News

2024

Annual robot block party held at Museum of Science and Industry

April 18, 2024

red and white robot

CS Asst. Prof. Sarah Sebo discusses why her robot cheats at Rock, Paper, Scissors.


Q&A: How AI and big data can go green

April 18, 2024

Andrew A. Chien

CS Prof. Andrew Chien is exploring ways to help big electricity users tap clean energy.


Two UChicago scholars elected as 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science fellows

April 18, 2024

Guangbin Dong (left) and Benoît Roux

Profs. Guangbin Dong and Benoît Roux have made breakthroughs in organic synthetic chemistry and biophysics. They join the 2023 class, announced April 18, which includes scientists, engineers and innovators across multiple fields.


Machine learning could help reveal undiscovered particles within data from the Large Hadron Collider

April 18, 2024

ATLAS event display

Scientists used a neural network, a type of brain-inspired machine learning algorithm, to sift through large volumes of particle collision data.


Sarah King uses art competition to enhance student understanding

April 11, 2024

4-panel comic strip: Finding small bits in waves with Tiny, the older than time animal

For the past two years, Chemistry Assistant Professor Sarah King has organized an open art contest in her CHEM 122 class. At the end of the quarter, several students are selected to present a visual project before the class that breaks down complex chemistry principles into creative works of art. By incorporating elements of creativity and communication, the competition serves multiple purposes in King’s pedagogical approach.


Non-unital noise adds a new wrinkle to the quantum supremacy debate

April 11, 2024

Bill Fefferman

CS PhD Student Soumik Ghosh and Assistant Professor Bill Fefferman find that random circuit sampling problems that incorporate non-unital noise do not anticoncentrate, breaking every easiness and hardness result to date.


Winners of the 2024 UChicago Science as Art competition announced

April 11, 2024

black and white graphical computer program simulation of a discrete dynamical system of the plane

The University of Chicago has announced the winners of its 2024 “Science as Art” contest, which highlights images of innovative scientific research from the UChicago community.

The contest drew more than 60 entries from undergraduates, graduate students, staff, alumni, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty members, showcasing everything from fossils to fly anatomy. Together, these images display the pursuit of knowledge in a new light, underscoring the beauty of intellectual exploration.

The grand-prize winner is “Peculiar Dynamics” by Computer Science PhD student Sam Everett!


Meteorites may be lost to Antarctic ice as climate warms, study says

April 11, 2024

Snowy mountains in Antarctica

In a CNN article, Geophysical Sciences postdoc Maria Valdes states that as the climate continues to warm, Antarctic rocks are sinking into the ice at an increasing rate, making many meteorites inaccessible to scientists and causing the loss of "precious time capsules that hold clues to the history of our Solar System."


The inadvertent geoengineering experiment that the world is now shutting off

April 11, 2024

A large container cargo ship travels over the ocean

MIT Technology Review article discusses the same study regarding the reduction in air pollution and its connection to global warming. Geophysical Sciences professor David Keith notes that this inadvertent "geoengineering experiment" is now being shut off as the world cleans up its air.


Clearer skies may be accelerating global warming

April 11, 2024

sunbeams glint off the Atlantic Ocean

A Science article, which quotes Geophysical Sciences professor Tiffany Shaw, discusses how the reduction in air pollution and aerosols has led to less reflection of sunlight, which could be contributing to faster global warming.


University of Chicago chemists discover a key protein in how lysosomes work

April 11, 2024

Sourajit Mukherjee in lab

Protein lets calcium ions into cell; finding could open new avenues for therapies.


2024 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

April 11, 2024

NSF logo

Congratulations to the nine PSD graduate students who have been awarded 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships! The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.


A tantalizing ‘hint’ that astronomers got dark energy all wrong

April 5, 2024

millions of galaxies mapped using coordinate data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

NYT article: Scientists may have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of that mysterious cosmic force. That could be good news for the fate of the universe. Wendy Freedman praises the new survey data as "superb," and Michael Turner says the possible evidence that dark energy is not constant is the best news since cosmic acceleration was established.


University of Chicago astronomy students prepare for trip of a lifetime for solar eclipse

April 5, 2024

Prof. Josh Frieman

Josh Frieman will lead around 50 astronomy students south to Carbondale to be in the path of totality for the upcoming solar eclipse.


The dream machine

April 4, 2024

muon collider illustration

An accelerator known as a muon collider could revolutionize particle physics—if it can be built. Physicists, like UChicago's Karri Dipetrillo, are advocating for one to be built at Fermilab.