Normally, Penn Biology professor Lawrence Rome's academic life consists of teaching classes and researching fish. But when the Navy came calling, he decided to turn his attention to a new pursuit - backpacks. Traditionally an expert on how fish swim, Rome recently finished designing a new "suspended-load ergonomic backpack," which will likely be used by the armed services to lighten the loads carried by soldiers overseas.

For the Columbia Lions, Friday's Ivy League opener against the Princeton Tigers is about much more than emerging as the superior feline. The Lions (9-5) now have another chance to prove they belong among the best of the league. They have been unable to do just that for a long time.

$499Cost of Apple's newest product and first mobile phone, the iPhone.Source: The New York Times

Roch Guerin, an Electrical and Systems Engineering professor, has been named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, University officials announced Monday. Guerin was honored for his contributions to the resource management of data networks.

The low number of male students and faculty in gender studies devalues the discipline's relevance.

For residents living near the South Street Bridge, newer may not always mean better. On Monday night, the Philadelphia Department of Streets sponsored a meeting to discuss the plans and possible ramifications of the remodeling of the South Street Bridge. Construction has been pushed back from its original April 2007 date to this coming October, Schuylkill River Development Corporation CEO Joseph Syrnick said, though he added that it is possible for the construction date to be pushed back even further until spring 2008.

By Parisa Bastani Staff Writer pbastani@sas.upenn.edu Given Yale's 4-9 record so far this season, the Elis don't seem like they have much to be optimistic about as they approach their first Ivy League contest at Brown on Saturday. Yale opened the season on a positive note with a win over Allegheny, but then fell into a slump, dropping nine of their next 11 games.

Though winter break saw a rash of violent crimes, DPS officials point to an overall drop in crime of three percent from 2005 to 2006 as an indication that campus safety is improving.

This week, Delaware Attorney General spokeswoman Janice Fitzsimons announced that Irina Malinovskaya will be retried a second time for the murder of Irina Zlotnikov.

Alicia Puglionesi is an College sophomore from Haverton, Pa. Her e-mail address is puglionesi@dailypennsylvanian.com.

With sophomore guard Adam Gore leading the charge, the Cornell men's basketball team shone in its first game of the season at Northwestern, knocking off a Big Ten opponent for the first time since 1967.

By Brian Finkel Staff Writer finkel@wharton.upenn.edu Back from its lengthy Scandinavian voyage, the men's squash team is now looking to dominate in a region not known for its tall, blond inhabitants. After a winter break tour that included stops in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, the No.

Glen Miller's career as Penn coach is 520 minutes old. For those of you who have not taken a class taught by Jim Harrick, that translates into 13 games. And over that time, the record has actually been a good reflection of the Quakers' play. At 7-6, Penn has been very inconsistent, within games and from game to game, and does not yet have a particularly strong identity.

In the November 13 Associated Press college basketball poll, Harvard received a single top-25 vote. And Harvard remains the only Ivy team to receive a vote this year. Incongruent with their national nod, the Crimson was picked to finish seventh in the preseason Ivy League basketball poll.

A new Web site is about to give the University bookstore a run for its money - or so it hopes. Betterthanthebookstore.com - created by two Penn undergraduates in the fall - is providing students with a forum where they can buy and sell used textbooks at relatively inexpensive prices.

A roasted pig's head decorated with pineapples and ripe strawberries rested in the center of the room. Girls in grass skirts and bikini tops distributed leis. "We like to get leied," one tropical-looking girl, Wharton freshman Paula Aranda, said as she placed a flower necklace around one guy's neck.

Erin Power was hardly the only one ecstatic when the University accepted her early decision in December. So was David Power - her father and basketball coach at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois. And head coach Pat Knapp and the rest of the women's basketball program might have cracked some smiles, even in the midst of another rough season.