Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
September 7, 2026 September 7, 2026 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

Science & Technology

JUDY GALLAGHER / CC BY 2.0 Cigarette butts, in number, are the most common form of litter found in beach clean-ups. 

Thomas E. Novotny calls for awareness and action surrounding cigarette filter pollution

By GRACE OH | September 24, 2024

On Monday, Sept. 16, the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Bloomberg School of Public Health hosted Thomas E. Novotny, professor emeritus of epidemiology and biostatistics at the San Diego State University School of Public Health. In a talk titled “Paddling Upstream to Prevent Tobacco Pollution,” Novotny discussed the type of waste produced from tobacco as well as to regulatory actions that may prevent the continuation of mass pollution from tobacco products. 

NIH Image Gallery / CC BY-SA 2.0 Researchers at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center identified a subset of macrophages that interact closely with breast cancer cells responsible for metastasis. 

Harnessing the immune system: Exploring macrophage interactions in breast cancer metastasis

By SHREYA TIWARI | September 18, 2024

Immunotherapy holds great promise for the future of cancer treatment. By harnessing a patient’s own immune system to target cancerous cells, cancer treatment can be tailored to an individual’s specific cancer type — allowing for more personalized treatment. One key avenue of current research involves studying cellular organization within tumors to understand the role of tumor-associated macrophages: white blood cells closely associated with the tumor microenvironment (TME) and are thought to support tumor growth and invasiveness.  

COURTESY OF MIHIR RELAN  Mahoney described that the new Interpolating Information Criterion metric is a useful tool for evaluating models with more parameters than data points and has several applications.  

Beyond the data: Uncovering how modern machine models learn best

By MIHIR RELAN | September 18, 2024

On Thursday, September 12 the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics hosted Michael Mahoney of the Department of Statistics at UC Berkeley and the International Computer Science Institute. In his talk titled “Model Selection and Ensembling When There Are More Parameters Than Data,” Mahoney addressed why modern machine learning models work so well in practice, despite even mathematical theories being unable to fully explain them. 

COURTESY OF ADNAN MUNAWAR Munawar shared his progress on the open-source AMBF simulator and several applications in surgical robotics.

Adnan Munawar on open simulation platform for surgical robotics research

By ANNIE HUANG | September 17, 2024

Adnan Munawar, an assistant research scientist at the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR), shared his progress on the open-source Asynchronous Multi-Body Framework (AMBF) simulator used for several applications in surgical robotics on Sept. 11. The talk shed light on the use of reactive digital twins for surgical environments. His paper on AMBF was published in the Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) program. 

COURTESY OF NEHA SKANDAN Neha Skandan accepting the certificate of her Astronaut Scholarship at the 2024 Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s Innovators Symposium & Gala.

Senior Neha Skandan's journey to becoming an Astronaut Scholar

By GRACE OH | September 17, 2024

Every year, around 60 undergraduate researchers are awarded the Astronaut Scholarship by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). The ASF is a nonprofit organization created by the Mercury 7 astronauts, and its mission is to support scholars in STEM fields as well as honor the legacy of American astronauts. One of these scholars, Neha Skandan, is a senior double-majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Public Health. In an interview with The News-Letter, she spoke about her research journey as well as her time at the ASF’s Innovators Symposium & Gala, which honors the 2024 Class of Astronaut Scholars.

NICK YOUNGSON / CC BY-SA 3.0 Researchers from the University of Cambridge found that high cholesterol levels in youth significantly accelerated the development of atherosclerosis later in life.

Science News in Review: Sept. 15

By ANNIE HUANG | September 15, 2024

As the fall semester progresses, exciting discoveries continue to emerge across academia. This week’s highlights include a dye that renders mouse skin “transparent,“ a super precise nuclear-powered clock, new insights into cholesterol's role in heart disease and robots controlled by mushrooms.

RAYNE ZAAYMAN-GALLANT / CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 Tiwari argues that improving the inclusivity of clinical trial research is integral to providing adequate treatment access to all affected demographics.

Transforming clinical research: the need for inclusivity in clinical trials

By SHREYA TIWARI | September 12, 2024

The mistreatment and persistent exclusion of ethnic minorities, women, and other underrepresented groups from drug trials is a well-documented issue. In 2020, of the 32,000 individuals who participated in new American drug trials, key demographic groups were persistently underrepresented: only 8% were Black, 6% were Asian, and 11% were Hispanic. 

NIAID / CC BY 2.0 New discoveries in HIV research have renewed hope for the development of an HIV vaccine. 

Science news in review: Sept. 8

By ANNIE HUANG | September 8, 2024

As the new academic year begins, let's dive into the latest breakthroughs and discoveries by scientists and engineers around the globe. This week’s highlights include promising developments in HIV vaccine research, insights into the human microbiome, legislative strides in AI and Deepfake regulation, and the discovery of new free-floating planetary bodies.

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL AND DRAPER LABS / PUBLIC DOMAIN Mahto argues that the evidence against humans’ free will is only applicable to trivial tasks and not to important decisions. 

Science supports the existence of free will

By NEIL MAHTO | April 24, 2024

The idea of free will permeates nearly every institution. We reprimand those who commit crimes because we assume that they have a choice to act in that crime. We award honors for academic or athletic excellence assuming that the winner had some agency that allowed them to achieve their talent. 

NIH IMAGE GALLERY / CC BY-NC 2.0 Senior Saahith Potluri discusses his research with the Calabresi Lab in an interview with The News-Letter.

Just grateful: Saahith Potluri reflects on two years of research

By ZACHARY BAHAR | April 24, 2024

For the past two-and-a-half years, Potluri has worked in the Calabresi Lab which studies possible treatments for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, and as it progresses, it can result in extreme fatigue, muscle weakness, loss of motor skills, loss of vision and numbness, among other symptoms. It is the most common disabling neurological disease for adults ages 20–40, and there is currently no known cure.

