Every student has been there at some point. Massive projects and exams are looming on the horizon, and one begins to feel the pressure for every moment of the day to be occupied with reading through the textbook and going through practice problems. It seems as if there is so much work to do, and it feels as if there is no room for downtime.
Very few of us have left this planet to travel to black holes or neighboring galaxies. However, there are certainly those of us that study such astronomical bodies and the universal laws that apply to them. Much research and teaching regarding such phenomenal aspects of our universe occur in the Department of Physics and Astronomy here at Hopkins.
How can we get computers to make decisions like humans? This is one of the foundational questions of neural networks and the rapidly-growing field of artificial intelligence. These research areas rely substantially on large data sets, and that is where the emergence of “big data” has taken place.
The chemistry of how plants absorb light on a sunny day is more complicated than you may have realized. Those chemical mechanisms were the topic of Alexander Ayzner’s talk titled “Scrambled Eggs and Ladders: Understanding Formation and Exciton Transport of Aqueous inter-Conjugated Polyelectrolyte Complexes,” for the Ephraim and Wilma Shaw Rosemen Colloquium Series at Hopkins.
Effectively communicating important and complex information to the public is not an easy task. However, students and visiting guests were able to learn firsthand from award-winning science journalist Erik Vance how they can use the craft of writing to disseminate scientific information all over the world.
When the rocket Antares launched earlier this month, there was an unlikely passenger onboard: melanin. It will circle the Earth for six months, exposed to the harsh attributes of space like ionizing radiation.
Alpha Phi Omega (APO), the University’s only co-ed community service fraternity, invited Assistant Professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health Vanya Jones to give a speech on youth violence on Nov. 14.
For those who have decided to take a gap year between their undergraduate education and medical school, the question of what to do during that year can be overwhelming. Beta Beta Beta (TriBeta), a collegiate honor society and academic fraternity for students of the biological sciences, hosted a Research & Medicine Gap-Year Student Panel earlier this month. Four Hopkins alum, who are currently on their gap years, shared their experiences on the panel.
Although most people in the United States perceive mosquitoes as no more than an annoyance, mosquitoes are, in fact, the world’s deadliest animal. About seven million people are infected by mosquitoes each year, resulting in over one million deaths.
When she is not giving lectures in Epigenetics, Associate Professor of Biology Xin Chen can be found in her laboratory making strides to solve the many mysteries that still exist in the field of epigenetics.
It is certainly not the easiest of tasks to understand humans; however those who dare to venture into such realms should consider the field of anthropology as a way to actualize their pursuits in understanding the qualitative decisions and interactions of individuals in societies.
Associate Professor Yulia Frumer always looks beneath the surface. Although her primary field of specialization is the history of science and technology in Japan, Frumer’s focus is always on the hunt for puzzles and surprises that lie beneath “first glances” at cultural differences.
Hopkins Medicine has long been known as a pioneer in its field. One of its remarkable aspects is its efforts to involve women in the medical field since its establishment.
Smisha Agarwal, an assistant professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, gave a talk titled “Digital Technologies: Shaping the Future of Primary Health care” on Nov. 8. The talk was part of the biweekly seminar series by the Hopkins Division of Health Sciences Informatics.
On Nov. 9, Support Her Election, Hopkins Democrats and the Center for Social Concern hosted a policy symposium featuring a panel on climate change. Moderator Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, member at large of the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club, was joined by panelists Rosa Hance, vice chair of the Maryland Sierra Club’s executive committee, and Allison Vogt, deputy state director of The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
Food waste has maintained visibility as an issue across the U.S., with over 35 million tons generated per year, and up to 40 percent of food being discarded. Indirectly, food waste also results in the wasting of resources used to generate and transport food, not to mention unnecessary costs to families who buy food that will never be eaten. It indicates a lack of efficiency in a country where almost one in nine households is still food insecure.
The Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT) brings together the leaders from the diverse fields of medicine, engineering and nanoscience to devise ways to further our society’s knowledge and tools to solve the challenges we face in health care. On Nov. 7 at the INBT Fifth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, Hopkins undergraduate students presented posters on the research they conducted. Alanna Farrell, who is part of the INBT Undergraduate Leaders — the student group who helped organize the event — explained that the symposium is one of the ways that the INBT attempts to create a sense of community among student researchers.
Ciara Sivels, a nuclear engineer at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Hopkins, was recently chosen to be one of 125 National IF/THEN Ambassadors for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
With the second round of midterms coming into full swing, I think it’s productive that we stop and do some reflecting on our academic lives. No negative energy here — I know this is Hopkins and this may be difficult for us — but no staunch criticisms, no trash talking our snakey classmates, no self-loathing, no jokes (jokes?) about dropping out of school and joining the circus becoming a traveling ukulele player — just personal reflection.
