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Inferno in the rainforest
Map of Brazil and other parts of South America showing myriad points of orange

Sensors on NASA satellites Terra and Aqua captured a record of thousands of points of fire in Brazil in late August. The fires pose a threat to the Amazon rainforest and to people living in and around it. (Image: NASA Earth Observatory)

Inferno in the rainforest

Satellite images have detected more than 100,000 points of fire in the Amazon this year. Scientists Reto Gieré and Alain Plante illuminate some less obvious impacts of the fires, including health threats and climate impacts.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A molecular ‘atlas’ of animal development
An abstract depiction of data features an elongated shape with various projections in pixels of different colors.

Each cell of a developing nematode worm embryo is catalogued at the molecular level in a new paper out in Science. In this visualization of the dataset, each dot represents a single cell, its color represents the age of the embryo it came from (orange=early, green=mid, blue/red=late), and the dots are arranged so that cells with similar transcriptomes are near each other. Visualized this way, the data form various thin “trajectories” that correspond to tissues and individual cell types. (Image: Cole Trapnell)

A molecular ‘atlas’ of animal development

Scientists have studied the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans for decades, making essential contributions to basic science. In the latest milestone, a team uses cutting-edge technology to individually profile the genes expressed in more than 80,000 cells in a developing C. elegans embryo.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Where ethics, welfare, and sustainability meet swine
pigs in large stalls at new bolton center

Where ethics, welfare, and sustainability meet swine

At New Bolton Center’s model pig farm, free-roaming sows are implanted with RFID chips, nourished by organic feed, and powered by solar energy.

Gina Vitale

Lung cell transplant boosts healing after the flu
Colorful fluorescent labeled cells appear in a tissue sample of a lung

Researchers successfully transplanted a special type of lung cell called AT2 cells (labeled in green) from healthy mice into mice that had experienced a severe flu infection. The AT2 cells that engrafted (in red) appear to have helped the animals recover more robustly. (Image: Aaron Weiner/School of Veterinary Medicine)

Lung cell transplant boosts healing after the flu

A serious case of the flu can cause lasting damage to the lungs. In a study in mice, researchers found that transplanting cells from the lungs of healthy animals enhanced healing in others that had had a severe respiratory infection.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world
Two people standing in a lab space, holding headbands.

Postdoc Arjun Ramakrishnan (left) and Penn Integrates Knowledge professor Michael Platt created a wearable EEG akin to a Fitbit for the brain, with a set of silicon and silver nanowire sensors embedded into a head covering like the headband seen here. The new technology led to the formation of a company called Cogwear, LLC.

A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world

The portable EEG created by PIK Professor Michael Platt and postdoc Arjun Ramakrishnan has potential applications from health care to sports performance.

Michele W. Berger

Five insights into how the brain works
Person sitting at a table with blurry people in front and a screen hanging on the wall behind, which reads, "Experiential effects on brain development."

Martha J. Farah, the Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences, is director of the Center for Neuroscience & Society at Penn. (Pre-pandemic image: Courtesy Martha Farah) 

Five insights into how the brain works

As the Center for Neuroscience & Society celebrates 10 years, founding director Martha Farah reflects on the array of research from its faculty, on subjects from brain games to aggression.

Michele W. Berger

What is a ‘mass shooting’ and how do we talk about gun violence?
A person standing at the foot of a set of outdoor stairs, with a brick wall behind and fencing atop the stairs.

Richard Berk, professor of criminology and statistics. (Image: Eric Sucar)

What is a ‘mass shooting’ and how do we talk about gun violence?

In a Q&A, criminologist Richard Berk discusses why definitions matter and what role social media and mental illness play in this context.

Michele W. Berger

An early start at research
A young woman (right) places electrodes on another young woman's neck (left).

Rising senior Donnisa Edmonds (right) practices placing electrodes on her colleague to measure physiological responses. As part of her research with the EDEN lab, she tracks the physical responses of children as they perform a series of tasks.

An early start at research

As part of the Jumpstart for Juniors program through the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, rising seniors can spend the summer working with faculty on unique and fascinating projects.

Gina Vitale Katherine Unger Baillie

Keeping parasites from sticking to mosquito guts could block disease transmission
Glowing green, dozens of small ovals represent parasites in a microscopic image

Mosquitoes infected with the parasite Crithidia fasciculata may offer a valuable model for studying other parasite diseases, according to a study led by Penn Vet’s Michael Povelones and Penn State Brandywine’s Megan Povelones. Here, a microscopic image shows the hindgut of Aedes aegypti mosquito infected with Crithidia expressing green fluorescent protein. (Image: Michael Povelones)

Keeping parasites from sticking to mosquito guts could block disease transmission

Researchers at the School of Veterinary Medicine show how a new model for studying the way parasites known as kinetoplastids adhere to mosquitoes’ insides could illuminate strategies for curbing diseases.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Unraveling the brain’s reward circuits
Purple and pink illustration of a neuron synapse

The investigation explored the "reward neurons" in the brain. (Image: Amber Alhadeff)

Unraveling the brain’s reward circuits

Food, alcohol, and certain drugs all act to reduce the activity of hunger neurons and to release reward signals in the brain, but alcohol and drugs rely on a different pathway than does food.

Katherine Unger Baillie