Wearable electronics can become a reality
Often regarded as being in the realm of science fiction, due to recent advances in textile fabrication wearable electronics are no longer a distant possibility.
Use the fields below to perform an advanced search of jhunewsletter.com - The Johns Hopkins News-Letter's archives. This will return articles, images, and multimedia relevant to your query.
58 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
Often regarded as being in the realm of science fiction, due to recent advances in textile fabrication wearable electronics are no longer a distant possibility.
Each year, patients around the world have to wait for tissue and organ donors, creating a bottleneck in the health care system. Increasingly, scientists have looked for artificial organs or regeneration techniques to alleviate this problem.
Although the drug manufacturing process has improved over time, there are still substantial problems that plague the industry. Large scale productions of drugs center on a few plants, which can cause severe disruptions when one of them is shut down. Furthermore, a significant shortage exists for many drugs due to limitations in current production processes. To address these shortcomings, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a portable, configurable manufacturing system.
On March 19 the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Level 2 travel notice for those who plan to visit regions afflicted with Zika virus, encouraging travelers to practice enhanced precautions. These warnings about the Zika virus are growing alongside new evidence that causally links Zika virus to microcephaly, a condition that hinders brain development.
A recent breakthrough from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has shed more light on a potential mechanism of treating cancer. Cancer in its most basic sense is a disease that involves abnormal and uncontrollable cell growth, but its complex biology makes treatment difficult. This challenge has spurred thousands of scientists to explore the mechanisms of cancer and work on developing more effective cures for the disease.
Iron is vital to bodily function, playing an important part in oxygen transport and metabolism. However, nutritional deficiencies or excessive bleeding can cause iron deficiency anemia in patients. Those who are anemic may feel tired or lethargic. Currently, millions of people who have iron deficiencies take iron tablets to supplement their iron intake.
Gold, the precious metal that built and destroyed empires, was the focus of millions of investors for years. Two years ago, gold prices peaked at around $2,000 per ounce. This ongoing interest in gold not only motivated ancient kings to start wars of conquest but also inspired a team of scientists to search for innovative methods of extracting gold.
Complex organisms like humans are made of trillions of cells that can communicate with each other to coordinate actions. During development, when a cell’s identity is being determined, the chemical environment around a stem cell influences its differentiation into a specific type of cell. A cell can sense the concentration gradient of a chemical signal in its environment, causing the cell to move in a desired direction and then proliferate.
Osteoporosis, a disease that results from an imbalance between bone resorption and bone growth, affects millions of Americans each year. Patients who suffer from this disease have weakened bones that fracture easily under impact, causing pain and problems in mobility. The patient usually does not realize that he or she has osteoporosis until he or she experiences the onset of constant back pain or a sudden fracture. To lower the risk of osteoporosis, doctors recommend exercise and a healthy diet, but there remains no treatment for osteoporosis-related injuries once the patient has the disease.
Many dread the aging process due to the likelihood of acquiring certain diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer’s. However, memory loss is not an inevitable part of everyone’s future. A recent study indicates that social activities that engage seniors may improve their memory retention.
This past weekend marked the 19th annual JohnCon, a 48-hour convention held every year on the Homewood Campus that caters to gamers and board game enthusiasts. This year’s convention was packed with Pokémon tournaments, diverse panelists and gaming of all sorts. “[The convention] serves as a place for Hopkins students and people in the community to hang out... sharing their interest for games and fiction,” junior Emily Forster, vice president of JohnCon, said. The convention was hosted by the University’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, Anime Club and Pen & Paper Gaming Club. JohnCon is marketed as a fun and convenient way for Hopkins students to relax and learn about the world of fiction. In addition to gaming, it offers a place for vendors to sell their figurines and game cards. The convention is free, but donations are encouraged to support future JohnCons. The first event of the convention, laser tag, took place outside the Glass Pavilion. Because the turnout was small, three-man teams participated in each round. Though some competitors seemed shy at first, they loosened up after running around in the sun and barrel-rolling in the grass, trying to stay alive for as long as possible. Besides the laser tag games, which occurred on each day of the convention, there were various panels that took place in either the Sherwood Room of Levering Hall or the Arellano Theater. Topics ranged from fan fiction tips to comedy shows by +2 Comedy. +2 Comedy is a group of stand-up comedians well-versed in the world of fiction. Mentions of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings abounded, and even though some of the audience may not have been familiar with references to other franchises such as Dungeons and Dragons, the relaxed and inclusive atmosphere encouraged everyone to participate in the act. Some jokes were painfully awkward, with chuckles from the audience breaking the silence, while others, mostly about movies, were more well-received. A major portion of the show targeted the