C2ST in the News

X-rays reveal Picasso’s secret

By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory Medill News Serivce

Picasso’s “Old Guitarist” hides a past life of a former painting.

The Art Institute of Chicago x-rayed the painting to reveal the menagerie image underneath of a woman, child and animals.

The Illinois Institute of Technology, in conjunction with the Chicago Council on Science and Technology and Argonne National Laboratory, hosted a crossroads event Wednesday, bridging the art and science of understanding Picasso.

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C2ST in the News

The Big Bang – View from the South Pole

By Stephanie Sunata, Medill Reports

It sits about two miles above sea level on an icy shelf at the most southern part of the globe. It probes microwaves from the farthest points in space. It surveys the southern sky and scientists hope it will help answer some of the universe’s biggest questions.

The South Pole telescope is one of the pivotal tools scientists use to study the universe. It explores the enigmas of dark energy and was the topic of cosmologist John Carlstrom’s recent public presentation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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C2ST in the News

Physicists and X-ray help solve Picasso mystery

By Ted Gregory, Chicago Tribune

Originally published at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-10/news/ct-met-picasso-csi-20121010_1_picasso-pieces-paint-art-institute

Some call the collaboration between the Art Institute and Argonne National Laboratory “Picasso CSI.”

It lacks a heart-pounding chase scene of a TV drama, though, and nothing explodes in flames. But there is a love story, cutting-edge science and a piece of equipment likened to the gun of adventurer Lara Croft, tomb raider in a tight outfit. And there’s eBay.

The end remains unwritten, but the partnership has produced an answer to a heated topic that has vexed the art world for decades: Pablo Picasso was the first artist to use common house paint in his work and spread that practice widely, Argonne said.

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Blog Post

Exploring the Universe from the Bottom of the World

Our quest to understand the origin, evolution and makeup of the Universe has undergone dramatic and surprising advances over the past two decades. Much of the progress in understanding the makeup of the Universe has been through observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Slight variations in the intensity of the CMB light provide a glimpse of the Universe as it was 14 billion years ago.

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