11/15
Science & Technology
Penn Engineers Contribute to New Understanding of Friction on Graphene
Graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon in sheets just one atom in thick, has been the subject of widespread research, in large part because of its unique combination of strength, electrical conductivity and chemical stability.
Power Poses Don’t Help and Could Potentially Backfire, Penn Study Shows
The idea behind power poses, that if you stand in a “powerful” position, broad posture, hands on hips, shoulders high and pushed back, you will suddenly feel psychologically and physiologically stronger, is intuitively appealing, especially for people without much confidence.
Penn Researchers Receive $1.1 Million NSF Grant to Protect Internet Security
University of Pennsylvania researchers Nadia Heninger, Ted Chinburg, Brett Hemenway and Zach Scherr are tr
Ten Penn Professors Named AAAS Fellows for 2016
Ten professors from the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are among a class of 391 members honored for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
Penn Researchers Uncover a New Way Heat Travels Between Molecules
A new model, developed by University of Pennsylvania chemists, could be the first step towards better harnessing heat energy to power nanoscale devices.
Penn Awards IEA Director Kleinman Center’s Carnot Prize, Creates Fellowship in His Honor
The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design awarded its second annual Carnot Prize to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.
Penn Engineers and Chemists Make Nanoscale ‘Muscles’ Powered by DNA
The base pairs found in DNA are key to its ability to store protein-coding information, but they also give the molecule useful structural properties. Getting two complementary strands of DNA to zip up into a double helix can serve as the basis of intricate physical mechanisms that can push and pull molecular-scale devices.
Penn Psychologists Tap Big Data, Twitter to Analyze Accuracy of Stereotypes
What’s in a tweet? People draw conclusions about us, from our gender to education level, based on the words we use on social media. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, along with colleagues from the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Melbourne, have now analyzed the accuracy of those inferences.
Penn’s Restoring Active Memory Project Releases Extensive Human Brain Dataset
A University of Pennsylvania project aimed toward building a device that helps improve memory for patients with memory disorders has reached an important milestone.
Penn-led Team Receives DARPA Support to Develop ‘Next Generation’ Social Science
A scientific team led by the University of Pennsylvania has received an award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop and validate reproducible methods for studying human social behavior.
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
The Independent
Climate scientists fear Trump will destroy progress in his second term – and the outcome could be ‘grim’
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that a second Trump term and the implementation of Project 2025 represents the end of climate action in this decade.
FULL STORY →