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Science & Technology
Researchers From Penn, Michigan and Duke Study How Cooperation Can Trump Competition in Monkeys
PHILADELPHIA— Being the top dog — or, in this case, the top gelada monkey — is even better if the alpha male is willing to concede at times to subordinates, according to a study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan and Duke University.
Chasing Storms to Study the Carbon Cycle, Penn’s Hyejung Lee Pursues Research in Puerto Rico
Most visitors to the Caribbean hope that their stay won’t coincide with a major tropical storm. Hyejung Lee hoped for exactly the opposite.
Penn Researchers Improve Living Tissues With 3D Printed Vascular Networks Made From Sugar
PHILADELPHIA — Researchers are hopeful that new advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine could one day make a replacement liver from a patient’s own cells, or animal muscle tissue that could be cut into steaks without ever being inside a cow.
Penn Researchers Show ‘Neural Fingerprints’ of Memory Associations
PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers have long been interested in discovering the ways that human brains represent thoughts through a complex interplay of electrical signals. Recent improvements in brain recording and statistical methods have given researchers unprecedented insight into the physical processes underlying thoughts. For example, researchers have begun to show that it is possib
Summer VETS Program Gives High School and College Students a Taste of Veterinary Life at Penn
Gently placing the stethoscope against the golden retriever’s furry rib cage, a woman listens intently through the earpiece. “Lungs auscult clear,” she declares — veterinarian-speak for a healthy-sounding respiratory system.
Penn Dental Medicine Faculty Receive IADR Distinguished Scientist Awards
PHILADELPHIA — For their outstanding research achievements, Denis Kinane and George Hajishengallis of the University of Pennsylvania
Flu Research Should Proceed With Caution, Penn’s Joshua Plotkin and Others Urge
PHILADELPHIA — The journal Science is today publishing a paper revealing that highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza, also known as bird flu, can pass from one ferret to another through the air.
Penn Researchers’ Study of Phase Change Materials Could Lead to Better Computer Memory
PHILADELPHIA -- Memory devices for computers require a large collection of components that can switch between two states, which represent the 1’s and 0’s of binary language. Engineers hope to make next-generation chips with materials that distinguish between these states by physically rearranging their atoms into different phases.
Chemical Analysis of Pottery, Informed by Penn Research, Reveals First Dairying in Saharan Africa
PHILADELPHIA — The first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Saharan Africa used cattle for their milk nearly 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and including Kathleen Ryan of the University of P
T Cells ‘Hunt’ Parasites Like Animal Predators Seek Prey, a Penn Vet-Penn Physics Study Reveals
PHILADELPHIA — By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement strategy to track down parasites that is similar to strategies that predators such as monkeys, sharks and blue-fin tu
In the News
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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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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“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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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