2021
Peering at the universe from the bottom of the Earth
December 8, 2021

Argonne scientists Lindsey Bleem, PhD’13, and Asst. Prof. Clarence Chang, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, talk about what it’s like to look for signals from the early universe onsite at Antarctica's South Pole Telescope.
MICCoM center, directed by Prof. Galli, leads to award-winning computational science
December 7, 2021

The Midwest Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM) is one of five centers in the US where scientists focus on developing software to help predict materials for energy conversion technologies and quantum information science. The team of 34 scientists, led by Professor of Chemistry Giulia Galli, has been recognized with several prestigious awards this year.
The ambitious idea to study the evolution of a comet
December 6, 2021

The Smithsonian Magazine explores T.C. Chamberlin Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences Darryl Seligman’s idea to send a spacecraft near Jupiter to join up with a chunk of rock and ice as it is flung toward the sun.
UChicago workshop highlights internet frontiers and opportunities
December 3, 2021

A gathering hosted by the University of Chicago and the University of California, Santa Barbara, brought together experts from industry, government, and academia for panels and conversations around internet equity and access.
Beads of glass in meteorites help scientists piece together how solar system formed
December 3, 2021

Most meteorites are made of tiny beads of glass that date back to the earliest days of the solar system, before the planets were even formed. Scientists in the Dauphas Origins Lab have published an analysis laying out how these beads, which are found in many meteorites, came to be—and what they can tell us about what happened in the early solar system.
To understand biology, scientists turn to the quantum world
December 2, 2021

University of Chicago chemistry professor and director Greg Engel discusses the potential of the new $25 million Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (QuBBE)—ranging from tracking a drug through the membrane and across the cytoplasm of a single cell, to precise demarcation of tumor margins during surgery.
Clam fossils help scientists find errors in evolutionary tree calculations
December 2, 2021

By examining fossilized clams scientists including David Jablonski, the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Geophysical Sciences, and postdoctoral researcher, Nick Crouch, found that a commonly used protocol hides the true extent of how species live and die through major extinctions. Clams previously assumed to originate before the last great extinction actually originated in a burst of diversification in the aftermath.
Wearable device that changes perception of softness wins best paper at UIST 2021
December 1, 2021

A new wearable technology designed by researchers in the Human Computer Integration laboratory at UChicago Computer Science can fool fingertips, changing the user’s perception of an object’s softness. The research describing the project, led by predoctoral student Yujie Tao, received a Best Paper Award at the 2021 ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology and the Best Demo Award from the UIST Jury.
Web of Science recognizes highly cited researchers of 2021
December 1, 2021

Eight current University of Chicago Physical Science Division faculty were named in Web of Science's 2021 report of highly cited researchers. Researchers on the list have demonstrated significant and broad influence in the past decade, with highly cited papers ranking in the top 1% by citation for a chosen field or fields.
ScaleStuds project receives $5 million to build foundations for massive computation
November 29, 2021

With a $5 million LARGE grant from NSF, computer science professors Haryadi Gunawi, Shan Lu, and Hank Hoffmann will lead a group of researchers to develop a new pipeline of tools, software, and systems that allow software developers to write robust new software for massive clusters, even without direct access to these expensive systems, thus building foundations for correctness checkability and performance predictability at scale.
How the Earth and moon formed, explained
November 29, 2021

How and when did the Earth and moon form? The latest entry in the UChicago News "Core Knowledge" explainer series explores these origins, and other questions scientists are still asking.
PSD in the News - November 2021
November 18, 2021

This month PSD researchers have been featured for their efforts to invent chemical haptics, to detect internet censorship in real time, and to extract water from the air of even the driest deserts.
Unlocking the secrets of black holes, with Andrea Ghez
November 18, 2021

The UChicago podcast Big Brains interviews Nobel-winning scientist and Lab alumna Andrea Ghez about examining the monster at the center of our galaxy—and how we got here.
Modifying molecules is complicated—so UChicago chemists found a simpler way
November 18, 2021

A new study by University of Chicago chemists offers a more efficient way to let researchers rearrange the components of a molecule—in particular, a key component called carbonyl groups that appears in many pharmaceutical drugs and other useful chemicals.
Statistics breakthrough helps calculate likelihood of worst-case scenarios
November 18, 2021

Scientists including Joel Cohen, a visiting professor in the Department of Statistics, have announced a new way to tease out information about events that are rare, but highly consequential—such as pandemics and insurance payouts.