Connecting Research and Experts with Journalists

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Will dark matter turn out to be Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs)? This week, an experiment deep in a mine added new and intriguing information about this theory. The scientist leading the research team -- Juan Collar, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago -- discusses the latest findings and their implications.

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Using skin cells from patients with mental disorders, scientists are creating brain cells that are now providing extraordinary insights into afflictions like schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.

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Using a new tool, Cornell University researchers deliberately created atomic-level disorder in order to probe the workings of heavy fermion compounds. They found that, rather than hindering superconductivity, magnetism was an essential ingredient -- and if controlled, may be a key for future advances in the field.

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In 2008, the Italian satellite PAMELA detected a curious excess of antimatter positrons – a startling discovery that could have been a sign of the existence of dark matter. With assistance from the Earth's magnetic field, the Fermi Gamma-ray Telescope confirms a cosmic excess of antimatter positrons, but not the spike expected if evidence of dark matter.

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Three researchers - Maja Matarić, Ayse Saygin and Andrea Thomaz - discuss how understanding the human mind is the key to social robotics, and what we can expect from this field in the future.

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What’s the future for the technology needed to power hybrid and electric cars? The Kavli Foundation discusses this with Popular Science Senior Editor Seth Fletcher, University of Cambridge Professor and Royal Society Kavli Medal winner Clare Grey, and Michigan State University Assistant Professor Jeff Sakamoto.

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Three prominent researchers -- Harvard's Avi Loeb, Caltech's Richard Ellis, and Cambridge's George Becker -- discuss how recent and exciting discoveries are moving scientists closer to understanding how the first stars and galaxies formed.

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Michael McDonald, Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at MIT, and Bradford Benson, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, discuss today's announcement at a NASA press conference of the discovery of the Phoenix Cluster -- a galaxy cluster for the record books.

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Three lead members of an international science team provide insight into the first direct detection of dark galaxies.

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This fall, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago and the National Academy of Sciences organized a colloquium that brought together more than 100 cosmologists, particle physicists and observational astrophysicists – three fields now united in the hunt to determine what is dark matter. Their goal: to take stock of the latest theories and findings about dark matter, assess just how close we are to detecting it and spark cross-disciplinary discussions and collaborations aimed at resolving the dark matter puzzle. So where do things stand?