News from

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Reset All Filters
1694 Results
A conversation about second-generation immigrants and mortality
A crowd of people on an outdoor staircase in France
  • Q&A

    • A conversation about second-generation immigrants and mortality

    In a Q&A, Penn demographer Michel Guillot discusses recent work showing that male children of immigrants from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia have a mortality rate nearly double that of the native population in France.

    Michele W. Berger

    For incarcerated women, From Cell to Home offers a second chance
    Open prison door with sunlight coming in and outside city in background

    For incarcerated women, From Cell to Home offers a second chance

    The program, run by the Ortner Center’s Kathleen M. Brown with support from Penn student volunteers and the Quattrone Center, works to secure the release of reformed prisoners serving life sentences.

    Michele W. Berger

    A unique perspective on renewable energy
    Rachel Kyte stands at a podium speaking, the sign on the podium reads "Kleinman Center for Energy Policy."
  • Q&A

    • A unique perspective on renewable energy

    In a conversation with Rachel Kyte, the U.N. special representative and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All discusses how this energy sector has changed in the past decade and what happens when political will doesn’t match the science.

    Michele W. Berger

    Names prompt distinct brain activity in preschoolers
    A child wearing an electroencephalogram cap looking at a bright screen, with someone standing nearby.

    A child wearing the EEG cap participants used during trials of the study. This child is older than the study group, which ranged in age from 3 to 5 years old and skewed heavily male. (Photo: Suzanne Slattery)

    Names prompt distinct brain activity in preschoolers

    A study from Penn and CHOP found that when preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder hear their name, their neural patterns match those of their typically developing peers. The finding held regardless of whether the child’s mom or a stranger called the name.

    Michele W. Berger

    Looking beyond the disease to the person living with it
    A man standing in front of a class of college students pointing to a scan of a brain.

    A new course taught by PIK Professor Jay Gottfried (standing) has students leading discussions on cognitive neuroscience topics during one session, like the class shown here, then at the next, brings them face to face with people who have those or similar conditions.

    Looking beyond the disease to the person living with it

    In a new course taught by PIK Professor Jay Gottfried, students lead discussions on cognitive neuroscience topics and then meet patients who have relevant neurologic conditions.

    Michele W. Berger

    Brain regions linked to memory and emotion help humans navigate smell
    A man in a blue plaid coat, pink shirt and purple tie standing in front of a blurry building.

    Jay Gottfried is a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and the Arthur H. Rubenstein University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

    Brain regions linked to memory and emotion help humans navigate smell

    The work points to the existence of a grid-like hexagonal structure in olfactory-related brain areas, similar to mapping configurations previously found to support spatial navigation in animals.

    Michele W. Berger

    How superstitions spread
    A black cat walking on a walkway

    Do you change direction when you see a black cat approaching? A game theory-driven model developed by two theoretical biologists at Penn shows how such superstitions can catch on.

    How superstitions spread

    Superstitious beliefs may seem irrational, but they catch on in a society. Using an evolutionary approach to studying the emergence of coordinated behaviors, Erol Akçay and Bryce Morsky showed how a jumble of individual beliefs, including superstitions, coalesce into an accepted social norm.

    Katherine Unger Baillie