Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
November 25, 2024

Science & Technology






 Courtesy of Simon enagonio
The SpeechPortal team won first place at HopHacks for creating an app that helps users memorize speeches.

Students participate in three-day hackathon

This past Friday, 300 entrepreneurs, coders and engineers marched into Hodson Hall to begin a weekend-long event called HopHacks. HopHacks is a semesterly event at which students work on a team to create, or hack, a new app, device or idea. Attendees came not only from within the Hopkins community, but also from other universities.


Time spent outdoors may improve vision

Some Hopkins students might have grown up with long afternoons spent doing homework in their rooms instead of playing outside. Sure, that hard work has played an important role in bringing students here today, but those who must wear glasses or contacts to see the blackboard at the front of the lecture hall might be interested to hear that nearsightedness has recently been linked to the amount of time spend indoors as children.


 Courtesy of HAYLEY Strasburger
Strasburger presents her research poster on axon myelination and multiple sclerosis.

Hopkins senior engages in multiple sclerosis research

After barreling through a detailed explanation of her neuroscience research — throwing a “remyelination” here and an “endogenous oligodendrocyte” there — senior Hayley Strasburger casually mentions, “Oh, I came in as a history major.”


PUBLIC DOMAIN
A fossil proved that evolutionary ancestors of reptiles gave live births.

Fossil sheds light on reproductive evolution

Professor Jonathan Aitchison, head of the University of Queensland’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, recently proposed a theory that, if proven true, would revolutionize established archaeological models and deductions.


 ED uthman/cc-by-2.0
Molecules outside the cell may show pancreatic cancer development.

Extracellular vesicles can act as biomarkers

Formerly dismissed as mere by-products from cellular metabolic activities, extracellular vesicles are now regarded as potential biomarkers in diseases such as pancreatic cancer. These vesicles transfer nucleic acids, proteins and lipids, resulting in modifications of both parent and target cells. In the case of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles, target cells are changed so that they comprise an environment favorable for tumor invasion and growth.




Sex of fetus influences mother’s immune state

It is an old wives’ tale that being pregnant with a boy is different than being pregnant with a girl. If a woman is pregnant with a girl, it is rumored she will have a wider stomach, more nausea and overall worse pregnancy symptoms due to a higher level of hormones.



COURTESY OF SABRINA CHEN
The Kata box, now inside the BLC, was developed by the Kata Design Project.

Kata table engages students and stroke patients

Returning to Brody Atrium after a restful winter break, you might have noticed the absence of the BALAUR Wall. In its place lies a mysterious wooden box with intricate designs carved into its sides. As you approach the box you see that it appears to control the screen in front of it, which displays some video game-like sequence.


PUBLIC DOMAIN
The rapidly declining bee population raises agricultural concerns.

Researchers developing drone for pollination

One of the most contentious topics in the world today is the use of drones by the U.S. military to target terrorist threats. However, a different kind of drone may help promote agricultural and economic growth along with maintaining wildlife diversity.



 COURTESY OF MICHAEL BEER
Beer’s research deals with the control elements of the genome.

Professor Beer awarded $1.8 million NIH grant

Early last week, Professor Michael Beer, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Hopkins, was awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his work as part of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements Consortium (ENCODE), a collaboration of 18 labs striving to catalog all coding and regulatory regions of the human genome.


 KIT LARSON/CC-BY-SA-3.0
Coating drugs in a layer of milk protein makes them easier to swallow.

Protein-based drug delivery system developed

Your mom places a cockroach-sized pill on the table and tells you to swallow it. You take a deep breath, take a large gulp of water and pop it into your mouth. But no matter what you do, you can’t seem to send the medicine down. Sometimes, it doesn’t even make it past the back of your tongue. Other times, it gets stuck in your throat and causes you to gag.



 HUME/CC-By-3.0
This species of Dryas monkey was discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Population of endangered monkeys discovered

Researchers from the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have discovered an entirely new population of critically endangered monkeys in one of the most isolated regions on Earth. Utilizing remote sensing cameras and audio recorders, the team is the first to capture footage of the rare, largely unknown monkey population known as the Dryas. The monkey species has long been thought to be solely native to a small area in the Congo basin, a hypothesis that has been recently debunked.


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