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Caltech's Murray Gell-Mann simplified the world of particle physics in 1964 by standing it on its head. He theorized that protons—subatomic particles as solid as billiard balls and as stable as the universe—were actually cobbled together from bizarre entities, dubbed "quarks," whose properties are unlike anything seen in our world. Unlike protons, quarks cannot be separated from their fellows and studied in isolation; despite this, our understanding of the universe is built on their amply documented existence.

Researchers at Caltech find a way to sidestep the quantum "noise" that limits the precision of ultrasensitive position measurements.

Three professors at Caltech—Gregory Fu, Fiona Harrison, and John Preskill—have been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

Caltech professor of physics Jamie Bock, co–principal investigator for BICEP2 and the chief architect of the telescope's detectors, described the finding as "mind-boggling."

On March 20, 2014, Jamie Bock will give a talk on the BICEP2 experiment and its recent detection of B-mode polarization indicating the effect of gravitational waves on the cosmic microwave background.

Astronomers announced today that they have acquired the strongest confirmation yet of cosmic inflation theories, which say the universe expanded by 100 trillion trillion times in less than the blink of an eye.

John H. Schwarz, the Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, and Michael B. Green of the University of Cambridge have been awarded the 2014 Fundamental Physics Prize.

Schwarz and Michael B. Green of the University of Cambridge were honored for developing superstring theory during their collaboration between 1979 and 1986. The prize comes with a $300,000 award and eligibility for the 2014 Fundamental Physics Prize, which, at $3 million, is one of the largest academic prizes in the world.

Finding common ground between schoolchildren and quantum-mechanics researchers is no easy task. After all, understanding quantum mechanics—the physics that governs the behavior of matter and light at the atomic (and subatomic) scale—can be daunting even for some physicists. However, through a recent collaboration with Google, researchers at Caltech have created a new space for this unlikely interaction—in the world of Minecraft, a popular video game.

John Preskill, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, is hooked on quanta.