News: Research

SOFIA data maps Sagittarius C’s magnetic fields, revealing how star winds shape gas, filaments, and dynamics at the Milky Way’s turbulent core.

James Webb finds no Earth-like atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1 d, dimming hopes for life in the nearby seven-planet system 40 light-years away.

AI bots now dominate web traffic, prompting creators to “poison” data to block scrapers, though the same tactic could fuel misinformation.

NASA detects a faint 13-billion-year-old polarized light signal from the universe’s first stars, revealing clues about the cosmic dawn.

Daniel Holz, professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Physics, serves as a PI on a research project that explores the physics of strong gravity. 

Devices can levitate powered only by sunlight, could explore little-known areas.

Webb telescope helps scientists narrow down the search for “Earth twin” planets.

K1 Semiconductor, which recently took second place in the Polsky New Venture Challenge and Grainger Engineering Tech Startup Challenge, is developing a technique that could drastically improve chip manufacturing.

Ten of the 18 projects awarded grants involve faculty from the Physical Sciences Division. These projects are crucial in tackling climate change.

Ahmed Bou-Rabee's superdiffusion research, featured in Quanta Magazine, proves a 1980s prediction using new methods in stochastic homogenization, with co-authors Scott Armstrong and Tuomo Kuusi.

Near Modane, a laboratory buried beneath the Alps is attempting to capture elements of a world parallel to our own. Paolo Privitera uses this laboratory to study dark matter. 

[Article published in French. View in Chrome browser for translation option.]

Fred Ciesla reveals how observations of a young star offer a glimpse of the high-temperature conditions that shaped rock formation in the early Solar System.

PhD student Roy Zhao's research on a region called Sagittarius C discovers that magnetic field in the area wraps around an expanding bubble of hot, electrified gas blown outward by the winds from a cluster of massive young stars.

PhD student Jasmine Lu incorporates slime mold into her devices due to its unique ability to conduct electricity. 

Hank Hoffmann, Liew Family Chair of Computer Science, earns SEAMS Most Influential Paper Award for research on using control theory to enhance adaptive software reliability and responsiveness.