A new era in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
If trends continue, “the search for intelligence in the universe may finally escape the giggle-factor,” writes University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank in a Washington Post op-ed.
Nobel Prize laureate remembered for groundbreaking research on neutrinos
Rochester graduate Masatoshi Koshiba ’55 (PhD), who died November 12, received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for detecting and measuring subatomic particles known as neutrinos.
Quantum engines? Entanglement as fuel?
It’s still more science fiction than science fact, but perfect energy efficiency may be one step closer due to new research by Rochester physicists.
Rochester leads effort to understand matter at atom-crushing pressures
The University is the host institution for a NSF-funded national collaboration to explore ‘revolutionary states of matter.’
How to view Comet NEOWISE
Work by Rochester researchers will help make a space-based infrared telesecope—the kind that detected Comet NEOWISE—even more precise.
New data about asteroid surfaces will help explorers touch down safely
Using sand, marbles, and mathematical modeling, Rochester researchers from across departments worked to improve the accuracy of data collected from the surfaces of asteroids.
Faculty recognized as AS&E data science fellows
Physicist Gourab Ghoshal and electrical and computer engineer Gonzalo Mateos received alumni-supported fellowships to use data science in exploring their fields.
Is teleportation possible? Yes, in the quantum world
Rochester physicists are exploring new ways of creating quantum-mechanical interactions between distant electrons. The research marks an important advance in quantum computing.
Are aliens real? Do aliens exist? Technosignatures may hold new clues
Adam Frank, professor of physics and astronomy, is searching for “technosignatures,” or the physical and chemical traces of advanced civilizations, among the 4,000 or so exoplanets scientists have found so far.
Instrument to detect dark energy is poised for debut
Members of a University of Rochester cosmology group who are a key part of a multi-institutional effort to create the most detailed 3-D map ever made of the universe are looking forward to the launch of the instrument later this year in Arizona.
The team—Regina Demina, professor of physics; Satya Gontcho A Gontcho, postdoctoral research associate; Segev BenZvi, assistant professor of physics; and Kelly Douglass, visiting assistant professor of physics and astronomy—are working on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) project, an initiative to provide a more comprehensive look at dark energy and how it’s influencing the expansion of the universe. The instrument—including the 5,000 robotic positioners of the telescope’s focal plane (above)—will capture data from 35 million galaxies, potentially providing insight about the life cycle of galaxies and about the cosmic web that connects matter in the universe.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the lead institution on the project, announced on June 1 that DESI was complete and was moving toward its startup.