Identity Cleft
In the age of hybrid cells and genetic medicine, where does human identity lie?
Parrot Gets a Pegleg
Penn Vet gave a parrot a (3D-printed) pegleg.
Science and Error
A history of unripe findings and unintended consequences.
Strange Brotherhood
The hidden chapter of wartime human experimentation in the DKE house.
Black Box Justice
Richard Berk designs computer algorithms that predict crime. As courts and cops increasingly use his and similar tools to shape everything from parole decisions to street policing, Berk has a warning: accuracy comes at the cost of fairness, and citizens must decide where justice lies.
Mapping the Human Journey
Combining old-school fieldwork and ethnography with up-to-the-minute gene-based analyses, Penn molecular anthropologist Theodore G. Schurr has helped shape our understanding of the movement of ancient peoples into the Americas.
The Psychonaut You Never Heard Of
John Lilly’s very long, very strange trip from Penn’s Medical School to the outer fringes of science—and consciousness.
Shakespeare’s Secret Helper
Big data and the Bard: what’s in a the, or and, or with, or or?
Data Defenders
Data Refuge project preserves federal data on climate change.
Wham! Smack! Pow! You’re Dead
PG-13 films: heavy on violence, light on consequences.
Doctoral Distiller
Doctoral student—and whiskey distiller—Zach Cohen.
Tiny Flying Robots
Mini Piccolissimo: the world’s smallest self-powered flying drone.
UV versus C. Diff
Finding: UV light can reduce C. diff infections.
States Worse Than Death
Patient preferences diverge from standard measures of care quality.
Breakthroughs in Superconductivity: An Accelerated Journey
Anna Grassellino Gr’10’s breakthrough improved superconductivity.
E Pluribus, Polarization?
Political polarization less pronounced than partisans predict.
Flagship for Penn’s Other Campus
Pennovation Center opening: fabricating the future.
Chasing Miracles
The author wanted to know why the stem-cell treatments that worked so well for her hobbled dog aren’t being used to put the spring back in humans’ steps. Researchers at Penn’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine explained—and shared some of their own, measured, progress toward successful therapies.
A $2 Genetic Test for Zika
Penn researchers develop a $2 genetic test for Zika virus.
Sex, Suicide, and Snapchat: Adolescent Health in the Digital Age
Parents wrong again: APPC study shows social media mostly OK for kids.
Health and the City
Can techniques to measure health outcomes help community planning?
Bioethics Goes to the Movies
First Bioethics Film Festival focuses on “authority and rebellion.”
The New Biology
From matchbook-sized models of living human organs to the surprising alternative-energy implications of symbiotic giant clams, the work of three new faculty members represents the changing face of bioscience at Penn.
Imagination Man
Scott Barry Kaufman has been called “the leading empirical creativity researcher of his generation.” Now he wants to use the tools he’s developed to unleash the “quiet potential” of vulnerable people—including kids like him—and help them flourish.