Department of Physics and Astronomy Archives - News Center

Illustration of Earth, the sun, and the moon, with atmospheric particles flying about them to illustrate how lunar soil ended up with particles from Earth.

Science & Technology

Earth’s atmosphere may help support human life on the moon

December 11, 2025

New research shows that Earth’s magnetic field has helped deliver atmospheric particles to the lunar surface over billions of years.

Adam Frank against a white background an a thought bubble that reads: "ever wonder do aliens exist"?

Science & Technology

Are aliens real? Do aliens exist? Technosignatures may hold new clues

November 23, 2025

URochester astrophysicist Adam Frank searches for traces of advanced technology—and, by extension, alien life—on exoplanets.

Inside a grating compressor chamber.

Science & Technology

URochester researcher joins global effort to advance quantum electrodynamics

November 10, 2025

Antonino Di Piazza leads on theory for a multimillion-dollar project exploring the limits of light–matter interaction.

Machiel Blok, whose research builds on the fundamentals of quantum tunneling, in front of a BlueFors dilution refrigerator smiles and looks at the camera.

Science & Technology

Quantum tunneling: URochester physicist explains a Nobel Prize–winning discovery

October 7, 2025

Machiel Blok’s research in superconducting circuits builds on the same quantum effects recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics.

John Nichol smiling against a white background next to a thought bubble that says "what is quantum" near text that reads "ever wonder" for an explainer about quantum computing.

Science & Technology

Why the future of computing is quantum

September 24, 2025

The strengths and limitations of computing advances are pushing the boundaries of what quantum machines can do.

Low angle view of CERN Compact Muon Solenoid detector, used to measure the electroweak mixing angle, a component of the Standard Model of Particle Physics.

Science & Technology

Physicists reach a new milestone in understanding the universe’s fundamental forces

September 16, 2025

Rochester researchers involved with CERN make groundbreaking measurements of the electroweak mixing angle, strengthening an understanding of particle physics.

Illustration of a close-up of vertical stacks of light blue cubes representing qudits in Hilbert space connected at the bottom to circuitry.

Science & Technology

Researchers discover more efficient way to route information in quantum computers

Using qudits, Rochester scientists have solved a notoriously difficult problem involving Hilbert space, or the quantum matrix.

Joseph Eberly

Science & Technology

Pioneering physicist and optical scientist Joseph Eberly remembered

His serendipitous original foray into optics research would help advance the fields of quantum optics and optical physics.

Interior of an ultra-high vacuum chamber of a scanning tunneling microscope.

Science & Technology

New molecule could pave the way for more efficient computers

A team of scientists has developed the “world’s most electrically conductive organic molecule.”

University of Rochester graduate student smiles while manipulating the apparatus in an optics lab.

Science & Technology

Twisting atomically thin materials could advance quantum computers

Placing two layers of special 2D materials together and turning them at large angles creates artificial atoms with intriguing optical properties.