“Opening The Era of Exoplanet Atmospheric Chemistry With JWST.” We are now one full year into the era of JWST, NASA’s flagship observatory and successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Exoplanet characterization has historically been dominated by space-based facilities, and the new infrared capabilities of JWST are uncovering the atmospheres of exoplanets in an […]

Department-wide Colloquium Reserved for Open House Speaker: Surjeet Rajendran Title: "Opening Up the Gravitational Wave Spectrum" Abstract: The historic discovery of gravitational waves by LIGO has initiated a new era of astronomy, permitting us to observe the universe through new eyes. LIGO is sensitive to gravitational waves at frequencies above 40 Hz. Much like the […]

Theoretical principles of viral capsid self-organization and genome packaging Single-stranded (ss) RNA viruses, which impact humans, animals, and plants, constitute the largest and most widespread genetic class of viruses. During the replication process, hundreds or even thousands of proteins assemble to form the viral shell (capsid), enclosing the genetic material. Using continuum elasticity theory, we […]

Interphase Chromatin Undergoes a Local Sol-Gel Transition Upon Cell Differentiation Cell differentiation, the process by which stem cells become specialized cells, is associated with chromatin reorganization inside the cell nucleus. Here, we measure the chromatin distribution and dynamics in embryonic stem cells in vivo before and after differentiation. We find that undifferentiated chromatin is less compact, more […]