News: Research

Prof. Alex Eskin, a UChicago mathematician who co-proved a “magic wand theorem” has been awarded one of the $3 million Breakthrough Prizes. 

The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, of which the University of Chicago is a partner, received the prize for creating the first image of a black hole earlier this year.  Michael Levin, an associate professor of physics studying quantum condensed matter physics, was also awarded the New Horizons Prize along with three other physicists. 

Asst. Prof. Pedro Lopes reimagines the role of “human” in human-computer interaction. Some of Lopes's projects consider how humans respond to computers being in control of their anatomy.  

Assoc. Prof. Bozhi Tian develops a less invasive pacemaker--silicon cells that could be injected into the heart and operated using pulses of light. 

Prof. David Jablonksi addresses a long-standing biodiversity question: why are there so many species at the equator and so few near the poles? In one study, Jablonski, whose research on mollusks has shaped the field, worked with a UChicago bird biologist to understand how species across the world live in different climates. In the second, Jablonski and postdoc Katie Collins used a micro CT scanner to analyze how forms of mollusks change from tropics to poles. 

This month, PSD researchers have been featured for investigating questions in biodiversity, studying salt deposits on Mars, and discussing online privacy. In case you missed it, review our news headlines from August 2019.

 

Postdoctoral Fellow Stephanie Olson comments on new geological discovery of 'massive pool' of methane and posits that it could have astrobiological significance.

Live Science interviews Madore to weigh in on why researchers produce conflicting results when attempting to measure the rate of cosmic expansion. 

Mini-EUSO hitched a ride with Russia's Soyuz MS14 to the International Space Station. Mini-EUSO is a prototype for two University of Chicago-led experiments, EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA, which aim to discover the origin of the highest-energy particles and to study their sources and interactions.

Geophysical Sciences postdoc, Stephanie Olson, suggests that exoplanets with favorable ocean circulation patterns could be better suited to support life than Earth itself. 

Researchers found traces of Iron-60, an extremely rare isotope produced when a star explodes, in Antarctica. Research Prof. Priscilla Frisch weighs in on how this interstellar dust made it's way to Earth.  

A new study by UChicago researchers shakes up the picture of Martian salt—and offers new ways to test what Mars’ water would have looked like. Asst. Prof. Edwin Kite’s team analyzed salt deposits and built models to help determine how and why Mars dried out. 

Prof. Daniel Holz discusses the detection of gravitational waves that may have been from a black hole swallowing a neutron star with Science News Magazine. 

 

Prof. Daniel Holz discusses research on black hole pairing and tripling and explains how this research can help scientists measure the eccentricities of black holes' orbits in the near future.  

Student-driven changes in laboratories at UChicago, including a Shut the Sash program, yield energy and cost savings.