The Houston heat wrapped around me like an invisible shield as I navigated the city with the strange feeling that I was not walking to a lab or a museum, but to something that provided silence. The Rothko Chapel is hostile to sound: black walls, enormous canvases, light that doesn’t so much illuminate them as permeate through like some ancient sigh.
When the sky turned red from wildfire smoke and the acrid air stung the eyes of Southern Californians, a different kind of fire emerged—one lit by the pens, lenses, and voices of high school and college journalists.
I stayed awake at 2 a.m. during my first week at Caltech, sitting on my bed surrounded by half-unpacked boxes. On one side was a physics problem set that I didn’t understand, and on the other was this small book everyone whispered about—the little t. I initially thought it was some campus oddity, like an inside-jokes dictionary I hadn’t learned yet. But curiosity eventually got the better of me. I opened it.
Contrary to a certain rumor, this year’s Senior Prank did not involve placing a Cybertruck on the roof of Beckman Auditorium. Instead, we celebrated Nobel Laureate Prof. Kip Thorne’s 85th birthday following the transformation of Beckman into the wedding cake it’s often called. Festivities included a music-synchronized light show and Kip-themed treats: Kipcorn (popcorn), Kippy candy (cotton candy), atomic fireballs, starburst, cosmic freeze berry star clusters, star lollipops, Kipper snacks (sardines), and Milky Ways. It was truly an out-of-this-world party that bent the fabric of spacetime!
It is well known that A.I. companies have red-teaming, RLHF, and guardrail teams specialized in protecting against hate speech, bomb-making, or any crazy idea that pops into a person’s destructive mind. However, even with protection, the A.I. can be “tricked” and bypass the blockade, creating monstrosities. If there are psychopathic humans capable of manipulating and convincing crowds, just imagine a tool built with data from the entire internet.
As Commencement draws near, your nerdy wildlife columnist decided to explore a timely topic: what does “graduation” mean in the animal world? How do young creatures transition out of their juvenile phase—and what counts as “adulthood”?
When I first set foot in California, leaving behind the sun-kissed hills of Italy, my heart was heavy with anticipation and anxiety. As someone raised in a profoundly Catholic family, faith was not just a tradition—it was the very fabric of my upbringing. Church bells, Sunday Mass, and a close-knit parish community were constants in my life. The thought of crossing the Atlantic for my studies filled me with excitement and a silent worry: Would I find a place where my faith could thrive? Would I see a community that shared my values, or would I feel lost in the vastness of a new culture?
“My mom used to drag us out in the middle of the night to go watch the volcano when it would erupt. At like 3 am, she’d drag us out, get in our VW Van, and travel up the hill to the volcano,” Lecturer in History Dr. Daniel Lewis explains of his childhood in Hawai‘i. “Right now, it’s erupting in these thousand-foot plumes. Now would be the time to go—it’s mind-blowing.” His time in Hawai‘i left him with a deep appreciation of nature and countless unique stories.
