4/16
Science & Technology
Who, What, Why: Tess Kuracina tends to the ‘BioPond,’ a beloved campus oasis
As garden supervisor for the treasured green space formally known as the James G. Kaskey Memorial Park, Kuracina plans, plants, waters, and weeds, aiming to make it ‘more beautiful and special every year.’
The hidden costs of AI: Impending energy and resource strain
AI models like ChatGPT have seen notable improvements, but some people are concerned about the societal impacts these new technologies may bring. Deep Jariwala and Benjamin C. Lee discuss energy and resource problems with AI computing.
What can network theory offer public health?
Penn Engineering’s Shirin Saeedi Bidokhti and Saswati Sarkar have produced a suite of studies that apply techniques from network and information theory to pandemic control and prevention.
Genomics reveals a complex human history in Africa
An international team of researchers led by Penn geneticists sequenced the genomes of 180 indigenous Africans. The results shed light on the origin of modern humans, African population history, and local adaptation.
Engineered magic: Wooden seed carriers mimic the behavior of self-burying seed
Researchers from Penn Engineering have developed a seed carrier, fashioned from wood veneer, that could enable aerial seeding of difficult-to-access areas, and could be used for a variety of seeds or fertilizers.
U.S. census data vulnerable to attack without enhanced privacy measures
A new PNAS study shows that statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau can be reverse engineered to reveal protected information about individual respondents.
Targeted prenatal therapy addresses long-standing gap in health equity
Penn engineers have developed a successful delivery system of mRNA to placental cells to treat preeclampsia at its root.
Rewiring blood cells to give rise to precursors of sperm
School of Veterinary Medicine researchers teamed with scientists at the University of Texas at San Antonio to transform blood cells to regain a flexible fate, growing into a precursor of sperm cells.
Advancing research and education to push forward oral health excellence
Since joining the School of Dental Medicine faculty in 2019, Sinem Esra Sahingur has launched two new master’s programs, expanded student research, and continued to pursue her own research program on immune regulation.
New insights into the mechanisms of tumor growth
A team of researchers led by the School of Arts & Science’s Wei Guo characterize the molecular pathways that play a major role in tumorigenesis, findings that could lead to better diagnostic tools for cancer and new targeted therapies.
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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Students can soon major in AI at this Ivy League university—it’ll prepare them for ‘jobs that don’t yet exist’
The Raj and Neera Singh Program in Artificial Intelligence at Penn will be the first AI undergraduate engineering major at an Ivy League school, led by George Pappas of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
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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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