Posts categorized Science & Technology

Some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe produce high-energy gamma rays, and a new observatory in Mexico aims to expand the catalog of known gamma ray sources.

Rochester researchers and their collaborators have developed a way to transfer 2.05 bits per photon by using “twisted light.” The new approach doubles the 1 bit per photon that is possible with current systems that rely on light polarization and could help increase the efficiency of quantum cryptography systems.

Eric Horvitz, director of Microsoft Research, will show how breakthroughs in the new field of data science are solving previously intractable problems in clinical medicine, public health, transportation, disaster recovery, and many other areas.

A recently discovered dim star likely passed some 70,000 years ago through our solar system’s distant cloud of comets known as the Oort Cloud. No other star is known to have ever approached our solar system this closely.

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.

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.

Naked mole rats are small, hairless, subterranean rodents that have never been known to get cancer despite having a 30-year lifespan. A new protein discovered by biologist Vera Gorbunova may help explain why.

A collaboration between researchers from Canada, Europe, and Rochester has experimentally produced Möbius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light’s electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape.

In a paper to be presented this week at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference in Austin, Texas, computer science professor Jiebo Luo and his colleagues describe a computer program that can analyze “selfie” videos recorded by a webcam as the person engages with social media.

Rochester astronomers, along with colleagues at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands have discovered that the ring system that they see eclipse the very young Sun-like star J1407 is of enormous proportions, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn.