Caltech

Its creators call it CHIP — the Compact, Hyper-Insulated Prototype. But onlookers say the 733-square-foot house looks like a pillow or even a spacesuit because of its quilted exterior: Insulation is stretched around the frame rather than stuffed inside it. Despite those first impressions — or perhaps because of them — CHIP is turning heads on the National Mall in Washington D.C. this week along with 19 other competitors in the U.S. Department of...

A corporate chairman accused of making illegal campaign contributions fires the board member who calls him out, inspiring a directors' revolt. An executive who promotes women in the corporate ranks is forced to reconsider when his wife starts acting jealous. A brilliant idea man passed over for a promotion because of his physical deformity hatches a spectacular embezzlement scheme … and gets away with it. These figures have the individuality and plausibility of characters drawn from real life, but they're fictional characters in a new business text by Simon Ramo.

With an international career that spans four decades, Jessye Norman is a long way from her childhood in a supportive, education-minded family in Augusta, Ga., singing in the church choir. It's much easier to envision the statuesque star as the reported inspiration for the 1982 French film thriller "Diva," whose title character embodies all the excess the word implies. One reason the stereotype lives on: In recent years, Norman has avoided the press. The reason, she says, is that many who show up to question her might as easily hail from the sports department or the gardening section as the classical music beat.

The gig : Chemical engineer and biochemist at Caltech in Pasadena. Frances Arnold, 54, specializes in the creation of new proteins, with a focus on renewable energy. She is co-founder of Gevo Inc., a company that develops liquid fuel from plants that can be used as a substitute for gasoline and jet fuel. Early challenge : She arrived at Caltech in 1986 at age 29, focusing her research on developing proteins with potential for use in areas such as medicine and energy. But she struggled early on. "I was completely ignorant of how difficult it was," she said.

Caltech's graduating class marched across the stage at Friday's commencement ceremony bedecked in more than 12,000 plastic bottles. And it wasn't a prank. More than 500 graduates of a school known for elaborate ruses — such as changing the Hollywood sign to read "Caltech" — donned garments made entirely of fabric spun from molten plastic pellets instead of the traditional polyester caps and gowns. Graduation planners around the country are greening their ceremonies, cutting back on printed materials and balloons filled with non-renewable helium and choosing compostable dinnerware, biodegradable water bottles and campus-grown floral displays.

A team led by Caltech astronomers has discovered a new type of supernova that may burn 100 times brighter than typical exploding stars — and they're trying to figure out exactly how this new type works. The study, which identified four newly discovered supernovae as part of this unknown class, also solves the mystery behind two previously unexplained events — one that had been thought to be an extremely luminous Type II supernova, and another whose nature had scientists completely baffled.

Roger Gimbel Producer of made-for-TV movies Roger Gimbel, 86, an Emmy Award-winning television producer who specialized in made-for-TV movies and was known for his high-quality productions that often dealt with serious subject matter, died of pneumonia Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, spokesman Dale Olson said. As executive producer, Gimbel shared an Emmy in 1973 with producer George Schaefer for the TV movie "A War of Children," about Irish and Protestant friends engulfed by strife in Belfast.

It was the last chance in the last game of the last basketball season Ryan Elmquist would ever experience, and the boy wonder wondered. He recorded a perfect score on his ACT exam. He is graduating from Caltech this spring with a computer science degree. He has landed a job as a software engineer at Google. But could he make a free throw? Could he make one unguarded shot to give the Caltech basketball team a victory that would end a 310-game conference losing streak stretched back 26 years?

"At the California Institute of Technology, they're developing a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars," President Obama said in his Jan. 25 State of the Union address. He was referring to the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis , or JCAP, where a team of California scientists are taking a multi-pronged approach to try to engineer a clean, cheap energy source from the sun. The project will be led by Caltech's Nathan Lewis, a chemist. Caltech physicist Harry Atwater is also part of the newly formed Department of Energy-funded project.

FAMILY The Emmy Award-winning kid's science show "Beakman's World" comes to life, this time to explore the inner-workings of the human brain. Starring Paul Zaloom, the performance is chock-full of wacky humor, large-scale demonstrations and plenty of audience participation. Beckman Auditorium. 332 S. Michigan Ave, Pasadena. 7 p.m. Fri. $15 for adults, $10 for kids. (626) 395-4652. http://www.caltech.edu