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Harnessing DNA tricks to boost nanosensors
graphene sensor

Harnessing DNA tricks to boost nanosensors

Researchers have found a way to increase the sensitivity of graphene sensors using a trick of DNA engineering. The sensors might one day be used to monitor and treat HIV.

Ali Sundermier

Earthquakes at the nanoscale
sichuan building collapsed

Earthquakes at the nanoscale

Scientists have gotten better at predicting where earthquakes will occur, but they’re still in the dark about when they will strike and how devastating they will be. Penn researchers hope to tackle this by investigating the laws of friction at the smallest possible scale, the nanoscale.

Ali Sundermier

A topological phenomenon could light the path toward faster optical communications
Fermi Arc

A schematic drawing of the unusual topological energy landscape around a pair of exceptional points (red dots) showing the emergence of a bulk Fermi arc (middle arc) and exotic polarization contours that form a Mobius-strip-like texture (top and bottoms strips). Credit: Hengyun Zhou, Lei Chen

A topological phenomenon could light the path toward faster optical communications

A new study led by University of Pennsylvania physicist Bo Zhen investigated topological phenomena in open, or non-Hermitian, physical systems which could potentially lead to faster connection speeds in optical communications.

Ali Sundermier

By river, ocean, or wind, rocks round the same way
Jerolmack.river rocks

A mathematical formula predicts the way that river rocks, ocean pebbles and dune sands acquire a rounded shape, Penn researchers found. Credit: AniVar/Wikipedia

By river, ocean, or wind, rocks round the same way

Observations from Puerto Rican river rocks, New Mexican sand grains, Italian ocean pebbles, and the lab lent Douglas Jerolmack and his team insight into a general geophysical process.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn's Electric Race Car Team Seeks Fourth Title in Four Years
Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn's Electric Race Car Team Seeks Fourth Title in Four Years

Eighty undergrads from a variety of departments, including Connor Sendel of the Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, are building an electric car with four-wheel drive with hopes of winning two competitions this June.

Remembering Hawking: Q&A with Vijay Balasubramanian
Vijay Balasubramanian, physics professor

Remembering Hawking: Q&A with Vijay Balasubramanian

Stephen Hawking, one of history’s most influential physicists, spent his life grappling with mysteries of the universe. Vijay Balasubramanian of the School of Arts and Sciences shared some of his memories of Hawking and discussed the impact the Briton had on scientists and nonscientists alike.

Ali Sundermier

Creating atomic water filters
Creating Atomic Water Filters

nocred

Creating atomic water filters

A vast majority of the earth’s water is salty, making it unfit for people to drink. Researchers are working on a technology that could potentially offer a new method of desalinating water that would be both fast and scalable.

Ali Sundermier

A simpler approach for creating quantum materials
a model of a single sheet of graphene on a moving substrate indicated with arrows

A simpler approach for creating quantum materials

New research details how properties found in flat-band physics, similar to twisted bilayer graphene, can be obtained in just a single layer.

Erica K. Brockmeier