Science & Technology

James H. Buckley, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, received a $700,292 award from the National Science Foundation to upgrade a ground-based telescope array for gamma-ray astronomy.

Nan Liu, research assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, is first author of a new study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that analyzes a diverse set of presolar grains with the goal of realizing their true stellar origins.

Researchers led by physicist Henric Krawczynski in Arts & Sciences completed initial construction on XL-Calibur, a new balloon-borne telescope designed to measure the polarization of high-energy X-rays from black holes, neutron stars and other exotic celestial objects.

Scientists in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences will continue to archive and distribute digital data related to the study of the surfaces and interiors of terrestrial planetary bodies under a five-year cooperative agreement with NASA.

Research led by Kun Wang in Arts & Sciences suggests a fundamental reason why Mars has no liquid water on its surface today: it may be just too small.

Li Yang, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, leads a team that won a four-year $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help develop new quantum materials called artificial multiferroics.

Kenneth F. Kelton, the Arthur Holly Compton Professor of Physics in Arts & Sciences, won a five-year grant from NASA to study fundamental fluid processes in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station.

Jeffrey Catalano, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a three-year Department of Energy grant to support research on elements and minerals essential for the production of electric vehicles, cellphones and computers.

Using computer simulations and a simple theoretical model, physicist Mikhail Tikhonov in Arts & Sciences showed how bacteria could adapt to a fluctuating environment by learning its statistical regularities — for example, which nutrients tend to be correlated — and do so faster than evolutionary trial-and-error would normally allow.

New research from physicists in Arts & Sciences reveals that neurons in the visual cortex — the part of the brain that processes visual stimuli — respond differently to the same kind of stimulus over time.