News: Research

2026

In Antarctica, balloon lands after 23-day search for particles from outer space

February 16, 2026

The launch vehicle carries PUEO—visible at right, covered in antennas and solar panels—at the launch site for a mission led by the University of Chicago.

Unique UChicago-led instrument PUEO caught a ride aboard a NASA balloon in search of high-energy neutrinos.


Into the deep: scientists find two paths

February 11, 2026

underwater mussels

UChicago paleontologists investigate how life entered and adapted to the deep sea.


A new look at trends in human deaths due to climate extremes

February 10, 2026

Before and after satellite images of Derna, Libya relative to 2023's Storm Daniel.

B. B. Cael reveals the quantity of extreme weather events, and their impacts correlated with human development as well as climate change. 


Mars could turn green… and it’s no longer just science fiction

February 10, 2026

An image showing Mars that is turning green.

New research suggests making Mars green could be a real, testable goal, if we're ready to take the ethical leap.


What’s really going on inside Jupiter? New models offer clues

February 10, 2026

Image of Jupiter's atmosphere and clouds by NASA's Juno spacecraft.

A series of computer models designed to simulate Jupiter's interior mechanism has revealed that Jupiter contains about one and a half times more oxygen than the sun. 


Designed to deceive: why knowledge isn’t enough to beat dark patterns

February 10, 2026

Photo of a website with a tropical background containing large structures and statues. The people are also in the background with a foreground of an AIR Studios pop up.

Associate Professor Marshini Chetty collaborates with law professors Lior Strahilevitz and Matthew Kugler to demonstrate that dark patterns manipulate users despite explicit instructions to protect privacy, research that was honored with a Future of Privacy Forum’s 2026 Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award.


Radar: a new era of collaborative cosmic exploration

February 10, 2026

Scientific visualization of a numerical relativity simulation of a compact binary system consistent with the astrophysical parameters of the binary neutron star merger GW170817.

Scientists use RADAR to securely combine gravitational wave and radio data, advancing the study of the universe’s most dramatic events.
 


Gigahertz Lamb waves in 200nm lithium niobate advance quantum acoustic devices

January 31, 2026

A wave moving through a yellow tube.

Researchers are exploring phononic nanodevices as a pathway to realize practical quantum technologies.  


Lightweight probes achieve near-instantaneous hallucination risk estimation in LLMs

January 31, 2026

Electronics sending red lasers to one another.

Scientists are tackling the persistent problem of factually incorrect statements using an approach called HALT (Hallucination Assessment via Latent Testing) that identifies factually incorrect statements from within an LLM's internal workings.


Jupiter has more oxygen than the sun, new simulations reveal

January 31, 2026

A close up of Jupiter's surface in space where clouds of blue and gray swirl.

Advanced computer models have allowed us to determine the amount of oxygen the gas giant contains, which may explain the history of the solar system. 


100 million tons of CO2 by 2050: Electronic devices’ circuit boards drive largest carbon footprint

January 31, 2026

Chip and circuit board

Even though each chip only needs a small amount of the metal, mining consumes a lot of energy and produces a lot of waste.


New microscope to push the limits on brain imaging technology

January 31, 2026

Workers unload the new PEEM microscope on the campus of the University of Chicago, January 12, 2026.

A new photoemission electron microscope (PEEM) arrives at UChicago to help researchers in their quest to build a complete wiring diagram of the brain.

Three UChicago scientists, including Sarah King, received a $4.8 million, three-year grant to purchase the microscope and customize it for connectome imaging. 


Educational programs at Argonne inspire the next generation of STEM innovators

January 31, 2026

Students at the 2025 NGenE Workshop propose new directions and opportunities in electrochemistry during their capstone presentations.

Learning experiences at Argonne National Laboratory fuel the ambitions of future leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.


What decades of data reveal about climate disaster deaths

January 31, 2026

Photo of a glacier at sea.

Floods, storms, and extreme temperatures kill many people around the world each year. But the deadliness of these climate hazards changes as the climate warms, populations grow or move, and societies invest, or fail to invest, in infrastructure and emergency response.


Suzuki Postdoctoral Fellowship Award 2025–2026

January 28, 2026

Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb and Donald Stull

Congratulations to Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb and Donald Stull, who have been named recipients of the 2025–2026 Suzuki Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. Yuji Suzuki, SM’70, a longtime supporter and former Council member of the Physical Sciences Division, established the Yuji and Lorraine Suzuki Postdoctoral Research Fund in 2016 to recognize outstanding postdoctoral researchers.