Physical Sciences

Hilary Dellapenta to receive the Gerald Wendt Award for Excellence in Support of Research and Graduate Programs
Experiment Near South Pole Reveals How Earth Blocks High-Energy Particles Produced by Nuclear Reactions
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This image shows a visual representation of one of the highest-energy neutrino detections superimposed on a view of the IceCube Lab near the South Pole. Credit: IceCube Collaboration
New quest to map stars and galaxies across the entire sky
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This artist's impression shows a cutaway view of the parts of the Universe that SDSS-V will study. SDSS-V will study millions of stars to create a map of the entire Milky Way...and way far beyond. Credit: Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science/SDSS
Sky-high observatory sheds light on origin of excess anti-matter: New study excludes nearby pulsars, points to dark matter as possible culprit
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High-energy photon emission around the pulsars Geminga and PSR B0656+14, as captured by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory. Credit: High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Collaboration (moon image Gregory H. Revera)
Astronomers discover sunscreen snow falling on hot exoplanet
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Giant Exoplanet Dwarfs Solar System Family. This is an artist's impression of the gas giant planet Kepler-13Ab as compared in size to several planets in our solar system. The behemoth exoplanet is six times more massive than Jupiter. Kepler-13Ab is also one of the hottest known planets, with a dayside temperature of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It orbits very close to the star Kepler-13A, which is 1,730 light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)
Two-dimensional materials gets a new theory for control of properties
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A grain boundary forms when graphene growth advances past an apex on a conical bump, where the curvature resembles that on a sphere; it terminates at the foot of the bump, where curvature is saddle-like. Credit: Crespi Lab / Penn State
Renewable resource: sulfur is used, replenished to produce lipoic acid
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Model of the crystal structure of the lipoyl synthase enzyme (LipA) from the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis revealing the destruction of one of its iron-sulfur clusters (orange and yellow balls) to use as a sulfur source for the production of lipoic acid. New research demonstrates that the iron-sulfur cluster that is destroyed during the production of lipoic acid is replaced by an iron-sulfur carrier protein, NfuA, so that LipA can continue to produce lipoic acid. Credit: Booker laboratory, Penn State
Rechtsman awarded 2017 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering
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Mikael Rechtsman
Gravitational waves + new clues from space reveal new way to make a black hole
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Artist impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars. Credit: R. Hurt, Caltech/JPL
Terrones Elected as Fellow of the American Physical Society
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Mauricio Terrones
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