KICP in the News, 2005



 
Balloon carrying Chicago-built detector makes record-breaking flight
News Office, The University of Chicago, February 15, 2005
by Steve Koppes, News Office, The University of Chicago

Carrying a device built by a team led by Simon Swordy, James Franck Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago, a NASA scientific balloon broke the flight record for duration and distance. Flying near the edge of space, it soared for nearly 42 days, making three orbits around the South Pole.

The record-breaking balloon, almost as large as one-and-a-half football fields, carried the Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) experiment. CREAM is designed to explore the supernova acceleration limit of cosmic rays, the relativistic gas of protons, electrons and heavy nuclei arriving at Earth from outside the solar system.

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Related Links:
KICP Members: Simon P. Swordy

 
Scientists will observe 300 million ancient galaxies to measure mysterious dark energy
The University of Chicago Chronicle, March 20, 2005
by Steve Koppes, The University of Chicago Chronicle

University scientists have co-founded an international collaboration that seeks to measure with new precision the mysterious force causing the universe to fly apart. Plans call for the project, named the Dark Energy Survey, to collect data on approximately 300 million galaxies spanning two-thirds of the history of the universe.

The survey could begin making observations as early as the fall of 2009. Although the DES remains more than four years away, more ambitious surveys will take at least a decade to produce results. "I don't want to wait that long," said Joshua Frieman, Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics and the College. "It essentially requires gravity to be repulsive," said Wayne Hu, Associate Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics. "That's possible under our standard theories of gravity, but it's not expected." Whatever dark energy is, Frieman said, "it's likely to have profound implications for fundamental physics."

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Related Links:
KICP Members: Joshua A. Frieman; Wayne Hu
Scientific projects: Dark Energy Survey (DES)

 
"Einstein the Man" performance
News Office, The University of Chicago, March 30, 2005
by Steve Koppes, News Office, The University of Chicago

Actor Bill Landry will portray Einstein the Man in a performance that highlights some of Albert Einstein's major scientific and philosophical ideas at Argonne National Laboratory on Thursday, April 7, and at the University of Chicago on Friday, April 8.

The Einstein the Man performances are jointly sponsored by Argonne National Laboratory and by the Enrico Fermi Institute and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago. The event is being held in observance of the World Year of Physics 2005, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of Einstein's miracle year. In 1905, Einstein published three important papers describing ideas that have influenced all of modern physics.

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Compton Lecturer to tell story of galaxy formation
News Office, The University of Chicago, April 12, 2005
by Steve Koppes, News Office, The University of Chicago

Learn what the universe is made of, how old it is, how it has been evolving since its conception and what scientists predict for its ultimate fate in a series of free, public lectures at the University of Chicago beginning Saturday, April 16.

The series of eight lectures, titled "The story of galaxy formation in our universe," will be held Saturdays from 11 a.m. to noon in room 106 of the Kersten Physics Teaching Center, 5720 S. Ellis Ave.

Risa Wechsler, a Fellow in both the Enrico Fermi Institute and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, will deliver the lectures. Among other things, she will tell how the study of cosmology has undergone a revolution in the past decade, driven by a wealth of observational data and by theoretical and computational advances.

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Related Links:
KICP Members: Risa H. Wechsler

 
University of Chicago to convene panel on women in science
News Office, The University of Chicago, May 15, 2005
by Steve Koppes, News Office, The University of Chicago

Researchers from around the country will address University of Chicago faculty, administrators and students about the under-representation of women in science during a symposium that will meet from 1 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 20, in the Biological Sciences Learning Center auditorium.

The symposium, "Why So Few Women in Science? Defining the Problem and Taking Action," is co-sponsored by the Dean's Office of the Physical Sciences Division, and co-sponsored by the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, the Enrico Fermi Institute, the James Franck Institute and the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, all at the University of Chicago.

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Three University of Chicago scientists to present Einstein lectures
News Office, University of Chicago, June 29, 2005
by Steve Koppes, News Office, University of Chicago

Three University of Chicago scientists will discuss the theory of everything, the arrow of time, the subatomic world and other topics related to the work of Albert Einstein in a series of free lectures sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Council over the next three months.

Speaking on Thursday, Aug. 11, about "Time's Arrow" will be Sean Carroll, Assistant Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago. Carroll's lecture will begin at 6 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.

