9.30
Science & Technology
High school students lead ‘Maskathon’ during remote summer program
High school students lead ‘Maskathon’ during remote summer program
A virtual Maskathon showcased high school students’ problem solving, product development, and creativity with their tech-integrated face masks.
Engineers manipulate color on the nanoscale, making it disappear
Engineers manipulate color on the nanoscale, making it disappear
A new system of nanoscale semiconductor strips uses structural color interactions to eliminate the strips’ intrinsic color entirely, with implications for holographic displays and optical sensors, or new types of microlasers and detectors.
New funding supports milestone initiative to advance solar energy research
Penn’s Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology is a partner in a $40 million award from the Department of Energy that will accelerate fundamental research on solar technology.
Phase II of research resumption expands on-campus activities
An update about the second of Penn’s three-part reopening of research with Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell.
Getting gene therapy to the brain
Getting gene therapy to the brain
Using a large animal model of genetic brain disease, researchers led by John H. Wolfe of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia delivered an effective treatment across the blood-brain barrier to correct the whole brain.
What would it take to make the Delaware ‘swimmable’?
What would it take to make the Delaware ‘swimmable’?
With funding from the William Penn Foundation, the Water Center at Penn is investigating questions of water quality, access, and equity.
Interning virtually
Interning virtually
The Translational Research Internship Program, offered by the Perelman School of Medicine’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Education Programs, provides mentorship for undergraduates as they complete a translational research project.
Pennovation Accelerator moves online
Pennovation Accelerator moves online
In its third summer, the six-week program for startup companies went entirely virtual, but that didn’t stop the cohort of entrepreneurs from learning, networking, and innovating.
Advancing knowledge on archaea
Advancing knowledge on archaea
An open-source data platform for researchers studying archaea is paving the way for new insights and educational opportunities.
Offsetting carbon emissions, one ton at a time
Offsetting carbon emissions, one ton at a time
Carbon offsets are a small but meaningful market in its mission to contribute to greenhouse gas reducing industries and practices in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.
In the News
CBS Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania program training dogs to sniff out spotted lanternfly eggs
Jennifer Essler, a postdoc in the School of Veterinary Medicine, spoke about a new program that trains dogs to detect the presence of spotted lanternfly eggs. “For the dogs, it’s a game, it’s like anything else. They don’t know that they are saving the planet in any way,” she said.
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The Washington Post
Drone maker hurt by US-China rift, opening door to US rivals
Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science spoke about the challenges of using drones for commercial purposes and about American perceptions of DJI, a China-based drone manufacturer.
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The Hill
Pandemic exposes broadband divide
Christopher Yoo of the Law School spoke about the importance of expanding broadband infrastructure in the U.S. “Investing in infrastructure would be a terrific way to support the economy. It not only spends money but also lays the foundation for future growth and future jobs,” he said.
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CNN
What you need to know about coronavirus on Wednesday, September 2
Kenneth Foster of the School of Engineering and Applied Science debunked conspiracy theories that link 5G networks and radio frequencies to the spread of COVID-19. "There's nothing different in terms of exposure," he said.
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BBC News
Elon Musk to show off working brain-hacking device
Ari Benjamin, a doctoral student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, said the biggest stumbling block for brain-to-machine interface technology is the complexity of the human brain. "Once they have the recordings, Neuralink will need to decode them and will someday hit the barrier that is our lack of basic understanding of how the brain works, no matter how many neurons they record from,” he said. "Decoding goals and movement plans is hard when you don't understand the neural code in which those things are communicated."
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Gizmodo
Does your cat actually hate you?
Carlo Siracusa of the School of Veterinary Medicine spoke about how cats interact with their owners. “Humans are very physical in their relationships—they want to hold their cat, hug their cat, etc. This can be terrible for any animal that doesn’t enjoy your presence, but it’s even worse for cats, because the way in which cats express their preferences is through proximity,” he said.
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Forbes
National Science Foundation invests $104 million to launch four new engineering research centers
Cherie Kagan of the School of Engineering and Applied Science spoke about the Penn-led IoT4Ag center’s work: “We need new technology to meet the challenges of a world with a growing population and changing climate. We simply need to produce more crops for every drop of water or Joule of energy we’re currently using to realize a food, energy and water-secure future.”
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STAT News
Boosting the promise—and reining in the peril—of COVID-19 preprints
PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno and an AAAS colleague wrote about scientific preprints, web-based publications of yet-to-be-peer-reviewed research findings. “Let’s revel in the knowledge that preprints today are helping researchers share—especially with each other—their latest advances with great ease and speed. At the same time, let’s impose some discipline on our own proclivities to celebrate prematurely or sink into despair,” they wrote.
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The Hill
Wealthy households have 25 percent higher carbon impacts than lower-income homes
Vincent Reina of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design spoke about how class affects access to sustainable energy alternatives. “For higher income individuals, it's a function of choice," he said. "For lower income individuals, it's a function of constraints.”
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The New York Times
Who’s a bot? Who’s not?
Sarah Jackson of the Annenberg School for Communication said it’s important to focus on where bots exist within social networks as well as with whom they actually interact. “Even if there are a lot of bots in a network, it is misleading to suggest they are leading the conversation or influencing real people who are tweeting in those same networks,” she said.
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