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A study by University of Rochester researchers indicates that teaching candidates better understand the edTPA process and what is expected of them after two years of the licensure test’s implementation in New York and Washington states. The 2015 survey, the second in a series of two examining the implementation of edTPA as a high-stakes assessment for beginning teachers, was funded by the Spencer Foundation.

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Using the same mathematical framework as the Rochester Cloak, researchers at the University of Rochester have been able to use flat screen displays to extend the range of angles that can be hidden from view. Their method lays out how cloaks of arbitrary shapes, that work from multiple viewpoints, may be practically realized in the near future using commercially available digital devices.

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New research may offer an alternative to the way in which researchers have approached some photonics applications. Photonics applications rely greatly on what physicists call nonlinear optics - the different way in which materials behave depending on the intensity of light that passes through them. Now a team has demonstrated that the transparent, electrical conductor indium tin oxide can result in up to 100 times greater nonlinearity than other known materials.

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Are humans unique and alone in the vast universe? This question-- summed up in the famous Drake equation--has for a half-century been one of the most intractable and uncertain in science. But a new paper shows that the recent discoveries of exoplanets combined with a broader approach to the question makes it possible to assign a new empirically valid probability to whether any other advanced technological civilizations have ever existed.

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Prince was one of the most important artists in American popular music during the last two decades of the twentieth century.

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A team of University of Rochester and Adobe researchers is outperforming other approaches to creating computer-generated image captions in an international competition. The key to their winning approach? Thinking about words – what they mean and how they fit in a sentence structure – just as much as thinking about the image itself.

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Polymers that visibly change shape when exposed to temperature changes are nothing new. But a research team led by Chemical Engineering Professor Mitch Anthamatten at the University of Rochester created a material that undergoes a shape change that can be triggered by body heat alone, opening the door for new medical and other applications.

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A multi-institution team of researchers has successfully mapped the genome of Cimex lectularius, the common bed bug. Among the findings, scientists discovered more than 800 instances of genes being transferred from bacteria to the bed bug’s chromosomes.

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Research from the University of Rochester finds that caring for others dips during adolescence. But when young people feel supported from their social circles, their concern for others rebound.

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The United States may be witnessing the end of public education. That’s the reality David Hursh, professor in teaching and curriculum at the University of Rochester's Warner School of Education, argues in his forthcoming book "The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education."

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We use sight to judge distance. Now, a new study from the University of Rochester reveals that our brains also use sound delays to fine-tune what our eyes see when estimating distances.

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Scientists at the University of Rochester expect to learn more about the role of CO2 in climate change through a study of reverse global warming— by researching the first ice sheets formed in the Northern Hemisphere.

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The University of Rochester is a key partner in a consortium that has won a national competition to advance U.S. photonics manufacturing capability. The new American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) will be headquartered in Rochester, New York, and will bring the nation’s leading talent from companies, universities, and federal research institutions together under one entity to develop the next generation of integrated photonics and deliver global manufacturing leadership.

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Our brains track moving objects by applying one of the algorithms your phone’s GPS uses, according to researchers at the University of Rochester. This same algorithm also explains why we are fooled by several motion-related optical illusions, including the sudden “break” of baseball’s well known “curveball illusion.”

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Children living in low-income households who endure family instability and emotionally distant caregivers are at risk of having impaired cognitive abilities according to new research from the University of Rochester.

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As social creatures, we tend to mimic each other’s posture, laughter, and other behaviors, including how we speak. Now a new study shows that people with similar views tend to more closely mirror, or align, each other’s speech patterns. In addition, people who are better at compromising align more closely.

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Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that defects on an atomically thin semiconductor can produce light-emitting quantum dots. The quantum dots serve as a source of single photons and could be useful for the integration of quantum photonics with solid-state electronics - a combination known as integrated photonics.

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Researchers have shown that a laser-generated microplasma in air can be used as a source of broadband terahertz radiation, at much lower power lasers than until now.

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Therapeutic agents intended to reduce dental plaque and prevent tooth decay are often removed by saliva and the act of swallowing before they can take effect. But a team of researchers has developed a way to keep the drugs from being washed away.

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The edTPA process in 2014 posed challenges for many teacher candidates in New York and Washington—the first two states to require successful edTPA completion for teacher certification. According to a recent study, led by University of Rochester Professors Kevin Meuwissen and Jeffrey Choppin, candidates in both states, particularly in New York, felt unprepared during the first year of edTPA implementation.

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A group of astronomers from the US, Europe, Chile and South Africa have determined that 70,000 years ago a recently discovered dim star is likely to have passed through the solar system’s distant cloud of comets, the Oort Cloud. No other star is known to have ever approached our solar system this close – five times closer than the current closest star, Proxima Centauri. In a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, lead author Eric Mamajek from the University of Rochester and his collaborators analyzed the velocity and trajectory of a low-mass star system nicknamed “Scholz’s star.”

