4/22
Science & Technology
Combined treatment takes a bite out of tooth decay
A collaborative interdisciplinary team of researchers from Penn Dental, Medicine and Penn Engineering have discovered a game-changing synergy between ferumoxytol and stannous fluoride in treating dental caries.
PRECISE Center is at the forefront of AI-assisted care in ophthalmology
The Penn Research in Embedded Computing and Integrated Systems Engineering, or PRECISE, Center is examining how AI can be deployed to enhance and expand clinical practice.
Neanderthals carried genes acquired from ancient interactions with ‘cousins’ of modern humans
A new collaborative study led by Sarah Tishkoff shows that Neanderthals inherited at least 6% of their genome from a now-extinct lineage of early modern humans.
Understanding the brain via a molecular map
PIK Professor Michael Platt and collaborators have generated the first single-cell “atlas” of the primate brain to help explore links between molecules, cells, brain function, and disease.
The Tertuliano Lab has a bone to pick—and the tools to explain how it breaks
Penn Engineering Assistant Professor Ottman Tertuliano’s lab creates visual data that demonstrates how bones behave under dynamic stress—a significant unknown in health care.
Delving into quantum dots
Christopher B. Murray shares his excitement, thoughts, and knowledge on quantum dots, a nanoparticle that just earned his Ph.D. advisor the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Three from Penn receive NIH Director Award
Kevin B. Johnson, Jina Ko, and Sheila Shanmugan awarded NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program.
How the hippocampus distinguishes true and false memories
Researchers in the School of Arts & Sciences have shown for the first time that electrical signals in the hippocampus differ immediately before recollection of true and false memories.
Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry positions Penn as a leader in engineering health
In the two years since the cross-disciplinary research partnership was founded, CiPD has introduced microrobots that clean teeth, a new understanding of bacterial physics in tooth decay, and promising futures for lipid nanoparticles in oral cancer treatment.
Decoding acoustic objects
Third-year student Lily Wei spent the summer conducting research in the lab of Vijay Balasubramanian using algorithms to propose how the brain may recognize acoustic objects.
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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Pa. environmental, religious and other groups criticize Shapiro plan for ignoring climate change
A study by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design found that Pennsylvania would benefit overall from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
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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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