News

Penn Research Helps Uncover Mechanism Behind Solid-Solid Phase Transitions

Arjun Yodh showed how one form of a solid can transition to another by becoming a liquid first.

Two solids made of the same elements but with different geometric arrangements of the atoms, or crystal phases, can produce materials with different properties. Coal and diamond offer a spectacular example of this effect.

Giant Clams Inspire Penn Duo’s Alternative Energy Research

Natural selection in an extreme environment has gradually sculpted the giant clam into an exceedingly efficient farmer; it turns the fierce sunlight in its equatorial ocean home into algae, and those single-celled plants into food.

Physics and Biology of Coral Reproduction

Asst. Prof. Alison Sweeney is featured on WHYY's "The Pulse" talking about how corals use the color of the sky at twilight to coordinate once-a-year reproduction down to a 10 minute window.

Penn Astronomers Will Use Newly Funded Telescope in Hunt for Dark Energy

After more than a decade of development and planning, the National Science Foundation has approved federal construction of the LSST. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, of which the University of Pennsylvania is a member, will manage the $473 million construction project.  

The LSST will be constructed atop Cerro Pachón, a mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the highest, driest locations in the world. It will see first light in 2019 and begin full science operations in 2022.

Penn Physics/Medicine Receives $2.8 Million Grant for Stroke Research

The National Institutes of Health have awarded University of Pennsylvania researchers a five-year, $2.8 million grant to further research on techniques for monitoring blood flow in the brain following strokes.

Physics & Astronomy Assistant Professor James Aguirre Looks Deep into the History of the Night Sky

"...As stars began to form, they emitted radiation that ionized these hydrogen atoms, a process which caused the holes to appear. The light that this process produced billions of years ago still exists, and can be used to chart the birth of the first galaxies. But does the technology exist to do so?..."

 

To read more on this piece visit:

https://www.sas.upenn.edu/series/frontiers/finding-first-galaxies

Physics & Astronomy Professor Charles Kane gets featured on NPR

Check out this piece on NPR as Professor Kane hypothesizes Quantum Computing.

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/thepulse/item/70710-quantum-computing

Particle physics documentary on ITunes

The documentary "Particle Fever" on the discovery of the Higgs boson features former Penn Physics graduate student Monica Dunford (and several other colleagues).  This film is now available for download at https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/particle-fever/id869502900.