Researchers with NASA, the University of Chicago and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found that by adding data on when each specific region plants and harvests its crops, they could double the accuracy of crop prediction. This could improve the information available for policymakers and markets to brace for the impacts of crop loss.
Scientists are creating a network in the Chicago area that taps the principles of quantum physics to send information. Such a link could one day form the basis for a truly secure network, which would have wide-ranging impact on communications, computing and national security. Stretching between Argonne and Fermi national laboratories, the connection will "teleport" information across 30 miles and is expected to be among the longest in the world to send secure information using quantum physics.
In a new paper published in Nature, three University of Chicago scientists estimate that given how quickly LIGO researchers saw the first neutron star collision, they could have a very accurate measurement of the rate of the expansion of the universe within five to ten years.
How our bodies handle glucose—the simple sugar that provides energy from the food we eat—appears to be intertwined with how cells keep themselves functioning normally, according to new University of Chicago research.
The conditions for life surviving on planets entirely covered in water are more fluid than previously thought, opening up the possibility that water worlds could be habitable, according to a new paper from the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State University.
A team of University of Chicago scientists ran quantum simulations to develop a new model of the behavior of water at extremely high temperatures and pressures. The computational measurements, published June 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, should help scientists understand water’s role in the makeup of the mantle and potentially in other planets.
The early Earth might have been habitable much earlier than thought, according to new research from a group led by University of Chicago scientists.
Forward-thinking scientists in the 1970s suggested that circuits could be built using molecules instead of wires, and over the past decades that technology has become reality. The trouble is, some molecules have particularly complex interactions that make it hard to predict which of them might be good at serving as miniature circuits. But a new paper by two University of Chicago chemists presents an innovative method that cuts computational costs and improves accuracy by calculating interactions between pairs of electrons and extrapolating those to the rest of the molecule.
A study in Science offers an explanation for a mysterious and sometimes deadly weather pattern in which the jet stream, the global air currents that circle the Earth, stalls out over a region. Much like highways, the jet stream has a capacity, researchers said, and when it’s exceeded, blockages form that are remarkably similar to traffic jams—and climate forecasters can use the same math to model them both.
Funded by a $1.6 million award from the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Harvard University will head a new nationwide graduate student training program for quantum science and engineering.
An overwhelming majority of Americans are looking to research universities to be the foremost drivers of innovation at a time of anxiety over global competition, according to a new Innovation Indicator survey from the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago.
Over the past five years, University of Chicago chemist Bozhi Tian has been figuring out how to control biology with light. In a paper published April 30 in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Tian’s team laid out a system of design principles for working with silicon to control biology at three levels—from individual organelles inside cells to tissues to entire limbs. The group has demonstrated each in cells or mice models, including the first time anyone has used light to control behavior without genetic modification.
A group of researchers announced April 26 in Nature that they had managed to entangle perhaps the largest items yet, at a whopping 20 microns across—about the diameter of a single human hair.
This one simple mathematical trick can accurately predict the shape and melting effects of ponds on Arctic sea ice, according to new research by UChicago scientists. The study, published April 4 in Physical Review Letters by researchers with UChicago and MIT, should help climate scientists improve models of climate change and perhaps plug a gap between scientific predictions and observations over the past decade, they said.
Scientists with the University of Chicago and Cornell revealed a technique to "sew" two patches of crystals seamlessly together at the atomic level to create atomically-thin fabrics. This could lead to better solar cells and other electronics with new functions, like flexibility.
With NASA’s Juno spacecraft, scientists have gotten a good look at the top and bottom of the planet for the first time. What they found astounded them: bizarre geometric arrangements of storms, each arrayed around one cyclone over the north and south poles—unlike any storm formation seen in the universe.
Today, the Obama Foundation and the University of Chicago announced the Obama Foundation Scholars Program, a new program at the Harris School of Public Policy to support the next generation of leaders making an impact on issues in their communities and around the world.
Scientists have turned tiny bits of diamond and super-hard specks into “molecular anvils” that squeeze and twist molecules until chemical bonds break and atoms exchange electrons. They believe the method offers a new way to perform chemistry research at the molecular level that is greener, more efficient and much more precise.
A new University of Chicago study shows how tiny, light-powered wires could be fashioned out of silicon to manipulate electrical signaling between neurons. Published Feb. 19 in Nature Nanotechnology, the study offers a new avenue to shed light on—and perhaps someday treat—brain disorders.
The University of Chicago and President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton will host the Clinton Foundation’s 11th annual Clinton Global Initiative University meeting October 19-21, 2018.
New research from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy suggests that a universal basic income would not cause people to leave the workforce.
The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics (IOP) will celebrate its fifth anniversary with an event on Wednesday, February 7 featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, who will discuss the importance of youth engagement in public service. The 60-minute long event will be streamed on the IOP website at politics.uchicago.edu, at 4:30-5:30pm Central Time. Trudeau will give remarks and then field questions from director David Axelrod. University of Chicago experts can address several topics related to the event.
Prof. Emeritus Eugene Parker’s ideas were once widely questioned in the physics world. This week, he will receive one of the field’s highest honors. Parker will receive the American Physical Society’s Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research at a Feb. 1 ceremony in Washington, D.C. The medal citation notes Parker’s “fundamental contributions to space physics, plasma physics, solar physics and astrophysics for over 60 years.”
