Natural Science

Adrian Morrison, professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, has had plenty of experience writing about his area of academic expertise, REM sleep.

Everyone has heard of DNA, the blueprint for life. But if it were up to Brian Gregory, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania, DNA’s close cousin, RNA, would get equal billing.

Gregory studies RNA, or ribonucleic acid, primarily in plants in his lab at Penn, investigating not only how it functions as a code for building proteins but also how it serves to regulate gene expression.

PHILADELPHIA — 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.

PHILADELPHIA — Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have discovered that a protein called Jagged-1 stimulates human stem cells to differentiate into bone-producing cells.

If you’re one of the people who takes the University of Pennsylvania online course “’Pay Attention!!’ ADHD Through the Lifespan,” you will learn that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder isn’t just kid stuff.

Even though between 5 and 8 percent of school-aged children in the United States are diagnosed with ADHD, it is estimated that 4 percent of adults also suffer from some form of attention deficit disorder -- and that number is increasing.

PHILADELPHIA — Niemann-Pick Type C disease is a rare and incurable neurological disorder that affects 500 children worldwide. Presently, there are no therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat NPC.

“Well-rounded” just doesn’t seem to cover it.  Nor does “always busy.”

Andrew Dierkes, 19, is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, but, he’s no ordinary undergraduate.

PHILADELPHIA — After more than 30 years on the job, Susan Davidson has some perspective on her discipline.

PHILADELPHIA — 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.