SciBlogs

JPL News: A WiFi Reflector Chip To Speed Up Wearables

Whether you're tracking your steps, monitoring your health or sending photos from a smart watch, you want the battery life of your wearable device to last as long as possible. If the power necessary to transmit and receive information from a wearable to a computer, cellular or Wi-Fi network were reduced, you could get a lot more mileage out of the technology you're wearing before having...

On summer evenings, we try our best to avoid mosquito bites by dousing our skin with bug repellents and lighting citronella candles. These efforts may keep the mosquitoes at bay for a while, but no solution is perfect because the pests have evolved to use a triple threat of visual, olfactory, and thermal cues to home in on their human targets, a new Caltech study suggests. The study, published...

A Stanford researcher found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society. More than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive, according to the study. A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their...

Researchers detect features around Chiron that may signal rings, jets, or a shell of dust. here are only five bodies in our solar system that are known to bear rings. The most obvious is the planet Saturn; to a lesser extent, rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The fifth member of this haloed group is Chariklo, one of a class of minor planets called centaurs:...

MIT study finds an exoplanet, tilted on its side, could still be habitable if covered in ocean. Nearly 2,000 planets beyond our solar system have been identified to date. Whether any of these exoplanets are hospitable to life depends on a number of criteria. Among these, scientists have thought, is a planet’s obliquity — the angle of its axis relative to its orbit around...

The search for gravitational waves—elusive ripples in the fabric of space-time predicted to arise from extremely energetic and large-scale cosmic events such as the collisions of neutron stars and black holes—has expanded, thanks to a $14.5-million, five-year award from the National Science Foundation for the creation and operation of a multi-institution Physics Frontiers Center (PFC)...

Are there theoretical principles that have the power and generality of physics, yet encompass the full complexity and diversity of life’s “most beautiful phenomena” – phenomena such as sounds that cause our eardrums to vibrate by less than the diameter of an atom? Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical PhysicsTheoretical physicist William Bialek is the 2015 Hans Bethe Lecturer in...

To fully understand how nanomaterials behave, one must also understand the atomic-scale deformation mechanisms that determine their structure and, therefore, their strength and function. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Drexel University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have engineered a new way to observe and study these mechanisms and, in doing so, have revealed an interesting...

An international research team has shed new light on the diet of some of the earliest recorded humans in Sri Lanka. The researchers from Oxford University, working with a team from Sri Lanka and the University of Bradford, analysed the carbon and oxygen isotopes in the teeth of 26 individuals, with the oldest dating back 20,000 years and found that nearly all the teeth analysed suggest a diet largely...

Astronomers have discovered a ‘treasure trove’ of rare dwarf satellite galaxies orbiting our own Milky Way. The discoveries could hold the key to understanding dark matter, the mysterious substance which holds our galaxy together. A team of astronomers from the University of Cambridge have identified nine new dwarf satellites orbiting the Milky Way, the largest number ever discovered...

Facing a challenge akin to solving a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle while blindfolded—and without touching the pieces—many structural biochemists thought it would be impossible to determine the atomic structure of a massive cellular machine called the nuclear pore complex (NPC), which is vital for cell survival.But after 10 years of attacking the problem, a team led by André Hoelz, assistant...

Strong materials, such as concrete, are usually heavy, and lightweight materials, such as rubber (for latex gloves) and paper, are usually weak and susceptible to tearing and damage. Julia R. Greer, professor of materials science and mechanics in Caltech's Division of Engineering and Applied Science, is helping to break that linkage. In Caltech's Beckman Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Wednesday,...

It is often said that people who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Not being one of those people requires a network of different brain regions to work in concert. On Wednesday, February 4 at 8 p.m. in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium, John P. O'Doherty, professor of psychology and director of the Caltech Brain Imaging Center, will discuss our current understanding of how we...

Focusing on the present has positive effects on daytime fatigue and depression, two conditions that often result from the poor sleep of older adults Having trouble turning in? Perhaps a new Keck Medicine of USC study will allow you to sleep.Older adults experiencing sleep disturbances found more relief using a mindfulness meditation program than by using a sleep hygiene education program teaching...

An all-girl team of high school students competing in the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge has consulted with University of Queensland neuroscientists ahead of the national final at the Australian Grand Prix next week. The four Redcliffe State High School students who form the Infinite Racing team turned to UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) to use high speed cameras capable of filming...

JPL News: A WiFi Reflector Chip To Speed Up Wearables

Mosquitoes Use Smell to See Their Hosts

Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

A second minor planet may possess Saturn-like rings

Life on an aquaplanet

New NSF-Funded Physics Frontiers Center Expands Hunt for Gravitational Waves

Physicist explores life’s 'most beautiful phenomena'

Study helps understand why a material’s behavior changes as it gets smaller

Early humans adapted to living in rainforests much sooner than thought

Welcome to the neighbourhood: new dwarf galaxies discovered in orbit around the Milky Way

Caltech Biochemist Sheds Light on Structure of Key Cellular 'Gatekeeper'

Size Matters: The Importance of Building Small Things

How the Brain Learns from the Past and Makes Good Decisions for the Future: A Tour of Neural Reinforcement Learning

A new sleep study may open your eyes to meditation

Student racers go high-tech in search for speed