If you are a friend, an enemy, or even a vague acquaintance of mine, you have likely heard me tell you to write for the Tech. And yet my research has shown the vast majority of you have never written for the tech! What utter disgrace, frankly I’m disappointed. So in an effort to convince more of you to write for the tech I have written a very comprehensive guide about how to write for the tech.
Arriving at this institution from Denmark many tropes of the American, and indeed the Californian life seemed confirmed. Breakfasts of waffles, sweltering temperatures and affable attitudes.
However, there’s one aspect that has struck me more than any other - the complete disregard for environmental concerns.
At Caltech, a distinctive biology course introduces a new way students approach the life sciences. “The Biomechanics of Organismal Design,” taught by Professor Michael H. Dickinson, merges the concrete principles of physics with the dynamic patterns of biology. This integration offers a new perspective to students, particularly appealing to those with interests in mechanical engineering.
The course tackles intriguing questions like how penguins swim, why maple seeds spin to the ground, and the comparative strength of spider silk versus steel. While the course focuses on the organismal level, it also incorporates molecular, cellular, and tissue-level scales, painting a comprehensive picture of biological mechanics.
Way back in October of 2014, I rolled the dice and decided to see if there was any interest on campus in practicing mindfulness meditation in a group setting. Within a few weeks, we had a steady crowd coming to the Winnett Student Center, and I was delighted that the gamble had paid off. We dubbed ourselves the Meditation Mob, and last month we began our 10th consecutive year. This year is especially exciting because we’re finally returning to in-person meetings – and now that we’re back in person, I wanted to kickstart our membership again. I’m grateful to the Tech for the opportunity to tell you about what we do, and to invite you to come join us.
In the North and South House undergraduate residences, the walls are filled with colors and murals. The murals have been put up continuously over the years and represent a history of student life.
In order to put up a mural, the design has to be approved by both the members of the house and by housing. Caltech Housing’s website states that their mural policy is in place to “support self-expression and also help foster an enjoyable and safe living environment for all house members.”
Out in the depths of space lie phenomena beyond our understanding. They lie in the realm of quantum gravity, the insides of black holes, wormholes, and gravitational waves. Kip Thorne (BS 62’, Blacker) and Lia Halloran explore these topics through the mediums of verse and art in their new book, The Warped Side of Our Universe.
In the last couple of years, ChatGPT and other AI chatbots have surged into the spotlight as “hot topics” across various domains. From our daily interactions on social media to headline news, these conversational artificial intelligence entities have become prominent features of our lives as well as in the classroom. They’ve found their way into our academic discussions, created questions on our homework assignments, and routinely make appearances in the fine print at the bottom of course syllabi. The question looming over students is: Does ChatGPT present a gateway for academic dishonesty, allowing students to cheat on assignments and compromise their learning? Conversely, could ChatGPT be a revolutionary tool, providing access to a wealth of information to enhance and facilitate learning?
Caltech’s men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the championship meet for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) this past Saturday, October 28th. The men’s team competed in a 8K course and the women’s team in a 6K course.
A group of graduate students and postdocs at Caltech have begun the process of unionizing. They have collected over 450 union cards, a supermajority of the grad students. While union cards are not a guarantee of a vote in a union election, they are a good predictor. The next step in the process is filing for a union election, where the graduate student body and the postdocs will vote on whether they want to unionize.
Following the C/GPU majority support rally at Caltech Hall, discussions about grad and postdoc unionization have become increasingly urgent. We are writing to endorse the movement to form a labor union for graduate students and postdocs at Caltech. Our research is diverse, spanning microbiology, environmental science, systems biology, quantum optics, and gravitational physics. Forming a union would empower us to negotiate better working conditions, which in turn will improve our ability to produce world-class research and teach world-class students. We can learn from our colleagues at institutions like University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and MIT to build a strong union that supports all grads and postdocs—both by making concrete gains at the bargaining table and building a stronger community.
Caltech is known for its rigorous academic environment, but beneath the surface lies a community of student-athletes who defy the odds daily, balancing their passion for their sport with the demands of academic life. One such athlete is Sam Small, a junior BioE major, minoring in Chemistry. His journey provides an enlightening perspective on what it’s like to be a student-athlete at Caltech.
Following two letters recently published on the Tech, we write to you in our role as Directors of the Graduate Student Council to address concerns about the moderation of the gradstudents@caltech.edu mailing list, which we manage.
This past week marked the conclusion of one of Caltech’s many traditions: interhouse dodgeball. Interhouse sports have been a Caltech tradition for as long as records can show, dating back to at least the 1950s, if not earlier. And, as the first interhouse sport of the year, interhouse dodgeball is an excellent opportunity to integrate the freshly rotated first year students into this long standing interhouse and intrahouse culture, all of which is accomplished by pitting them against each other on the tennis courts.
Q
Help! The triangle man is after me! What do i do?
-Pythagoras
A
Did you eat those mystery berries again? Have you considered that the triangle man is not real and it may just be the mystery berries, you moron???
Ugh, but I guess its too late for that. Here’s what you can do now since you can’t stop eating these berries:
Let me start by saying, it’s not that deep. It’s just exhausting (as I’m sure you all are aware). As we all look back on Rotation, I imagine there are common themes and experiences we all can identify with. For many, if not all, of the returning students this was our first exposure to a “covid-free” Rotation, and this came with certain obligations to do the years of tradition and culture justice. As an Interhouse Committee, one of our primary concerns was to ensure that we did just so, but it can be difficult to recreate something for someone else that you’ve never experienced yourself. This struggle was amplified by a desire and impetus to make Rotation an inclusive and socially responsible event. Thus, many of us felt the stretching of mental gymnastics necessary to reconcile tradition with responsibility. I am incredibly proud of the ways in which student leaders across campus navigated these difficulties; you were empathetic and receptive to the changes that were being asked of you while advocating for the traditions that define the Caltech undergraduate community.
The Caltech women’s and men’s soccer teams played their final games of the 2023 seasons this past Saturday, October 28th. Both teams played at home, honoring their seniors with their senior day ceremonies and their performances.
On October 1st, the day of move-in, an email was sent out by Emily Sanger, the Bechtel RLC (resident life coordinator). The email contained 63 temporary room codes, opening every frosh’s private room in Bechtel. These temporary room codes, while allegedly only lasting a few days, gave access to many student’s personal belongings. It’s unknown how many students these codes were sent to.
While Caltech is able to house all undergraduate students who wish to live on campus, this is not the case for graduate students. Only G1’s are guaranteed housing from the Housing Office; thereafter, graduates must enter an extremely competitive lottery to live in Caltech-owned apartments.
