11/15
Science & Technology
Penn Study Models How the Immune System Might Evolve to Conquer HIV
It has remained frustratingly difficult to develop a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, in part because the virus, once in our bodies, rapidly reproduces and evolves to escape being killed by the immune system.
Penn Researchers Develop Placenta-on-a-chip
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed the first placenta-on-a-chip that can fully model the transport of nutrients across the placental barrier.
New Multi-photon Microscope at Penn Vet Offers Faster, Deeper Images
By Patrick Ammerman You can’t study what you can’t see.
Penn-led Team Develops Plant-based Polio Booster Vaccine
Jonas Salk created a vaccine against polio that has been used since 1955; Albert Sabin created another version that has been on the market since 1961. Together, these two vaccines have nearly eliminated polio from the face of the earth.
Innovation Prize Awarded for Device That Continuously Tracks Body Temperature
The thermometer is one of science’s most iconic measurement tools, but, even as tubes of mercury and alcohol made way for digital equivalents, they all lacked a common, sought-after feature.
Penn Vet Students Bring Expertise and Supplies to Rural Haiti
By Patrick Ammerman
Penn Students Best Among U.S. Schools at Electric Racing Competition
by Patrick Ammerman
Penn Team Finds Mitochondrial Stress Induces Cancer-related Metabolic Shifts
Cancerous tumors must be fed. Their unregulated growth requires a steady stream of blood flow and nutrients. Thus, one way that researchers have tried to wipe out cancer is to target cells undergoing the metabolic shifts that enable a tumor’s rapid growth.
Assisting Parkinson’s Patients With Innovative Motion-tracking Device
A rough estimate of the amount of steps taken in a day might be enough for the average fitness tracker or smartwatch user, but, for people with movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease, more fine-grained data could be life changing.
Kleinman Center Supports On-the-ground Learning for Seven Penn Students
Beth Murray’s not your typical intern.
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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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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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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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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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.
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