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Computing Quantum Mechanical Behavior Reveals Electronic States of Iron-Sulfur Clusters

Enzymes carry out fundamental biological processes such as photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation and respiration, with the help of clusters of metal atoms as "active" sites. But scientists lack basic information about their function because the states thought to be critical to their chemical abilities cannot be experimentally observed.

24 Nov 2014

Filaments in the Cosmic Web Played an Important Role in Evolution of Distant Galaxies

How do galaxies like our Milky Way form, and just how do they evolve? Are galaxies affected by their surrounding environment? An international team of researchers, led by astronomers at the University of California, Riverside, proposes some answers.

24 Nov 2014

Giant Space 'Microphones' May Help Trace Origins of Gamma-Ray Bursts

A team of scientists hope to trace the origins of gamma-ray bursts with the aid of giant space 'microphones'.

24 Nov 2014

Globular Clusters in Smaller Galaxies Have Multiple Generations

Thanks to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, some of the most mysterious cosmic residents have just become even more puzzling. New observations of globular clusters in a small galaxy show they are very similar to those found in the Milky Way, and so must have formed in a similar way. One of the leading theories on how these clusters form predicts that globular clusters should only be found nestled in among large quantities of old stars. But these old stars, though rife in the Milky Way, are not present in this small galaxy, and so, the mystery deepens.

24 Nov 2014

Unusual Source of Light Discovered in Distant Galaxy

An international team of researchers analyzing decades of observations from many facilities, including NASA's Swift satellite, has discovered an unusual source of light in a galaxy some 90 million light-years away.

21 Nov 2014

Pitt Quantum Repository Project Awarded Dreyfus Special Grant

Remember constructing ball-and-stick models of molecules in your high school or college chemistry classes? Well, that might soon be a thing of the past for Pitt students looking to get a three-dimensional understanding of molecular structures.

21 Nov 2014

New Method to Estimate Magnetic Field of Distant Exoplanet

Scientists developed a new method which allows to estimate the magnetic field of a distant exoplanet, i.e., a planet, which is located outside the Solar system and orbits a different star. Moreover, they managed to estimate the value of the magnetic moment of the planet HD 209458b.The group of scientists including one of the researchers of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia) published their article in the Science magazine.

21 Nov 2014

Astronomers Could Have Discovered a Massive Black Hole Ejected Into Space

Space: Astronomers have observed a mysterious phenomenon, which could be a massive black hole that has been ejected into space in connection with two galaxies colliding. This may be due to gravitational waves from the collision. The results are published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices, Royal Astronomical Society.

21 Nov 2014

Quantum Theory Could Redefine Understanding of Complexity

New Scientist magazine's 15 November edition features a "Big Idea" essay by CQT researchers Vlatko Vedral and Mile Gu. In the article, titled "Zen and the art of Quantum Complexity", Mile and Vlatko explain how quantum theory can redefine our understanding of complexity.

21 Nov 2014

LHCb Collaboration Discovers Two New Particles in the Baryon Family

Today the collaboration for the LHCb experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced the discovery of two new particles in the baryon family. The particles, known as the Xi_b'- and Xi_b*-, were predicted to exist by the quark model but had never been seen before. A related particle, the Xi_b*0, was found by the CMS experiment at CERN in 2012. The LHCb collaboration submitted a paper reporting the finding to Physical Review Letters.

20 Nov 2014