11/15
Science & Technology
Technology, aging patients, and the people who care for them
Technology, aging patients, and the people who care for them
In a quest to ease the care process for older adults and the very sick, as well as their family-member caregivers, PIK professor George Demiris is studying the intersection of smart-home technologies and health informatics.
A virtual world for an ancient society
A virtual world for an ancient society
Anthropologist Clark Erickson has made a career of studying humans’ effect on their physical landscapes—past and present.
Science and politics: a Q&A with Molly Sheehan
Science and politics: a Q&A with Molly Sheehan
The School of Engineering and Applied Science postdoc researcher discusses what fascinates her about science, her unique path in science and technology, and the role scientists should play in political office.
An innovative approach to better energy storage
An innovative approach to better energy storage
A Penn/Drexel research team has engineered a way to manipulate nanomaterials to stand up vertically on a scale that has potential for industrial applications.
Stem cell signaling drives mammary gland development and, possibly, breast cancer
Stem cell signaling drives mammary gland development and, possibly, breast cancer
A connection between mammary stem cells and macrophages, a type of immune cell, is crucial for mammary gland development, and may also figure into the biology of breast cancer.
A chemotherapy companion to save thousands of lives
A trio of Penn students created the startup Sanguis, producing an inexpensive, portable blood cell counting device.
Earthquakes at the nanoscale
Earthquakes at the nanoscale
Scientists have gotten better at predicting where earthquakes will occur, but they’re still in the dark about when they will strike and how devastating they will be. Penn researchers hope to tackle this by investigating the laws of friction at the smallest possible scale, the nanoscale.
With second FDA approval, CAR-T’s transformative power multiplies
With second FDA approval, CAR-T’s transformative power multiplies
After last year’s approval to treat pediatric lymphoma, the latest indication will expand the number of patients that can be treated with personalized cell therapy almost tenfold.
Wrongful convictions reported for 6 percent of crimes
Wrongful convictions reported for 6 percent of crimes
For capital crimes like rape and murder, wrongful convictions happen in about 3 to 5 percent of cases. Such an estimate had proved elusive for the prison population as a whole—until now, thanks to work from Penn criminologists.
A faster way to make drug microparticles
A faster way to make drug microparticles
Penn Engineers have developed a liquid assembly line process that controls flow rates to produce particles of a consistent size at a thousand times the speed.
In the News
Scientific American
Grumpy voters want better stories. Not statistics
In a Q&A, PIK Professor Duncan Watts says that U.S. voters ignored Democratic policy in favor of Republican storytelling.
FULL STORY →
WHYY (Philadelphia)
Climate policy under a second Trump presidency
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses how much a president can do or undo when it comes to environmental policy.
FULL STORY →
Interesting Engineering
Superhuman vision lets robots see through walls, smoke with new LiDAR-like eyes
Mingmin Zhao of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and colleagues are using radio signals to allow robots to “see” beyond traditional sensor limits.
FULL STORY →
Technical.ly Philly
A sneak peek inside Penn Engineering’s new $137.5M mass timber building
Amy Gutmann Hall aims to be Philadelphia’s next big hub for AI and innovation while setting a new standard for architectural sustainability.
FULL STORY →
Salon.com
Exxon CEO wants Trump to stay in Paris climate accord
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences voices his concern about the possibility that the U.S. could become a petrostate.
FULL STORY →
Associated Press
Amid Earth’s heat records, scientists report another bump upward in annual carbon emissions
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that total carbon emissions including fossil fuel pollution and land use changes such as deforestation are basically flat because land emissions are declining.
FULL STORY →
The Wall Street Journal
How can we remove carbon from the air? Here are a few ideas
Jennifer Wilcox of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design says that the carbon-removal potential of forestation can’t always be reliably measured in terms of how much removal and for how long.
FULL STORY →
Associated Press
California air regulators approve changes to climate program that could raise gas prices
Danny Cullenward of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design says that many things being credited in California’s new climate program don’t help the climate.
FULL STORY →
Times of India
Self shocks turn crystal to glass at ultralow power density: Study
A collaborative study by researchers from the School of Engineering and Applied Science has shed new light on amorphization, the transition from a crystalline to a glassy state at the nanoscale.
FULL STORY →
Interesting Engineering
U.S. achieves billion-fold power-saving semiconductor tech; could challenge China
A collaborative effort by Ritesh Agarwal of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and colleagues has made phase-change memory more energy efficient and could unlock a future revolution in data storage.
FULL STORY →