Welcome
Scientists from a broad range of disciplines are collaborating at the Linde Center to generate a comprehensive understanding of our global environment—including the impacts of human activities on it. They investigate Earth's atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, and biosphere and their mutual interactions, characterizing their present and past states through innovative measurements, developing models to describe their evolution, and synthesizing measurements and models to produce sound predictions of the future. Among the questions addressed at the Linde Center are:
- How has Earth's climate varied in the past and how will it change in the future?
- How does pollution affect air quality locally and far from its sources, and how does it affect cloud cover and climate change?
- What happens to carbon dioxide after it enters the atmosphere?
The Linde Center is located within the unique Linde + Robinson Laboratory, likely the most energy-efficient laboratory building in the United States. The Linde + Robinson Laboratory and nearby buildings house state-of-the art laboratories for oceanography, atmospheric chemistry, biogeochemistry, environmental microbiology, and environmental chemistry and technology.
Featured Event
Solution to the Allusion Hidden in PERCEPTION
The Caltech Community has been stumped and, as a result, $1,000 has been added to the endowment for global environmental science. No one in the Caltech Community came forward within one year with the correct answer to the contest that was announced on January 24, 2012 by alumnus and Vice Chair of Caltech's Board of Trustees, Ronald Linde, at the dedication of Linde+Robinson Laboratory.
Several members of the Caltech community submitted very insightful entries that correctly identified hidden allusions contained in PERCEPTION, and several of the clues were correctly identified. None of the entrants, however, identified the specific allusion that matches all of the clues, as required by the contest rules. Below is the solution:
Solution: The number of parallel hexahedron faces (12) in PERCEPTION equals the number of rare earth elements discovered since Robinson Laboratory was built in 1932. The number of different clues also is 12.
Details: Clues contained in the 'Statement of Clues' are identified below by underlining, with explanations (where deemed helpful) in brackets and red type.
STATEMENT OF CLUES
History
[of
science and of Caltech]
and Mystery: A Number [12]
of Clues for a Test in
PERCEPTION
If Sherlock
Holmes, the fictional master of perception, had been a member of the Caltech
[Caltech's history] community, he would not have
needed a dozen [12 parallel faces/12
discoveries] clues to discover the allusion. At the time of discovery
he characteristically would have exclaimed, "Elementary [pertaining to elements], my dear Watson!"
Science has
progressed enormously since Robinson Laboratory was built. Now the Global Environmental Science
initiative will provide a rare opportunity for Caltech's [same clue as above] divisions, working in concert and
in parallel, to address an impending crisis that faces our planet
[Earth].
Thank you for everyone's participation and interest. For the Artist's Statement, the original Contest and two additional clues announced late in 2012, please click here or visit http://lindecenter.caltech.edu/contest
Recent News
Recent Publications
Lόpez-Yglesias, Xerxes and Flagan, Richard C. (2013) Ion–Aerosol Flux Coefficients and the Steady-State Charge Distribution of Aerosols in a Bipolar Ion Environment. Aerosol Science and Technology, 47 (6). pp. 688-704. ISSN 0278-6826
Kanda, Ravi V. S. and Hetland, Eric A. and Simons, Mark (2013) An asperity model for fault creep and interseismic deformation in northeastern Japan. Geophysical Journal International, 192 (1). pp. 38-57. ISSN 0956-540X
Lòpez-Yglesias, Xerxes and Flagan, Richard C. (2013) Population Balances of Micron-Sized Aerosols in a Bipolar Ion Environment. Aerosol Science and Technology, 47 (6). pp. 681-687. ISSN 0278-6826
Kopf, Sebastian H. and Henny, Cynthia and Newman, Dianne K. (2013) Ligand-Enhanced Abiotic Iron Oxidation and the Effects of Chemical versus Biological Iron Cycling in Anoxic Environments. Environmental Science and Technology, 47 (6). pp. 2602-2611. ISSN 0013-936X
Zuend, Andreas and Seinfeld, John H. (2013) A practical method for the calculation of liquid–liquid equilibria in multicomponent organic–water–electrolyte systems using physicochemical constraints. Fluid Phase Equilibria, 337 . pp. 201-213. ISSN 0378-3812