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Related Links:
KICP Members: Sean M. Carroll

 
Lecture Series to describe how scientists observe the invisible
News Office, The University of Chicago, September 19, 2005
by Steve Koppes, News Office, The University of Chicago

The series of eight lectures, titled "Challenges to Seeing the Invisible: Foregrounds and Backgrounds in the Scientific Exploration of the Universe", will be held Saturdays from 11 a.m. to noon in Room 106 of the Kersten Physics Teaching Center, 5720 S. Ellis Ave.

Delivering the lectures will be Dorothea Samtleben, a Research Associate of the Enrico Fermi Institute and a Fellow of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago. Her lectures will explain some of the advanced techniques used for studying the universe, and illustrate how discoveries on the smallest scales impact the scientific understanding of the largest scales, and vice versa.

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Related Links:
KICP Members: Dorothea Samtleben

 
Kavli Institute Symposium on New Views of the Universe to meet Dec. 8-13
News Office, University of Chicago, October 17, 2005
by Steve Koppes, News Office, University of Chicago

Journalists are invited to attend the Inaugural Symposium of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago from Thursday, Dec. 8, to Tuesday, Dec. 13, at the Hyatt Regency hotel, 51 E. Wacker Dr., in Chicago. The symposium, 'New Views of the Universe,' will bring together scientists from around the world to discuss the current state and future of theory, experiments and observations at the boundary between cosmology and particle physics. The symposium also will honor the late David Schramm, who pioneered the study of the early universe by connecting the fields of cosmology and particle physics.

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Observatory aims to find the origin of cosmic rays
Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2005
by Ronald Kotulak, Chicago Tribune

Cosmic rays, the highest-energy particles in the universe, are being pitched at Earth from someplace beyond our galaxy, and for more than seven decades no one has been able to figure out where they are coming from.

Now, armed with a cosmic ray catcher's mitt that is being inaugurated Thursday in Argentina on a site half the size of Rhode Island, scientists from the University of Chicago and Fermilab, along with more than 250 other scientists from 16 countries, hope to solve one of astronomy's biggest mysteries.

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Related Links:
KICP Members: James W. Cronin; Alan Watson
Scientific projects: Pierre Auger Observatory (AUGER)

 
Scientists to present views on extra dimensions, dark energy, other mysteries of the universe in free public event Dec. 12
University of Chicago, News Office, November 30, 2005
University of Chicago, News Office

By Steve Koppes, News Office

'New Views of the Universe: Extra Dimensions, Dark Energy and Cosmic Adventures,' is the title of a panel discussion that will begin at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, at the Harris Theater in Chicago's Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph. The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics and the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, and the Illinois Humanities Council.

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Panelists to take cosmic adventures to public
The University of Chicago Chronicle, December 1, 2005
by Steve Koppes, The University of Chicago Chronicle

'New Views of the Universe: Extra Dimensions, Dark Energy and Cosmic Adventures,' is the title of a panel discussion that will begin at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, at the Harris Theater in Chicago's Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph.

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New Views of Universe attracting scientists to Chicago Dec. 9-13: Meeting will honor influential University of Chicago cosmologist David Schramm, inaugurate Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
The University of Chicago News Office, December 2, 2005
by Steve Koppes, The University of Chicago News Office

Scientists will puzzle over the physics of the beginning of the universe, a mysterious force called dark energy that works against gravity, and many other cosmic mysteries at the University of Chicago's New Views of the Universe symposium Dec. 9 to 13.

More than 200 scientists, students and journalists have registered for the symposium, which will be held from Dec. 9 to 13 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago. The meeting will be the inaugural symposium of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago.

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Sky-Skan's DigitalSky demonstrates latest visualizations at New Views of the Universe Symposium
SkySkan, December 11, 2005
SkySkan

The Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics (KICP) at the University of Chicago is presenting New Views of the Universe, a symposium focusing on the cosmological discoveries of the past 10 years that have revolutionized our view of the Universe.

Today, at a special session for symposium delegates in the Adler Planetarium, Josh Frieman from KICP and Fermilab presented two sets of spectacular visualizations, prepared by KICP's Mark SubbaRao and Dinoj Surendan and brought into DigitalSky with the help of Sky-Skan.

Related Links:
KICP Members: Joshua A. Frieman; Mark Subbarao