Science & Technology

Sharing Personal Stories of Penn’s Morris Arboretum

The history of the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum has been chronicled in written stories over the years, but now an audio history series offers an insider’s view from people with strong ties to the organization from the early days to the present.

Jeanne Leong

An Introduction to ‘Differential Privacy,’ from Penn Professor Aaron Roth

The ability to amass, store, manipulate and analyze information from millions of people at once has opened a vast frontier of new research methods. But, whether these methods are used in the service of new business models or new scientific findings, they also raise questions for the individuals whose information comprises these “big data” sets.

Evan Lerner

Penn’s Electric Racecar Revs Up Philly Auto Show

Electric cars may be the future of driving, but first, the vehicles need to spark excitement among the general public. That’s why Penn students have been working hard for the past two years to build one of the world’s first electric racecars.

Madeleine Stone

Penn Center for Innovation Awarded NSF Grant to Foster Entrepreneurship

The Penn Center for Innovation, the University of Pennsylvania’s commercialization organization, announced today that it has been awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to establish an I-Corps Site to support translation of research areas into the marketplace by providing educational programming, financial support and strategic guidance. 

Laurie Actman



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 →



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 →



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 →



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 →