A particular set of chemical reactions governs many of the processes around us—everything from bridges corroding in water to your breakfast breaking down in your gut. One crucial part of that reaction involves electrons striking water, and despite how commonplace this reaction is, scientists still have to use ballpark numbers for certain parts of the equation when they use computers to model them. A study offers a new and better set of numbers, which may help scientists and engineers create better ways to split water for hydrogen fuel and other chemical processes.
Researchers with the University of Chicago have published a concept to use a naturally occurring mineral called calcite to “grow” scales that can attach to soft materials. The setup could one day serve as waterproof implants to reinforce bones or joints.
Though mass extinctions wiped out staggeringly high numbers of species, they barely touched the overall "functional" diversity--how each species makes a living, be it filtering phytoplankton or eating small crustaceans, burrowing or clamping onto rocks. University of Chicago scientists documented this surprising trend in a study on extinctions published Jan. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists with the University of Chicago have laid out a comprehensive theory for how our solar system could have formed in the wind-blown bubbles around a giant, long-dead star. Published Dec. 22 in the Astrophysical Journal, the study addresses a nagging cosmic mystery about the abundance of two elements in our solar system compared to the rest of the galaxy.
New research suggests constituents more likely to support its expansion
For decades, scientists have been trying to make a true molecular chain: a repeated set of tiny rings interlocked together. In a study in Science published online Nov. 30, University of Chicago researchers announced the first confirmed method to craft such a molecular chain.
Scientists recently announced the discovery of a fossil that fills a missing evolutionary link—the first known member of the modern bryozoans to grow up into a structure. Called Jablonskipora kidwellae, it is named after UChicago geophysical scientists David Jablonski and Susan Kidwell.
Computer modeling has helped a team of scientists, including several scholars from the University of Chicago, to decode previously unknown details about the "budding" process by which HIV forces cells to spread the virus to other cells. The findings, published Nov. 7 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may offer a new avenue for drugs to combat the virus.
Scientists aren’t normally treated to fireworks when they discover something about the universe. But a team of University of Chicago researchers found a show waiting for them at the atomic level—along with a new form of quantum behavior that may someday be useful in quantum technology applications.
The Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund intends to make the second-largest gift in the history of the University of Chicago, supporting the Department of Economics in expanding its leadership in education and research with wide-ranging public impact, while increasing financial support for students.
A team led by Prof. Angela Olinto was awarded NASA funding to fly an ultra-long duration balloon mission with an innovative ultra-sensitive telescope to pick up cosmic rays and neutrinos coming from deep space.
The U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and the Virgo detector in Italy announced on Oct. 16 that all three of their detectors had picked up the ripples, or gravitational waves, from two neutron stars that collided 130 million years ago. Among other discoveries, the detection allowed scientists to use gravitational waves to directly calculate the rate at which the universe is expanding.
A team of University of Chicago and Notre Dame researchers used simulations and X-rays to conclude that disordered proteins remain unfolded and expanded as they float loose in the cytoplasm of a cell. The answer affects how we envision the movement of a protein through its life—essential for understanding how proteins fold, what goes wrong during disorders and disease and how to model their behavior.
Groundbreaking scientific discovery conducted at UChicago 75 years ago
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Thaler, the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, “for his contributions to behavioural economics,” a relatively new field that bridges the gap between economics and psychology.
University of Chicago Prof. Richard H. Thaler has been awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2017 “for his contributions to behavioural economics.” An 11 a.m. CDT news conference will be held in the Winter Garden of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business featuring Thaler, the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at Chicago Booth.
The University of Chicago’s Daniel Holz this morning saluted the three newest Nobel laureates in physics, with whom he worked as a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The Nobel Foundation honored Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves."
Fifty years ago, scientists discovered that the Earth is occasionally hit by cosmic rays of enormous energies. Since then, they have argued about the source of those ultra-high energy cosmic rays—whether they came from our galaxy or outside the Milky Way. The answer is a galaxy or galaxies far, far away, according to a report published Sept. 22 in Science by the Pierre Auger Collaboration.
In a study published Sept. 20 in Nature, UChicago and Cornell University researchers describe an innovative method to make stacks of semiconductors just a few atoms thick. The technique offers scientists and engineers a simple, cost-effective method to make thin, uniform layers of these materials, which could expand capabilities for devices from solar cells to cell phones.
A new study by social neuroscientists at the University of Chicago, published Sept. 7 in Medical Education, challenges the common perception that empathy declines during medical training.
A new study by social neuroscientists at the University of Chicago, published Sept. 7 in Medical Education, challenges the common perception that empathy declines during medical training.
A team of scientists from the University of Chicago designed a way to use microscopic capsules made out of DNA to deliver a payload of tiny molecules directly into a cell. The technique gives scientists an opportunity to understand certain interactions among cells that have previously been hard to track.
Scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a new way to precisely pattern nanomaterials that could open a new path to the next generation of everyday electronic devices.
An international team led by the University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering has discovered how to manipulate a weird quantum interface between light and matter in silicon carbide along wavelengths used in telecommunications.
Astronomers at the University of Chicago and Grinnell College seek to change the way scientists approach the search for Earth-like planets orbiting stars other than the sun, taking a statistical comparative approach in seeking life beyond the solar system.
It has been difficult to tell whether neural entrainment is specialized for spoken language. In a new study, University of Chicago scholars designed an experiment using sign language to answer that question.
Paleontologists Adam Tomašových of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Susan Kidwell of the University of Chicago examine a lost ecosystem of scallops and shelled marine organisms called brachiopods in a new study.
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