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Seeing the world through a biophysicist’s lens
a line of test tubes filled with a rainbow of colored chemicals

A series of quantum dots, particles that are only a few nanometers in size, with the contents of each vial differing only in the physical size of the crystals, which causes them all to glow at different frequencies. This concept is similar to an organ pipe, which also produces sound at a particular frequency that is related to its size. (Image: Prof. Marija Drndić, University of Pennsylvania). 

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.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Answering big questions by studying small particles
inside the sno+ detector A view inside the SNO detector, a 40-foot acrylic sphere that’s covered with thousands of photodetectors. The facility is located in SNOLAB, a research facility located 2km underground near Sudbury, Canada (Photo credit: SNO+ Collaboration).

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.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Women in Physics Group inspires the next generation of physicists and astronomers
a group of women talking while sitting around a table

Willman (center) and a group of undergraduates, including physics majors as well as students studying other STEM-related disciplines, chatted informally over breakfast about their personal experiences as STEM students and researchers.   

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.

Erica K. Brockmeier

A physical model for forming patterns in pollen
Pollen structure types illustration

Four sets of pollen grains (from top left to bottom right: Alisma lanceolatum, Galium wirtgenii, Gaillardia aristata, Gomphrena globosa), showing the scanning electron microscopy image alongside the simulation of the physical model for the same geometry (Image credit: PalDat.org (SEM image) and Asja Radja (simulation)).

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.

Erica K. Brockmeier , Erica K. Brockmeier

The physics of multitasking
colorful dots arranged to look like the neurons inside a brain

The physics of multitasking

Penn physicists characterize the limits of multitasking in biological networks, paving the way for future applications in fields from biology to medicine.

Erica K. Brockmeier , Erica K. Brockmeier

Physics on display
a metal tube with a line of flames coming out of the top and a blurred person posing in the background

A Rubens’ tube, which uses pressurized propane to bring sound waves to life with fire, was one of several demonstrations from the lights and waves winter physics show.

Physics on display

Hundreds of regional junior high and high school students visited Penn’s campus in early January to beat the winter blues—and reds—by watching physics demonstrations about lights and waves.

Erica K. Brockmeier