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!
A team of Hopkins researchers identified the role of Histone H3 in regulating cell plasticity in worm embryos. Their results were recently published in Sciences Advances.
Hopkins researchers published a new study in Health Affairs, where they analyzed the charity care missions of U.S. nonprofit hospitals. They discovered a negative association with trustee compensation.
The Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) hosted Hatice Gunes, a professor in the University of Cambridge’s department of Computer Science and Technology, on April 12. Her seminar was titled “Emotional Intelligence for Human-Embodied AI Interaction” and covered Gunes’ work at the intersection of psychology, computer science and robotics.
Former U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, the longest-serving senator in Maryland history and a faculty affiliate at the SNF Agora Institute, visited Homewood Campus on April 12 for a discussion with the Hopkins community following a screening of the mini-documentary Women’s Health Advocacy: Saving Lives A Million at a Time. The film was directed by Marnie Hertzler, a local documentarian, and Emma Hannaway, her producing partner.
Three science writers discussed their careers at the Science Writing Roundtable, sponsored by the program in Medicine, Science, and the Humanities (MSH), in Mergenthaler Hall on April 11.
With only two weeks left this semester, let us pause for a moment amid the flurry of exams and projects to explore the fascinating scientific breakthroughs from the past week. Recent advances provide further insights into areas of cancer biology, geoscience, zoology, physics and astronomy.
April showers bring May flowers! The science news for the week includes a new cancer therapy and a study on growing heart organoids.
Brain Awareness Week (BAW) seeks to highlight recent developments in neuroscience and increase the Hopkins community’s awareness of neuroscience and behavioral biology. This year’s program, which ran from April 3–7, is focused on “Emotions and Personality” and was organized by the University’s Undergraduate Society for Neuroscience, Nu Rho Psi.
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have been revolutionizing many fields of science including medicine. However, this technology raises the issue of acquiring data. AI needs annotated data to learn and ultimately perform at a high enough level of accuracy, but in many cases such as complex and novel surgical scenarios, high-quality data is not easily accessible.
Over a year has passed since I started searching for students preparing to apply for medical school for Project MD 2027. It’s hard to believe that, when reconnecting with three of these students in the past month, all had already received their acceptances to medical school. While a year is still an awfully long time to wait, as a writer, it has felt like time flew by.
“Reproductive Rights in the Age of Dobbs,” an event hosted by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights and co-sponsored by Public Health Students for Reproductive Justice, featured three guest speakers on March 28 to share their insights on the ongoing discussion about the status quo of reproductive justice since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision on June 24, 2022.
NASA, in collaboration with Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), recently launched one of their $15 million Space Technology Research Institutes (STRI) to investigate the qualification and certification of additively manufactured products for use in extreme environments, such as those undergone in spacecraft.
As the semester rushes toward its finale, we hope you take a moment to learn about several of this week's major scientific breakthroughs. Among these are the development of hypoxia-inducing batteries, a new understanding of deep-sea circulation and the discovery of ultrasonic plant emissions released under stress.
Utilizing 3D cultures of human brain cells, Hopkins researchers found promising evidence that the future of biocomputing has the potential to be faster, more powerful and dramatically more energy-efficient than silicon-based computing and artificial intelligence. They have coined the term of this new concept as organoid intelligence. The team’s article, published in the journal Frontiers in Science, outlines their plans and goals for organoid intelligence.
Daniel Kish, the president of World Access for the Blind, visited the Homewood campus to deliver a lecture on human echolocation on March 9. Kish was born sighted but completely lost his eyesight before the age of two due to retinoblastoma and has no visual memories.
Hang on, Blue Jays, it’s almost spring break! Between your photoshoots under the cherry blossoms or your last-minute vacation preparations, check out the latest updates in the science world.
In recent decades, there has been increased attention to the growing prevalence of clinician burnout in the U.S. A 2012 national study of burnout among U.S. physicians found that rates of physician burnout are alarmingly high.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a nationwide shortage of Adderall, a medication for attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in October 2022. Even now, the shortage persists, and the scarcity has even begun to affect the availability of alternatives to Adderall.
