4/16
Science & Technology
Penn Campaign Raises $4.3 Billion, Transforming the University
After seven years of widespread support and alumni participation, the University of Pennsylvania culminated its Making History Campaign, raising $4.3 billion, strengthening Penn’s position among the world’s foremost universities and making major breakthroughs in addressing society’s most complex challenges, Penn President Amy Gutmann announced today.
Penn Vet’s Nicola Mason and Penn Medicine and Penn Nursing’s Yvonne Paterson Win One Health Award
PHILADELPHIA — Nicola Mason and Yvonne Paterson have been named this year’s recipients of the University of Pennsylvania
The Penn Science Café and Penn Lightbulb Café Return
PHILADELPHIA-- The Penn Science Café and the Penn Lightbulb Café are back, bringing the University of Pennsylvania’s top scholars out on the town to share their re
Penn student takes flight to study coastal sediment
In the spring of 2011, Nicole Khan, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science in the School of Arts & Sciences, was wrapping up a few weeks of field work in Puerto Rico. She had been studying the island’s mangrove forests in an attempt to reconstruct ancient sea levels.
Penn Researchers Develop Protein ‘Passport’ That Helps Nanoparticles Get Past Immune System
The body’s immune system exists to identify and destroy foreign objects, whether they are bacteria, viruses, flecks of dirt or splinters. Unfortunately, nanoparticles designed to deliver drugs, and implanted devices like pacemakers or artificial joints, are just as foreign and subject to the same response.
Penn Researchers Help Show That Blood Plasma Is Thicker Than Water
PHILADELPHIA — For decades, researchers thought that blood plasma behaved like water. But, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania and Saarland University in Germany, plasma is more elastic and viscous than water, and, like ketchup, its flow properties depend on the pressure it is under.
Penn’s Brian Gregory Is ‘Making Major Strides’ in RNA Biology
Everyone has heard of DNA, the blueprint for life. But if it were up to Brian Gregory, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania, DNA’s close cousin, RNA, would get equal billing.
Penn Vet Team Uncovers a Pathway That Stimulates Bone Growth
PHILADELPHIA — Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have discovered that a protein called Jagged-1 stimulates human stem cells to differentiate into bone-producing cells.
Penn Geologists Quantify, Characterize Sediment Carried by Mississippi Flood to Louisiana Wetlands
PHILADELPHIA — The spring 2011 flood on the Mississippi was among the largest floods ever, the river swelling over its banks and wreaking destruction in the surrounding areas.
Penn Vet Research on Niemann-Pick Disease Paves Way for Human Clinical Trial
PHILADELPHIA — Niemann-Pick Type C disease is a rare and incurable neurological disorder that affects 500 children worldwide. Presently, there are no therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat NPC.
In the News
Big Think
Can we stop AI hallucinations? And do we even want to?
Chris Callison-Burch of the School of Engineering and Applied Science says that auto-regressive generation can make it difficult for language learning models to perform fact-based or symbolic reasoning.
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Salon.com
“Record-shattering” heat wave in Antarctica — yep, climate change is the culprit
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that persistent summer weather extremes like heat waves are becoming more common as people continue to warm the planet with carbon pollution.
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CNET
How the solar eclipse will affect solar panels and the grid
Benjamin Lee of the School of Engineering and Applied Science says that the electrical grid will have to figure out how to match supply and demand during brief windows where the energy source goes away.
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Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Scientists struggle to explain ‘really weird’ spike in world temperatures
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that tendencies to exaggerate climate science in favor of “doomist” narratives helps no one except the fossil fuel industry.
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Vox.com
Spring is here very early. That’s not good
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that plant-flowering, tree-leafing, and egg-hatching are all markers associated with spring that are happening sooner.
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The New York Times
Can your personal medical devices be recycled?
A lab at the School of Engineering and Applied Science led the development of a COVID test made from bacterial cellulose, an organic compound.
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Tampa Bay Times
Could Florida electric bills go up because of a fuel made from manure?
Danny Cullenward of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design says that federal and California state subsidies have led to a gold rush of companies trying to get into the business of renewable natural gas around the country.
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WESA Radio (Pittsburgh)
Pa. environmental, religious and other groups criticize Shapiro plan for ignoring climate change
A study by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design found that Pennsylvania would benefit overall from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
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The New York Times
Why don’t we just ban fossil fuels?
Joseph Romm of the School of Arts & Sciences says that stronger action against fossil fuels is essential to save the planet.
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CNBC
Students can soon major in AI at this Ivy League university—it’ll prepare them for ‘jobs that don’t yet exist’
The Raj and Neera Singh Program in Artificial Intelligence at Penn will be the first AI undergraduate engineering major at an Ivy League school, led by George Pappas of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
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