2021
MicroBooNE’s new findings provide clues on longtime mystery in neutrino physics
October 27, 2021

Four complementary analyses released by the international MicroBooNE collaboration at Fermi National Laboratory show the same thing: no sign of the theoretical particle known as the sterile neutrino. Instead, the results align with the Standard Model of Particle Physics prediction: there are only three kinds of neutrinos.
Scientists find strange black ‘superionic ice’ that could exist inside other planets
October 25, 2021

Vitali Prakapenka, Research Professor with Center for Advanced Radiation Sources (CARS), GSECARS, is among a group of beamline scientists who have seen a new state of matter at high temperature and pressure called superionic ice. With the help of several powerful tools, they have found a way to reliably create, sustain, and examine the ice, which will inform new understandings of planetary formation.
Quantum biosensing: medicine at the smallest scales
October 22, 2021

Chemistry professor and director of the new QuBBE initiative, Greg Engel, explains the convergence between the sensitivity that is possible with quantum measurement and the absolute need in biology to understand things on exactly these scales, a combination that makes quantum biosensing the frontier of biological measurements.
UChicago-led research team develops “blueprint” for quantum materials
October 21, 2021

Researchers at the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and institutions in Japan, Korea, and Hungary published a blueprint for a class of materials that is quickly emerging as an important player in quantum science: crystals with defects.
2-D room-temperature magnets could unlock quantum computing
October 21, 2021

Prof. David Awschalom of physics comments on the big obstacles to creating commercial spintronic devices or shrinking conventional data storage.
Weizmann Institute of Science joins Giant Magellan Telescope, a top priority for science worldwide
October 20, 2021

On September 14, 2021, the GMTO Corporation welcomed the Weizmann Institute of Science into its international consortium of distinguished universities and research institutions building the Giant Magellan Telescope, which includes the University of Chicago. The new partnership reinforces that completing the largest and most powerful Gregorian optical-infrared telescope ever engineered is a top priority for the global scientific community.
Ancient Martian ‘lake’ may have just been ephemeral puddles
October 20, 2021

Asst. Prof. Edwin Kite, Department of the Geophysical Sciences, responds to a new study on Martian terrain that suggests the ‘lake’ believed to be at the landing site of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover may have only been a series of smaller, transient puddles.
Nation’s first quantum accelerator, Duality, announces first corporate supporters
October 14, 2021

Duality, the nation’s first accelerator focused exclusively on supporting quantum science and technology companies, has announced that Amazon Web Services is among its first corporate supporters, along with Caruso Ventures, Lathrop GPM LLP, McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff, Silicon Valley Bank, and Toptica Photonics to support its inaugural cohort of six startups, and help fuel quantum innovation in Chicago and the region.
To watch a comet form, a spacecraft could tag along for a journey toward the sun
October 14, 2021

Darryl Seligman, T.C. Chamberlin Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, says ‘Centaurs’ near Jupiter could provide a unique opportunity to learn about the solar system.
From the deserts of Wyoming to the Human-Computer Integration Lab: PSD graduate students engage in summer research projects
October 12, 2021

From an expedition to hunt for fossils in the deserts of Wyoming to building a virtual reality headset, University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division graduate students were exploring a range of questions during the Summer Quarter. Here is how six students spent the summer.
New wearable device controls individual fingers for sign language, music applications
October 11, 2021

Computer science researchers in Asst. Prof. Pedro Lopes’ Human Computer Integration Lab recently presented their design for DextrEMS, a wearable device combining electrical muscle stimulation and mechanical brakes to control individual fingers.
Dust collected from a speeding asteroid analyzed with massive accelerator
October 1, 2021

A team that includes UChicago, Argonne beamline scientist Barbara Lavina and physicist Jiyong Zhao will be among the first to study asteroid fragments from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. This summer they took readings of asteroid fragments using X-ray scattering methods at beamline 3-ID-B at the Advanced Photon Source. Next, the fragments will return to Argonne for more extensive readings using Mössbauer spectroscopy techniques.
Prof. Jiwoong Park leads scientists to create material that can both move and block heat
October 1, 2021

By stacking ultra-thin layers of crystal on top of each other, rotated slightly, researchers led by Jiwoong Park, professor of chemistry and molecular engineering, created a material that is extremely good at both containing heat and moving it—an unusual ability at the microscale.
Scientists use nuclear physics to probe Floridan Aquifer threatened by climate change
October 1, 2021

As rising sea levels threaten coastal areas, scientists like Reika Yokochi in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences are using an emerging nuclear dating technique to track the ins and outs of water flow.
DOE grant funds UChicago, Argonne research on AI models informing climate change
September 28, 2021

A new project funded through a $3.25 million grant from DoE to UChicago and Argonne National Lab will allow researchers to apply artificial intelligence to accelerate the scientific simulation of complex physical systems, especially those relating to climate change.