Science & Technology

A new take on the 19th-century skull collection of Samuel Morton

After unearthing and analyzing handwritten documentation from scientist Samuel Morton, doctoral candidate Paul Wolff Mitchell drew a new conclusion about the infamous 19th-century collection: Though Morton accurately measured the brain size of hundreds of human skulls, racist bias still plagued his science.

Making extinct dinosaurs move to build better robots

Making fossils move to build better robots

Aja Carter, a Ph.D. candidate in paleontology, builds robots based on fossilized animals that crawled out of the sea about 300 million years ago. She’s pioneering a new field that she calls paleo-bio-inspired robotics.

Seven Penn researchers receive NIH Director Awards

Seven researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, and School of Engineering and Applied Science are to receive National Institutes of Health Director Awards, highly competitive grants to support innovative biomedical research.

Ventilating with mixture of helium and oxygen improves outcomes for horses in surgery

Horses are so large that their weight can cause their lungs to collapse while under anesthesia. In a new study, Klaus Hopster and colleagues at the School of Veterinary Medicine found that ventilating horses with a mixture of helium and oxygen can lead to better pulmonary gas exchange.

Learn from the experts with the Penn Science and Lightbulb Cafes

The lecture series, hosted by the School of Arts and Sciences, offers a casual setting in which researchers can present their work and engage with the attendees during a Q&A period, giving a glimpse into the research at Penn.

Targeting a viral vulnerability to treat disease

Robert Ricciardi company ViRAZE utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to drug discovery. Its first target is molluscum contagiosum, a disease that targets children and immune-compromised adults with no current FDA-approved therapy.

Physicist theorizes that dark matter is a superfluid

A hypothesis by Justin Khoury of the Department of Physics and Astronomy stands to shake up how scientists consider dark matter.

A bustling summer at the Pennovation Center

It was a season full of excitement, to kick off an academic year that will, undoubtedly, see even more fulfillment.

two researchers in front of large microscope in research lab

New microscopes will allow researchers to see small and think big

Two high-resolution microscopes will allow researchers to study and test materials at the atomic level with unprecedented precision.

Regrowing dental tissue with stem cells from baby teeth

In a clinical trial led by Songtao Shi of the School of Dental Medicine, stem cells extracted from baby teeth were used to regrow the living tissue in teeth damaged by injury. The promising findings highlight the potential of dental stem cells, which could be used in a wide range of dental procedures, or treating certain systemic diseases.

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