News: Research

2019

Northwestern University joins Chicago Quantum Exchange

May 14, 2019

A student during quantum research

Northwestern University became the newest member of the Chicago Quantum Exchange, a growing intellectual hub for the research and development of quantum technology.


UChicago BIG program funds ambitious, risky scientific research

May 9, 2019

Scientists collecting samples from 
Lake Michigan

Assistant Professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, Maureen Coleman, and microbiologist Sean Crosson use water samples from Lake Michigan to study the genes of model microbes in their natural habitats.


Scientists design method to build molecules that could be drugs—in half the steps

May 9, 2019

Molecule building

A study by University of Chicago chemists offers a new approach that could significantly cut the time and effort needed to make molecules that are important for pharmaceuticals in half.


Prof. R. Stephen Berry discusses new book on thermodynamics and need for scientific literacy

April 29, 2019

Prof. R. Stephen Berry in his office

The James Franck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Chemistry, R. Stephen Berry, discusses his new book that aims for improving scientific literacy and his pioneering research in thermodynamics that began with a landmark idea called the “life-cycle analysis".


UChicago graduate student uses Alaskan seashells to track climate change

April 29, 2019

Alaskan seashells

Graduate student Caitlin Meadows analyzed 14,000 shells from the Arctic seafloor, which reflect a shift in the ecosystem from arctic to sub-arctic within the last few decades.


Computer scientists design a way to defend against attacks to AI-based security systems

April 26, 2019

A picture imagining backdoor attacks to AI based security systems

In a new published paper, a group from Prof. Ben Zhao and Prof. Heather Zheng’s SAND Lab describe the first generalized defense against backdoor attacks in neural networks.


Scientists measure half-life of element that’s longer than the age of the universe

April 25, 2019

XENON1T experiment

Using the XENON1T experiment, a giant detector deep under an Italian mountainside, UChicago scientists documented the decay of atoms of xenon-124, the rarest process ever observed in the universe.


Scientists climb UChicago buildings to study air quality and pollution

April 22, 2019

Scientists on top of a university building to study air pollution

Researchers from UChicago and Harvard University are using Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery to collect data that will be used to create a map of the air around Chicago’s urban center and what it contains.


Scientists invent a way to trap a mysterious ‘dark world’ particle

April 19, 2019

Visualization of dark matter

In a newly published paper, UChicago and Fermilab scientists presented an innovative method for tracking dark matter in the Large Hadron Collider by exploiting a potential particle's slightly slower speed.


UChicago’s innovative research is shaping the future of computer science

April 16, 2019

Students during a CS lab

Not only are UChicago researchers advancing the foundations of data science and artificial intelligence, they are also expanding their applications to other fields.


Podcast features Prof. Ben Zhao’s research on AI

April 15, 2019

Prof. Ben Zhao

Computer scientist, Ben Zhao, explains how artificial intelligence can break crucial systems and be broken itself on Big Brains, a UChicago podcast. Listen and subscribe.


Rivers raged on Mars late into its history

April 15, 2019

Rivers on Mars

A new study by University of Chicago scientists catalogued rivers to conclude that significant river runoff persisted on Mars later into its history than previously thought.


UChicago researchers provide a promising boost for quantum computers

April 12, 2019

Optimized Compilation of Aggregated Instructions for Realistic Quantum Computers

A new finding by UChicago research group, EPiQC, promises to improve the speed and reliability of current and next generation quantum computers by as much as ten times.


UChicago-run South Pole Telescope Contributes to First Black Hole Image

April 10, 2019

Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope, a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes, including the UChicago-run South Pole Telescope, captured the first ever image of a black hole. The black hole is at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster.


Cold atoms act as messengers at a distance

April 4, 2019

Prof. Cheng Chin and postdoctoral researcher Brian DeSalvo

In a paper published by Nature on April 3, researchers at the University of Chicago report that atoms can exchange information using intermediary particles. This is the first time the phenomenon has been observed in a cold atom system, where atoms are maintained at temperatures close to absolute zero to reveal their quantum mechanical properties.