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Physics
Making sense of string theory
A Q&A with theoretical physicists Mirjam Cvetic and Ling Lin about what string theory is and how their recent discovery of a “quadrillion solutions” might change the course of the field.
Philadelphia: The new city of science
Penn researchers will be involved in a weeklong series of interactive activities and events across the city as part of the Philadelphia Science Festival.
Seeing the world through a biophysicist’s lens
Philip Nelson demonstrates how seemingly simple questions like ‘What is light?’ help scientists understand, and improve, how people visualize the world around them.
Answering big questions by studying small particles
Using electronics designed at Penn, particle physicists study neutrinos, incredibly small and nearly massless subatomic particles, to understand the fundamental nature of the universe.
STEM legacies: Five researchers reflect on the women who inspire them
For Women’s History Month, Penn faculty share their perspectives on enterprising women in STEM who have been sources of inspiration in a field with a large gender imbalance.
Bacterial population growth rate linked to how individual cells control their size
Developed at Penn, a theoretical model from a new area of research at the interface of math, physics, and biology describes how individual parameters can influence population-level dynamics.
Women in Physics Group inspires the next generation of physicists and astronomers
Students had the opportunity to interact with a world-renowned astronomer during a day of informal get-togethers, networking events, and physics lectures at the annual conference.
Exploring the unseen: On dark matter and dark energy
Physics professors Mark Trodden and Masao Sako explain how dark matter and dark energy shape their work.
Charles Kane and Eugene Mele receive the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award
The Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria have recognized the Penn physicists for their discovery of topological insulators.
A physical model for forming patterns in pollen
Physicists have developed a model that describes how patterns form on pollen spores, the first physically rigorous framework that details the thermodynamic processes that lead to complex biological architectures.
In the News
Scientists propose ‘missing’ law for the evolution of everything in the universe
Stuart Kauffman of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on a study that proposed a missing scientific law identifying “universal concepts of selection” that drive evolution.
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Russia aims to restore prestige in race to moon’s south pole
Benjamin L. Schmitt of the School of Arts & Sciences and the Weitzman School of Design says that sentiment in the scientific and astronaut communities has begun to shift toward a future in which NASA and Roscosmos are no longer close partners.
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Nine women who changed science are featured in a new Philly exhibit
A new exhibit at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia celebrates the late Mildred Cohn, a biochemist at the Perelman School of Medicine who fought to reduce discrimination in academia.
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Neuroscience explains why Bill Gates’ weird reading trick is so effective
A study by Penn researchers working in physics, neuroscience, and bioengineering found that people instinctively seek patterns and similarities in the data they absorb.
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UK joins international effort to uncover first moments of the universe
In a statement for the Simons Observatory, Mark Devlin of the School of Arts & Sciences says that new telescopes and researchers from the UK will make a significant addition to their efforts to examine the origins of the universe.
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Liquid crystals bring robotics to the microscale
In collaboration with the University of Ljubljana, Kathleen Stebe of the School of Engineering and Applied Science has built a swimming microrobot that paddles by rotating liquid crystal molecules.
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