News Archive -

Crystals Ripple in Response to Light

Light can trigger coordinated, wavelike motions of atoms in atom-thin layers of crystal, scientists have shown. The waves, called phonon polaritons, are far shorter than light waves and can be "tuned" to particular frequencies and amplitudes by varying the number of layers of crystal, they report in the early online edition of Science March 7.

The Surface of the Sea is a Sink for Nitrogen Oxides at Night

The surface of the sea takes up nitrogen oxides that build up in polluted air at night, new measurements on the coast of southern California have shown. The ocean removes about 15 percent of these chemicals overnight along the coast, a team of atmospheric chemists reports in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of March 3.

In Memoriam: Arthur M. Wolfe 1939-2014

Arthur M. Wolfe, an American astrophysicist who for a decade directed the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego and achieved widespread recognition for his discoveries about star formation and the early universe, died on February 17 following a battle with cancer in La Jolla, Calif. He was 74.

Clouds seen circling supermassive black holes

Astronomers see huge clouds of gas orbiting supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. Once thought to be a relatively uniform, fog-like ring, the accreting matter instead forms clumps dense enough to intermittently dim the intense radiation blazing forth as these enormous objects condense and consume matter, they report in a paper to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, available online now.

Calit2 Director Honored with Golden Goose Award

Larry Smarr, a physicist whose work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on calculating black hole collisions led him to champion a federal commitment to dramatically enhance U.S. computing power – which in turn led to the development of NCSA Mosaic, the precursor to web browsers – was named today as the first 2014 recipient of the Golden Goose Award, which goes to three or four winners annually.

UC San Diego Astrophysicist Wins Hans Bethe Prize

George Fuller, an astrophysicist and professor of physics who directs UC San Diego’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, known as CASS, has been selected to receive the 2013 Hans A. Bethe Prize.

Halo of Neutrinos Alters Physics of Exploding Stars

Sparse halos of neutrinos within the hearts of exploding stars exert a previously unrecognized influence on the physics of the explosion and may alter which elements can be forged by these violent events.

Computing Grid Built for Physics Benefits a Wide Range of Science

Snaking cables and racks of computer processors with winking blue lights fill a room in University of California, San Diego’s Mayer Hall. It’s a powerful resource, made more so through links to a network of more than 80 similar centers distributed across the country.

Pioneering Astrophysicist Rashid Sunyaev to Speak at Kyoto Prize Symposium March 21

Rashid Sunyaev, Ph.D., one of the world’s most distinguished astrophysicists, will speak at the University of California, San Diego, March 21 at 3:30 p.m., as part of the annual Kyoto Prize Symposium. To register for the free talk, which is open to the public, please visit: www.kyotoprize-us.org.

SDSC, UC Santa Cruz to Host Summer School on Astroinformatics

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, in conjunction with the University of California’s High-Performance AstroComputing Center (UC-HiPACC), will host a two-week long summer school designed to help the next generation of astronomers manage the ever-increasing amount of data generated by new instruments, digital sky surveys, and simulations.