Through
4/26
Science & Technology
Penn team making waves with liquid crystals
Liquid crystals have become a workhorse of technology; they are the standard for television and computer displays. In fact, there is a good chance you are looking at some liquid crystals right now.
Penn Metamaterials Experts Show a Way to Reduce Electrons’ Effective Mass to Nearly Zero
PHILADELPHIA — The field of metamaterials involves augmenting materials with specially designed patterns, enabling those materials to manipulate electromagnetic waves and fields in previously impossible ways.
Penn’s Steven Fluharty Makes Case for Research Funding in Capitol Hill Briefing
PHILADELPHIA — In the waning days of 2012, two words have dominated the post-election discourse: “fiscal cliff.” The cliff is a combination of impending budgetary measures that will take effect in January if a legislative compromise is not reached.
Penn’s Robert Ghrist Will Teach Calculus Online to Tens of Thousands
PHILADELPHIA — Learning calculus is no easy feat.
Penn-Led Research Suggests a New Strategy to Prevent or Halt Periodontal Disease
PHILADELPHIA — Periodontitis, a form of chronic gum disease that affects nearly half of the U.S. adult population, results when the bacterial community in the mouth becomes unbalanced, leading to inflammation and eventually bone loss. In its most severe form, which affects 8.5 percent of U.S. adults, periodontitis can impact systemic health.
Five Penn Professors Named AAAS Fellows
PHILADELPHIA – Five faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Two are from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, two are from its School of Arts and Sciences
Penn Research Helps Improve Nano-manufacturing with Nanometer-scale Diamond Tip
PHILADELPHIA — One of the most promising innovations of nanotechnology has been the ability to perform rapid nanofabrication using nanometer-scale tips. Heating such tips can dramatically increase fabrication speeds, but high speed and high temperature have been known to blunt their atomically sharp points.
Penn Researchers Make Flexible, Low-voltage Circuits Using Nanocrystals
PHILADELPHIA — Electronic circuits are typically integrated in rigid silicon wafers, but flexibility opens up a wide range of applications. In a world where electronics are becoming more pervasive, flexibility is a highly desirable trait, but finding materials with the right mix of performance and manufacturing cost remains a challenge.
El Yunque Rock, an Icon of Puerto Rico, Is Eroding More Slowly Than Expected, Penn Geologists Discover
PHILADELPHIA — El Yunque rock is a majestic, anvil-shaped promontory that has been an icon of the island of Puerto Rico since pre-Columbian times. The barren rock, standing 3,412 feet high, protrudes above primary old growth forest and is enshrouded in clouds, swept constantly by the trade winds and frequently stricken by hurricanes.
In the News
The Washington Post
Forecast group predicts busiest hurricane season on record with 33 storms
A research team led by Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences is predicting the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season will produce the most named storms on record, fueled by exceptionally warm ocean waters and an expected shift from El Niño to La Niña.
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Technical.ly Philly
Penn professor on gen AI’s rapacious use of energy: ‘One of the defining challenges of my career’
Benjamin Lee of the School of Engineering and Applied Science says that hardware and infrastructure costs are growing at high rates for generative AI.
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SciTechDaily
Satellite images capture extraordinary flooding in the United Arab Emirates
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences explains how three low-pressure systems formed a train of storms that battered the United Arab Emirates.
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
My Climate Story: Philly students take science from abstract to personal
The “My Climate Story” project at the Environmental Humanities Department helps students and teachers learn about climate change’s impact in everyday backyards, with remarks from Bethany Wiggin. The idea is credited to María Villarreal, a College of Arts and Sciences second-year from Tampico, Mexico.
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Associated Press
Here’s why experts don’t think cloud seeding played a role in Dubai’s downpour
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that many people blaming cloud seeding for Dubai storms are climate change deniers trying to divert attention from what’s really happening.
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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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