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01/22/2013

Notes from the Back Row: "Engineering with Impact"

Douglas Smith

At Caltech, Guruswami "Ravi" Ravichandran studies impacts that pack a wallop of up to a million times the pressure of Earth's atmosphere.

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.

01/05/2013

Watson Lecture: "Physics at the Large Hadron Collider"

Douglas Smith

Professor of Physics Harvey Newman has been searching for signs of dark matter, extra dimensions, and the elusive Higgs particle at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. He'll be reporting from the high-energy frontier of particle physics at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 9, 2013, in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium. Admission is free.

12/13/2012

A Close Encounter of the First Kind

Douglas Smith

A new era in planetary science began in 1962, when Mariner 2 and the 200-inch Hale telescope simultaneously took a close look at Venus.

12/05/2012

Caltech Elects New Member to Board of Trustees

Ann Motrunich

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12/04/2012

Watson Lecture: "Brain Control with Light"

Douglas Smith

Viviana Gradinaru (BS '05) might one day be getting inside your head—but in a good way. An assistant professor of biology at Caltech, Gradinaru is trying to map out the brain's wiring diagrams. Gradinaru will discuss her work at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 5, in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium. Admission is free.

11/25/2012

Watson Lecture: "Seeing the World in a Grain of Sand"

Douglas Smith

José Andrade has got the dirt on dirt. An associate professor of civil and mechanical engineering at Caltech, Andrade will discuss how the actions of a few grains of sand can affect landslides, earthquakes, and even Mars rovers. He will be speaking at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 28, 2012, in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium. Admission is free.

11/19/2012

One Metal Scoop, Slightly Used

Douglas Smith

On November 20, 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean paid a visit to JPL's Surveyor 3, which had landed on the moon two and a half years earlier.

11/19/2012

Caltech Elects New Member to Board of Trustees

Ann Motrunich

Entrepreneur Kevin M. Taweel has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Taweel is cofounder and chairman of Asurion, the world's largest provider of technology protection services.

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