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Although most materials slightly expand when heated, there is a new class of rubber-like material that not only self-stretches upon cooling; it reverts back to its original shape when heated, all without physical manipulation.

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Monkeys are notoriously curious, and new research has quantified just how eager they are to gain new information, even if there are not immediate benefits. The findings offer insights into how a certain part of the brain shared by monkeys and humans plays a role in decision making, and perhaps even in some disorders and addictions in humans.

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Scientists at the University of Rochester have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings.

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In what they call a “weird little corner” of the already weird world of neutrinos, physicists have found evidence that these tiny particles might be involved in a surprising reaction.

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An interdisciplinary team of neuroscientists and neurosurgeons from the University of Rochester has used a new imaging technique to show how the human brain heals itself in just a few weeks following surgical removal of a brain tumor.

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Inspired perhaps by Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, scientists have recently developed several ways--some simple and some involving new technologies--to hide objects from view. The latest effort, developed at the University of Rochester, not only overcomes some of the limitations of previous devices, but it uses inexpensive, readily available materials in a novel configuration.

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Esther M. Conwell, research professor of chemistry at the University of Rochester and recipient of a National Medal of Science, died in a motor vehicle accident Sunday at the age of 92.

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A new study shows for the first time that playing action video games improves not just the skills taught in the game, but learning capabilities more generally.

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Two astrophysicists argue that questions about the future of life on Earth and beyond may soon be resolvable scientifically, thanks to new data about the Earth and about other planets in our galaxy, and by combining the earth-based science of sustainability with the space-oriented field of astrobiology.

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Recent studies showed that the color red tends increase our attraction toward others, feelings of jealousy, and even reaction times. Now, new research shows that female monkeys also respond to the color red, suggesting that biology, rather than our culture, may play the fundamental role in our “red” reactions.

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Researchers at the University of Rochester describe a new combination of materials that could be a step towards building computer chips capable of transporting digital information at the speed of light.

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Just two years ago, with the advent of a technique called direct measurement, scientists discovered they could reliably determine a system’s wave function by “weakly” measuring one of its variables (e.g. position) and “strongly” measuring a complementary variable (momentum). Researchers at the University of Rochester have now taken this method one step forward by combining direct measurement with an efficient computational technique.

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On Aug. 26, 1920, with the formal adoption of the 19th Amendment, women won the right to vote. Now, a newly discovered collection of Susan B. Anthony letters will help show how.

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Decades of experiments have verified the quirky laws of quantum theory again and again. So when scientists in Germany announced in 2012 an apparent violation of a fundamental law of quantum mechanics, a physicist at the University of Rochester was determined to find an explanation.

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As a quantum state collapses from a quantum superposition to a classical state or a different superposition, it will follow a path known as a quantum trajectory. In a new paper featured this week on the cover of Nature, scientists have shown that it is possible to track these quantum trajectories and compare them to a recently developed theory for predicting the most likely path a system will take between two states.

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Cold-blooded animals cannot regulate their body temperature, so their cells are stressed when facing temperature extremes. Worse still, even at slightly colder temperatures, some biological processes in the cell are slowed down more than others, which should throw the cells’ delicate chemical balance out of whack. Yet, those cells manage to keep their biological processes coordinated. Now researchers have found out how they do that.

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The 1500 mile Appalachian mountain chain runs along a nearly straight line from Alabama to Newfoundland—except for a curious bend in Pennsylvania and New York State. Researchers from the College of New Jersey and the University of Rochester now know what caused that bend—a dense, underground block of rigid, volcanic rock forced the chain to shift eastward as it was forming millions of years ago.

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As we approach Independence Day, Thomas Slaughter, the Arthur R. Miller Professor of History at the University of Rochester, shares three little known facts about the American Revolution for you to bring to your 4th of July picnic.

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Humans have a well-documented tendency to see winning and losing streaks in situations that, in fact, are random. But scientists disagree about whether the “hot-hand bias” is a cultural artifact picked up in childhood or a predisposition deeply ingrained in the structure of our cognitive architecture.

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A 20-minute classroom assessment that is less subjective than traditional in-class evaluations by principals can reliably measure classroom instruction and predict student standardized test scores, a team of researchers reported. The assessment also provides immediate and meaningful feedback making it an important new tool for understanding and improving instructional quality.

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Physicists at the University of Rochester have created a silicon nanocavity that allows light to be trapped longer than in other similarly-sized optical cavities. An innovative design approach, which mimics evolutionary biology, allowed them to achieve a 10-fold improvement on the performance of previous nanocavities.

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When stem cells are used to regenerate bone tissue, many wind up migrating away from the repair site, which disrupts the healing process. But a University of Rochester research team makes use of a technique that keeps the stem cells in place, resulting in faster and better tissue regeneration.

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In a paper published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, University of Rochester Professor Carmala Garzione explains that the Altiplano plateau in the central Andes—and most likely the entire mountain range—was formed through a series of rapid growth spurts.