This artist’s concept features NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars’ past or present ability to sustain microbial life. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT)... More »
Organic chemistry—the branch that deals with carbon-containing compounds—has intimidated many a student trying to master all of its mechanisms and electron-pushing details. But Gregory C. Fu, the newest member of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical En... More »
This true color image captured by NASA’S Cassini spacecraft before a distant flyby of Saturn’s moon Titan on June 27, 2012, shows a south polar vortex, or a mass of swirling gas around the pole in the atmosphere of the moon. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Spac... More »
Stephen L. Mayo, chair of the Division of Biology and Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has been named the William K. Bowes Jr. Foundation Division Chair. The William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, based in... More »
U.S. Venture Partners, founded in 1981 by William K. Bowes, Jr., has helped launch more than 420 companies spanning a wide range of industries. It has provided funds for several Caltech start-ups, including the following four. Axiom Microdevices Cofounder: Ali... More »
These three Cassini images show a propeller-shaped structure created by an unseen moon in Saturn’s A ring. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Cornell. It’s been nearly two years since NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has had views like these of Saturn’s glorious ring... More »
These two images show HD 157728, a nearby star 1.5 times larger than the sun. The star is centered in both images, and its light has been mostly removed by an adaptive optics system and coronagraph belonging to Project 1640, which uses new technology on the Pa... More »
Caltech chemists in the lab of Nobel laureate Bob Grubbs have developed a new class of catalysts that will increase the range of chemicals—from pharmaceuticals, insect pheromones, and perfume musks to advanced plastics—that can be synthesized using environment... More »
“I grew up cooking, waiting tables, and doing dishes in the family diner in Chicago,” says Jonas Peters. These days, as Caltech’s Bren Professor of Chemistry, Peters is more an executive chef than a spatula jockey: he coordinates the menu and helps dream up ... More »
This artist’s concept illustrates a dusty planet-forming disk, similar to the one that vanished around the star called TYC 8241 2652. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Imagine if the rings of Saturn suddenly disappeared. Astronomers have witnessed the equivalent ... More »
This full-circle scene combines 817 images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. It shows the terrain that surrounded the rover while it was stationary for four months of work during its most recent Martian winter... More »
The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). [Credit: CERN] Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, have discovered a new particle that may be the long-sought Higgs boson, the fundamental particle t... More »
