Natural Sciences | Penn Today

How fungi make a key medicinal molecule

New research from Penn Medicine has uncovered the catalyst that creates a compound in fungi whose derivatives are applied to treatments for cancer and inflammation.

The exterior of the Vagelos building lit up with dramatic lighting.

An illuminating celebration to a brighter, greener future

Members of the Penn community celebrated an energy research milestone: the unveiling of the new Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology.

A large setup infrastructure for mining gold and other minerals in Australia.

A greener, cleaner way to extract cobalt

Penn researchers led a collaborative effort pioneering safer, more sustainable technique to extract elements critical to battery-powered technologies. Findings pave the way for getting value from materials that would otherwise be considered waste.

Penn students and Sayre high school students wading in a river in Cobbs Creek.

Rivers in a changing world

A new Academically Based Community Service class brings Penn and William L. Sayre High School students together to learn environmental science and engineering.

Collaborating on agricultural climate solutions, from plants to animals

The new Penn Plant Adaptability and Resilience Center brought together faculty speakers from five schools for its Climate Solutions for the Living World symposium.

Aman Husbands inspects plants in his lab

From one gene switch, many possible outcomes

A team of researchers led by Aman Husbands of the School of Arts & Sciences has uncovered surprising ways transcription factors—the genetic switches for genes—regulate plant development, revealing how subtle changes in a lipid-binding region can dramatically alter gene regulation.

Researchers pose next to a box they fabricated for recording fly courtship.

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.

Penn solutions to climate change

As society grapples with the impacts of a worsening climate—from the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events to rising sea levels and deadly heat waves—the need for actionable solutions has never been greater, Penn researchers say.

Visualization of 2024PT5's orbit around the sun temporarily joining Earth's.

Takeaways: The new mini moon

Last month Earth welcomed a visitor known as 2024 PT5. To learn more about this celestial guest, Penn Today caught up with two astronomers in the School of Arts & Sciences, Gary Bernstein and Bhuvnesh Jain.

Three women sit at tables in front of an audience. A Zoom screen with three additional speakers is behind them.

How is the world working to save biodiversity?

A Sept. 18 panel hosted by the Environmental Innovations Initiative and the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies discussed local and global initiatives.

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