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Penn engineers first to train AI at lightspeed
Tianwei Wu (left) and Liang Feng (right) demonstrating some of the apparatus used to develop the new, light-powered chip.

Tianwei Wu (left) and Liang Feng (right) demonstrating some of the apparatus used to develop the new, light-powered chip.

(Image: Sylvia Zhang)

Penn engineers first to train AI at lightspeed

Penn engineers have developed the first photonic chip that reshapes how light behaves to carry out the nonlinear mathematics at the heart of modern AI while reducing energy use.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

News on climate change is more persuasive than expected

News on climate change is more persuasive than expected

In a new paper, Computational Social Science Lab postdoctoral researcher Amir Tohidi and colleagues find that exposure to articles about climate change significantly increases climate change concerns among skeptics.

From Annenberg School for Communication

2 min. read

Penn ATLAS shares 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
Members of the Penn ATLAS team and others in front of the inner detector at the Large Hadron Collider.

Members of the Penn ATLAS team and others in front of the inner detector of ATLAS experiment.

(Image: ©CERN/Maximilien Brice)

Penn ATLAS shares 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

The team, which includes Joseph Kroll, Evelyn Thomson, Elliot Lipeles, Dylan Rankin, and Brig Williams from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is part of an expansive collaboration studying high-energy collisions from the Large Hadron Collider.

Michele W. Berger

2 min. read

Using climate modeling to guide global economic and political decisions
A climate map showing temperatures and contours.

Image: Christoph Burgstedt/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Using climate modeling to guide global economic and political decisions

Irina Marinov, associate professor in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Earth and Environmental Science, explains how climate modeling works and the information these models provide.

From the Environmental Innovations Initiative

2 min. read

‘I Will Vote’: Using future-oriented frames to motivate voters
A person affixes an I VOTED sticker to their t-shirt.

Image: kali9 via Getty Images

‘I Will Vote’: Using future-oriented frames to motivate voters

A new paper from Penn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center examines whether “I Voted” stickers influence people’s voting intentions, and whether different language choices in this approach to voter outreach might make a bigger impact on civic engagement.

From the Annenberg Public Policy Center

2 min. read

Baseball’s ‘magic mud’
 A jar of Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud sits on a table beside a muddy, dirty baseball.

Lena Blackburne’s legendary baseball rubbing mud has been a game-day staple for nearly a century, helping Major League pitchers achieve a better grip. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have scientifically confirmed its friction-enhancing properties, revealing its significance not just in baseball, but also in the broader field of materials science.

nocred

Baseball’s ‘magic mud’

Douglas Jerolmack and Paulo Arratia led research that could someday crack the code of the mud smeared on baseballs for nearly a century that pitchers profess provides a perfect grip.

3 min. read

We should ask why alcohol remains our social default
Boston Globe

We should ask why alcohol remains our social default

Postdoc Luis E. Seija of the Perelman School of Medicine writes that society should be honest about the risks of alcohol and its role in lives rather than mythologizing it as a modern-day miracle.

Angela Crumdy on the intersection of anthropology and education
Angela Crumdy.

Angela Crumdy is a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Penn GSE’s Policy, Organizations, Leadership, and Systems Division.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn GSE)

Angela Crumdy on the intersection of anthropology and education

The Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow in in Penn GSE’s Policy, Organizations, Leadership, and Systems Division conducts research and teaching on Cuban anthropology and education.

From Penn GSE