by Patrick AmmermanCoastal dunes can pile up large amounts of sand, like a sandcastle. But, while a sandcastle can be completely washed away when it rains or blown away by a strong wind, dunes are much more tenacious. That’s because natural dunes have plants as supports to hold stabilize them in place, reducing erosion from wind and rain.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・September 8, 2016

Ciliopathies are diseases that affect the cilia, sensory organelles that most mammalian cells possess and which play a critical role in many biological functions. One such disease is Senior Løken Syndrome, a rare condition that can involve both a severe kidney disease and the blinding disease Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・August 29, 2016

“The Great Recession is the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. If you can’t make an argument that inequality matters for the severity of this downturn, then it’s unlikely to matter much for smaller recessions, or for normal times.”

Michele W. Berger ・August 29, 2016

A fear of pain causes many people with dental phobias to avoid or delay needed treatment. In some cases, the injection of a numbing agent can be the most painful part of the visit.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・August 26, 2016

By Niharika Gupta and Katherine Unger Baillie NASA's long search for life on Mars came to a thrilling turning point with the recent discovery of liquid water on the planet. One undergraduate researcher at Penn aims to understand how microbial life could thrive in such extreme, even extraterrestrial environments. 

Katherine Unger Baillie ・August 26, 2016

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and University of Groningen have discovered a piece in the puzzle of how sleep deprivation negatively affects memory.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・August 22, 2016

Dyskeratosis congenita, or DC, is a rare, inherited disease for which there are limited treatment options and no cure. Typically diagnosed in childhood, the disorder causes stem cells to fail, leading to significant problems including bone marrow failure, lung fibrosis, dyskeratosis of the skin and intestinal atrophy and inflammation.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・August 18, 2016

By Patrick Ammerman Why do some science news stories catch our eye, even if they use exaggerated, irrelevant or inaccurate information?

Michele W. Berger ・August 12, 2016

The placenta is oddly ephemeral for an organ. It appears, grows, and changes throughout the course of pregnancy, and then is gone. After delivery, researchers have a few hours at most to work with donated placentae before the tissue dies, and that is the best among limited options. Experimenting on the organ in vivo is effectively impossible.

Evan Lerner ・August 11, 2016