The Top 10 Wins of 2017
Counting down the most memorable, dramatic and important wins in the last year of Penn sports.
Hope for Katherine Belle
How one family’s journey through the realm of rare disease led them to the newest frontier of precision genetic medicine.
Prophet of Prosperity
Simon Patten, who led the Wharton School during the Progressive Era, was a pioneer of the economics of abundance, theorist of the second industrial revolution, and intellectual godfather of the New Deal. His descent into obscurity poses provocative questions about how the field has evolved.
Morning Tweets and Arching Eyebrows: A Reporter’s Story
On the White House beat.
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.
Letters
July|Aug 2017: Dental philia, debating Russia, letters on letters (on Trump).
Tiny Houses, Big Improvements
Sharon Lee C’77 has big ideas about tiny houses for the homeless.
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.
Good Stories, Bad News
From the Editor, May|June 2017
Extracting Signatures from Crowds and Bananas
PennDesign’s Orkan Telhan’s “signature” work.
Screen-Player
Scott Neustadter C’98’s latest screenplay is The Disaster Artist.
How to Think Like Vladimir Putin
Panel examines what Vladimir Putin is up to in Europe—and why.
When Lies Go Viral
Fake news may be as old as news itself, but the viral deceptions mutating on the internet are affecting the institutions that inform our democracy. Some Penn scholars offer analysis, context, and concerns.
The Serene Strategist
To her mother, alumna Alice Paul was a “mild-mannered girl”; another observer compared her demeanor to “the quiet of a spinning top.” Her leadership in the fight to get US women the vote was a remarkable mix of unyielding commitment and savvy politics.
A ‘Philadelphia School’ of Architecture?
Jason Tang C’17 and Swarthmore student Izzy Kornblatt make the case in an on-campus exhibition.
Letters
March|April 2017: Trump (non)coverage, sanctuary campus pro and con, and more.
Beyond Granola
Notes from my backcountry recipe book.
Serial EarthQuakers
Alumni writers dig up their satiric LA-earthquake novel.