Computer scientists at Caltech have designed DNA molecules that can carry out reprogrammable computations, for the first time creating so-called algorithmic self-assembly in which the same “hardware” can be configured to run different “software.” In a paper published in Nature on March 21, a team headed by Caltech’s Erik Winfree (Ph.D. ’98), professor of computer science, computation…
Zwicky Transient Facility Nabs Several Supernovae a Night
The results are rolling in from Caltech’s newest state-of-the-art sky-surveying camera, which began operations at the Palomar Observatory in March 2018. Called the Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, the new instrument has so far discovered 50 small near-Earth asteroids and more than 1,100 supernovae, and it has observed more than 1 billion stars in the…
Creating a ‘Virtual Seismologist’
Understanding earthquakes is a challenging problem—not only because they are potentially dangerous but also because they are complicated phenomena that are difficult to study. Interpreting the massive, often convoluted data sets that are recorded by earthquake monitoring networks is a herculean task for seismologists, but the effort involved in producing accurate analyses could significantly improve…
From Beaker to Solved 3D Structure in Minutes
In a new study that one scientist called jaw-dropping, a joint UCLA/Caltech team has shown that it is possible to obtain the structures of small molecules, such as certain hormones and medications, in as little as 30 minutes. That’s hours and even days less than was possible before. The team used a technique called micro-electron…
New Tools for Creating Mirrored Forms of Molecules
One of the biggest challenges facing synthetic chemists is how to make molecules of only a particular “handedness.” Molecules can come in two shapes that mirror each other, just like our left and right hands. This characteristic, called chirality, can be found in biological molecules like sugars and proteins, which means that drug designers often…
Spinning the Light: The World’s Smallest Optical Gyroscope
The article was posted online by Nature Photonics on October 19 and can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-018-0266-5 Gyroscopes are devices that help vehicles, drones, and wearable and handheld electronic devices know their orientation in three-dimensional space. They are commonplace in just about every bit of technology we rely on every day. Originally, gyroscopes were sets…
Superconducting Metamaterial Traps Quantum Light
Understanding the Enzyme that Enables Bacteria to Breathe Arsenic
Dragonfly Larvae Inspire New Designs for Prosthetic Heart Valves
A Gut Bacterium’s Guide to Building a Microbiome
The mammalian gut is warm, moist, and incredibly nutrient-rich–an environment that is perfect for bacterial growth. The communities of “good bacteria” in the gut, commonly referred to as the microbiome, are vital partners for the body, helping to digest fiber, extract nutrients, and prevent various diseases. We are all familiar with the immune responses and…
Why We Need Erasable MRI Scans
Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is a widely used medical tool for taking pictures of the insides of our body. One way to make MRI scans easier to read is through the use of contrast agents–magnetic dyes injected into the blood or given orally to patients that then travel to organs and tissues, making them…
Scientists Induce Sensations of Touch and Movement in the Arm of a Paralyzed Man
For the first time, scientists at Caltech have induced natural sensations in the arm of a paralyzed man by stimulating a certain region of the brain with a tiny array of electrodes. The patient has a high-level spinal cord lesion and, besides not being able to move his limbs, also cannot feel them. The work…
Modeling the Effects of Wastewater Injection
In work that offers insight into the magnitude of the hazards posed by earthquake faults in general, seismologists have developed a model to determine the size of an earthquake that could be triggered by the underground injection of fluids produced as a by-product of hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is a petroleum-extraction procedure in…
Stripes May Help Solve Riddle of Superconductivity
Imagine phones and laptops that never heat up or power grids that never lose energy. This is the dream of scientists working with so-called high-temperature superconductors, which can effortlessly carry electrical currents with no resistance. The first high-temperature superconducting materials, called cuprates, were discovered in the 1980s and would later be the subject of a…
Engineers Model the California Reservoir Network
For the first time, engineers at Caltech have developed an empirical statewide model of the California reservoir network. The model was built from data gathered over a 13-year period that includes the latest drought, allowing researchers to make observations about how 55 of the state’s major reservoirs respond to a variety of external conditions as…
Studying Entropy in Metallic Glasses
A team led by Caltech recently solved a decades-old materials science mystery by tracking down the origin of entropy in metallic glasses. Typically, atoms in most materials arrange themselves in stable repeatable patterns along a grid, forming what are generally referred to as crystals. By contrast, metallic glasses are metals that have been heated up…
New Microchip Technology Could Be Used To Track ‘Smart Pills’
Researchers at Caltech have developed a prototype miniature medical device that could ultimately be used in “smart pills” to diagnose and treat diseases. A key to the new technology–and what makes it unique among other microscale medical devices–is that its location can be precisely identified within the body, something that proved challenging before. “The dream…
New App Replaces Ultrasound With Smartphone Camera To Measure Heart Health
Caltech, Cornell Create Creature-Cataloging Content for Computers
Competition promoted development of more powerful machine- learning algorithms for visual identification of species At a glance, would you be able to tell the difference between a donkey and a mule? A jaguar and a leopard? Most computers can’t, at least not yet, but a contest hosted by Caltech and Cornell Tech, the engineering campus…
New Additive Could Enhance Conversion for CO2 to Multicarbon Fuels
Chemists have figured out a new, more efficient way to create carbon-based fuels from carbon dioxide (CO2). In chemical reactions performed in the lab, a Caltech team has identified a new additive that helps selectively convert CO2 into fuels containing multiple carbon atoms — a step toward ultimately making renewable liquid fuels that are not…
Key to Speeding Up Carbon Sequestration Discovered
Scientists at Caltech and USC have discovered a way to speed up the slow part of the chemical reaction that ultimately helps the earth to safely lock away, or sequester, carbon dioxide into the ocean. Simply adding a common enzyme to the mix, the researchers have found, can make that rate-limiting part of the process…
Ultra-sensitive Measurement of Nanoscale Deformation
Nanoscale deformations could impact the high-precision experiments, such as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) A Caltech graduate student has shown that materials can undergo inelastic deformation prior to yielding, which could impact the design of materials, leading to stronger and tougher structures. Xiaouye Ni, who studies materials science in the lab of Julia…
Nanostructures Taste the Rainbow
Engineers at Caltech have for the first time developed a light detector that combines two disparate technologies — nanophotonics, which manipulates light at the nanoscale, and thermoelectrics, which translates temperature differences directly into electron voltage — to distinguish different wavelengths (colors) of light, including both visible and infrared wavelengths, at high resolution. Light detectors that…
Ultra-Thin Camera Creates Images Without Lenses
Traditional cameras — even those on the thinnest of cell phones–cannot be truly flat due to their optics: lenses that require a certain shape and size in order to function. At Caltech, engineers have developed a new camera design that replaces the lenses with an ultra-thin optical phased array (OPA). The OPA does computationally what…
Earthquakes Can Make Thrust Faults Open Violently and Snap Shut
It is a common trope in disaster movies: an earthquake strikes, causing the ground to rip open and swallow people and cars whole. The gaping earth might make for cinematic drama, but earthquake scientists have long held that it does not happen. Except, it can, according to new experimental research from Caltech. The work, appearing…