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Physicist Hirosi Ooguri Awarded for Novel Research on Black Holes
01/08/2008

Physicist Hirosi Ooguri Awarded for Novel Research on Black Holes

Jacqueline Scahill
Hirosi Ooguri, the Kavli Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology, is a corecipient of the first ever Leonard Eisenbud Prize for Mathematics and Physics, awarded by the American Mathematical Society (AMS). The prize, created in 2006, has gone to Ooguri and coauthors Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa of Harvard University for their paper "Black hole attractors and the topological string," published in 2004.
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LIGO Sheds Light on Cosmic Event
01/02/2008

LIGO Sheds Light on Cosmic Event

Kathy Svitil
An analysis by the international LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration has excluded one previously leading explanation for the origin of an intense gamma-ray burst that occurred last winter. Gamma-ray bursts are among the most violent and energetic events in the universe, and scientists have only recently begun to understand their origins.
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Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Commits $200 Million Support for Thirty-Meter Telescope
12/05/2007

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Commits $200 Million Support for Thirty-Meter Telescope

Jill Perry
The California Institute of Technology and the University of California have received a $200 million commitment over nine years from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation toward the further development and construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT). Funding under this commitment will be shared equally between the two universities, with matching gifts from the two institutions expected to bring the total to $300 million. When built, TMT will be the largest telescope in the world.
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High Energy Physicists Set New Record for Network Data Transfer
11/29/2007

High Energy Physicists Set New Record for Network Data Transfer

Jill Perry
80+ Gbps Sustained Rates for Hours Set a New Standard and Demonstrate that Current and Next Generation Long-Range Networks Can Be Used Efficiently by Small Computing Clusters
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Industry and Research Heavyweights Collaborate to Demonstrate Data Transport Capability at SC07
11/12/2007

Industry and Research Heavyweights Collaborate to Demonstrate Data Transport Capability at SC07

Kathy Svitil
High-Performance Computing and Communications Organizations Pool Capabilities to Support Vast Bandwidth Needs for Particle Physics and Other Applications
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A Giant Step toward Infinitesimal Machinery
11/05/2007

A Giant Step toward Infinitesimal Machinery

Jill Perry
What are the ultimate limits to miniaturization? How small can machinery--with internal workings that move, turn, and vibrate--be produced? What is the smallest scale on which computers can be built? With uncanny and characteristic insight, these are questions that the legendary Caltech physicist Richard Feynman asked himself in the period leading up to a famous 1959 lecture, the first on a topic now called nanotechnology.
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Small Explorer Mission to Detect Black Holes Scheduled for 2011 Launch
09/21/2007

Small Explorer Mission to Detect Black Holes Scheduled for 2011 Launch

elisabeth nadin
NASA has given the go-ahead to restart an astrophysics mission that will provide a greater capability for using high-energy Xrays to detect black holes than any existing instrument has.
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Smallest Galaxies Solve a Big Problem
09/12/2007

Smallest Galaxies Solve a Big Problem

Kathy Svitil
An unusual population of the darkest, most lightweight galaxies known has shed new light on a cosmic conundrum. Astronomers used the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to show that the recently uncovered dwarf galaxies each contain 99 percent of a mysterious type of matter known as dark matter. Dark matter has gravitational effects on ordinary atoms but does not produce any light. It accounts for the majority of the mass in the universe.
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Caltech Astronomers Obtain Sharpest-Ever Pictures of the Heavens
09/04/2007

Caltech Astronomers Obtain Sharpest-Ever Pictures of the Heavens

Scott Kardel
Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge have developed a new camera that produces much more detailed pictures of stars and nebulae than even the Hubble Space Telescope, and it does all this from here on Earth.
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Palomar Observatory's Sky Survey is the Cosmic Canvas in the New Google Sky
08/22/2007

Palomar Observatory's Sky Survey is the Cosmic Canvas in the New Google Sky

Jill Perry
Panoramic images of the sky obtained at Palomar Observatory are a major part of "Sky in Google Earth," a new product released today by Google Inc. Sky in Google Earth contains images of the entire celestial sphere, showing hundreds of millions of stars, galaxies, and other cosmic wonders. Also today, scientists at the California Institute of Technology are releasing a related application showing in real time the locations of cosmic explosions and flares in this new vista of the universe.
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