11/15
Postdocs
A series on wellness and well-being
A roundup of the six-part series from Penn Today that focuses on University resources available to students, faculty, staff, and postdocs for their mental, physical, technical, and financial health.
Penn IUR, the United Nations Environment Programme unveil new framework to address gap in urban nature finance
The Penn Institute for Urban Research has released a report for the United Nations Environment Programme Cities Unit’s State of Finance for Nature in Cities, From Grey to Green: Better data to finance nature in cities, during COP16 Colombia.
Finding a new behavioral adaptation in fruit flies
Penn researchers discovered “wing spreading” in Drosophila santomea, research that hints at a rare, novel finding and offers insights into an underrepresented area in sexual reproduction research: female-initiated behaviors.
Penn solutions to climate change
As society grapples with the impacts of a worsening climate—from the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events to rising sea levels and deadly heat waves—the need for actionable solutions has never been greater, Penn researchers say.
An integral T cell pathway helps regulate female gene expression
Penn Vet researchers have revealed a connection between NF-κB signaling pathways and X chromosome inactivation, which has implications for understanding sex-based immune responses during infection.
How synthetic nicotine brands market e-cigarettes to young people on social media
A study finds that most ads for e-cigarettes on Instagram, a platform dominated by users under the age of 25, do not adhere to FDA health warning requirements.
A method of ‘look twice, forgive once’ can sustain social cooperation
Using mathematical modeling, researchers from Penn and Princeton found a way to maintain cooperation without relying on complex norms or institutions.
Liquid crystals in motion mimic biological systems
Researchers in the lab of Chinedum Osuji have discovered that under the right conditions, liquid crystals form structures reminiscent of biological systems that can transport material from one place to another, much like complex biological systems.
Novel coupled nanopore platform offers greater precision for detecting molecules
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Penn have created the first ever reusable coupled nanopore platform for detecting and guiding molecules, findings could pave the way for much improved DNA sequencing and molecule identification.
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will investigate the history of galaxies
Robyn Sanderson and collaborators are unearthing the history of the universe’s formation by looking for clues that reveal its “galactic fossil record.”
In the News
Is an Alzheimer’s blood test right for me?
Postdoc Claire Erickson and Emily Largent of the Perelman School of Medicine and the Leonard Davis Institute discuss which people should take an Alzheimer’s blood test.
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The brain may interpret smells from each nostril differently
A study by postdoc Gulce Nazli Dikecligil in the Perelman School of Medicine suggests that the smells flowing through each nostril are processed as two separate signals in the part of the brain that receives smell inputs.
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One graceless tweet doesn’t warrant cancellation
Elle Lett, a postdoc in the Perelman School of Medicine, wrote about how the word “freak” has been used to dehumanize Black women. “There is a history that dates back to the antebellum South” of “fetishizing, hypersexualizing and otherizing Black women in freak shows and displays to media and even medical textbooks,” Lett wrote. “Black women are consistently dehumanized in America. By using ‘freak of nature,’ you separate Black women from the rest of human existence.”
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