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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

One graceless tweet doesn’t warrant cancellation
The New York Times

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.”

Perceptions shaped social behavior during the pandemic
A movie marquee with the words "1. Elbow Bumps 2. Foot Shakes 3. Just Wave!"

Perceptions shaped social behavior during the pandemic

Research from Penn psychologists found that Americans who most feared losing their connections continued interacting with others, paradoxically acting in ways that risked prolonging disease-mitigating social restrictions.

Michele W. Berger

Therapy dogs help students relax and relieve stress
Penn students petting a dog outside

Beau the English Labrador plays with students as they take a break from studying and enjoy therapy dogs on campus during the event, “Pawsitive Study Break”, sponsored by Wharton Undergraduate Division at Tannenbaum Quad. (Image: Sara Hoover, Wharton Undergraduate Division)

Therapy dogs help students relax and relieve stress

The Wharton School’s Undergraduate Division invited students to take a break from studying and enjoy therapy dogs on campus.

Dee Patel

From corals to humans, a shared trigger for sperm to get in motion
coral diving

With coral reefs under threat from climate change, pollutants, sedimentation, and other factors, Barott and colleagues hope to continue investigating how such challenges may influence coral reproduction and persistence. (Image: Courtesy of Kelsey Speer)

From corals to humans, a shared trigger for sperm to get in motion

Coral sperm require a specific pH to move, according to research from the School of Arts & Sciences, which identifies a signaling pathway that is shared by organisms including humans. The results inform how corals may fare with climate change.

Katherine Unger Baillie

In the brain’s cerebellum, a new target for suppressing hunger
A graphic with a stomach and a brain next to one another

Signals between the brain and stomach help animals decide when and how much to eat. A research collaboration involving Penn neuroscientists has uncovered a sensor for fullness in an area of the brain never before associated with satiation: the cerebellum. (Image: Courtesy of the Betley laboratory)

In the brain’s cerebellum, a new target for suppressing hunger

A research team led by J. Nicholas Betley in the School of Arts & Sciences has identified an entirely new way the brain signals fullness after eating. The findings offer a novel target for therapies that could dramatically curb overeating.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A new model for how the brain perceives unique odors
a diagram of a simplified brain created with string and pins

A new study from the lab of Vijay Balasubramanian describes a statistical model for how the olfactory system discerns unique odors. This work provides a starting point for generating new hypotheses and conducting experiments that can help researchers better understand this complex, crucial area of the brain.

A new model for how the brain perceives unique odors

Using statistical physics and insights from biology, this research can help inform new hypotheses and experiments towards understanding the olfactory system, a complex and crucial pathway of the brain.

Erica K. Brockmeier

A microscopic worm may shed light on how we perceive gravity
Micrsoscopic view of Caenorhabditis elegans, a free-living transparent nematode, about 1 mm in length

Caenorhabditis elegans, a free-living transparent roundworm, about 1 mm in length.

A microscopic worm may shed light on how we perceive gravity

C. elegans shares more than half of its genes with humans, allowing genetic studies to give insight into which genes are responsible for similar traits in humans, such as pinpointing molecular pathways responsible for gravitaxis, the ability to move in response to gravity.

From Penn Engineering Today

Mapping words to color
fanned out color sample sheets depicting a rainbow of shades

A Penn study has looked at the communicative needs that drive similarities and differences in how languages develop vocabularies for color. 

Mapping words to color

Researchers led by postdoc Colin Twomey and professor Joshua Plotkin developed an algorithm that can infer the communicative needs different linguistic communities place on colors.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Reimagining scientific discovery through the lens of an artist
a headshot of Rebecca Kamen in front of an abstract painting

Reimagining scientific discovery through the lens of an artist

The latest exhibition by Rebecca Kamen, Penn artist-in-residence and visiting scholar, at the American University Katzen Art Center explores curiosity and the creative process across art and science.

Erica K. Brockmeier