Posts Tagged ‘University of Pennsylvania’
Earth & Environment - Dec 15, 2009 10:48 - 0 Comments
Atlantic Coast sea level rises at faster pace
U. PENN (US)—Sea level along the Atlantic Coast is rising faster now than at any time in the past 4,000 years. (more…)
Science & Technology - Nov 30, 2009 13:43 - 7 Comments
Computer learns to think like a child
U. PENN (US)—Computer scientist Ben Taskar says one of the biggest stumbling blocks in terms of artificial intelligence is the fact that computers learn slower than children. (more…)
Health & Medicine - Nov 12, 2009 19:07 - 2 Comments
Clearing away insomnia’s mental fog
U. PENN (US)—Deficits caused by sleep deprivation, including an inability to focus, learn, or memorize, may be reversible by reducing a specific enzyme that builds up in the brain’s hippocampus. (more…)
Health & Medicine - Nov 11, 2009 12:40 - 2 Comments
Treatment too painful for some cancer patients
U. PENN (US)—Many women being treated for breast cancer stop taking a medication proven effective—even at the risk of the cancer returning—because the pain associated with it is too much to bear, researchers say. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Nov 9, 2009 14:28 - 3 Comments
North Carolina sea level rises at faster pace
U. PENN (US)—An international team of environmental scientists has shown that sea-level rise, at least in North Carolina, is accelerating. The increase during the 20th century is three times higher than the rate of sea-level rise during the last 500 years. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Nov 5, 2009 15:49 - 0 Comments
Rapid spike in sea snail’s size
U. PENN (US)—The Atlantic dogwhelk is one of the best known and most widely studied organisms in the North Atlantic Ocean. Yet until now, no one had noticed that over the past century shell lengths of these sea snails have increased in size by an average of 22.6 percent. (more…)
Science & Technology - Oct 30, 2009 14:31 - 8 Comments
Nature selects for shorter, stouter women
YALE (US)—Researchers have detected the effects of natural selection among two generations of contemporary women and predict their descendants will be slightly shorter and chubbier, have lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and have their first children earlier in life. (more…)
Science & Technology - Oct 22, 2009 17:08 - 0 Comments
Patchy particles show promise for drug delivery
U. PENN (US)—A team of physicists, chemists, and engineers has demonstrated a novel method for the controlled formation of patchy particles, using charged, self-assembling molecules. The particles may one day serve as drug-delivery vehicles and perhaps be used in small batteries that store and release charge. (more…)
Society & Culture - Sep 28, 2009 15:16 - 1 Comment
Homeless addicts: Next door, worlds away
U. PENN (US)—Homeless heroin addicts are far closer than most people realize, according to research by medical anthropologist Phillippe Bourgois. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 23, 2009 4:00 - 1 Comment
Watching glass age in slow motion
U. PENN (US)–Despite thousands of years of household and industrial use, certain aspects of glasses have perplexed physicists. Now researchers have found new clues to why the dynamics of glasses get slower and more sluggish as they age. (more…)
Society & Culture - Aug 6, 2009 4:00 - 1 Comment
Fertility resurges as countries grow wealthy
“This study provides some ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for countries that were concerned about population aging and population decline as a result of very low fertility rates,” says study coauthor Peter Kohler.
Health & Medicine - Jun 26, 2009 17:11 - 0 Comments
Bigger waistlines thanks to brain’s shortcut
“The eating environment has morphed into an atypical scenario where our usually helpful mental mechanisms betray us,” says Andrew Geier, lead author and a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Science & Technology - Jun 24, 2009 13:23 - 0 Comments
Micro-tool taps forces that shape living tissue
Scientists have created a micro-tool to gauge how minute mechanical forces affect cellular behavior in a 3-dimensional, in vivo-like environment that mimics how tissue actually forms in a living organism. Immunofluorescent sections of cells are visible above, including cell nuclei labeled in blue. (Credit: Wesley R Legant)
Science & Technology - Jun 22, 2009 12:37 - 0 Comments
Baboons that bond make better moms
U. PENN (US)—Female baboons who have strong social relationships with other females, especially their daughters, are more likely to give birth to babies who survive to adulthood than babies raised by less social mothers. (more…)
