Caltech

Cells are expert cooperators and collaborators. To maintain tissue health, cells talk to each other, exert pressure on each other, and kick out cells that are not contributing to the overall well-being of the collective. When it's time to…

Numerous Caltech graduate programs are among the best in their fields, according to the just-released rankings from U.S. News & World Report. Overall, the chemistry and Earth sciences earned top spots, ranking number one in the Best…

Spanning a test platform, a small wooden bridge held up an increasingly heavy plastic bucket as it filled with sand. After a suspenseful minute—CRACK!—the bridge collapsed in a dramatic, splintery explosion."11.775 kilograms!" announced a…

In the early hours of Monday morning, January 16, a group of sleep-deprived puzzle solvers were summoned to play a game of Red Light, Green Light. A projector displayed colors on the wall. When the light flashed green, the solvers ran…

A newly discovered phenomenon dubbed "collectively induced transparency" (CIT) causes groups of atoms to abruptly stop reflecting light at specific frequencies.CIT was discovered by confining ytterbium atoms inside an optical…

Leaning into a fictive role as a cheerful "exoplanet real estate agent," aerospace graduate student Niyati Desai described her real-life research on imaging planets in regions that are "just right" to support life: those not too hot and…

The grass stood waist high around Caltech second-year undergraduate Sophie Polidoro as she raised a metal pipe above her head and drove it a foot into the soil.Another student dropped a seedling tree into the hole, then patted the damp…

In recent years, the Los Angeles region—home to 9.8 million people—has experienced record-breaking heat waves and steadily increasing average temperatures due to climate change. While climate change is a global problem, its effects often…

Using a "spooky" phenomenon of quantum physics, Caltech researchers have discovered a way to double the resolution of light microscopes.In a paper appearing in the journal Nature Communications, a team led by Lihong Wang, Bren Professor…

For the first time, astronomers have caught a star in the act of swallowing a planet whole. The sun-like star, called ZTF SLRN-2020, lies about 12,000 light-years away in our galaxy and is thought to have engulfed a hot gas giant about…