Ballor, Nicholas R. and Leadbetter, Jared R. (2012) Patterns of [FeFe] Hydrogenase Diversity in the Gut Microbial Communities of Lignocellulose-Feeding Higher Termites. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 78 (15). pp. 5368-5374. ISSN 0099-2240
Thurber, Andrew R. and Levin, Lisa A. and Orphan, Victoria J. and Marlow, Jeffrey J. (2012) Archaea in metazoan diets: implications for food webs and biogeochemical cycling. ISME Journal, 6 (8). pp. 1602-1612. ISSN 1751-7362
McDonald, Jacob D. and Doyle-Eisele, Melanie and Kracko, Dean and Lund, Amie and Surratt, Jason D. and Hersey, Scott P. and Seinfeld, John H. and Rohr, Annette C. and Knipping, Eladio M. (2012) Cardiopulmonary response to inhalation of secondary organic aerosol derived from gas-phase oxidation of toluene. Inhalation Toxicology, 24 (11). pp. 689-697. ISSN 0895-8378
Stock, Joachim W. and Boxe, Christopher S. and Lehmann, Ralph and Grenfell, J. Lee and Patzer, A. Beate C. and Rauer, Heike and Yung, Yuk L. (2012) Chemical pathway analysis of the Martian atmosphere: CO_2-formation pathways. Icarus, 219 (1). pp. 13-24. ISSN 0019-1035
Hsu, Ya-Ju and Ando, Masataka and Yu, Shui-Beih and Simons, Mark (2012) The potential for a great earthquake along the southernmost Ryukyu subduction zone. Geophysical Research Letters, 39 . Art. No. L14302. ISSN 0094-8276
Tsai, Victor C. and Minchew, Brent and Lamb, Michael P. and Ampuero, Jean-Paul (2012) A physical model for seismic noise generation from sediment transport in rivers. Geophysical Research Letters, 39 (L2). Art. No. L02404. ISSN 0094-8276
Enami, Shinichi and Mishra, Himanshu and Hoffmann, Michael R. and Colussi, Agustín J. (2012) Protonation and Oligomerization of Gaseous Isoprene on Mildly Acidic Surfaces: Implications for Atmospheric Chemistry. Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 116 (24). pp. 6027-6032. ISSN 1089-5639
Clark, Peter U. and Adkins, Jess F. (2012) Global climate evolution during the last deglaciation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109 (19). E1134-E1142. ISSN 0027-8424
Amrani, Alon and Deev, Andrei and Sessions, Alex L. and Tang, Yongchun and Adkins, Jess F. and Hill, Ronald J. and Moldowan, J. Michael and Wei, Zhibin (2012) The sulfur-isotopic compositions of benzothiophenes and dibenzothiophenes as a proxy for thermochemical sulfate reduction. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 84 . pp. 152-164. ISSN 0016-7037
Nittrouer, Jeffrey A. and Shaw, John and Lamb, Michael P. and Mohrig, David (2012) Spatial and temporal trends for water-flow velocity and bed-material sediment transport in the lower Mississippi River. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 124 (3-4). pp. 400-414. ISSN 0016-7606
Mao, J. and Ren, X. and Zhang, L. and Van Duin, D. M. and Cohen, R. C. and Park, J.-H. and Goldstein, A. H. and Paulot, F. and Beaver, M. R. and Crounse, J. D. and Wennberg, P. O. and DiGangi, J. P. and Henry, S. B. and Keutsch, F. N. and Park, C. and Schade, G. W. and Wolfe, G. M. and Thornton, J. A. and Brune, W. H. (2012) Insights into hydroxyl measurements and atmospheric oxidation in a California forest. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 12 (17). pp. 8009-8020. ISSN 1680-7316
Metcalf, A. R. and Craven, J. S. and Ensberg, J. J. and Brioude, J. and Angevine, W. and Sorooshian, A. and Duong, H. T. and Jonsson, H. H. and Flagan, R. C. and Seinfeld, J. H. (2012) Black carbon aerosol over the Los Angeles Basin during CalNex. Journal of Geophysical Research D, 117 . D00V13. ISSN 0148-0227
Saraiva, Ivo H. and Newman, Dianne K. and Louro, Ricardo O. (2012) Functional Characterization of the FoxE Iron Oxidoreductase from the Photoferrotroph Rhodobacter ferrooxidans SW2. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 287 (30). pp. 25541-25548. ISSN 0021-9258
Lamb, Michael P. and Nittrouer, Jeffrey A. and Mohrig, David and Shaw, John (2012) Backwater and river plume controls on scour upstream of river mouths: Implications for fluvio-deltaic morphodynamics. Journal of Geophysical Research F, 117 . Art. No. F01002. ISSN 0148-0227
Ballor, Nicholas R. and Leadbetter, Jared R. (2012) Analysis of Extensive [FeFe] Hydrogenase Gene Diversity Within the Gut Microbiota of Insects Representing Five Families of Dictyoptera. Microbial Ecology, 63 (3). pp. 586-595. ISSN 0095-3628
Contact
Linde Center for Global Environmental Science
California Institute of Technology
1200 E. California Blvd., MC 131-24
Pasadena, CA 91125
Email: lindecenter@caltech.edu
Phone: (626) 395-8731
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