As the replacement for Brian Cusworth, Harvard junior Brad Unger has a large role to fill. Literally. When the 7-foot Cusworth left the team a week and a half ago when his eligibility expired, he was leading the team in points and rebounds with 17.4 and 9.

For 800 unlucky students on Jan. 27, the Medical College Admissions Test proved a test of nerves rather than a test of knowledge. A testing error in the most recent MCAT examination - which was also the first computerized version of the exam - left test-takers confused and has students now concerned about the validity of the new system.

Sometimes, being number one isn't all it's cracked up to be. Wharton Business School's MBA program was ranked best in the world for the seventh year in a row by the London-based Financial Times. But despite retaining the premiere spot, Wharton students, alumni and faculty say that they are unconcerned with the school's rank in this, or any, publication.

Penn's overall "B" grade on its environmental report card downplays its low scores in a variety of other categories.

7New Pennsylvania sales-tax percent proposed by Governor Ed Rendell; it is currently 6 percent. Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Ask any collegiate wrestler what the toughest thing about his sport is, and he'll probably tell you it's making weight. Between crash dieting, workouts and time on the scale, staying under that golden number is enough to keep the most dedicated grappler up at night.

Chemistry professor Alan MacDiarmid, one of three recipients of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, died yesterday afternoon. He was 79. MacDiarmid had been suffering from Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a disease that affects the bone marrow and blood, for the past four years.

From Rosie the Maid to the Terminator, general interest in robots is nothing new. Studying them, however, has been less common - until now. Come fall semester, the School of Engineering and Applied Science will begin offering a master's program in robotics - the study of building, instrumenting and programming robots.

Penn failed to meet its goal of announcing an e-mail provider the end of Jan.

What could make a man like Simon Kirke - the famous drummer for the bands Free and Bad Company - stop a tour of the Northeast to pay Penn basketball a visit? None other than one of the Palestra's institutions - the Penn Band. The drummer-turned-music-insructor will perform Free's 1970 hit "All Right Now" along with the Penn Band when the Quakers takee on Harvard this Saturday, the Athletic Department announced this week.

Joanne Tong is a Wharton junior from Manila, Philippines. Her e-mail address is tong@dailypennsylvanian.com.

For those nervous about studying abroad, take some advice from a seasoned expert. Leonard Barkan transported a crowd of 30 gathered for a Penn Humanities Forum event yesterday evening to Italy during a reading of his book, Satyr Square. His recent travelogue, published last October, evolved from what he deemed his "love affair with culture" - a yearlong sabbatical in Italy.

Scribbling with Magic Markers is a fairly standard activity for preschoolers, but at the Penn Children's Center, tots are scribbling on drywall instead.

Though the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has finally released its reasoning behind the casino process, the anti-casino movement just keeps gathering steam. The board, in a 113-page decision released Feb. 1, explained why it chose the SugarHouse and Foxwoods casino plans, citing their location and potential benefit to the community as reasons why they were selected over three other designs.

Joseph Cho, a second-year law student who faces charges of attempted murder, has been deemed incompetent to stand trial, according to Cho's lawyer, Peter Bowers. Cho, 31, is currently awaiting transportation to an in-patient medical facility where he will undergo further evaluation and treatment for an undetermined amount of time, Bowers said.

Tri-captain Stephen Danley was an integral part of former coach Fran Dunphy's offense last season, leading the team in assists from the center position. But this season, especially as of late, has been a different story. Danley has averaged 9.5 points per game on the season, but only 2.

For East Asian Languages and Civilizations professor Nancy Steinhardt, a Yuan Dynasty building is not simply wood and stone. "It's a living scene that encompasses all aspects of life and class struggle in 13th-Century China," she says. That passion for Chinese architecture gave the National Endowment for Humanities reason enough to give Steinhardt a $24,000 grant last month, one of only 288 grants awarded across the country.