When white dwarfs—the hot remnants of stars like our Sun—are orbited closely by another star, they sometimes steal mass away from their companion. The stolen matter builds up on the surface of the white dwarf, triggering eruptions called novae. Theorists have ... More »
While millions of Americans swelter under heat warnings from the National Weather Service, new research finds that not only will climate change make heat waves hotter and longer, but the lengthening of heat waves will accelerate with each additional fraction o... More »
As researchers at Caltech and beyond have worked to develop artificial intelligence technologies to perform ever-more data-intensive and critical scientific inquiries, they and their colleagues have also sought to steer those technologies’ ethical development,... More »
In 2015, Andre Hoelz, the Mary and Charles Ferkel Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, learned he had a rare brain tumor that was pressing on his acoustic nerve. The chemist, who normally focuses on solvin... More »
Jocelyn Holland, professor of comparative literature at Caltech and an expert on the intellectual history of 18th- and 19th-century Germany, has written a new book published by Brill. In the work, Theory’s Practice: Reflections on Technology in Germany Around ... More »
A Caltech-led team has developed a safe, effective, and painless breast imaging technique that incorporates machine learning to help differentiate between suspicious and healthy tissue. The method has now been tested on patients and performs as well as or bett... More »
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, managed by Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has executed an innovative maneuver that dramatically improves its ability to study the Red Planet. The spacecraft has learned to perform complex rolls that enhance its subsur... More »
Scientists are increasingly finding that the gastrointestinal (GI) tract plays a vital role in our overall health. While its main functions center around digestion, the GI tract is also involved in the production of hormones, immune cells, and even neurotransm... More »
What if a machine could suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, run it through a series of chemical reactions, and essentially spit out industrially useful plastic? “I think that is something that we, as a society, would be interested in. After all, in add... More »
Zebrafish have the remarkable and rare ability to regrow and repair their hearts after damage. New research from Caltech and UC Berkeley has identified the circuit of genes controlling this ability and offers clues about how a human heart might someday be repa... More »
The vast majority of matter in the universe is dark—it is entirely invisible and detected only through its gravitational effects. Ordinary matter—everything from protons to planets to people—makes up only 16 percent. Unlike dark matter, ordinary matter emits l... More »
An instrument built at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena has revealed a breakthrough in water quality monitoring. The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, launched in July 2022, was originally designed to map minerals but has now demonstrated a... More »
