Through
11/26
Science & Technology
Penn Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Minorities Less Likely to Trust Physicians
When it comes to trust in their physicians, minority groups in the United States are less likely than white people to believe their doctors care about them, according to research by University of Pennsylvania’s Abigail Sewell.
Penn Researchers Use Network Science to Help Pinpoint Source of Seizures
For the third of all epilepsy patients who don’t respond to medication, an alternative is to locate the small cluster of neurons that act as the seed of a seizure’s aberrant electrical activity and surgically remove it. Unfortunately, such surgeries often fail to bring any relief.
Penn Biologists-in-training Used Genomic Techniques to Study Campus Microbes
The premier scientists at the University of Pennsylvania rely on next-generation sequencing techniques to elicit new information about the living world. Now, freshmen can do the same thing.
East Antarctic Ice Sheet Has Stayed Frozen for 14 Million Years, Penn Team Reports
Antarctica was once a balmier place, lush with plants and lakes. Figuring out just how long the continent has been a barren, cold desert of ice can give clues as to how Antarctica responded to the effects of past climates and can perhaps also indicate what to expect there as Earth’s atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide grows.
Kindness, Charitable Behavior Influenced by Amygdala, Penn Research Reveals
The amygdala, a small structure at the front end of the brain’s temporal lobe, has long been associated with negative behaviors generally, and specifically with fear. But new research from Michael Platt, the James S.
Your Brain’s Take on Public Health Campaigns
Mass media campaigns have proven to influence people’s health-related decision making—for better or for worse. Effective messaging has helped millions quit smoking, exercise more, and eat better, while failed campaigns have backfired, sometimes even causing those with unhealthy habits to dig deeper into their vices.
Eye-on-a-Chip Represents New Way To Do Disease Research
A clump of cells in a Petri dish may have the same DNA as their counterparts in the body, but most of the similarities end there.
Penn Researchers Make Thinnest Plates That Can Be Picked Up by Hand
Scientists and engineers are engaged in a global race to make new materials that are as thin, light and strong as possible. These properties can be achieved by designing materials at the atomic level, but they are only useful if they can leave the carefully controlled conditions of a lab.
Gene Pair Plays Crucial Role in Colon Cancer, Penn Vet Team Shows
Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and researchers are hard at work to understand the disease’s complex molecular underpinnings.
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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.
FULL STORY →