News

2023

Origin of life group debuts at AAAS

March 9, 2023

Planet visualization

Researchers from UChicago, ETH Zurch, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard have formed an international, interdisciplinary collaborative to explore how life evolved on Earth and, possibly, other planets.


New study shows Venus likely didn’t have ancient oceans for long

March 8, 2023

Red planet against starry sky, half obscured by darkness

Assoc. Prof. Edwin Kite and graduate student Alexandra Warren work to model the history of Venus' atmosphere.

Image: Inverse/Shutterstock


Black holes will destroy all quantum states, researchers argue

March 7, 2023

Black holes effectively observe elementary particles, an effect that echoes John Wheeler’s ideas about the “participatory universe

Prof. Robert M. Wald discusses new research findings and his studies under celebrated theoretical physicist John Wheeler.

Image: Kristina Armitage/Quanta Magazine


An applied mathematician with an unexpected toolbox

March 2, 2023

Photo of Lek Heng Lim in an old University of Chicago building

Lek-Heng Lim uses tools from algebra, geometry and topology to answer questions in machine learning.


No, the James Webb Space Telescope Hasn’t Broken Cosmology

February 27, 2023

The Webb telescope has spotted galaxies surprisingly far away in space and deep in the past. These four, studied by a team called JADES, are all seen as they appeared less than 500 million years after the Big Bang.

Prof. Wendy Freedman is exploring how JWST observations can be squared with the standard cosmological model.


PSD Spotlight: Sean Hernandez

February 24, 2023

Sean Hernandez

PSD's February spotlight is Sean Hernandez, Assistant Director of PSD Graphics. Sean has been with UChicago for fifteen years.


PSD in the News - February 2023

February 24, 2023

PSD against a white and turquoise background

This month PSD researchers have been recognized for their pioneering discoveries, the quality and innovation of their research programs, and their unique contributions to new fields of inquiry. 
 


Solving astrophysical problems by hand

February 23, 2023

Photo of Abigail Vieregg outdoors

Abigail Vieregg, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, shares her passion for building experiments and bringing people together to solve scientific mysteries.


Deep earthquakes could reveal secrets of the Earth’s mantle

February 22, 2023

Earth sliced in half, showing the different layers of the planet inside.

A new study led by University of Chicago geophysicist Sunyoung Park suggests there may be a layer of surprisingly fluid rock located in the Earth’s mantle. The study uses 350-mile-deep earthquake to make elusive measurements of the Earth’s layers. 


A chemist who studies the spots where chaos sneaks in

February 20, 2023

Photo of Sarah King's lab. King (at right) works in her lab with graduate student Ruiyu Li (at left).

UChicago Asst. Prof. Sarah King awarded prestigious Cottrell Scholarship, that honors “outstanding teacher-scholars who are recognized by their scientific communities for the quality and innovation of their research programs and their academic leadership skills.”


What “living drill bits” can teach us about evolution

February 18, 2023

A bivalve that bored into a coral reef in the Florida Keys

Clams that can bore into solid rock show surprising patterns of evolution, UChicago study finds.


Dark energy from supermassive black holes? Physicists spar over radical idea

February 17, 2023

An artist's impression of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy.

Earlier this week, a study made headlines claiming that the mysterious “dark energy” cosmologists believe is accelerating the expansion of the universe could arise from supermassive black holes at the hearts of galaxies. If true, the connection would link two of the most mind-bending concepts in physics—black holes and dark energy—and suggest that the source of the latter has been under theorists’ noses for decades. However, some leading theorists are deeply skeptical of the idea.


Suri Vaikuntanathan awarded 2023 Early Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry

February 16, 2023

Portrait of Associate Professor, Chemistry, Suri Vaikuntanathan

Vaikuntanathan is being recognized “for the development of powerful non-equilibrium statistical mechanical theories to understand the behavior of complex matter ranging from driven systems to biological self-assembly.”


RNA’s “joints” play key role in our gene expression, UChicago scientists find

February 15, 2023

An illustration of mRNA molecules in purples and light blues.

Longstanding puzzle of RNA methylation revealed by team of UChicago chemists. The finding could have implications for gene therapies for disease, as well as our picture of gene expression, development, and evolution.


This tool could protect artists from A.I.-generated art that steals their style

February 13, 2023

Karla Ortiz holding a thing painting brush working on some of her art.

Professor Zhao and a team of computer science researchers at the University of Chicago designed a tool called Glaze that aims to thwart A.I. models from learning a particular artist’s style.