states “want to get in the action, too.”

President Amy Gutmann and PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno discussed the role of bioethics in contemporary medicine and their new book, “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die.”

“Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die: Bioethics and the Transformation of Health Care in America,” a new book by President Amy Gutmann and PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno, was reviewed.

President Amy Gutmann and PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno authored an op-ed about the U.S. health care system. “By revising and reinforcing the A.C.A.,” they wrote, “we can benefit all Americans without threatening any with the loss of hard-fought, lifesaving health coverage. Surely our fellow Americans with life-threatening diseases of all sorts are also worth saving.”

PIK Professor Konrad Kording said, “There is a big undercurrent in neuroscience [saying] we should go back to neural networks,” which rely on technology that allows machines to learn from their mistakes.