“I’m going on an adventure,” shouts Bilbo Baggins in the first moments of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, after accepting Gandalf’s request to join the dwarves. A huge Hobbit fan, I’d never given the line much thought.

Finally, a column about the turtles! The turtles have been an integral part of the Caltech community, and much of this connection is made by the enthusiastic Caltech students themselves.

Changes to make the campus safer and more inclusive have been profoundly successful in the past several years. We have come a long way since the days when women were severely outnumbered and every house tradition was a Title IX violation.

On February 12, CDS celebrated Black History Month in Browne Dining Hall with a wide-ranging menu featuring soyrizo mac ‘n’ cheese, chicken and sausage gumbo (with a tofu option), BBQ jackfruit riblets, fried okra, jerk chicken and yams, shrimp grits (or tofu), chicken and waffles (with a vegetarian option), banana pudding, and biscuits. Themed décor added to the celebratory atmosphere.

yours is the death that cheapens all words and as i write this i scan each one not for beauty but for adequacy not for music

Dr. Jordan Shlain, who presented to the Caltech Longevity Club on January 28, framed his work as a form of moral friction: a refusal, throughout his career, to accept incentives that reward sickness over health. A physician-entrepreneur and civic leader in San Francisco, Shlain has built his companies and philosophy around a single organizing principle: trust.

A lot can happen in one minute. Sixty little seconds. An infinite number of moments.

Parker Thompson, a second-year undergraduate studying applied and computational mathematics, Secretary of ASCIT, and a peer advocate, passed away on February 3, 2026. He was 19.

There is a chill passing through Caltech. Over the past year, the foundations of U.S. education, research, and democracy have been systematically targeted by the Trump administration.

All names and identifying details in this narrative have been altered to protect privacy. The scenes represent composite experiences and reflections from critical care shadowing, not specific individuals or cases. Dialogue is paraphrased and not verbatim.