Physics | Penn Today

Stories of Penn scientists: David Rittenhouse

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of his observations of the 1769 transit of Venus, a glimpse into the story of the man whose name became synonymous with astronomy and mathematics.

a person adjusting a lens on an optics table

The next generation of optical communication with nanophotonics

Research from the lab of Bo Zhen is pushing the boundaries of optics by using fundamental physics to address many of the real-world challenges faced by engineers.

portraits of eugene mele and nancy speck

Two Penn faculty elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Eugene Mele of the School of Arts and Sciences and Nancy Speck of the Perelman School of Medicine are welcomed into the Academy for their “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

Sophomore Chloe Cho and juniors Lauren Duhamel, Srinivas Mandyam and Abigail Poteshman.

Four Penn undergraduates receive Goldwater Scholarships

Four Penn undergraduates have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering. Sophomore Chloe Cho and juniors Lauren Duhamel, Srinivas Mandyam and Abigail Poteshman.

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.

a large group of people in front of the Franklin Institute building with a science demonstration (with smoke and the aftermath of an explosion that caused colored balls to fly into the air) in the foreground

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.

a line of test tubes filled with a rainbow of colored chemicals

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.

a silhouette of a woman with a cape standing on top of a hill

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.

six agar plates with different types of bacteria growing on them

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.

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