Physical Sciences

Maroncelli honored with title of Distinguished Professor
Mark Maroncelli
New science from Einstein's greatest discovery is the theme of the 2015 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science
Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science logo
$15 million research grant awarded to Penn State Center for Nanoscience
Image captions from upper left, clockwise: 1) A high-performance ferroelectric material that may find application in future low-loss, high-frequency cellular networks. 2) Time-lapse image of the collective expansion of a swarm of self-propelled nanomotors. 3) Newly discovered roto-distortion symmetry of an oxide lattice. 4) A porous nanostructure of semiconducting germanium (orange) infiltrated into a lattice of nanoscale silica spheres (purple). Image: Penn State University
Huge New Astronomy Database Now Available to the Public
Click on the image for a high-resolution version. A still photo from an animated flythrough of the universe using SDSS data. This image shows our Milky Way Galaxy. The galaxy shape is an artist's conception, and each of the small white dots is one of the hundreds of thousands of stars as seen by the SDSS. Image credits: Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital, Inc. and Jonathan Bird (Vanderbilt University)
Acoustic tweezers manipulate cell-to-cell contact
Series of micrographs showing cells touching and oriented in straight lines, clumps or triangles. Credit: Tonly Jun Huang/Penn State
Gilliland is Part of Team that Wins Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
Ronald Gilliland
Four Alumni Honored with Penn State's Outstanding Science Alumni Award
The Alumni with Dean Dan Larson
Eight Penn State researchers named AAAS Fellows
Top row from left: Craig Eugene Cameron, Douglas R. Cavener, Joanna Floros, Andrea M. Mastro; Bottom row from left: B. Franklin Pugh, Teh-hui Kao, Christine Dolan Keating, Michael T. Green
NASA's Swift Satellite Marks 10 Years of Game-changing Astrophysics: Mission Control Is at Penn State
In the most common type of gamma-ray burst, illustrated here, a dying massive star forms a black hole (left), which drives a particle jet into space. Light across the spectrum arises from hot gas near the black hole, collisions within the jet, and through the jet's interaction with its surroundings. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Installs New Telescope in Rooftop Observatory
Christopher Palma, senior lecturer in astronomy and astrophysics, poses next to the new telescope, which was recently installed in the Davey Laboratory rooftop observatory.
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