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Making ‘light’ work of computing  
Futuristic digital intelligent chip data processing technology

Image: Chayanan via Getty Images

Making ‘light’ work of computing  

Penn physicists led by Bo Zhen have created hybrid light-matter particles that interact strongly enough to compute, pointing toward ultrafast, low-energy optical AI hardware.

2 min. read

What happens when an iceberg melts?
An iceberg in Iceland.

Research from Hugo Ulloa, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Science, and Daisuke Noto of Hokkaido University, models how icebergs melt and move in their environments.

(Image: Gabi Musat / 500px via Getty Images)

What happens when an iceberg melts?

With ice balls, lasers, and cameras, School of Arts & Sciences’ Hugo Ulloa recreated a melting iceberg in his lab. This project revealed that icebergs don’t sit passively on the water’s surface but actually release dense, cold water and jet across the surface, churning and mixing everything in their paths.

From Omnia

2 min. read

Penn Medicine, CHOP team awarded Breakthrough Prize for developing gene therapy for inherited blindness
Jean Bennett and Albert Maguire

Physician-scientists Jean Bennett and Al Maguire (right and left, respectively, pictured in their home), and Katherine High received the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their trailblazing work on the first FDA-approved gene therapy for an inherited condition, which dramatically improves sight in people with a form of blindness called Leber congenital amaurosis.

(Image: Peggy Peterson)

Penn Medicine, CHOP team awarded Breakthrough Prize for developing gene therapy for inherited blindness

Jean Bennett, Albert Maguire, and Katherine High have been honored for their trailblazing work on the first FDA-approved gene therapy for an inherited condition.

From Penn Medicine News , Frank Otto

2 min. read

Gravity follows Newton and Einstein’s rules, even at cosmic scales
An artist's depiction of two galaxies, side-by-side, swriling at different velocites.

The cosmic microwave background, the faint afterglow of the Big Bang that fills all of space, passes through massive galaxy clusters whose motion slightly alters the light, allowing scientists to measure how fast the clusters are moving toward one another and test how strongly gravity pulls across the largest distances in the universe.

(Image: Courtesy of Lucy Reading/Simons Foundation)

Gravity follows Newton and Einstein’s rules, even at cosmic scales

By tracking galaxy clusters hundreds of millions of lightyears apart, Penn physicist Patricio Gallardo and collaborators find that the laws of gravity written by Newton and Einstein still hold, leaving little doubt that invisible dark matter exists.

3 min. read

Shujie Yang harnesses sound to build the next generation of microrobotic medicine
Shujie Yang

Shujie Yang is at the frontier of single-cell acoustic manipulation, an emerging field that blends physics, mechanobiology, and medicine.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering)

Shujie Yang harnesses sound to build the next generation of microrobotic medicine

Yang’s lab at Penn Engineering uses precisely-controlled ultrasound waves to develop microscale tools that can manipulate cells, viruses, and soft materials without physical contact.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

Four third-years receive Goldwater Scholarships
(Top row) Shreya Nair and Ian Peng. (Bottom row) Pranav Sompalle and Emily Valerio.

(Top row) Shreya Nair and Ian Peng. (Bottom row) Pranav Sompalle and Emily Valerio.

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Four third-years receive Goldwater Scholarships

Goldwater Scholarships are awarded to students planning research careers in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics.

3 min. read

Penn fourth-year Yash Rajpal named 2026-27 Luce Scholar
Yash Rajpal

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Penn fourth-year Yash Rajpal named 2026-27 Luce Scholar

Yash Rajpal, a University of Pennsylvania fourth-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is one of 16 recipients selected by the Henry Luce Foundation to be a 2026-27 Luce Scholar.

1 min. read

Mapping the expanding cosmos: Dark Energy Survey unveils clearest picture yet
Terrestrial telescope in Chile under a starlit sky.

The Dark Energy Survey used a 570-megapixel camera mounted on the 4-metre Victor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile to image 5,000 square degrees of southern sky. The survey discovered more than 1,000 supernovae and mapped millions of galaxies to help astronomers better understand the accelerating expansion of our universe.

(Image: Courtesy of Dark Energy Survey Collaborative)

Mapping the expanding cosmos: Dark Energy Survey unveils clearest picture yet

The Dark Energy Survey collaborative, including Penn researchers, recently released an analysis that gives the clearest picture yet of how dark energy is driving the universe’s expansion and how matter—including galaxies and groups of galaxies—has been organized over cosmic time.

3 min. read