11/15
Science & Technology
Penn Research Reveals Brain Region Crucial for Using Boundaries to Navigate
Imagine a room or a landscape or a city street.
Penn Astronomer Helping Build Next-generation Planet Finder
University of Pennsylvania astronomer Cullen Blake is part of a team selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Astrophysics Division to build a $10 million, cutting-edge
Penn Researchers Move One Step Closer to Sustainable Hydrogen Production
Splitting water into its hydrogen and oxygen parts may sound like science fiction, but it’s the end goal of chemists and chemical engineers like Christopher Murray of the University of Pennsylvania and
Penn’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology Visited by Cuban Delegation
In an event that signals the global outreach of the University of Pennsylvania, five delegates from Cuba visited Penn’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology to meet with University leaders and explore the translation of research to the marketplace.
Penn Chemists Lay Groundwork for Countless New, Cleaner Uses of Methane
Methane is the world’s most abundant hydrocarbon. It’s the major component of natural gas and shale gas and, when burned, is an effective fuel. But it’s also a major contributor to climate change, with 24 times greater potency as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Penn Program in the Environmental Humanities Is Shaping a New Normal
There’s no doubt about it. Philadelphia weather is getting hotter and wetter each year influencing public concern about climate change.
Penn Vet Study Identifies Mechanism Explaining Female Bias in Autoimmunity
Possessing two X chromosomes is a double-edged sword, immunologically speaking. Females are better at fighting off infection than males, but they are also more susceptible to many autoimmune conditions, such as lupus.
Before Retinal Cells Die, They Regenerate, Penn Vet Blindness Study Finds
Until relatively recently, the dogma in neuroscience was that neurons, including the eye’s photoreceptor cells, rods and cones, do not regenerate. This is the reason that nerve damage is thought to be so grave. More recent studies have poked holes in this belief by showing that, in some vertebrate species, neurons can be stimulated to divide.
The Journey From Egypt to Philadelphia of the Penn Museum’s Sphinx
When the massive sphinx arrived at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia in 1913, it was eclipsed by another historic event in the city – opening day of baseball’s World Series with the Philadelphia Athletics hosting the New York Giants.
Penn Vet Team Promotes One Health Concepts in Education
What can a scattering of dead pigeons mean for human health? Sometimes, a lot.
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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