Hobbit films, with the comedians and celebrity guest Dan Barnett, also known as Epic Dan, taking turns cracking jokes at the long, disappointing series. As the show approached its end, +2 Comedy sprung a surprise, offering a chance for an audience member to receive a DVD and syphilis (or rather, a plush doll of the bacteria). To get a chance at the prize, participating audience members had to risk something of their own. The comedians accepted offers as diverse as lint from a wallet to a $20 bill, but they ended up selecting the person who offered up a plaid jacket. After a brutal ten-minute quiz, during which he had to guess movie titles from their Netflix descriptions, the plaid-jacket owner took home a recording of +2 Comedy shows and the plush doll. Compared to Sherwood and the Arellano Theater, the atmosphere of the Glass Pavilion was charged with intense card and video game competition. Throughout the weekend, the room hosted tournaments for Magic the Gathering, Pokémon, Super Smash Bros, and more. While some participants were very competitive, others joined in just to have fun with their friends. The tabletop game, Warhammer 40k, was one of the more fierce events and spanned two days. The game relies on dice rolls to determine movement, attacks and saves. Prizes were handed to the winners of the tournaments, driving players to play their hardest and backstab their friends. The last portion of the convention featured a raffle and appearances by guests such as Danny Birt, composer, college instructor and award-winning author of Between a Roc and a Hard Place. Birt read some of his works to the audience and performed music pieces inspired by science fiction. During multimedia hour, Birt also played videogames with the audience, allowing fans to interact with the accomplished writer. For those who wanted more time with guests, JohnCon offered a raffle in which an attendee won the chance to eat dinner with comedians from +2 Comedy as well as other invitees. Junior Jerry Fang commented on JohnCon’s slow start. “[I was] disappointed since there weren’t a lot of people there on the first day of the convention,” Fang said. Forster, vice president of JohnCon, praised the event’s inclusivity. “Students from Hopkins, the community around Hopkins and even people from MICA can hang out and share their interests in gaming and fiction,” she said.
Radioactive decay happens naturally to all materials. However, some elements decay much faster than others, allowing scientists to detect and identify certain materials. The importance of radioactivity detection is not often understated. These detection methods have a variety of uses, including monitoring nuclear power plants and screening cargo for potential terrorist activities. Some methods use helium-3, a material that is traditionally hard to obtain, but a new idea from the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) may have solved the problem of its rarity.
In the past few years, a flood of flavored alcohols has entered the market with the intention of drawing in more consumers. For some who don’t like the taste of beer or vodka, products like hard lemonade offer an appetizing alternative at parties or just relaxing at home.
Every hour, thousands of couples around the world engage in amorous acts. The rush of endorphins and the bonding that results from sex create a sense of pleasure, but humans also use sex to procreate and ensure the survival of the species.
Those who live in tropical areas around the world are at risk for malaria. In fact, malaria is a top cause of infant mortality in some countries. Numerous advances have been made to curb the instances of malaria, and medical devices have also been developed to detect malaria in underdeveloped countries. However, a new study at the Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests a far simpler solution. The researchers propose that a timely increase in vitamin A intake may decrease the chances of being infected.
Walking on a frozen road in the middle of winter requires intense concentration. One misstep and you can end up face down on the ground. Even though most of us have fallen at least once from slipping or otherwise losing our balance, we’ve had many more times when we recovered and stayed upright. How did we manage to maintain our position?
Millions of Americans sat in front of the television last Sunday, mesmerized by the skill and speed of football players in Super Bowl XLIX. The bone-crunching impacts both horrified and delighted the spectators.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) spark numerous debates regarding human safety and the efficient use of resources. Some advocate GMOs as a way through which humans can battle hunger and disease. The flood of cheap and beautiful genetically modified crops in supermarkets and the success of genetically modified mosquitoes in wiping out their disease-carrying counterparts seem to support this view. However, opponents of GMOs cite the potential dangers to human health if genetically modified foods are consumed and the possibility of mutations in genetically modified organisms. Recently a research team at Harvard has discovered a method of biocontainment, built-in mechanisms that prevent GMOs from surviving in unintended places.
The first lifeforms that appeared on earth were composed of single-celled organisms, and after millions of years, they evolved into multicellular entities. Cells cooperate to form organs, and systems of organs combine to form beings, from trees to whales. Though many aspects of organismal evolution are well-understood, scientists have struggled to discover the exact process by which single cells developed into multicellular organisms. Recently, a research team from New Zealand Institute and the Max Planck Institute have found a possible theory for the development of multicellular life.
Advances in science have enabled scientists to debunk a lot of household myths that persist over the centuries. Recently, another household myth has proven to be based in science. Zhou-Feng Chen, the director of the Study of Itch at Washington University in St. Louis, investigated the effect of scratching on itches and found that itches get worse if scratched.