Feature Stories
Mar 26, 2020
We know it’s there, but we don’t know what it is: this invisible stuff is dark matter. Scientists are fairly certain it dominates the cosmos, yet its ingredients are unclear. For a while astrophysicists have been excited by two potential signals of dark matter in space: an unexplained excess of gamma-ray light in the center of the Milky Way and a mysterious spike in x-ray light spotted in some other galaxies and galaxy clusters.
Mar 18, 2020
Rebecca Riley remembers feeling drawn to the stars since she was less than three years old,
when she — and this is her first memory — would go outside with her grandparents in Clay
County, Alabama and lay on a blanket and watch the night sky.
Mar 10, 2020
In February, Virginia Trimble, an astronomer in the UCI Department of Physics and Astronomy, became a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This is the first time in its 121-year history that the AAS has given fellowships of any kind to its members, and, through its Legacy Fellows, the society is shining a light on members who sculpted astronomy into the field it is today.
Mar 1, 2020
In February, Virginia Trimble, an astronomer in the UCI Department of Physics and Astronomy, became a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This is the first time in its 121-year history that the AAS has given fellowships of any kind to its members, and, through its Legacy Fellows, the society is shining a light on members who sculpted astronomy into the field it is today.
Dec 17, 2019
Eight new faculty members join the School of Physical Sciences from universities across the world, bringing new research right from their Ph.D. programs and others bringing their established research ready to revamp. Here are the new faculty members:
Oct 30, 2019
Imagine you’re an astronaut on a spacewalk. You’re doing your job when suddenly you get an alert: Your suit is leaking oxygen. Somewhere there’s a hole in your suit, a hole so tiny you can’t find it.
Sep 17, 2019
An interdisciplinary team of scientists at the University of California, Irvine has developed a new technique for predicting the final size of a wildfire from the moment of ignition.
Sep 16, 2019
Valley fever is endemic to hot and dry regions such as the southwestern United States and California’s San Joaquin Valley, but scientists at the University of California, Irvine predict that climate change will cause the fungal infection’s range to more than double in size this century, reaching previously unaffected areas across the western U.S.
Sep 13, 2019
MANAUS, Brazil — This year’s unusually severe fires in the Amazon have not only attracted widespread international attention, but also illuminated the effects of mounting deforestation in the region, from evaporating rains to rising carbon dioxide emissions. Yet one effect of forest loss in the Amazon has largely been ignored: how it influences the river system and the fish living in it.
Sep 9, 2019
The Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies under the Division of Plasma Physics awarded Liu Chen, UCI Professor Physics & Astronomy, the 2019 S. Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics. This award is given to an outstanding scientist in the field of plasma physics as a basis for astrophysics or fusion research, and plasma applications.
Sep 3, 2019
The Feenberg Memorial Medal serves to preserve the memory of the unique and enduring contributions of Eugene Feenberg to physics, especially to the foundations of nuclear physics and the microscopic quantum many-body physics of nuclei and quantum fluids.
Aug 29, 2019
In the Davis Mountains of far west Texas, at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, astronomers spend their nights peering at the stars through some of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Soon they’ll be adding a more down-to-Earth job. Within sight of the giant domes, NASA is installing a sprawling network of equipment to help researchers study planetary change.