For many of us, this past week was marked by late nights studying for midterms and catching up on work in Brody Learning Commons. Yet, for the global scientific community, it was marked by the announcements of the 2023 Nobel Prizes!
Jeong Hee Kim and Lintong Wu, two doctoral candidates in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, contributed to a study that examined an efficient screening method to detect therapy-induced senescent (TIS) cells that can increase the chance of therapy resistance and cancer relapse. This study, recently published in Science Advances, was in collaboration with researchers from the Polytechnic University of Milan and the National Research Council in Italy.
One-lung ventilation (OLV), a practice required for many chest procedures, involves the ventilation of one lung and the deflation of the other but has many risks. Amid the height of the pandemic, the OnPoint Ventilation team — initiated as part of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) Design Team program — embarked on a mission to invent a safer instrument for this critical procedure, resulting in the Bronchosleeve, which will be presented at this year's Collegiate Inventors Competition in Washington, D.C.
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) hosted a seminar on Sept. 26 to showcase the research conducted by Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University Roarke Horstmeyer. The talk, titled "Computational 3D Video Microscopy with Multi-camera Arrays," explained the design and algorithm behind the state-of-the-art multi-camera array microscopes (MCAMs) and several use cases.
As an undergraduate researcher, every experiment I undertake reaffirms my childhood belief: Understanding the intricacies of the microscopic can have a profound impact on the broader scope of human health.
The study found that Molnupiravir could be linked to the transmission of specific SARS-CoV-2 variants. This is thought to be possible if SARS-CoV-2 patients who underwent Molnupiravir treatment still had a residual viral load that was likely unable to cause severe symptoms but could cause future spread.
HopHacks is the big name that brings passionate engineering students from across Maryland together with the common fantasy of transforming innovative ideas into working prototypes within a mere 36 hours.
Contemporary scientists have been addressing the ever-pressing problem of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through carbon capture and storage, which captures, transports and stores CO2 produced by power plants and factories deep underground. A team led by Anthony Shoji Hall, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, recently took emissions reduction efforts one step further.
On Wednesday, Sept. 20, the director of NanoBio Lab and founding executive director of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore, part of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Jackie Ying discussed functionalizing nanomaterials for various applications, such as increasing energy storage in batteries, preventing antimicrobial resistance and delivering anti-cancer agents.
Just as the seasons change, bringing rain with them, so too does scientific learning fall upon us. This week‘s scientific highlights include new insights into European Neanderthal populations, assumptions on one of Leonardo da Vinci‘s hypotheses proving false and a new phase for the Curiosity Rover.
Three years. Three years have passed since the emergence of the COVID-19 virus. Three years since “quarantine” and “mask-up” became a part of our daily vernacular. New coronavirus variants have been making headlines every day. A world of COVID-19 surges, masks and routine vaccinations is still settling as the new normal.
Sophomore Jennifer Hu expected that research would be part of her Hopkins experience, but that didn’t mean it came without surprises. Through the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships summer fellowship program, Hu began working with the Huganir Laboratory, which investigates neurotransmitter receptor function and synaptic transmission.
Although we are only three weeks into the semester, science has continued to progress as usual. Read on for details about machine learning in medicine, using ecstasy (MDMA) to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), scientific fraud and NASA’s new approach to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).
Prasad Vagdargi and his team from both the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Hopkins invented a real-time endoscopic guidance method for neurosurgeries that resembles navigational technologies in self-driving cars. Their findings were recently published in IEEE Transactions on Medical Robots and Bionics.
On Tuesday, Sept. 5, Grossman School of Medicine of New York University (NYU) professor Damian Ekiert presented his research on the proteins that transport lipids across the cellular membranes of gram-negative bacteria.
As an eight-year-old in Shanghai who did not accurately communicate pick-up time with my parents, I once managed to walk two miles from school to home without getting lost in the city traffic. However, I could not summon up the courage to do so until I mentally mapped the route I would take with great precision. In doing so, I created a cognitive map where external landmarks provided me with spatial directions that guided me home.
This week’s news highlights work from researchers around the world whose focuses range from sleep deprivation to flexible robots. We invite you to take a moment to appreciate endeavors and advances in a variety of science fields made by experts around the globe.
Welcome back, Blue Jays! As the semester begins, The News-Letter’s Science and Technology section invites you to take a moment each week to learn about the exciting developments in STEM. Part of doing research is noting the research done by others, and we hope to provide you with a resource to do just that. In the news this week are the impacts of ancient climate change on early humans, a new species of deep-sea bacteria, the discovery of new exoplanets and a survey of whale mutation rates.
Dear Readers, For the final time, I am writing for my column. I’ll be graduating this month and have been working on this column for the last four years.
With the semester coming to an end, we bring you The News-Letter’s final look of the year at some of the incredible science news from this past week. From nanowire brains to the origins of gray hair, we hope you enjoy this rundown, and we can’t wait to return with more science news in August!
