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The flower that blooms in the winter
Rubin red variety of witchhazels

The Hamamelis × intermedia variety of witchhazels, also known as Rubin. (Photo courtesy: Morris Arboretum)

  • Q&A

    • The flower that blooms in the winter

    The witchhazel is a species of flower that blooms in cold temperatures and lives around campus, and in abundance at the Morris Arboretum. The Arboretum’s Anthony Aiello talks the ins and outs of the strange species.
    Solar system exploration Q&A with Cullen Blake
    a satellite flying above earth with the moon in the distant background
  • Q&A

    • Solar system exploration Q&A with Cullen Blake

    Blake, an observational astronomer at Penn who specializes in the search for exoplanets, discusses the busy start of 2019 in the research of solar system exploration.

    Erica K. Brockmeier

    Electric bond
    Presentation ceremony with background image of Kane and Mele

    During the gala ceremony held on Nov. 4 at NASA’s Hangar 1 in Mountain View, Calif., Charles Kane and Eugene Mele were presented the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics award by writer and science educator Lucy Hawking (the daughter of Stephen Hawking) and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

    Electric bond

    Behind the discovery of a new class of electronic materials is a 20-year collaboration between two Penn physicists, winners of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

    Angelo Fichera

    Up, up, and away
    BLAST telescope with Mark Devlin and students

    As the project manager of the $100 million Simons Observatory project, Devlin (center) is working to keep the numerous and disparate components of the project from falling behind due to pandemic-related shutdowns while recognizing that some delays and disruptions will be inevitable. His advice is to not “sweat the small stuff.” (Pre-pandemic image)

    Up, up, and away

    Mark Devlin and his team behind BLAST are about to embark on another scientific adventure in Antarctica, this time measuring how stars form in our galaxy.

    Lauren Hertzler

    Weighing sustainability of real vs. fake Christmas trees
    A person putting ornaments on an artificial Christmas tree.

    Image: Dmytro Betsenko via Getty Images

    Weighing sustainability of real vs. fake Christmas trees

    Engineering professor Lorena Grundy says people looking to make a sustainable decision should consider how many years they would use an artificial tree, how they plan to dispose of a real tree, and how the tree was transported.

    2 min. read