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Inspired by nature, artificial microtubules can work against a current to transport tiny cargoes
graphic of microvascular networks showing how free-swimming microrobots disperse but a microcatheter propels robots against a flow to a target

W

hile free-swimming microrobots have been explored as a way to precisely deliver therapeutics within a blood vessel, they can disperse in the strong flows, failing to reach their target at high enough concentrations. In contrast, microrobots propelled along an artificial microtubule, developed by physicist Arnold Mathijssen and colleagues, can be transported precisely, even working against the current. (Image: Courtesy of Arnold Mathijssen/Nature Machine Intelligence)

Inspired by nature, artificial microtubules can work against a current to transport tiny cargoes

Technology developed by Arnold Mathijssen of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues could one day clear blockages in blood vessels or precisely target chemotherapy drugs to a tumor.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Music-making and the flow of aerosols
Person playing a tuba in a dark room with a green laser shedding light on water mist

Members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, including Carol Jantsch, principal tuba player, took part in a study led by Penn scientists Paulo Arratia and Douglas Jerolmack. Their investigation examined the aerosols professional musicians generate as they play. (Image: Courtesy of Paulo Arratia)

Music-making and the flow of aerosols

If simply breathing can spread the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others nearby, what about blowing into a tuba? Researchers from the School of Engineering the School of Arts & Sciences used fluid mechanics to study the movement of aerosols generated by musicians.

Katherine Unger Baillie

The Higgs boson discovery, 10 years later
workers with hard hats stand next to the complex machinery of the Large Hadron Collider

The 25-meter-tall and 46-meter-long ATLAS detector, which identified the Higgs boson, is attached to the Large Hadron Collider. Lipeles and colleagues are moving into new research directions, including exploring how the Higgs might interact with dark matter. (Image: Yomiuri Shimbun/AP Images)

The Higgs boson discovery, 10 years later

Penn physicist Elliot Lipeles reflects on the past, present, and future of physics, from the discovery of the Higgs boson to theories about new subatomic particles.

Marilyn Perkins

How bacteria store information to kill viruses (but not themselves)
A microscope image of a group of phages
A group of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, imaged using transmission electron microscopy. New research sheds light on how bacteria fight off these invaders without triggering an autoimmune response. (Image: ZEISS Microscopy, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

How bacteria store information to kill viruses (but not themselves)

Researchers from the School of Arts & Sciences have discovered that the balance between fighting viruses and avoiding autoimmunity has a key role in shaping how bacteria “remember” old infections.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano

Researchers find topological phenomena at high technologically relevant frequencies
a close up of a needle etching stars into a blue membrane with a Z down the middle

Researchers find topological phenomena at high technologically relevant frequencies

A collaborative new study led by researchers in the School of Arts & Sciences demonstrates topological control capabilities in an acoustic system, with implications for applications such as 5G communications and quantum information processing.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Five Penn students are 2022 Goldwater Scholars
five students

Five undergraduates have received 2022 Goldwater Scholarships, awarded to sophomores or juniors planning research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering. Penn’s newest Goldwater Scholars are (from left) juniors Joshua Chen, Allison Chou, Shriya Karam, Laila Barakat Norford, and Andrew Sontag.

Five Penn students are 2022 Goldwater Scholars

Five juniors have received 2022 Goldwater Scholarships to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering. Penn's newest Goldwater Scholars are Joshua Chen, Allison Chou, Shriya Karam, Laila Barakat Norford, and Andrew Sontag.
Decoding a material’s ‘memory’
particles shown as gray dots with arrows and colored lines indicating their direction of movement

A suspension of particles of different sizes during shearing experiments conducted in the lab of Paulo Arratia, with arrows indicating particle “flow” and trajectories. In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers detail the relationship between a disordered material’s individual particle arrangement and how it reacts to external stressors. The study also found that these materials have “memory” that can be used to predict how and when they will flow. (Image: Arratia lab)

Decoding a material’s ‘memory’

A new study details the relationship between particle structure and flow in disordered materials, insights that can be used to understand systems ranging from mudslides to biofilms.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Uncovering unexpected properties in a complex quantum material
a close up of hands adjusting a lens on an optics table with green laser light in the foreground

A new study describes previously unexpected properties in a complex quantum material. Using a novel technique developed at Penn, these findings have implications for developing future quantum devices and applications.

Uncovering unexpected properties in a complex quantum material

Using a novel technique developed at Penn, researchers gained new insights into the properties of a proposed excitonic insulator known as Ta2NiSe5, with implications for future quantum devices.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Why some fluids flow slower when pushed harder
Scientific American

Why some fluids flow slower when pushed harder

Paulo Arratia of the School of Engineering and Applied Science commented on a study that explored how fluids flow under different pressures. “Visualizing flow inside a 3-D porous media literally gives a window into something that was impossible to see,” he said. “If you could actually see the molecules stretching and recoiling, that would be wonderful [to] connect the molecular point of view to the microscopic.”

Senior Erin Hayes named Gates Cambridge Scholar
student standing outside

Senior Erin Hayes has been named a 2022 Gates Cambridge Scholar. Hayes is graduating in May with her bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and master’s degree in physics in the School of Arts & Sciences.

Senior Erin Hayes named Gates Cambridge Scholar

Senior Erin Hayes, a Roy and Diana Vagelos Scholar in the Molecular Life Sciences, has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Cambridge in England.