Engineers at Caltech and ETH Zürich in Switzerland have created a method to systematically design metamaterials using principles of quantum mechanics. Their work could pave the way for wider use of metamaterials in more mainstream applications by creating a purpose-driven framework for their design. Metamaterials are engineered materials that exploit the geometry of their internal…
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…
Simulation Shows Key To Building Powerful Magnetic Fields
When certain massive stars use up all of their fuel and collapse onto their cores, explosions 10 to 100 times brighter than the average supernova occur. Exactly how this happens is not well understood. Astrophysicists from Caltech, UC Berkeley, the Albert Einstein Institute, and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics have used the National Science…
Tracking Down The ‘Missing’ Carbon From The Martian Atmosphere
Mars is blanketed by a thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere–one that is far too thin to prevent large amounts of water on the surface of the planet from subliming or evaporating. But many researchers have suggested that the planet was once shrouded in an atmosphere many times thicker than Earth’s. For decades that left the…
Dark Matter Dominates In Nearby Dwarf Galaxy
Dark matter is called “dark” for a good reason. Although they outnumber particles of regular matter by more than a factor of 10, particles of dark matter are elusive. Their existence is inferred by their gravitational influence in galaxies, but no one has ever directly observed signals from dark matter. Now, by measuring the mass…
Probing The Mysteries Of Europa, Jupiter’s Cracked And Crinkled Moon
Astronomers Peer Inside Stars, Finding Giant Magnets
Cool Process to Make Better Graphene Developed
A new technique invented at Caltech to produce graphene–a material made up of an atom-thick layer of carbon–at room temperature could help pave the way for commercially feasible graphene-based solar cells and light-emitting diodes, large-panel displays, and flexible electronics. “With this new technique, we can grow large sheets of electronic-grade graphene in much less time…
Heat Transfer Sets the Noise Floor for Ultrasensitive Electronics
A team of engineers and scientists has identified a source of electronic noise that could affect the functioning of instruments operating at very low temperatures, such as devices used in radio telescopes and advanced physics experiments. The findings, detailed in the November 10 issue of the journal Nature Materials, could have implications for the future…
Ceramics Don’t Have to Be Brittle
Imagine a balloon that could float without using any lighter-than-air gas. Instead, it could simply have all of its air sucked out while maintaining its filled shape. Such a vacuum balloon, which could help ease the world’s current shortage of helium, can only be made if a new material existed that was strong enough to…