For six weeks during her summer vacation, Henry C. Lea School’s Latoya Landfair spent hours each day in Penn’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory. Studying alongside nine other School District of Philadelphia middle school teachers, Landfair was able to learn about computer vision—a field she plans to introduce to her seventh-grade math students this year.

Lauren Hertzler ・September 22, 2016

Just as summer was winding down, around the time when many students were wrapping up internships and checking packing lists for a return to campus, 13 University of Pennsylvania undergraduates flew across an ocean and began acclimating to the thin air of the Swiss and Italian Alps.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・September 15, 2016

A flurry of coordinated activity in a brain-spanning network of neurons may sound like the formation of a brilliant new idea, but it is actually the description of a seizure. Understanding why and how this synchronization spreads would be a critical tool in treating severe epilepsy.

Evan Lerner ・September 8, 2016

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

“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

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

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

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