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Finding a new behavioral adaptation in fruit flies
Researchers pose next to a box they fabricated for recording fly courtship.

From left to right, Dawn Chen, Yun Ding, and Minhao Li.

Eric Sucar

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.
Studying Wikipedia browsing habits to learn how people learn
Network schematic of peoples' browsing activity on Wikipedia.

Shown here: A hyperlink network from English Wikipedia, with only 0.1% of articles (nodes) and their connections (edges) visualized. Seven different reader journeys through this network are highlighted in various colors. The network is organized by topic and displayed using a layout that groups related articles together.

(Image: Dale Zhou)

Studying Wikipedia browsing habits to learn how people learn

A collaborative team of researchers analyzed the information-seeking styles of more than 480,000 people from 50 countries and found that gender and education inequality track different types of knowledge exploration. Their findings suggest potential cultural drivers of curiosity and learning.
Airbnbs associated with more crime in London, new study shows
Police officers patrolling Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus in central London

“The fact that we still find an increase in crime despite Airbnb’s efforts reveals the severity of the predicament induced by the rise of home sharing,” says David Kirk, professor of criminology at Penn, who co-authored a study with University of Cambridge criminologist Charles C. Lanfear to study the impacts on crime of Airbnb lettings across London.

(Image: iStock/Paolo Paradiso)

Airbnbs associated with more crime in London, new study shows

Since its founding in 2008, the short-term homestay platform Airbnb has expanded to 100,000 cities in more than 220 countries, and, according to data from the company, 1.5 billion guests had stayed in Airbnb-listed properties through 2023.
Many wealthy members of Congress are descendants of rich slaveholders — new study demonstrates the enduring legacy of slavery

Many wealthy members of Congress are descendants of rich slaveholders — new study demonstrates the enduring legacy of slavery

A co-authored study by Ph.D. student Neil Sehgal of the School of Engineering and Applied Science found that legislators who are descendants of slaveholders are significantly wealthier than members of Congress without slaveholder ancestry.

Exploring the authenticity of a pair of storied gloves
Historic gloves in a case.

The gloves under ultraviolet light. 

nocred

Exploring the authenticity of a pair of storied gloves

Kislak Center curator Alicia Meyer is researching a pair of gloves in the Penn Libraries collection rumored to have been William Shakespeare’s, enlisting the help of Tessa Gadomski in the Libraries conservation laboratory to see if the gloves could be from the 1600s.
Mastering physical contact with new algorithm for robots
A robotic arm balancing a tray in a lab.

The new algorithm allows the robotic arm to balance and move a waiter’s plastic tray, mastering control of a sliding object—a previously impossible task for robots.

(Image: DAIR Lab)

Mastering physical contact with new algorithm for robots

Penn Engineers have developed an algorithm that makes previously impossible tasks possible for autonomous robots, like controlling the motion of a sliding object.

Ian Scheffler