Early data shows the greatest net gain of water over the winter in nearly 22 years, but the state’s groundwater levels still suffer from the effects of years of drought. After years of intense drought and diminishing groundwater, California just saw its greate... More »
Martian maps are full of monikers recognizing places on Earth, explorers, and even cartoon characters. NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently investigating rock outcrops alongside the rim of Mars’ Belva Crater. Some 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) away, NASA’s ... More »
Caltech will disassemble the 34-foot diameter telescope mirror from the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) on Maunakea and remove it in pieces this summer. The original plan to move it in one piece proved unfeasible. “Caltech is firmly committed to full r... More »
The never-ending quest for faster, smaller computers that can do more has led manufacturers to design ever tinier transistors that are now packed into computer chips by the tens of billions. And so far, this tactic has worked. Computers have never been more po... More »
An independent review board finds JPL’s response to address factors contributing to the mission’s 2022 launch delay has been ‘world class.’ Steps taken by NASA, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and Caltech, to put the Psyche missi... More »
Stenciled onto microchips, the names will join a poem written for the mission by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. Members of the public are invited to add their names to an original poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission before the spacecraft begins its ... More »
A space solar power prototype that was launched into orbit in January is operational and has demonstrated its ability to wirelessly transmit power in space and to beam detectable power to Earth for the first time. Wireless power transfer was demonstrated by MA... More »
Triggered by earthquakes, undersea volcanoes, and other Earth-shaking forces, tsunamis can devastate coastal communities. And when it comes to providing advance warning, every second counts. Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are testing a novel ap... More »
Even a January storm in Los Angeles could not dampen the spirits of the four-person team that makes up Calcarea, a carbon-sequestration start-up co-founded by Caltech geochemist Jess Adkins. But they did get wet—very wet. On January 9, amid a torrential downpo... More »
State lawmakers plan to require that all students be tested for dyslexia and other reading challenges, but the hurdles ahead point to a bigger problem with how California’s public schools teach reading. Before teachers can screen their students, they themselve... More »
From weather forecasts and disease diagnosis to chatbots and self-driving cars, new applications of artificial intelligence (AI) continue to multiply. More recently, the widespread availability of tools that can create content—whether code, text, images, audio... More »
While studying John Singer Sargent’s paintings of wealthy women in 19th-century society, Jessica Helfand, a former Caltech artist in residence, had an idea: to search census records to find the identities of those women’s servants. “I thought, ‘What happens if... More »
