People imitate accent features they expect to hear, even without hearing them
Research from postdoc Lacey Wade confirmed this idea, what she calls expectation-driven convergence, in a controlled experiment for the first time. The work reveals just how much the subconscious factors into the way people speak.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
A new study from the lab of Vijay Balasubramaniandescribes 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.
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.
