Futurity.org » California Institute of Technology

‘Slope winds’ could have built Mars mound

Morgan Kelly-Princeton — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:00:18 +0000

PRINCETON / CALTECH (US) — New analysis suggests that a roughly 3.5-mile-high mound on Mars came from the planet’s dusty atmosphere, not a massive lake, report researchers.

If correct, the research could dilute expectations that the mound holds evidence of a large body of water, which would have important implications for understanding Mars’ past habitability.

Scientists wait to see black hole’s birth

Marcus Woo-Caltech — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:01:07 +0000

CALTECH (US) — A new kind of cosmic flash may reveal the birth of a black hole for the first time.

When a massive star exhausts its fuel, it collapses under its own gravity and produces a black hole, an object so dense that not even light can escape its gravitational grip.

Massive star factory in early universe

Brian Bell-Caltech — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:47:40 +0000

CALTECH (US) — Astronomers have found a star-generating galaxy that existed billions of years earlier than expected possible, churning out 2,000 times more stars than the Milky Way.

The first galaxies were small, then eventually merged together to form the behemoths we see in the present universe. Those smaller galaxies produced stars at a modest rate; only later—when the universe was a couple of billion years old—did the vast majority of larger galaxies begin to form and accumulate enough gas and dust to become prolific star factories.

Sensor for asteroid camera passes critical test

Leonor Sierra-Rochester — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:59:18 +0000

U. ROCHESTER (US) — Scientists are testing a new sensor designed to be the eyes of a future asteroid-tracking mission.

“The Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) sensor will increase our ability to detect hazardous asteroids near the Earth and improve our understanding of threatening objects,” says William J. Forrest, professor of astronomy at the University of Rochester.

Once launched, the space-based telescope would be positioned at a location about four times the distance between Earth and the moon. From this lofty perch, NEOCam could observe the comings and goings of objects near Earth without the impediments to efficient observing like cloud cover and even daylight.

Did phosphorous from space spark life on Earth?

Richard Mellor-Leeds — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:14:04 +0000

U. LEEDS (UK) — Experiments suggest that unusual phosphorus chemicals from meteorites could have given power to Earth’s “primordial soup.”

While it is generally accepted that some important ingredients for life came from meteorites bombarding the early Earth, scientists have not been able to explain how that inanimate rock transformed into the building blocks of life.

This new study shows how a chemical, similar to one now found in all living cells and vital for generating the energy that makes something alive, could have been created when meteorites containing phosphorus minerals landed in hot, acidic pools of liquids around volcanoes, which were likely to have been common across the early Earth.

White blood cell test fits in a suitcase

Kimm Fesenmaier-Caltech — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:19:20 +0000

CALTECH (US) — A new portable device to count white blood cells needs less than a pinprick’s worth of blood and takes just minutes to run.

White blood cells, or leukocytes, are the immune system’s warriors. So when an infection or disease attacks the body, the system typically responds by sending more white blood cells into the fray. This means that checking the number of these cells is a relatively easy way to detect and monitor such conditions.

Currently, most white blood cell counts are performed with large-scale equipment in central clinical laboratories. If a physician collects blood samples from a patient in the office—usually requiring a full vial of blood for each test—it can take days to get the results.

Team sniffs out origin of smell neurons

Katie Neith-Caltech — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:13:13 +0000

CALTECH (US) — Sensory neurons in the nose are the only ones in the body that regenerate throughout adult life—and scientists have now figured out where they originate.

When our noses pick up a scent, whether the aroma of a sweet rose or the sweat of a stranger at the gym, two types of sensory neurons are at work in sensing that odor or pheromone.

Just where these neurons come from in the first place has long perplexed developmental biologists.

Infants’ slow gaze may signal autism later

Tom Hughes-UNC — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:40:13 +0000

UNC-CHAPEL HILL (US) — Babies who later develop autism are slower to reorient their gaze and attention from one object to another, as compared to seven-month-olds who won’t have the disorder.

This behavioral pattern is in part explained by atypical brain circuits, according to the authors of a new study published online today in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Electronic chips self-heal after laser blast

Kimm Fesenmaier-Caltech — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:32:11 +0000

CALTECH (US) — Imagine if the chips in your phone or computer could fix themselves almost instantly from problems such as battery power loss and transistor failure.

It might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but a team of engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), for the first time ever, has developed just such self-healing integrated chips.

Portable device detects HIV with push of a button

Deborah Williams-Hedges-Caltech — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:09:55 +0000

CALTECH (US) — A device that is small enough to stow in a backpack and as simple to operate as a DVD player may speed the diagnosis of HIV, AIDS, and other diseases in remote parts of the world.

Researchers hope the portable device will make rapid molecular diagnostic techniques and the resulting health-care benefits available and affordable to those who need them.

The device is the result of nearly 10 years of research at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 2004, Axel Scherer and George Maltezos—then Scherer’s graduate student and now a senior scientist—were investigating how to manipulate biological fluids on a chip.