Natural Sciences & Mathematics
View a list of departments in natural sciences & mathematics.
New exoplanet is twice the size of Earth and closer in size to Neptune
The exciting new discovery, called G 9-40b, was validated using an astronomical spectrograph built by a Penn State team with the help of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Goodman Laboratory, led by Chris Clemens, stellar astrophysicist and senior associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Psyched for art
Senior Willa King writes about her internship last summer conducting art therapy with patients at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. King is pursuing a major in psychology and a minor in studio art.
The Science of Families
Throughout her career, UNC-Chapel Hill developmental psychologist Shauna Cooper has focused on families, especially African-American families — boys, girls, fathers, mothers. But the surprising findings from her early research studies made her especially curious about the lives of fathers and adolescent girls.
Rising star in chemistry: Leibfarth wins two top awards for early-career scientists
Frank Leibfarth, assistant professor of chemistry in UNC’s College of Arts & Sciences, has won two prestigious awards for early-career scientists. In only one week, he has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and a Cottrell Scholar Award for 2020.
Gold’s wobbly nucleus
As Earth rotates along its axis, it wobbles a little bit. Nuclear physics researchers have now observed this same type of wobbling in Au187 – a gold isotope that lives for just eight minutes. Fundamental science research like this can lead to major breakthroughs in a range of fields, including medical care.
A 48-hour marathon
Carolina was one of more than 900 Global Game Jam host locations last weekend, with nearly 90 students developing prototypes of video games over the span of two days.
Biologist Karin Pfennig wins grand prize in NSF’s Idea Machine competition
Winning entries will help inform NSF’s research agenda through the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026 and beyond.