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Q+A: How are Increasing Days of Extreme Temperatures Impacting the Health of Those In Pennsylvania’s Prisons?

As both the number of days with extreme temperatures fueled by climate change and the number of incarcerated Americans increases (roughly two million people are currently incarcerated in the U.S.), a new health crisis is emerging for many of those in Pennsylvania’s prisons, particularly for women, according to a recently published study in Nature Communications from researchers at the Dornsife School of Public Health.

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“New” Family Tree for Neotropical Knifefishes

A great deal goes into not only finding a new fish species, but in confirming that it is, in fact, unknown to science and then placing it on the “tree of life”. The scientific names and classifications of fishes – and all living things – are based on specimens that are collected in the field and preserved in natural history collections like the Academy of Natural Sciences here in Philadelphia. Published literature creates a verifiable chain of custody that ties taxonomic names to their authors, dates, usage and museum specimens.

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Q+A: Where Do Thoughts That Seem to Appear Out of Nowhere Actually Come From?

During the course of a day, our attention can easily wander from time to time. Our brain can go from focusing on something around us to involuntary, random thoughts for no apparent reason. This “mind-wandering” describes a common phenomenon in which a wide range of self-generated thoughts emerge spontaneously. Neuroscientists have been studying the brain for years as they try to understand where these spontaneous thoughts come from.