Ocean waters prevent release of ancient methane
Environmental scientist Katy Sparrow ’17 (PhD) set out to discover whether ancient-sourced methane, released due to warming ocean waters, survives to be emitted to the atmosphere.
Creating negative mass particles—and a novel way to generate lasers
Rochester researchers have created particles with negative mass in an atomically thin semiconductor, using a device that creates an optical microcavity.
2017: The year in scholarship
Each year, the University of Rochester produces academic and scholarly work that contributes to our understanding and appreciation of the world around us.
New book explores ‘ethical turn’ of critical theory
Professor Robert Doran focuses on iconic 20th-century philosophers like Michel Foucault, Hayden White, Gayatri Spivak, and Richard Rorty, and explores critical theory’s pivot away from a narrowly focused investigation of meaning and text.
The mysterious aftermath of an infamous pirate raid
Just before dawn on May 18, 1683, pirates stormed the port city of Veracruz, capturing around 1,500 people and selling them to the slave markets of Haiti and South Carolina. Pablo Sierra Silva, assistant professor of history, is on a mission to trace what happened to them.
Chemists go ‘back to the future’ to untangle quantum dot mystery
For more than 30 years, researchers have been creating quantum dots—nanoscale semiconductors with remarkable properties. But quantum dot synthesis has occurred largely by trial and error. Thanks to the work of two Rochester chemists, that may be about to change.
Scientist’s accidental exhale leads to improved DNA detector
How did water vapor became integral to the development and design of a novel device for detecting the DNA biomarkers affiliated with disease?
One hundred years of solitude? Try 15 minutes instead
In a series of experiments, Rochester psychologists found that people who sat alone without devices for 15 minutes and chose what to think about experienced the positive effects of solitude: feeling calmer and less anxious, without feeling lonely or sad.
In the mystery of positrons, dark matter is leading suspect
Scientists at the HAWC Gamma Ray Observatory have ruled out two pulsars as the source of an unexpectedly large presence of positrons in our corner of the galaxy. Could they come from something more complex and exotic: dark matter?
Quantum magic makes quick work of measuring frequency
Using the strange rules of quantum mechanics, researchers were able to put a quantum bit in a superposition of two different energy states at the same time in order to speed up the accurate measurement of frequencies.