Seeing a burgeoning new research field at the interface of biology and engineering, the Benjamin M. Rosen Family Foundation of New York has donated $18 million to the California Institute of Technology to establish the Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center.

Even flies like video games--and it's not just child's play, say scientists at the California Institute of Technology. With the help of a unique bug-sized flight simulator, Caltech researchers are deciphering the secrets of behavior and decision making in the fly brain, and, ultimately, in our own.

The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but the simple pupil--the circular opening at the center of the eye that contracts and dilates to regulate the amount of light the eye receives--offers a remarkable portal to the inner workings of the brain. Such is the conclusion of neurobiologist Christof Koch of the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues, who have found that changes in pupil diameter correspond to the moment when a simple decision is made.

Seymour Benzer, a founder of the field of modern genetics, died from a stroke on Friday, November 30, at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. He was 86.

Research institutions across Southern California have joined forces to advance stem cell research by establishing the Southern California Stem Cell Scientific Collaboration (SC3). Members of the collaboration include the California Institute of Technology; University of Southern California; Childrens Hospital Los Angeles; City of Hope; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and the House Ear Institute.

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have deciphered the activity of an area of the brain that could one day prove vital in the development of neural prostheses--within-the-brain implants that would translate thought into movement in paralyzed patients. The results of this study were published as the featured article in the November 8 issue of Neuron.

Children born with a rare genetic disorder that can lead to debilitating and irreversible brain injury may find protection with the aid of brain imaging and a modified diet.

Richard A. Andersen, the James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology, has been elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

A team of California Institute of Technology researchers has found an unexpected link connecting schizophrenia and autism to the importance of covering your mouth whenever you sneeze.

Two California Institute of Technology faculty members were named MacArthur Fellows today, each winning a five-year, $500,000 grant awarded to creative, original individuals that is often referred to as the "genius grant."