NICK YOUNGSON / CC BY-SA 3.0 Tiwari argues that open-access publishing holds a myriad of benefits for both researchers and the general public. 

Breaking knowledge barriers: The need for open-access in science

By SHREYA TIWARI | April 22, 2024

The internet serves as a haven of scientific information, representing an era where the knowledge of anything we wish to know is available at our fingertips. Yet in many ways, accurate, firsthand accessibility to scientific research and comprehensibility of scientific knowledge is severely limited. A substantial overhaul is needed in the way that the general populace accesses scientific knowledge.

JULIO C. VALENCIA / CC BY-NC 2.0 A team of researchers recently developed a deep-learning algorithm capable of detecting the elusive origin of metastatic cancers. 

Science news in review: April 21

By VICKY ZHU | April 21, 2024

Although the semester is wrapping up at Hopkins, science endeavors around the world continue to yield exciting discoveries. This week’s Science News in Review covers new technology to identify the origin of metastatic cancers, the long-term effects of pregnancy complications, novel neural circuitry for food motivation and appreciation for a butterfly in the Amazon. 

ESO/L.Calçada / CC BY 4.0 A team of researchers recently found that the most energetic gamma-ray burst “brightest of all time” did not produce any heavy metals as previously expected. 

Science news in review: April 14

By RITWIK RAJ | April 17, 2024

As the semester begins to slow down, scientific discovery has not. This week’s science news in review explores new findings from the James Webb Space Telescope, the discovery of a nitrogen-fixing organelle, an accident in molecular evolution and the legacy of Peter Higgs.

EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 The Bell Lab recently published a method to identify COVID-19 using AI analysis of ultrasound images.

AI breakthrough in COVID-19 treatment

By RITWIK RAJ | April 11, 2024

Researchers at Hopkins have used AI to achieve a significant milestone in the battle against COVID-19. The team has developed an automated detection tool capable of identifying patients with the virus from ultrasound images of the lung. This work furthers the use of artificial intelligence in the healthcare professions.

DARRYL LEJA / PUBLIC DOMAIN Pop, a professor at the University of Maryland, discussed the current computational challenges in microbiome research and shared how his lab developed a tool in response to those challenges. 

The new frontier of microbiome science: Computational challenges and solutions

By SHREYA TIWARI | April 10, 2024

The microbiome refers to the whole sum of microorganisms in a particular environment, such as the collective sum of gut bacteria in a human being. As the field of metagenomics matures, scientists are increasingly recognizing the need for sophisticated tools and technologies to decipher the complexities hidden within these microbial ecosystems. Professor Mihai Pop at the University of Maryland gave a talk on the analytical challenges of microbiome science and how they can be combated by computational methods. 

COURTESY OF ZACHARY BAHAR Hopkins community members gather on the Beach to witness the total solar eclipse.

Hopkins community celebrates 2024 total solar eclipse

By ZACHARY BAHAR | April 9, 2024

On Monday, April 8, hundreds of Hopkins students and community members gathered on the Beach to watch the 2024 total solar eclipse. Beginning at 2:05 p.m. and lasting until 4:33 p.m., the eclipse allowed viewers to see a rare sight: the moon passing between the sun and the Earth.

COSMIC TIMETRAVELER / PUBLIC DOMAIN Dubey reflects on how her research experience as an undergraduate shares commonalities with her childhood experiences and shapes how she thinks today.

Growing roots: From backyard gardens to molecular biology

By PRIYA DUBEY | April 9, 2024

I came to Hopkins drawn to molecular biology and its incredible potential for growth and transformation. I am proud to say that my grandmother got me interested in biological development mechanisms. My lab — the Chatterjee Lab — studies the interactions between genes and various proteins involved in signaling pathways linked to cancer, inflammatory disease and cardiovascular disease.

PATORJK / CC BY-SA 4.0 Sangree, from the Hopkins Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, used her expertise to share reasons behind the collapse of Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.  

The Key Bridge collapse: Engineering lessons and perspectives from the tragedy that shook Baltimore

By SHREYA TIWARI | April 9, 2024

On March 26 at about 1:30 a.m., the cargo ship Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing a disastrous collapse that sent shockwaves through the city of Baltimore and the structural engineering community nationwide. Questions arose about the safety of the bridge and how such a disastrous event occurred. My deepest condolences go out to the families of those lost in the collapse. Shedding light on what caused such a catastrophic disaster is critical to ensuring that such a failure doesn’t occur again. 

PHIL HART / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 This week's most significant science news is the forthcoming total solar eclipse which will be seen across North America on Monday, April 8.

Science news in review: April 7

By PRIYA DUBEY | April 7, 2024

As the semester winds down, take a moment to learn about this week's breaking science news. We learned about scientists’ preparations for studying the total solar eclipse, the rediscovery of the world's first police crime lab, how AI can detect severe floods worldwide and the necessary re-evaluation of air pollution’s impact on public health.

WAYNE HSIEH / CC BY-NC 2.0 Friedman discussed his work earthquake-proofing buildings, including the California Memorial Stadium.

David Friedman gives talk on earthquake safety engineering

By PRIYA DUBEY | April 5, 2024

On Thursday, March 28, the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering hosted David Friedman, emeritus CEO and board chair of Forell Elsesser Structural Engineers. The talk, titled “The Practice of Structural and Earthquake Engineering Today and Three Unique Structural Engineering Projects," touched on Friedman’s projects and methodologies as well as the challenges posed by the constraints of the environment. Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jeremy Brown organized the event. 

Trending
Weekly Rundown
News-Letter Magazine