Science & Technology Generating terahertz radiation from water makes ‘the impossible, possible’ September 27, 2017 Optics professor Xi-Cheng Zhang has worked for nearly a decade to solve a scientific puzzle.
Science & Technology Firefly researchers mapping ‘world’s second-most interesting genome’ September 19, 2017 Biologist Amanda Larracuente and her team are the first to successfully sequence the firefly genome.
Society & Culture What’s vinyl got to do with it? September 11, 2017 As new technologies take form, they often change habits and practices in ways few could have predicted at the time. At this week's Light and Sound Interactive conference, Darren Mueller will examine vinyl's impact on creating and consuming music.
Science & Technology Rochester leads new multi-institutional effort to study ‘extreme matter’ September 7, 2017 Institutions including Cornell, Michigan, Princeton, and Stanford will join Rochester in developing an instrument to produce and study matter that exists under pressures far higher than either on or inside Earth.
Science & Technology Climate change for aliens September 7, 2017 For more than 50 years, the Kardashev scale has been the gold standard for classifying hypothetical "exo-civilizations" by their ability to harness energy. A team of researchers led by Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank have devised a new system that takes into account the impacts of that energy use.
Science & Technology Monkey sees. . . monkey knows? September 6, 2017 Monkeys had higher confidence in their ability to remember an image when the visual contrast was high. These kinds of metacognitive illusions—false beliefs about how we learn or remember best—are shared by humans, leading brain and cognitive scientists to believe that metacognition could have an evolutionary basis.
Science & Technology Icy air reveals human-made methane levels higher than previously believed August 24, 2017 Professor Vasilii Petrenko and his team are studying the air trapped in ice cores that date back nearly 12,000 years, long before mankind's use of fossil fuels, to separate man-made from naturally occurring methane sources.
Science & Technology When and how to see the partial solar eclipse in Rochester August 17, 2017 Physics and astronomy professor Dan Watson will be experiencing Monday's total solar eclipse from Tennessee, and he shares more eclipse answers and tips, as well as places at the University of Rochester where you can safely view the eclipse.
Science & Technology Undergraduate’s summer research is a glass act August 11, 2017 Chemical engineering major Tianhao Yu ’19 has a unique job this summer: testing organic light-emitting diodes that may help improve the screen displays of devices such as cell phones and televisions.
Science & Technology Summer research that’s totally (nano)tubular August 11, 2017 Chemistry major Austin Bailey ’18 (T5) has spent his summer developing a special polymer to attach other molecules to nanotubes, and his work could have significant applications for creating renewable energy sources.
The Arts With automatic transcription, musicians can save themselves the treble August 3, 2017 Two undergraduates have joined a summer research project focused on building a machine-learning interface that generates musical scores from audio files.
University News Michael Tanenhaus awarded top cognitive science prize August 1, 2017 Tanenhaus is best known for developing the Visual World Paradigm, which uses eye movements to study the mechanisms behind speech and language comprehension.