Physical Sciences News

Astronomy & Astrophysics, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Physics, and Mathematics

The Latest

30 Years of Critical Funding for Junior Faculty

Over three decades, the Hellman family has given over $18 million to support more than 400 UC San Diego junior faculty in their research and progress toward tenure.

Nanosized Blocks Spontaneously Assemble in Water To Create Tiny Floating Checkerboards

Researchers have engineered nanosized cubes that spontaneously form a two-dimensional checkerboard pattern when dropped on the surface of water. The work, published in Nature Communications, presents a simple approach to create complex nanostructures through a technique called self-assembly.

Lone Star State: Tracking a Low-Mass Star as it Speeds Across the Milky Way

A team of astronomers, led by Adam Burgasser, and citizen scientists have discovered a rare hypervelocity L subdwarf star racing through the Milky Way. More remarkably, this star may be on a trajectory that causes it to leave the Milky Way altogether.

The Unexpected Connection Between Brewing Coffee and Understanding Turbulence

Using unconventional statistical mechanics to understand fluid dynamics, UC San Diego Professor of Physics Nigel Goldenfeld helped solve a 150 year old physics problem of how turbulent fluids move through a pipe.

A Change of Direction

UC San Diego Assistant Professor of Physics Mattia Serra and colleagues at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) have developed a new method that can manipulate the movement of embryonic cells using short-time attractors — a concept Serra had previously developed and adopted to help search and rescue operations at sea.

Meet Ph.D. Student Etienne Palos: First-Generation Chemistry Trailblazer

Etienne Palos is a fourth year UC San Diego Ph.D. student specializing in theoretical and computational chemistry in the lab of Francesco Paesani. The graduate student discusses his background, his experience as a Latinx student in STEM and more.