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.
Rochester chemists find new means to ‘block’ cancer cell growth
A pathway that enables embryonic cells to develop into different organs can be reactivated by cancer cells. A cyclic peptide has been found that can block the activation of this pathway, and is also less likely to trigger resistance in cancer cells.
At 85, chemist Donald Batesky makes late-career discovery
Back in 1959, early in his career as a Kodak chemist, Donald Batesky was lead author of a paper in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. Now the 85-year-old research associate is lead author again, for discovering a technique that had been overlooked for years.
Political experts say U.S. democracy healthier than public thinks
The third Bright Line Watch survey, co-authored by Rochester political scientist Gretchen Helmke, focuses on the health of U.S. democratic institutions and compares the results from thousands of political professionals with the general public.
Generating terahertz radiation from water makes ‘the impossible, possible’
Optics professor Xi-Cheng Zhang has worked for nearly a decade to solve a scientific puzzle.
Firefly researchers mapping ‘world’s second-most interesting genome’
Biologist Amanda Larracuente and her team are the first to successfully sequence the firefly genome.
Quadcast: Rebooting the brain for better vision after a stroke
Krystel Huxlin has developed rigorous visual training that can restore some of the basic vision lost to traumatic brain injury, stroke, or a tumor. Here Huxlin discusses how this therapy teaches undamaged parts of the brain to take over.
Climate change for aliens
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.