Controlling Light More Precisely Than Ever Before – Using a Material Just Three Atoms Thick
Most of us control light all the time without even thinking about it, usually in mundane ways: we don a pair of sunglasses and put…
California Institute of Technology
Scientists Have Found a Way To “See” Single Cells Using Sound
If you are a researcher who wants to see how just a few cells in an organism are behaving, it is no simple task. The…
Scientists Build Embryo-Like Structures From Human Stem Cells
Research on human embryos is vital to understanding the earliest stages of human development. Currently, this research is conducted on surplus embryos willingly donated by…
Trigger Identified for “Head-to-Tail” Axis Development in Human Embryo
The second week of gestation represents a critical stage of embryo development, or embryogenesis. Failure of development during this time is one of the major…
A Black Hole Triggers a Premature Supernova – First Observation of a Brand-New Kind of Supernova
The first observation of a brand-new kind of supernova had been predicted by theorists but never before confirmed. In 2017, a particularly luminous and unusual…
Mice Can Actually Learn Much Faster than Previously Thought
A new experimental setup for studying animal behavior and learning. Your commute to work may seem like a mundane thing, but it is a great…
New Nanomaterial Resists Projectile Impact Better Than Kevlar
Thinner than a human hair, new material can absorb impacts from microparticles traveling at supersonic speeds. Engineers at Caltech, MIT, and ETH Zürich have developed…
The Incredible Secret Science of Ants’ Underground Cities: How Ants Build Amazingly Complex and Stable Structures
Picture an anthill. What do you see? A small mound of sand and crumbly dirt poking up through the lawn? A tiny hole disappearing into…
Highest-Resolution Measurements of Asteroid Surface Temperatures Ever Obtained From Earth
The study’s target, Psyche, is the destination of an upcoming NASA mission. A close examination of the millimeter-wavelength emissions from the asteroid Psyche, which NASA…
Ripples in Saturn’s Rings Reveals “Fuzzy” Nature of Gas Giant’s Core
Saturn Makes Waves in its Own Rings In the same way that earthquakes cause our planet to rumble, oscillations in the interior of Saturn make…
Innovative New Material Inspired by Chain Mail Transforms from Flexible to Rigid on Command
Engineers at Caltech and JPL have developed a material inspired by chain mail that can transform from a foldable, fluid-like state into specific solid shapes…
Hungry Fruit Flies Are Extreme Ultramarathon Fliers – Can Travel Six Million Times Their Body Length
In search of food, a fly can travel six million times its body length. In 2005, an ultramarathon runner ran continuously 560 kilometers (350 miles)…
A Software Swiss Army Knife for Genomic Data
A good way to find out what a cell is doing—whether it is growing out of control as in cancers, or is under the control…
Seeing Quadruple: Artificial Intelligence Leads to Discovery That Can Help Solve Cosmological Puzzles
Machine-Learning Methods Lead to Discovery of Rare “Quadruply Imaged Quasars” That Can Help Solve Cosmological Puzzles With the help of machine-learning techniques, a team of…
Radioactive Molecules May Help Solve Cosmic Mystery of Missing Antimatter
Stars, galaxies, and everything in the universe, including our own bodies, are comprised of so-called regular matter. Regular matter includes atoms and molecules, which are…
Encased in an Icy Shell, the Ocean on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Appears to Be Churning
Buried beneath 20 kilometers of ice, the subsurface ocean of Enceladus—one of Saturn’s moons—appears to be churning with currents akin to those on Earth. The…
Reading Minds With Ultrasound: Caltech’s New Brain–Machine Interface
A Less-Invasive Technique to Decode the Brain’s Intentions What is happening in your brain as you are scrolling through this page? In other words, which…
Up to 99% of Mars’ Water May Still Be Trapped in Planet’s Crust – Not Lost to Space As Long Theorized
New data challenges the long-held theory that all of Mars’ water escaped into space. Billions of years ago, the Red Planet was far more blue;…