11/15
Science & Technology
Minding the gap between mass transit and ride-hailing apps
Minding the gap between mass transit and ride-hailing apps
With support from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, doctoral students Caitlin Gorback and Summer Dong are researching how services like Uber and Lyft are changing our transport habits, cities, and environments.
Blinking eye-on-a-chip used for disease modeling and drug testing
Blinking eye-on-a-chip used for disease modeling and drug testing
Penn Engineering’s Dan Huh and Jeongyun Seo built an eye model that could imitate a healthy eye and an eye with dry eye disease, allowing them to test an experimental drug without risk of human harm.
In search of signals from the early universe
In search of signals from the early universe
Penn astronomers are part of an international collaboration to construct the Simons Observatory, a new telescope that will search the skies in a quest to learn more about the formation of the universe.
Sun, sand, and medical rehab robots
Sun, sand, and medical rehab robots
As part of a new interdisciplinary Penn Global Seminar, 16 undergraduates traveled to Jamaica to test and refine robotic rehabilitation devices for patients in need.
An early start at research
An early start at research
As part of the Jumpstart for Juniors program through the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, rising seniors can spend the summer working with faculty on unique and fascinating projects.
Q&A with mathematician Tony Pantev
Q&A with mathematician Tony Pantev
Penn Today interviewed the math department’s incoming chair to learn about his longtime passion for geometry and his hopes for the future of contemporary math research.
Making insights into ancient marine ecosystems with 3D-printed shells
Making insights into ancient marine ecosystems with 3D-printed shells
If you’re a snail hoping to survive an encounter with a hungry fish, it helps to have a strong shell. Paleoecology doctoral student Erynn Johnson is using 3D printing to understand how predator-prey interactions may have played out hundreds of millions of years ago.
Keeping parasites from sticking to mosquito guts could block disease transmission
Keeping parasites from sticking to mosquito guts could block disease transmission
Researchers at the School of Veterinary Medicine show how a new model for studying the way parasites known as kinetoplastids adhere to mosquitoes’ insides could illuminate strategies for curbing diseases.
100th puppy
100th puppy
An 8-week-old black Labrador retriever is the 100th puppy to enter the Penn Vet Working Dog Center research-based training program.
Iron Man: The engineer who became a superhero
Iron Man: The engineer who became a superhero
A Q&A with Marc Miskin and James Pikul about the real-world tech and practical limitations that underly Tony Stark’s superpowered suit.
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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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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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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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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