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International Team of Scientists Establishes New Internet Land-Speed Benchmark
09/01/2004

International Team of Scientists Establishes New Internet Land-Speed Benchmark

Robert Tindol
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), along with colleagues at AMD, Cisco, Microsoft Research, Newisys, and S2io have set a new Internet2 land-speed record. The team transferred 859 gigabytes of data in less than 17 minutes at a rate of 6.63 gigabits per second between the CERN facility in Geneva, Switzerland, and Caltech in Pasadena, California, a distance of more than 15,766 kilometers. The speed is equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD movie in just four seconds.
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Caltech Physicists Achieve Measurement on a Single Magnetic Domain Wall
09/01/2004

Caltech Physicists Achieve Measurement on a Single Magnetic Domain Wall

Physicists for several years have been predicting a new age of semiconductor devices that operate by subtle changes in the orientation of electron spins. Known as "spintronics," the field relies on an intricate knowledge of the magnetic properties of materials and of how magnetic moments can be manipulated.
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Hints on Photographing the Perseid Meteor Shower the Night of Wednesday, August 11
08/10/2004

Hints on Photographing the Perseid Meteor Shower the Night of Wednesday, August 11

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Gamma-ray burst of December 3 was a new type of cosmic explosion
08/04/2004

Gamma-ray burst of December 3 was a new type of cosmic explosion

Astronomers have identified a new class of cosmic explosions that are more powerful than supernovae but considerably weaker than most gamma-ray bursts. The discovery strongly suggests a continuum between the two previously-known classes of explosions.
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Unexpected Changes in Earth's Climate Observed on the Dark Side of the Moon
05/27/2004

Unexpected Changes in Earth's Climate Observed on the Dark Side of the Moon

Robert Tindol
Scientists who monitor Earth's reflectance by measuring the moon's "earthshine" have observed unexpectedly large climate fluctuations during the past two decades. By combining eight years of earthshine data with nearly twenty years of partially overlapping satellite cloud data, they have found a gradual decline in Earth's reflectance that became sharper in the last part of the 1990s, perhaps associated with the accelerated global warming in recent years. Surprisingly, the declining reflectance reversed completely in the past three years. Such changes, which are not understood, seem to be a natural variability of Earth's clouds.
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Physicists Successful in Trapping Ultracold Neutrons at Los Alamos National Laboratory
05/06/2004

Physicists Successful in Trapping Ultracold Neutrons at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Free neutrons are usually pretty speedy customers, buzzing along at a significant fraction of the speed of light. But physicists have created a new process to slow neutrons down to about 15 miles per hour—the pace of a world-class mile runner—which could lead to breakthroughs in understanding the physical universe at its most fundamental level.
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CARMA Groundbreaking Set for March 27
03/25/2004

CARMA Groundbreaking Set for March 27

Robert Tindol
Groundbreaking for the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) facility is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, at Cedar Flat in the Inyo Mountains near Bishop, California. The media is invited to attend.
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Most distant object in solar system discovered; could be part of never-before-seen Oort cloud
03/15/2004

Most distant object in solar system discovered; could be part of never-before-seen Oort cloud

Robert Tindol
A planetoid more than eight billion miles from Earth has been discovered by researchers led by a scientist at the California Institute of Technology. The new planetoid is more than three times the distance of Pluto, making it by far the most distant body known to orbit the sun.
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Nanoscience Institute to Be Created at Caltech with $7.5 Million Gift
03/10/2004

Nanoscience Institute to Be Created at Caltech with $7.5 Million Gift

Robert Tindol
A $7.5 million grant has been awarded by Fred Kavli and the Kavli Foundation to create a new institute at the California Institute of Technology for research in the emerging field of nanoscience.
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Caltech, Cornell announce new $2-million study for building giant submillimeter telescope
03/09/2004

Caltech, Cornell announce new $2-million study for building giant submillimeter telescope

Robert Tindol
The California Institute of Technology and Cornell University are in the planning stages for a new 25-meter telescope to be built in Chile. The submillimeter telescope will cost an estimated $60 million and will be nearly two times larger in diameter than the largest submillimeter telescope currently in existence.
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