http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org provides the latest news from University of Pennsylvania (Phys.org) —Hurricane Sandy caught the public and policymakers off guard when it hit the United States' Atlantic Coast last fall. Because much of the storm's devastation was wrought by flooding in the aftermath, researchers have been paying attention to how climate change and sea-level rise may have played a role in the disaster and how those factors may impact the shoreline in the future. http://phys.org/news288514578.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 May 2013 08:40:06 EST news288514578 (Phys.org) —The allure of personalized medicine has made new, more efficient ways of sequencing genes a top research priority. One promising technique involves reading DNA bases using changes in electrical current as they are threaded through a nanoscopic hole. http://phys.org/news288273199.html Nanotechnology Mon, 20 May 2013 12:53:27 EST news288273199 (Phys.org) —A team of University of Pennsylvania engineers has used a pattern of nanoantennas to develop a new way of turning infrared light into mechanical action, opening the door to more sensitive infrared cameras and more compact chemical-analysis techniques. http://phys.org/news288253848.html Nanotechnology Mon, 20 May 2013 07:31:00 EST news288253848 (Phys.org) —In 1700, a massive earthquake struck the west coast of North America. Though it was powerful enough to cause a tsunami as far as Japan, a lack of local documentation has made studying this historic event challenging. http://phys.org/news287769532.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 May 2013 16:58:59 EST news287769532 (Phys.org) —The allure of personalized medicine has made new, more efficient ways of sequencing genes a top research priority. One promising technique involves reading DNA bases using changes in electrical current as they are threaded through a nanoscopic hole. http://phys.org/news287216400.html Nanotechnology Wed, 08 May 2013 07:40:02 EST news287216400 (Phys.org) —Anyone who has flown in an airplane knows about turbulence, or when the flow of a fluid—in this case, the flow of air over the wings—becomes chaotic and unstable. For more than a century, the field of fluid mechanics has posited that turbulence scales with inertia, and so massive things, like planes, have an easier time causing it. http://phys.org/news286521880.html Physics Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:50:05 EST news286521880 (Phys.org) —A dye-based imaging technique known as two-photon microscopy can produce pictures of active neural structures in much finer detail than functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, but it requires powerful and expensive lasers. Now, a research team at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a new kind of dye that could reduce the cost of the technique by several orders of magnitude. http://phys.org/news285746921.html Nanotechnology Sun, 21 Apr 2013 07:09:15 EST news285746921 The field of regenerative medicine holds great promise, propelled by greater understanding of how stem cells differentiate themselves into many of the body's different cell types. But clinical applications in the field have been slow to materialize, partially owing to difficulties in replicating the conditions these cells naturally experience. http://phys.org/news283692868.html Chemistry Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:34:35 EST news283692868 (Phys.org) —Like animals, plants go through several stages of development before they reach maturity. It has long been thought that some of the transitions between these stages are triggered by changes in the nutritional status of the plant. Now, based on experiments with the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Department of Biology has provided fresh insights into the role of sugar in "vegetative phase change," the transition from the juvenile form of a plant to the adult plant. http://phys.org/news283677663.html Biology Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:21:09 EST news283677663 Electronic computing speeds are brushing up against limits imposed by the laws of physics. Photonic computing, where photons replace comparatively slow electrons in representing information, could surpass those limitations, but the components of such computers require semiconductors that can emit light. http://phys.org/news283602705.html Physics Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:31:59 EST news283602705 (Phys.org) —Early diagnosis is critical in treating Lyme disease. However, nearly one quarter of Lyme disease patients are initially misdiagnosed because currently available serological tests have poor sensitivity and specificity during the early stages of infection. Misdiagnosed patients may go untreated and thus progress to late-stage Lyme disease, where they face longer and more invasive treatments, as well as persistent symptoms. http://phys.org/news283423718.html Nanotechnology Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:48:46 EST news283423718 The body's immune system exists to identify and destroy foreign objects, whether they are bacteria, viruses, flecks of dirt or splinters. Unfortunately, nanoparticles designed to deliver drugs, and implanted devices like pacemakers or artificial joints, are just as foreign and subject to the same response. http://phys.org/news280675262.html Nanotechnology Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:00:15 EST news280675262 (Phys.org)—The spring 2011 flood on the Mississippi was among the largest floods ever, the river swelling over its banks and wreaking destruction in the surrounding areas. But a University of Pennsylvania-led study also shows that the flood reaped environmental benefits—transporting and laying down new sediment in portions of the Delta—that may help maintain the area's wetlands. http://phys.org/news279987327.html Space & Earth Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:30:05 EST news279987327 (Phys.org)—Beyond serving as the backbone of modern biology, DNA has come to be a molecule of great interest to engineers. That a DNA sequence will naturally bind only with a complementary sequence could make it part of a configurable, and potentially programmable, building material.    http://phys.org/news279180923.html Physics Mon, 04 Feb 2013 06:15:33 EST news279180923 (Phys.org)—Wear is a fact of life. As surfaces rub against one another, they break down and lose their original shape. With less material to start with and functionality that often depends critically on shape and surface structure, wear affects nanoscale objects more strongly than it does their macroscale counterparts. http://phys.org/news278750604.html Nanotechnology Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:20:01 EST news278750604