Caltech neuroscientists and their colleagues have tied the human aversion to losing money to a specific structure in the brain—the amygdala. The finding, described in the latest online issue of the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers insight into economic behavior, and also into the role of the amygdala, which registers rapid emotional reactions and is implicated in depression, anxiety, and autism.
More...
As NASA's shuttle program enters its final year, Caltech's three active alumni astronauts are all gearing up for one more flight aboard the rocket-borne space plane. First up is Robert Behnken, PhD '97, who is serving as a mission specialist on the STS-130 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Endeavour. After a 24-hour delay, the shuttle lit up the sky on February 8, the last nighttime shuttle liftoff.
More...
The Department of Defense (DoD) has named H. Jeff Kimble, William L. Valentine Professor and professor of physics at Caltech, one of 11 university faculty scientists and engineers in its 2010 class of National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows (NSSEFF). Up to $4.2 million of direct research support will be given to each NSSEFF fellow for up to five years to conduct unclassified research on topics of interest to the DoD.
More...
On February 13, the Caltech women's basketball team is taking part in the
Pink Zone initiative, a global effort to raise awareness and funding for breast cancer. The entire Caltech community is encouraged to support the team members as they take on Occidental College at 5 p.m. in Braun Gym. Fans are asked to wear pink in support of the cause.
More...
NASA has announced that it will extend the international Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons to 2017. The agency's fiscal year 2011 budget provides a $60 million per year extension for continued study of the ringed planet. "The spacecraft is doing remarkably well, even as we endure the expected effects of age after logging 2.6 billion miles on its odometer," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager at JPL. "This extension is important because there is so much still to be learned at Saturn. The planet is full of secrets, and it doesn't give them up easily."
More... 
