Since taking flight in 1977, the Voyager spacecraft continue to make important discoveries. Decades after launch, the twin spacecraft are revealing secrets of the interstellar medium: the tenuous material that fills the vast space between the stars. The news feature in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, features Donald Gurnett, professor emeritus in the...

An NPR analysis of county-level vaccination data from the CDC shows signs of an emerging rural-urban divide, especially among people who are 65 years old or older. Keith Mueller, director of the UI Rural Policy Research Institute, has been encouraging decision-makers to look beyond hospitals and chain pharmacies to get vaccines delivered to more rural communities.

A University of Iowa physicist is part of an international group of scientists that has succeeded in steering light waves deep into “forbidden” regions of photonic crystals by manipulating the shape of the waves. The technique could find use in a host of applications, including lasers, efficient solar cells, and so-called invisibility cloaks. Ravitej Uppu, assistant professor in the Department of...

Steve Tammes, a senior at the University of Iowa, says his love of physics and decision to pursue physics research stems from his uncle's stories about working at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. “(My uncle) inspired science in me,” Tammes says, “so I’m inspired to do science for him.”

Hancher Auditorium's public engagement coordinator, Chuy Renteria, talks about being a dancer, an artist, and an author. In his upcoming book, We Heard It When We Were Young: Tales of Growing Up Mexican American in Small Town Iowa, Renteria writes about growing up in West Liberty, Iowa. The book is forthcoming from University of Iowa Press.

A March 7 story about the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer whose May 2020 killing of George Floyd ignited a nationwide racial reckoning, shows why Rachel Marie-Crane Williams' new book is so essential right now. Williams is an assistant professor in the School of Art and Art History and Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies.

Oprah Winfrey announced the selection of Marilynne Robinson’s four acclaimed “Gilead” novels for her next book club selection. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for “Gilead,” the first of her books set in the fictional town of Gilead, Iowa. She followed with “Home,” “Lila” and “Jack.” Robinson was a faculty member in the acclaimed Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the UI Department of English for...

A new University of Iowa study says rising greenhouse gas concentrations caused by human activity are producing an increased frequency of a weather phenomenon that researchers call the "Midwest water hose." The weather event has been occurring more frequently over the last 40 years, researchers Wei Zhang and Gabriele Villarini wrote in a recently published study.

Astronomers led by the University of Iowa report the first direct, observational evidence that massive galaxies formed in the early universe were provisioned by steady streams of cold gas. These cold gas pipelines survived despite being surrounded by hotter surroundings. The study's lead author is Hai Fu, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Simon Balto, assistant professor of history and African American studies at the University of Iowa, who’s currently working on a biography of Fred Hampton, says as beautifully as the film was shot and acted, “We didn’t really get a movie that had a lot to say coherently about what the Panthers were doing and why that was important.”