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Rock-Dwelling Microbes Remove Methane from Deep Sea

Methane-breathing microbes that inhabit rocky mounds on the seafloor could be preventing large volumes of the potent greenhouse gas from entering the oceans and reaching the atmosphere, according to a new study by Caltech researchers.

Sagar Vaidyanathan, a visiting undergraduate researcher from UCLA, and Caltech sophomore Sophia Chen

Sensors to Simplify Diabetes Management

Caltech students use their Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship opportunities to advance the idea of painless diabetes management.

NuSTAR Discovers Impossibly Bright Dead Star

Astronomers working with NuSTAR have found a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. The object, previously thought to be a black hole because it is so powerful, is in fact a pulsar—the incredibly dense rotating remains of a star.

TMT Breaks Ground

Today at 3 p.m. PDT, a groundbreaking and blessing ceremony approximately 14,000 feet above sea level, near the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea, will officially kick off construction for the next-generation Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

TMT Groundbreaking Launches New Era of Discovery

Construction officially has begun near the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea on what will be the largest telescope on the planet: the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

Orchestrating the Healing Process in a Damaged Cornea

SURF fellow Jacqueline Masehi-Lano has experimented with various growth factors that might inhibit the formation of scar tissue and promote orderly wound healing.

Swimming Sea-Monkeys Reveal How Zooplankton May Help Drive Ocean Circulation

The effect could be as strong as those due to the wind and tides, the main factors that are known to drive the up-and-down mixing of oceans.

Variability Keeps The Body In Balance

Using mathematical theory and software tools, Caltech researcher John Doyle studies why a variable heart rate is a sign of health and fitness.

A New Way to Prevent the Spread of Devastating Diseases

Researchers around the country are adopting a technique developed in the Caltech lab of Nobel Laureate David Baltimore to try to guard against infection. The method, called VIP, was originally designed to trigger an immune response to HIV.

Sensing Neuronal Activity With Light

A technique developed by Caltech researchers uses a genetic tool and light to view and map neuronal circuits.

Upcoming Events

ME 72 Contest

11:00 am, Tuesday, March 10

Theodore von Karman Lecture

7:00 pm, Thursday, March 26

Adventures From the Field - (Down and Dirty) Stories of Pursuing JPL Science from the Ground up to Space

Pamela J. Bjorkman - A Molecular Arms Race: The Immune System Versus HIV

8:00 pm, Wednesday, April 1

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In The Media

March 02, 2015

Single-Unit Recordings Reveal Limitations of fMRI MVPA?

In a paper in the Journal of Neuroscience, Caltech postdoctoral scholar Julien Dubois reports on work he is doing in the lab of biology professor Doris Tsao that looks at the limitations of multi-voxel pattern analysis when studying the results of scanning experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

February 28, 2015

What are the Unsolved Problems of Neuroscience?

Caltech neuroscientist Ralph Adophs created a list of 23 unsolved problems of neuroscience and divided the list into problems that are solved or soon to be solved, problems we should solve in the next 50 years, problems we should be able to solve but we know not when, and problems we may never solve. The full list and a lively discussion are at Discover's Neuroskeptic blog.

February 23, 2015

What Black Hole Winds Can Reveal About Galaxies

A team led by Caltech astrophysicist Fiona Harrison, using the space-based NuSTAR x-ray observatory, studied a black hole in the heart of a quasar that is 2 billion light years away. They learned that black holes, in addition to drawing in everything that comes near, including light, can also expel extremely powerful 'winds' of energized subatomic particles, having a significant influence on the formation of stars and galaxies.

February 23, 2015

14 Smart Inventions Inspired by Nature: Biomimicry

Caltech fluid dynamics expert John Dabiri studied the vortices produced by schooling fish to come up with a new wind turbine design that uses 30-foot-tall vertical blades. Properly arranged, these vertical turbines take advantage of the way wind behaves, generating more energy in considerably less space than traditional wind turbines.

February 21, 2015

Ask Tom: How do we know that all snowflakes are unique?

Research from Caltech's snowflake expert, physics professor Kenneth Libbrecht was cited by Chicago Tribune to answer a question from a high school chemistry student.

February 20, 2015

97-year-old alumnus throws out first pitch for Caltech Beavers

Mel Levet, who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Caltech three quarters of a century ago, came back to campus to toss the first pitch in the Beavers' season opener against Occidental College.

February 18, 2015

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2015

The amazingly lightweight yet strong and resilient materials created by the nano-materials lab of Julia Greer are featured as one of the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2015 by MIT Tech Review. Greer's technique exploits unique architectural designs at the nanometer scale to create materials that may one day be used to create better batteries, safer autos, and advanced spacecraft.

February 17, 2015

Mental Health May Depend on Creatures in the Gut

Caltech biologists Sarkis Mazmanian and Elaine Hsiao investigate the connection between gut bacteria and neurodevelopment disorders such as autism. They have demonstrated that by giving a certain beneficial bacteria to lab mice with autism-like symptoms, they are able to moderate behavioral problems along with gastrointestinal issues. Human trials are in the planning stages.

February 16, 2015

Why Pluto is no longer a planet

In 2005 Caltech planetary scientist Mike Brown announced the discovery of a large "trans-Neptunian object" that became known as Eris. Being roughly the same size as Pluto, Eris caused astronomers to believe there were many more objects like it in the outer reaches of the solar system, which led to the demotion of Pluto to dwarf-planet status.

February 16, 2015

Caltech researchers develop highly effective antibodies to fight HIV, but more testing needed

Researchers in Prof. Pamela Bjorkman's biology lab have succeeded in engineering antibodies that are 100 times more effective than people's naturally produced antibodies at blocking the HIV virus from entering healthy cells. Bjorkman's teams has developed a way for engineered proteins to securely attach to the HIV virus, despite their being a limited number of spikes on the surface.