July 1, 2005 The University of Chicago's Nicolas Dauphas has
developed a new way to calculate the age of the Milky Way that
is free of the unvalidated assumptions that have plagued
previous methods. Dauphas' method, which he reports in the June
29 issue of the journal Nature, can now be used to tackle other
mysteries of the cosmos that have remained unsolved for decades.
"Age determinations are crucial to a fundamental understanding
of the universe," said Thomas Rauscher, an assistant professor
of physics and astronomy at the University of Basel in
Switzerland. "The wide range of implications is what makes
Nicolas' work so exciting and important." Dauphas, an Assistant
Professor in Geophysical Sciences, operates the Origins
Laboratory at the University of Chicago. His wide-ranging
interests include the origins of Earth's atmosphere, the oldest
rocks that may contain evidence for life on Earth and what
meteorites reveal about the formation of the solar system. In
his latest work, Dauphas has honed the accuracy