News: Research

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.

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.

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.

An ultraporous humidity sponge could provide 300 gallons of fresh water a day. UChicago computational chemist Prof. Laura Gagliardi is using molecular simulations and precise experimental measurements to figure out how this material might capture even more water even more easily.

A group of scientists announced they had detected the gamma rays from a phenomenon known as an ultra-fast outflow—a powerful wind launched from very near a supermassive black hole—for the first time. Scientists believe these outflows play an important role in regulating the growth of the black hole itself and its host galaxy.

In this introduction to why quantum computing will transform the digital world as we know it, the Chicagoland region is featured for leading the charge with the Chicago Quantum Exchange—which “draws on the expertise and vision of world-class universities, exceptional government laboratories and visionary industry leaders to advance research and development of quantum technologies.”

A team of scientists that includes Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics Hubble Fellow Michael Zevin may have solved the mystery of how most massive black holes are formed. The team proposes that black holes with masses that were previously unexplainable could be growing hand-in-hand with the accelerating expansion of the Universe. The phenomenon could be an example of what the team calls "cosmological coupling."

Researchers from the Human Computer Integration Lab have developed an entirely new approach called chemical haptics, which directly triggers receptors in human skin in different ways.

Quanta Magazine coverage of UChicago condensed matter physicists Prof. Vincenzo Vitelli, postdoc Ryo Hanai, and Prof. Peter Littlewood, who study the mathematical objects called exceptional points that have been found to control phase transitions in nonreciprocal systems.

A new multi-institutional study led by University of Chicago Prof. Nick Feamster will build new AI and data science tools to monitor and detect internet censorship, develop new statistical techniques to identify censorship with greater levels of confidence, and ultimately create a “weather map” for certain types of nation-state interference and control of online information.

Professor Daniel Holz, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, comments on the latest bounty of 35 events reported via gravitational wave detections, including patterns in black hole mergers.

On Nov. 4, the National Academy of Sciences released its Astro2020 decadal survey, "Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s," which outlines a strategy and vision for a decade of transformative science at the frontiers of astronomy and astrophysics. Several University of Chicago projects were endorsed by the report and will lead the field for the next decade and beyond.

Astro2020 ranked the US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP) as the top frontier project for ground-based observatories, recommending federal support for the final construction stages of the Giant Magellan Telescope. The recommendation detailed that building an extremely large telescope “is absolutely essential if the United States is to maintain a position as a leader in ground-based astronomy.”

Prof. David Awschalom discusses the quantum revolution on WBEZ 91.5 FM Chicago prior to the opening of the fourth annual Chicago Quantum Summit.

Laura Gagliardi, the Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor in chemistry, and a team of scientists developed a device to extract water out of air. The breakthrough can work even in dry climates like deserts, and could have implications for water shortages associated with climate change.