News: Research

When William Irvine’s team put tiny magnetic particles in a fluid-filled chamber and spun them around, something unexpected happened. They began to flock together, splitting and merging like a school of fish. When they put lots of those particles in to swim, the suspension became a new phase of matter.

A trio of scientists from UChicago and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel has put forth a new model that pushes the terrestrial biosphere's lifetime out to 1.7 billion years.

Research on so-called mirror cells, which defy fundamental properties of living organisms, should be prohibited as too dangerous, biologists said. 

“The consequences could be globally disastrous,” said Jack Szostak, who helped write a 299-page technical report on the risks of the research.

University of Chicago Computer Science Seymour Goodman Professor Fred Chong is part of a national team building software to manage quantum noise, an increasingly relevant problem due to the rapid development of quantum computing technologies.

Saturdays with CSIL (Computer Science Instructional Laboratory) focuses on exposing Chicago Public School high school students to computer science at an introductory level, as some CPS students have limited access to CS classes.

Fourth-year PhD student Kelly Wagman, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and the Greater Chatham Initiative, develops a community-based app that bridges the gap between the residents’ and the scientists’ needs for flood-reporting resources and data.

Scientists from UChicago created a new way to study snoRNAs, showing they may serve a surprisingly broad range of functions across many cell types.

A collaboration between computer engineers and AI specialists at Microsoft and UChicago resulted in the creation of a new language that allows large language models (LLMs) to communicate more efficiently.

The Giant Magellan Telescope announced that Northwestern University has joined its international consortium to construct the $2.54 billion observatory.

As a new partner, Northwestern joins a distinguished group of American institutions driving one of the largest public-private partnerships in science, which includes the University of Chicago, the University of Arizona, Carnegie Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institution, and Arizona State University. 

Image courtesy of GMTO

Coating the interior of superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities with a Nb3Sn film can drastically enhance the efficiency and performance of particle accelerator infrastructure. However, imperfections in the deposited Nb3Sn coating limit its implementation as a next-generation SRF material. A study by the Sibener group, in collaboration with Cornell University and Brigham Young University, explores how imperfections form and how they can affect SRF performance. 

A new study uses data collected by the South Pole Telescope to deepen our understanding of how the universe was born and evolved.

Thanks to a new investment, researchers will leverage the Aurora exascale supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory to discover new targets for cancer therapies. Bryan Dickinson, a UChicago chemist, is part of the team behind the project.

New observations of distant galaxies have intensified a debate that scientists call the Hubble Tension. A UChicago study led by Prof. Wendy Freedman produced new estimates for the Hubble Constant, challenging previous work. 

Researchers led by chemist Stuart Rowan developed a method that uses charred plant material to produce high-quality graphite. 

The University of Chicago announces the launch of a groundbreaking research center, the NSF Center for Multimodal Observations for Single Atom Imaging of Chemistry (MOSAIC), set to revolutionize our comprehension of chemical reactions. University president Paul Alivisatos will serve as the Principal Investigator and Center Director, where his pioneering work with inorganic nanocrystals, coupled with the expertise of Professor Jiwoong Park in 2D materials, will be instrumental in developing the MOSAIC platform.