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02/28/2013

Planetary Astronomer Wins Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching

Marcus Woo

John A. Johnson, assistant professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has been awarded the Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

02/04/2013

Caltech Senior Wins Churchill Scholarship

Kimm Fesenmaier

Caltech senior Andrew Meng has been selected to receive a Churchill Scholarship, which will fund his graduate studies at the University of Cambridge for the next academic year. Meng, a chemistry and physics major, was one of only 14 students nationwide who were chosen to receive the fellowship this year.

01/14/2013

TEDxCaltech: If You Click a Cookie with a Mouse

Marcus Woo

When offered spinach or a cookie, how do you decide which to eat? Do you go for the healthy choice or the tasty one? To study the science of decision making, researchers in the lab of Caltech neuroeconomist Antonio Rangel analyze what happens inside people's brains as they choose between various kinds of food. The researchers typically use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the changes in oxygen flow through the brain; these changes serve as proxies for spikes or dips in brain activity. Recently, however, investigators have started using a new technique that may better tease out how you choose between the spinach or the cookie—a decision that's often made in a fraction of a second.

01/13/2013

TEDxCaltech: Surmounting the Blood-Brain Barrier

Kimm Fesenmaier

The brain needs its surroundings to be just right. That is, unlike some internal organs, such as the liver, which can process just about anything that comes its way, the brain needs to be protected and to have a chemical environment with the right balance of proteins, sugars, salts, and other metabolites.

11/15/2012

Bottling Liquid Gold

Andrew Allan

If you happen to see groups of people perched in the trees along Caltech's famed Olive Walk and Beckman Mall on Friday, whacking at the branches with rakes and PVC pipes—rest assured there's nothing unusual going on. They are participants in this year's Olive Harvest Festival, just trying to gather as many pounds of olives as possible in a day's time.

11/08/2012

How to Grow an Entrepreneur

Ann Motrunich

Recent Caltech grads Cole Hershkowitz (BS '11) and Ka Suen (BS '12) are among many students and young alumni taking advantage of opportunities at Caltech that prepare young entrepreneurs to succeed.

11/06/2012

How I Landed on Mars

Shayna Chabner McKinney

As one of five Caltech graduate students currently staffing the Mars Science Laboratory mission, Katie Stack is simultaneously exploring the geologic pasts of both Mars and Earth.

11/01/2012

Beware of Falling Pumpkins

Douglas Smith

At midnight on Halloween, several dozen pumpkins ride the Millikan Gravitational Accelerator—a fancy way of saying they are tossed off the roof of the nine-story Millikan Memorial Library.

10/10/2012

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Douglas Smith

Last summer, Caltech junior Julie Jester worked on a project that might one day partially counteract blindness caused by a deteriorating retina. Her job: to help Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Azita Emami and her graduate students create the communications link between a tiny camera and a novel wireless neural stimulator that can be surgically inserted into the eye.

10/09/2012

A Swift Windfall: Students Benefit from Online Contest

Kimm Fesenmaier

Despite the best efforts of a group of students, Taylor Swift will not be performing at Caltech. The upside? The Institute's music program will soon receive a $10,000 boost.

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