11/15
Science & Technology
Penn’s Positive Psychology Center Awards $2.9 Million for Research
PHILADELPHIA –- The Positive Psychology Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the John Templeton Foundation have announced the recipients of the 2010 Templeton Positive Neuroscience Awards, $2.9 million given to 15 new research projects at the intersection of neuroscience and positive psychology.
Two University of Pennsylvania Chemists Named American Chemical Society Fellows
PHILADELPHIA — Marsha I. Lester and Gary Molander of the University of Pennsylvania have been named 2010 fellows of The American Chemical Society, an honor bestowed on 192 scientists who have demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in chemistry and made important contributions to ACS, the world’s largest scientific society.
Mechanical Regulation Effects Stem Cell Development, Adhesion
PHILADELPHIA –- Bioengineers at the University of Pennsylvania have created a system to control the flexibility of the substrate surfaces on which cells are grown without changing the surface properties, providing a technique for more controlled lab experiments on cellular mechanobiology, an important step in the sc
Calcium Connections: Penn Researchers Discover Basic Pathway for Maintaining Cell’s Fuel Stores
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have described a previously unknown biological mechanism in cells that prevents them from cannibalizing themselves for fuel.
Annenberg’s Joseph Turow Testifies to U.S. Senate Commerce Committee
WASHINGTON D.C. – Prof.
Collaboration Solves Structure of Herpes Virus Protein, Provides New Drug Directions
PHILADELPHIA -– The mechanism by which a herpes virus invades cells has remained a mystery to scientists, but now research from Tufts University and the University of Pennsylvania reveals the unusual structure of a key member of the protein complex that allows a herpes virus to invade cells.
First Step Towards Electronic DNA Sequencing: Translocation Through Graphene Nanopores
PHILADELPHIA –- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new, carbon-based nanoscale platform to electrically detect single DNA molecules.
Collaboration Leads to Simpler Method for Building Varieties of Nanocrystal Superlattices
PHILADELPHIA –- Collaboration by chemists, physicists and materials scientists at the University of Pennsylvania has created a simple and inexpensive method to rapidly grow centimeter-scale membranes of binary nanocrystal superlattices, or BNSLs, by crystallizing a mixture of nanocrystals on a liquid surface.
Seven in School of Veterinary Medicine Honored With Teaching Awards
Seven faculty members in the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine are recipients of 2010 teaching awards.
Making the Invisible Visible: Verbal Cues Enhance Visual Detection, Says Penn Researcher
PHILADELPHIA –- Cognitive psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania and University of California have shown that an image displayed too quickly to be seen by an observer can be detected if the participant first hears the name of the object.
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →