Science & Technology

One of the goals of genome sequencing is to identify genetic mutations associated with increased susceptibility to disease. Yet by and large these discoveries have been made in people of European or Asian ancestry, resulting in an incomplete picture of global genetic variation in disease vulnerability.

An interdisciplinary team of engineers from the University of Pennsylvania has made a discovery regarding the surface properties of graphene, the Nobel-prize winning material that consists of an atomically thin sheet of carbon atoms.

Since 2005 the University of Pennsylvania‘s Penn Integrates Knowledge program has brought to campus exceptional faculty members whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge across disciplines. 

By Christina Cook

A new study from the University of Pennsylvania demonstrates that wearable sensors could one day transform the correctional system by tracking gun use by community-based offenders, who account for a disproportionate share of fatal and non-fatal shootings.

By Madeleine Stone  @themadstoneScience and art are often perceived to be at odds with each other, two fundamentally different ways of understanding the world. But University of Pennsylvania researcher Danielle Bassett believes science and art can inform each other in very tangible ways.

For decades, researchers have used petri dishes to study cell movement. These classic tissue culture tools, however, only permit two-dimensional movement, very different from the three-dimensional movements that cells make in a human body.

Science and art are often perceived to be at opposite ends of the academic spectrum. But Danielle Bassett, a 2014 MacArthur Fellow, believes the two disciplines can inform each other in tangible ways.

Like a lot of little kids, Tanner Frank went through a “dinosaur phase.” Unlike most, however, he says, “I never grew out of it.”