Science & Technology

A conversation with an avatar could detect dementia

By CINDY JIANG
September 27, 2018

Technology has come a long way, from using a telegraph to transmit morse code to high-speed computers and touchscreen phones that can do virtually anything. It has expanded to encompass a large part of daily life with a wide array of applications. Technology ...

  Norwood charity/ CC BY-SA 3.0  Dementia, a debilitating disease, may be diagnosable by a computer.
PUBLIC DOMAIN Social media posts often contain abusive content that is overlooked by machine learning algorithms.

Quantifying hatred: pitfalls of social media AI

By CHRISTIAN SEREMETIS | September 26, 2018

No technological innovation since the telephone has influenced human communication like social media. Never before has it been easier to keep in touch with old friends from high school, remember your great uncle’s birthday or waste study time watching short videos. 

Hopkins issues 24 new BME recommendations

By JAEMIE BENNETT | September 27, 2018

Hopkins may be best known for its medical training, but it also has a more-than-sizeable dent in the biomedical engineering (BME) world. BME scientists at Hopkins research everything from electronic models of hearts tailored for a single patient to using molecular mechanisms in a cell to pinpoint a disease.

CRISPR treats Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

By JAEMIE BENNETT | September 19, 2018

Since the first successful use of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) as a gene editing tool in 2013, CRISPR has become a large topic of conversation both in science and at the dinner table. Recently, CRISPR has been used to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most common fatal genetic disease, in dogs. If it proves successful in humans, it could potentially cure DMD.

PUBLIC DOMAIN   CRISPR is an extremely powerful gene editing system that was originally found in bacteria.

Scientists explore ways to harness sustainable energy

By JESSICA KASAMOTO | September 20, 2018

With global warming such a hot button topic in today’s day and age, it is unsurprising that scientists have been continually searching for new renewable sources of energy that don’t harm our planet. While hydroelectric and solar energy are now common energy sources, scientists have seemingly combined the two practices in new studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) in Germany: Researchers at the university have split water molecules using solar energy. This could be a promising renewable energy source for future generations. 

COURTESY OF RYAN DEMO  Over 300 students from across the U.S. came to HopHacks on Homewood Campus this past weekend to try and develop a model or app in 36 hours.

HopHacks hosts its biannual event at Homewood

By ISAAC CHEN | September 20, 2018

More than 300 undergraduate and graduate students from across the country came together to participate in the biannual HopHacks event this past weekend on the Homewood Campus. HopHacks is organized Major League Hacking (MLH). It gives teams a limited 36 hours to develop an innovative model or app.

Birds are losing homes due to deforestation

By CINDY JIANG | September 19, 2018

The cloud forests of Honduras are a sight to behold, as they are characterized by a low-level cloud cover at the canopy level. Also known as a montane rainforest, this region has heavy rainfall and constant condensation in the air, a result of the cooling of moisture-laden air currents deflected upward by the mountains. Moisture is abundant from water vapor, and due to elevation and climate conditions, the ecosystem is fed directly by clouds.

John Leszczynski/ CC BY-SA 2.0 Deforestation in cloud forests is causing birds to migrate to higher altitudes.

How a military operation led to a cure for malaria

By ALLISON CHEN | September 20, 2018

In the jungles of Vietnam in the 1960s, at the same time as they were fighting one another, American and North Vietnamese forces were both battling drug-resistant malaria. The disease was living up to its storied history of being an absolute pain for military commanders, undeterred by therapies that had lost effectiveness due to widespread and often haphazard use. 

Gates Foundation donates $20.5M gift to Bloomberg

By JAE CHOI | September 20, 2018

On Sept. 10, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $20.5 million gift to the Bloomberg School of Public Health to fund reproductive health services for urban adolescent populations. The grant will specifically go toward funding The Challenge Initiative (TCI), an international program focused on providing sexual and reproductive resources for impoverished urban populations worldwide. 

Jack at Wikipedia/ CC BY-SA 2.0 The Gates Foundation recently donated to the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
  Public Domain Once believed uninhabitable, planets covered in water could support life.

Waterworld planets have the potential to host life

By ALYSSA WOODEN | September 12, 2018

For years, astronomers have been exploring the question of whether life exists on planets other than Earth. Advances in technology have allowed for more extensive research into exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. Water worlds (also known as deep ocean planets) are a specific type of exoplanet that are completely covered by ocean, which can be hundreds of miles deep.

  Courtesy of Emily Burnette 3,000 applicants from over 250 school gather to participant in the annual MedHacks event.

MedHacks hosts annual hackathon “Snow Day”

By ELAINE CHIAO | September 13, 2018

MedHacks, an entirely student-run medical hackathon, kicked off its fourth annual event called “Snow Day” from Sept. 7 to 9 at the School of Medicine. This year the event attracted a total of 3,000 applicants who represented over 250 schools and 100 different majors.

PUBLIC DOMAIN   Blood glutamine levels might reveal patients who are more susceptible to therapy resistance.

Hormone therapy may not effectively treat prostate cancer

By RACHEL HUANG | September 13, 2018

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed non-skin-related cancer in men and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in American men. With the largest risk factor being age, all men have the risk of developing prostate cancer during their lifetime. 

  Public Domain The moving Target Defense system can protect consumers from hackers.

New cyber technology develops moving target defense

By CHRISTIAN SEREMETIS | September 12, 2018

It seems that every day a new online privacy breach or cyber attack is underway. From Facebook’s scandal with Cambridge Analytica and the proliferation of fake news to the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, today’s news demonstrates the destructive power that modern hackers possess. 

Our search for life on Mars

By JAEMIE BENNETT | September 12, 2018

Those funny-looking, little green Martians have captivated human imagination since their first appearance in print in 1877. And maybe the intelligent version of Mars-based life doesn’t exist, but we’ve recently come closer to finding their long-lost cousins, microbes.

PUBLIC DOMAIN   An electrophphoretic neural implant used in mice can control epilepsy.

Novel neural implant controls epilepsy in rodents

By ISAAC CHEN | September 12, 2018

Collaborating researchers from the University of Cambridge in the U.K., the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Paris, and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) recently engineered an electrophoretic drug delivery method to treat neurological disorders via a neural probe implant in rodents.