News

In a series of four papers in the Astrophysical Journal, a team of astronomers, including Assoc. Prof. Jacob Bean, proposes a new method of using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to determine whether a rocky exoplanet has an atmosphere. The technique, which involves measuring the planet’s temperature as it passes behind its star and then comes back into view, is significantly faster than more traditional methods of atmospheric detection like transmission spectroscopy.  

UChicago chemists have discovered an efficient method to make tetra-substituted olefins, a kind of olefin with four different attachments—used in everything from medicines to new ways to store data. With the new method, they can easily and precisely select the four different attachments. Additionally, their catalyst cuts the number of steps to make the compounds from around seven to two or three.

In a first-of-its-kind survey, a group of University of Chicago and Princeton researchers found that “dark patterns” on shopping websites were startlingly common—appearing on more than 1 out of 10 sites and used frequently by many of the most popular online merchants. Dark patterns include sites that sign you up for recurring payments under the guise of a free trial, use countdown clocks that warn you a product is running out of stock, or that tell you other people in your area have already purchased the item. 

Prof. Dan Hooper appears on WTTW to discuss the very first moments of the universe. In his new book, “At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of our Universe’s First Seconds,” Hooper explains that there are four big fundamental puzzles stumping cosmologists right now: why does matter exist; what are dark matter and dark energy; and what caused cosmic inflation?
 

This month, PSD researchers have been featured for inventing tiny organic films that could enable new electronics, discovering a new mathematical formula while studying neutrinos, and demonstrating how hackers could use Wi-Fi signals to track you inside your home.

Graduate students Becca Thompson and Ross Edel won two of the five named national awards at the 66th Annual American Vacuum Society (AVS) Meeting for their doctoral research. Becca won the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award, while Ross won the Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Scholarship, both for their “outstanding achievement in vacuum science and technology.”

Adam Antoszewski was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He holds a BS in both physics and chemistry from the University of Virginia. He’s now in his third year of pursuing a PhD in chemistry at the University of Chicago. 

PSD’s December spotlight is Mitzi Nakatsuka, who works as a web developer in the Department of Statistics. She has been at the University for 42 years and hails from the south side of Chicago.

Renovations on the new student space on the fourth floor of Ryerson Laboratory are now complete. The space has been remodeled to accommodate first and second year graduate students in the Department of Mathematics. The renovated space includes breakout rooms, a kitchenette, individual workstations for 35 students, and more.
 

David Charbonneau, astronomer at Harvard University and recipient of an honorary degree from UChicago, has made it his life’s goal to search the stars for habitable planets and alien life. On this episode of Big Brains, he tells his fascinating story about the history of exoplanetary research, his journey as a planet hunter and the stunning discoveries he’s made along the way. 

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and its international partners on Nov. 14 broke ground on an innovative experiment that aims to answer some of the biggest questions about the universe.

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility will one day produce the world’s most intense, high-energy neutrino beam, sending trillions of particles 1,300 kilometers underground to South Dakota as part of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Hosted by Fermilab, a U.S. Department of Energy lab affiliated with the University of Chicago, DUNE brings together more than 1,000 people from 30-plus countries to tackle questions that keep physicists awake at night: Why is the universe full of matter and not antimatter, or no matter at all? Do protons, one of the building blocks of atoms (and of us), ever decay? How do black holes form? 

Quanta Magazine highlights three physicists--Stephen Parke of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Xining Zhang of the University of Chicago and Peter Denton of Brookhaven National Laboratory—who discovered a new mathematical formula while studying neutrinos. 

A new study from University of Chicago and University of California, Santa Barbara researchers finds that external attackers can use inexpensive technology to turn Wi-Fi signals into motion detectors, monitoring activity inside a building without being detected themselves. 

 With only a small, commercially available Wi-Fi receiver, an attacker from outside the target site can measure the strength of signals emitted from connected devices and monitor a site remotely for motion, sensing whether a room is occupied. The research, led by leading UChicago computer scientists Heather Zheng and Ben Zhao, reveals the technique of these attacks as well as potential defenses. 

The Committee on Evolutionary Biology—an interdivisional and interinstitutional graduate training program—will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a two-day event Nov. 21-22, featuring scholars, students and alumni of the program discussing their groundbreaking research and scientific achievements. 

Scientists at the University of Chicago, in collaboration with researchers at Cornell University and Argonne National Laboratory, have discovered an easy, efficient way to grow extremely thin films of organic materials. The findings, published Nov. 7 in Science, could be a stepping-stone to future electronics or technologies with new abilities.