Eyes, fragile but crucial for human and almost all other animal life, pose difficult challenges, both for basic research and for effective solutions to the medical problems that such research investigates. Caltech professors Yu-Chong Tai and Hyuck Choo work wi... More »
JPL’s NEOWISE mission has detected two celestial objects approaching Earth, one of which will approach Earth’s orbit in February. The good news is, at a distance of nearly 32 million miles from Earth, this pass will not bring it particularly close. The object,... More »
JPL’s NEOWISE mission has recently discovered some celestial objects traveling through our neighborhood, including one on the blurry line between asteroid and comet. Another — definitely a comet — might be seen with binoculars through next week. An object call... More »
Genes tell cells what to do—for example, when to repair DNA mistakes or when to die—and can be turned on or off like a light switch. Knowing which genes are switched on, or expressed, is important for the treatment and monitoring of disease. Now, for the first... More »
Caltech biologist Markus Meister is disputing recent research claiming to have solved what he describes as “the last true mystery of sensory biology”—the ability of animals to detect magnetic fields. This “magnetic sense” provides a navigational aid to a ... More »
Engineers at Caltech have developed a system of flat optical lenses that can be easily mass-produced and integrated with image sensors, paving the way for cheaper and lighter cameras in everything from cell phones to medical devices. The technology relies on s... More »
Lien Pham sometimes thinks of herself as a “spacecraft dressmaker.” She’s been making thermal blankets at Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 16 years. Just as clothing can be sewn too tight or too loose, thermal blankets — the glinting material each spacecraft is w... More »
In 1999, six career firefighters lost their lives responding to a five-alarm fire. They were part of a group of 73 dispatched to a smoke-filled warehouse in Worcester, Massachusetts. Lost inside the building’s tight corners, they were unable to find an exit be... More »
For the first time, researchers have closely observed how the ocean’s tides can speed up or slow down the speed of glacial movement in Antarctica. The new data will help modelers better predict how glaciers will respond to rising sea levels. Caltech’s Brent Mi... More »
Lithium-ion batteries, widely used in devices ranging from electric cars to iPhones, are composed of a cathode made from a positively charged lithium compound and an anode composed of negatively charged carbon. Ideally, anodes would be made of lithium metal, w... More »
The critically acclaimed television series The Mechanical Universe… And Beyond, created at Caltech and broadcast on PBS from 1985-86, is now available in its entirety on YouTube thanks to the efforts of Caltech’s Institute’s Information Science and Technology ... More »
A student from Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena has been selected as one of the winners of the annual Southern California Metropolitan Water District Student Art Contest and was recognized at a ceremony at MWD headquarters on December 8. Matthew Vargas, ... More »
