11/15
Science & Technology
How working dogs are sniffing out cancer
A Center for Public Health Initiatives seminar showcased the collaborative research at Penn and the Monell Chemical Senses Center that is working to detect early stage ovarian cancer.
New telemedicine app connects veterinarians and pet owners with behavioral expertise
New telemedicine app connects veterinarians and pet owners with behavioral expertise
A new telemedicine web-based app aims to expand access to expert advice on how to manage their pets’ behavior.
Restored Robbins House celebrates collaborative M&T spirit
Restored Robbins House celebrates collaborative M&T spirit
The 200 or so students in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology didn’t just need a workspace, they needed a home. And with the newly renovated Robbins House, they got one.
Three Penn faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Three Penn faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Three faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania have been elected to the Class of 2018 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Tackling blindness with nanotechnology
Tackling blindness with nanotechnology
To tackle blindness caused by open angle glaucoma, Brandon Kao, Rui Jing Jiang, and Adarsh Battu came up with Visiplate, a nanoscale ocular implant that shunts away excess fluid.
48 years ago: PennDesign Dean Frederick Steiner on Earth Day
48 years ago: PennDesign Dean Frederick Steiner on Earth Day
The dean of the School of Design discusses his inspiration for the original environmental awareness event, and its surprising endurance.
The Morris Arboretum was partly funded by beer, says brewery historian
The Morris Arboretum was partly funded by beer, says brewery historian
A brewery historian will speak at the Arboretum on April 19 about the Morris family’s status as Philadelphia’s second—and arguably most significant—brewing clan.
Science steps out of the lab and into Philly’s parks and neighborhoods
Science steps out of the lab and into Philly’s parks and neighborhoods
Penn researchers and students help get people enthused about STEM fields at the 2018 Philadelphia Science Festival.
Calculus III for cells
Calculus III for cells
Cells can sense and respond to surface curvature in very clever ways. The results, which revealed that curvature is a profound biological cue, could pave the way to new tools in the field.
Sorenson talks gun violence prevention at March for Science
Sorenson talks gun violence prevention at March for Science
At the second annual March for Science in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 14, Susan B. Sorenson of the School of Social Policy and Practice spoke about gun violence prevention.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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