Fiber optic cables detect and characterize earthquakes

In California, thousands of miles of fiber optic cables crisscross the state, providing people with internet. But these underground cables can also have a surprising secondary function: they can sense and measure earthquakes. ...

Some alloys don't change size when heated, and we now know why

Nearly every material, whether it is solid, liquid, or gas, expands when its temperature goes up and contracts when its temperature goes down. This property, called thermal expansion, makes a hot air balloon float, and the ...

Better energy harvesting with 'law-breaking' device

If you take an object and set it out in the sun, it will begin to warm up. This is because it is absorbing energy from the sun's rays and converting that energy to heat. If you leave that object outside, it will continue ...

How fish evolved their bony, scaly armor

About 350 million years ago, your evolutionary ancestors—and the ancestors of all modern vertebrates—were merely soft-bodied animals living in the oceans. In order to survive and evolve to become what we are today, these ...

'Evolving' and 3D printing new nanoscale optical devices

A new technology being pioneered at Caltech is allowing researchers to "evolve" optical devices and then print them out using a specialized type of 3D printer. These devices are made of so-called optical metamaterials that ...

New research on phage φX174 sheds light on escape mechanism

In the age of COVID-19, the word "virus" stirs up thoughts of contagion, sickness, and even death. But what if there were a virus—a very tiny virus capable of replicating itself hundreds of times every half hour—that ...

Study shows the Earth formed from dry, rocky building blocks

Billions of years ago, in the giant disk of dust, gas, and rocky material that orbited our young sun, larger and larger bodies coalesced to eventually give rise to the planets, moons, and asteroids we see today.

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