Penn Gazette Blog

The New Yorker‘s May 29 issue will be its first devoted to science fiction.  But you can get a jump on it starting tonight, when the magazine begins publishing a story written by Jennifer Egan C’85 — at a rate of one tweet per minute, starting at 8pm.  The Twitter feed will last an hour, and will resume at the same time each of the following nine nights.  According to The New York Times, it’s a spy story, told in 140-character bits.  The Twitter handle to watch is @NYerFiction.

It’s time to go back to school — 21st-century style — and the Gazette‘s here to help you through it.  As you may have read in Thomas Friedman’s New York Times column, Penn has partnered with Coursera to offer free classes online.  The first installment features a dozen courses, ranging from single-variable calculus with PIK prof Robert Ghrist (who is renowned for actually making Intro to Calculus funny), to Greek and Roman mythology with esteemed classicist Peter Struck.  But taking a class online doesn’t have to mean taking it alone.  The Gazette‘s enrolling too, and we’ll blog about the class as it progresses.  Which class?  That’s up to you.  Vote below.  The choices here are for classes set to begin between July and September.  But don’t dilly-dally — votes will be tallied soon after our July|August issue hits your mailbox around Independence Day.

For full course descriptions, click here.  Each of the professors has posted an introductory video, so go ahead and sample before you sign up.

Three Penn faculty members—Nancy Bonini, Gideon Dreyfuss, and Beatrice H. Hahn— were elected to the National Academy of Sciences this month.

These Penn profs have made it their mission to solve all sorts of crippling diseases. Bononi, a professor of biology and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, works with fruit flies to identify genes related to human brain diseases such as Huntington’s. Dreyfuss, the Isaac Norris Professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the Perelman School of Medicine, is also an investigator for the Howard Hughes institute. His laboratory is investigating the role of RNA-binding proteins in degenerative diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy. And Hahn, who teaches medicine and microbiology at the Perelman School, studies the origins and the evolution of human and simian immunodeficiency viruses, focusing on HIV and malaria.

Eighty-four new members were inducted this year.  Induction into the academy is considered one of the highest honors possible for an American scientist or engineer. The NAS was established by Congress 1863.  Its 2,152 members’ overarching goal is to “investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science” and, when they’re asked to, advise the government on all such matters.

Even the learned Languages are, in my Opinion, taught by a wrong Method—The Grammar should be the last Book put into the Learner’s Hands—No Language is built upon its Grammar, but the Grammar is deduced from the Language—Elegance of Style in speaking or writing can never be acquired by Rules.

– From a letter to Benjamin Franklin, May 24, 1784

In my Travels thro’ America I arrived in Philadelphia in November 1778. Amongst the Rarities of that City I was carried to the House of one Francis Hopkinson to see a very extraordinary Animal. Philosophers were much in Doubt whether this Animal were of the rational Kind or not; in some Instances it exceeded the Monkey in Sagacity, in others it fell short. It was near three feet in height & went mostly on all fours, but great Pains was taken by its Keepers to teach it to walk upright & it could actually walk a few Yards on two Legs only.—as I myself saw. It could not be said to talk & yet uttered some articulate Words imitative of the human Speech. It was very voracious and would eat continually. It was particularly fond of roasted Potatoes, & accordingly Potatoes were continually roasted for its use. When any were put into the Fire it would clap its fore-paws together & uttering a strange noise would shew great signs of Joy & when it thought they were sufficiently roasted, it would point one of its Claws to the Fire & seem to beg for them. In the Night it generally kept up a hideous howling; from which it was supposed to have been produced by wild Parents who roamed about the Woods for Prey in the Night. It was very noisy, very playful & seemed to be in a thriving Way, being very fat & hearty. Many were the Debates of the learned as to the Origin of this curious little Animal.…

“A high-flying Politician is I think not unlike a Balloon—he is full of inflammability, he is driven by every Current of Wind—& those who will suffer themselves to be carried up by them run a great Risk that the Bubble may burst & let them fall from the Height to which the Principle of Levity may raise them.”

– from a 1783 letter to Thomas Jefferson

It’s time to go back to school — 21st-century style — and the Gazette‘s here to help you through it.  As we reported in our July|August issue, Penn has partnered with Coursera to offer free classes online.  The first installment features a dozen courses, ranging from single-variable calculus with PIK prof Robert Ghrist (who is renowned for actually making Intro to Calculus funny), to Greek and Roman mythology with esteemed classicist Peter Struck.  But taking a class online doesn’t have to mean taking it alone.  The Gazette‘s enrolling too, and we’ll blog about the class as it progresses.  Which class?  That’s up to you.  Vote below.  A few of the courses began in June, so the choices here are for classes set to begin between July and September.  But don’t dilly-dally — votes will be tallied soon after our July|August issue hits your mailbox around Independence Day.

For full course descriptions, click here.  Each of the professors has posted an introductory video, so go ahead and sample before you sign up.