News

Asst. Prof. Brad Benson and UChicago and Fermilab scientists tap South Pole Telescope data to “weigh” galaxy clusters

Crafoord Prize winner Eugene Parker’s contributions to solar astronomy are explained in A Solar Science Timeline

Asst. Prof. Eric Jonas described a new technique for reading nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra, opening up new possibilities for chemical analysis and the design of new molecules using a “self-driving spectrometer.”

Takeout noodles inspire UChicago scientists to invent remarkable synthetic tissue
Breakthrough creates tough material able to stretch, heal and defend itself

The first images from NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii show a remarkable, close-up view of the sun’s surface. Robert Rosner, the William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, said seeing the amazing surfaces of its structures has been a forty-year endeavor.

Using seismic vibrations collected from glaciers in the Antarctic, Prof. Doug MacAyeal partnered with Chicago-based artist collective Luftwerk to convert the sonic data into frequencies humans could hear. The goal was to translate an ailing iceberg and deepen public understanding through an emotional artistic experience of sea level rise.

Meg Panetta is from Atlanta, Georgia. She studied physics and astrophysics at Harvard University before obtaining a master’s degree in history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University. She is now in her second year of pursuing a PhD in physics.
 

UChicago scientists see opportunities for ‘metamaterials’ designed using dualities.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Jan. 30 that University of Chicago Prof. Emeritus Eugene Parker has been awarded the 2020 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy.
Awarded every three years, the prestigious Crafoord Prize consists of a gold medal and a sum of six million Swedish krona (about $600,000)—one of the largest prizes in science. 
The Academy, which is also responsible for selecting Nobel Prize winners, cited Parker for his “pioneering and fundamental studies of the solar wind and magnetic fields from stellar to galactic scales.”

Edwin Kite, assistant professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, and collaborators have proposed a novel explanation for the radius cliff, and it has to do with the solubility of hydrogen gas in the hot, molten rock that makes up the surface of a young planetary core.

This month, PSD researchers have been featured for helping identify the first habitable exoplanet, discovering the oldest material on Earth, and finding evidence that RNA modulates how DNA is transcribed.

A professor in the Department of Geophysical Sciences for nearly 40 years, Alfred T. Anderson, Jr., died on Jan. 15. He made pioneering contributions to the field of volcanology—particularly how to reconstruct long-ago volcanic explosions using clues in the rocks left behind. He was 82. For years, he and his wife, Caroline, served as the resident masters for the Snell-Hitchcock residence hall. 
 

The UChicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the 'Doomsday Clock' to 100 seconds to midnight, closer to global catastrophe than ever before. Prof. Dan Holz, a member of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board, joined Chicago Tonight to discuss the announcement. 

The hands of the Doomsday Clock are now at 100 seconds to midnight—the closest it has ever been to apocalypse since its creation following World War II. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which is housed at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and whose board includes several UChicago scientists, announced the change during a Jan. 23 event in Washington, D.C. 
 

A group of University of Chicago scientists has uncovered a previously unknown way that our genes are made into reality. 

Rather than directions going one-way from DNA to RNA to proteins, the latest study shows that RNA itself modulates how DNA is transcribed—using a chemical process that is increasingly apparent to be vital to biology. The discovery has significant implications for our understanding of human disease and drug design.