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Liquid crystals in motion mimic biological systems
Various undulating shapes of crystals.

Under the right conditions, liquid crystals form structures reminiscent of biological systems, shown in actual (left) and false color (right), with the filaments in light blue and the flattened discs in yellow.

(Image: Christopher Browne)

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.

Ian Scheffler

Novel coupled nanopore platform offers greater precision for detecting molecules
Artist depiction of DNA moving through a nanopore system.

Marija Drndić of the School of Arts & Sciences and Dimitri Monos of the Perelman School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia led a team of researchers who developed a new nanostructure platform that allows for more precise detection and control of biomolecules, such as DNA and proteins. This exciting new platform signals a new era of synthetic biology, paving the way for enhanced DNA sequencing and protein conformation detection.

(Image: Courtesy of artist) 

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
artist's concept of the Andromeda galaxy's stellar halo, depicted with exaggerated brightness and density, highlighting the extent of this faint and loosely connected collection of stars that surrounds the galaxy.

Robyn Sanderson and Adrien Thob of the School of Arts & Sciences are part of a team of astronomers using NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to uncover the “fossil record” of the universe as they look to clues to unearth key insights into its formation.

(Image: Courtesy of NASA, Ralf Crawford (STScI))

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.”
Does heat travel differently in tight spaces?
Green-tinted image showing thermal plumes in a Hele-Shaw cell, illustrating heat transfer in confined spaces.

Hugo Ulloa and Daisuke Noto of the School of Arts & Sciences have unearthed findings that address long-standing mysteries in the mechanics of fluids in confined, tight spaces: how their boundaries affect heat as it emanates from one place and dissipates throughout the space. The image above is a lab-scale hydrothermal system modeled utilizing a Hele-Shaw cell of 10 cm tall, 20 cm long and 4 mm gap. The interior of the Hele-Shaw cell is filled with degassed, deionized water heated from the bottom and cooled from above. A green laser sheet crosses the middle plane of the cell to visualize the motions of micro-scale particles seeded on the water, allowing researchers to estimate the fluid velocity and temperature.

 

 

(Image: Courtesy of Daisuke Noto)

Does heat travel differently in tight spaces?

New research led by Penn scientists offers insights into fundamental problems in fluid mechanics, findings that pave the way for more efficient heat transfer in myriad systems.
Penn pioneers a ‘one-pot platform’ to promptly produce mRNA delivery particles
3D illustration showing cross-section of the lipid nanoparticle carrying mRNA of the virus entering a human cell.

Lipid nanoparticles present one of the most advanced drug delivery platforms to shuttle promising therapeutics such as mRNA but are limited by the time it takes to synthesize cationic lipids, a key component. Now, Michael Mitchell and his team at the School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a faster way to make cationic lipids that are also more versatile, able to carry different kinds of treatments to target specific organs.

(Image: iStock / Dr_Microbe)

Penn pioneers a ‘one-pot platform’ to promptly produce mRNA delivery particles

New lipid platform enables rapid synthesis of molecules that can shuttle therapeutics for a range of diseases with a high degree of organ specificity.
Social media use is associated with more frequent vaccination
A hand liking the text “I got vaccinated!”

Image: iStock/Anton Vierietin

Social media use is associated with more frequent vaccination

Researchers from the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that more social media use actually correlates with more vaccination, but the reasons differ between Democrats and Republicans.

From the Annenberg Public Policy Center

A first, physical system to learn nonlinear tasks without a traditional computer processor
Contrastive local learning network.

University of Pennsylvania physics and engineering researchers have created a contrastive local learning network, an analog system that is fast, low-power, scalable, and able to learn nonlinear tasks.

(Image: Erica Moser)

A first, physical system to learn nonlinear tasks without a traditional computer processor

Physics and engineering researchers created a contrastive local learning network that is fast, low-power, and scalable.