11/15
Science & Technology
Researchers reach new heights with light-based levitation
Researchers reach new heights with light-based levitation
Penn researchers are working to engineer nanoscale features on ultra-lightweight materials, finding the ideal combination that will allow those materials to lift themselves into the air using the energy provided by light.
Niko Simpkins: At the nexus of engineering and music
Niko Simpkins: At the nexus of engineering and music
For Niko Simpkins, a musician who performs, produces, and engineers his own tracks, the most exciting processes combine structure and flexibility, creativity, and rigor. As a third-year student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, he sees his mechanical engineering education as a framework for problem solving that might serve him across a broad set of endeavors, and for now, he’s more interested in learning than narrowing to any one particular career path.
New bioprinting technique allows for complex microtissues
New bioprinting technique allows for complex microtissues
Researchers at the School of Engineering and Applied Science have demonstrated a new bioprinting technique that enables the bioprinting of spatially complex, high-cell-density tissues.
Five Penn faculty named 2021 Sloan Research Fellows
Five Penn faculty named 2021 Sloan Research Fellows
The fellowship recognizes extraordinary U.S. and Canadian researchers whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of scientific leaders.
The world’s first general purpose computer turns 75
The world’s first general purpose computer turns 75
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), built at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, sparked the “birth of the computer age” thanks to a team of women programmers.
From animals to people and back again
From animals to people and back again
Penn researchers are studying the propensity of SARS-CoV-2 to cross between species, and they are working to protect people, pets, and wildlife from COVID-19 infection.
GRASP Lab’s coolest robot yet
GRASP Lab’s coolest robot yet
The Lab’s latest GRASP Lab’s latest modular robotic system is a series of units made out of blocks of ice. These robots could be deployed to research in the Antarctic, or even an extraterrestrial planet.
An ‘electronic nose’ to sniff out COVID-19
An ‘electronic nose’ to sniff out COVID-19
Through a newly funded grant, researchers across the University are developing a device that can rapidly detect COVID-19 based on the disease’s unique odor profile.
A call for a global ban on lead paint
A call for a global ban on lead paint
In a paper for the United Nations Environment Programme, researchers from the School of Arts & Sciences and the Perelman School of Medicine and colleagues make a case for ceasing production and use of lead paint worldwide.
Penn Dental, Penn Engineering unite to form Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry
Penn Dental, Penn Engineering unite to form Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry
The new Center will bring the two schools together to accelerate the development of new solutions and devices to address unmet needs in oral health.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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