11/15
Science & Technology
2024 tropical cyclone prediction
2024 tropical cyclone prediction
Michael Mann and colleagues predict a record-breaking 33 named storms for the 2024 North Atlantic hurricane season. It is the highest count ever projected.
Six from Penn elected 2024 AAAS Fellows
Six from Penn elected 2024 AAAS Fellows
Researchers representing six schools join a class of scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines.
Bringing cognitive science in action to young minds
Bringing cognitive science in action to young minds
Penn Upward Bound high school students from West Philadelphia got a tour of the Penn Smart Aviary, GRASP Lab, and the Penn Vet Working Dog Center during a visit to Pennovation Works.
Understanding the Northeast earthquake
Understanding the Northeast earthquake
Last week, people in the Northeast experienced a rare earthquake that registered a magnitude of 4.8. Penn Today spoke with David Goldsby of the School of Arts & Sciences and Robert Carpick of the School of Engineering and Applied Science about the event.
Penn Electric Racing’s latest race car
Penn Electric Racing’s latest race car
Designed and produced by the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s student-run club, REV9 will compete in the annual Formula Society of Automotive Engineers Michigan race in June.
Teaching doglike robots to walk on the moon’s dusty, icy surface
Teaching doglike robots to walk on the moon’s dusty, icy surface
Researchers from Penn are part of a NASA-funded multidisciplinary collaborative effort that’s teaching robots to navigate the extraterrestrial craters, like the moon and Mars.
Sherry Gao pushes the boundaries of genetic engineering
Sherry Gao pushes the boundaries of genetic engineering
The Presidential Penn Compact Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering aims to make gene editing tools like CRISPR more accurate, and encourage first generation students along the way.
Total solar eclipse
Total solar eclipse
Gary Bernstein and Bhuvnesh Jain speak with Penn Today about the significance of the coming total eclipse.
The hidden geometry of learning: Neural networks think alike
The hidden geometry of learning: Neural networks think alike
New research by Penn engineers illuminates the inner workings of neural networks, opening the possibility of developing hyper-efficient algorithms that could classify images in a fraction of the time.
What the brain reveals in nature’s subtle game of give and take
What the brain reveals in nature’s subtle game of give and take
Research led by Michael Platt uncovers the neural pathways for primate reciprocity, social support, and empathy.
In the News
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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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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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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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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Interesting Engineering
U.S. achieves billion-fold power-saving semiconductor tech; could challenge China
A collaborative effort by Ritesh Agarwal of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and colleagues has made phase-change memory more energy efficient and could unlock a future revolution in data storage.
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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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