Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
April 20, 2024

Science & Technology

COURTESY OF ZACHARY BAHAR Nathan Pennington discussed the problems with the way differential equations are presented in courses.

Nathan Pennington highlights the limitation of exact answers in Ex Numera lecture

By ZACHARY BAHAR | October 18, 2023

Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Creighton University Nathan Pennington delivered a guest lecture to Ex Numera, the undergraduate mathematics club, on Oct. 9. It was their third speaker of the semester. The talk, titled “Why You Should Take Differential Equations,” discussed the issues with typical first-semester differential equations courses in comparison to what the topic looks like.

Stories of strokes: From martial arts to MEG

By MOLLY ZHAO | October 11, 2023

While taking the class Cognitive Neuroscience with Professor Mick Bonner in my freshman year, I heard my future PI Dr. Elisabeth Marsh present the five guiding principles she employs while working at the intersection of stroke research and clinical medicine. I joined the Marsh Lab soon after. While I was interested in learning more about stroke, I did not understand the true complexities of the disease until the fall of 2022, when my grandpa suffered from a stroke.

COMMUNITY EYE HEALTH / CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED In an Oct. 3 talk, Renee Brady discussed the efficacy of employing patient reported outcomes in cancer treatments.

Renee Brady on patient-specific models for cancer response prediction

By ANNIE HUANG | October 10, 2023

In the Institute for Computational Medicine (ICM) special seminar series on Oct 3., Assistant Professor at the Integrated Mathematical Oncology Department at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute Renee Brady shared insights on using minimally invasive biomarkers to predict treatment responses.

NIAID / CC BY 2.0 DEED A recently published hydrogel treatment promises to alleviate the “pill fatigue“ often experienced by patients living with HIV.

Nascent development in HIV therapy emerges at Hopkins

By RITWIK RAJ | October 9, 2023

In a groundbreaking development, a team of Hopkins researchers has unveiled an innovation in HIV therapy that promises to transform the lives of individuals with the virus. This research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, offers a novel method to maintain clinically sufficient drug levels through an injectable solution that autonomously forms into a hydrogel.

MIKE MACKENZIE / CC BY 2.0 Soatto’s Sept. 26 talk addressed public anxiety regarding large language models.

Stefano Soatto demystifies large language models as ChatGPT advances

By ANNIE HUANG | October 9, 2023

In the Sept. 26 Department of Computer Science (CS) Distinguished Lecture Series, Stefano Soatto, a CS professor from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Vice President of Applied Science for Amazon Web Services AI, spoke about the learning and controllability of large language models (LLMs) and computer vision.

SOLIS INVICTI / CC BY 2.0  This past week marked the awarding of the 2023 Nobel Prizes. Below is The News-Letter‘s brief introduction to the groundbreaking work in the fields of medicine, chemistry and physics.

Science news in review: Oct. 8

By ZACHARY BAHAR | October 9, 2023

For many of us, this past week was marked by late nights studying for midterms and catching up on work in Brody Learning Commons. Yet, for the global scientific community, it was marked by the announcements of the 2023 Nobel Prizes! 

RAWPIXEL.COM / CC0 1.0 DEED Doctoral candidates at Hopkins helped discovered a combination of microscopy methods that can facilitate understanding and early detection of treatment-resistant cells. 

Microscopy methods have potential to detect treatment-resistant cancer cells early

By JASON HAN | October 7, 2023

Jeong Hee Kim and Lintong Wu, two doctoral candidates in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, contributed to a study that examined an efficient screening method to detect therapy-induced senescent (TIS) cells that can increase the chance of therapy resistance and cancer relapse. This study, recently published in Science Advances, was in collaboration with researchers from the Polytechnic University of Milan and the National Research Council in Italy.

COURTESY OF ONPOINT VENTILATION  Back row from left to right: Charlie Almoney, Arijit Nukala and Bucky Bryner. Middle: Ria Jha, Alexandra Gorham, Krisha Thakur and Nina Nair. Front: Sneha Batheja. OnPoint Ventilation discusses their work and future goals in an interview with The News-Letter.

Hopkins design team enters 2023 Collegiate Inventors Competition

By DEVASHREE GUPTA | October 6, 2023

One-lung ventilation (OLV), a practice required for many chest procedures, involves the ventilation of one lung and the deflation of the other but has many risks. Amid the height of the pandemic, the OnPoint Ventilation team — initiated as part of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) Design Team program — embarked on a mission to invent a safer instrument for this critical procedure, resulting in the Bronchosleeve, which will be presented at this year's Collegiate Inventors Competition in Washington, D.C.

COURTESY OF ANNIE HUANG Duke Professor Roarke Horstmeyer discussed his recent work on multi-camera microscopy in a lecture delivered to the Hopkins community. 

Revolution in microscopy: Roarke Horstmeyer on multi-camera array microscopes

By ANNIE HUANG | October 4, 2023

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) hosted a seminar on Sept. 26 to showcase the research conducted by Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University Roarke Horstmeyer. The talk, titled "Computational 3D Video Microscopy with Multi-camera Arrays," explained the design and algorithm behind the state-of-the-art multi-camera array microscopes (MCAMs) and several use cases.

ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY  / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Toh shares his personal passion for molecular bioengineering research and reflects on his experience as an undergraduate researcher at Hopkins. 

Big truths from small molecules

By ENOCH TOH | October 2, 2023

As an undergraduate researcher, every experiment I undertake reaffirms my childhood belief: Understanding the intricacies of the microscopic can have a profound impact on the broader scope of human health. 

PINGNEWS.COM / PDM 1.0 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio returned to Earth after spending more than a year at the International Space Station due to unanticipated damage to his return capsule.  

Science News in Review: Oct. 1

By WILSON HUANG | October 1, 2023

The study found that Molnupiravir could be linked to the transmission of specific SARS-CoV-2 variants. This is thought to be possible if SARS-CoV-2 patients who underwent Molnupiravir treatment still had a residual viral load that was likely unable to cause severe symptoms but could cause future spread. 

COURTESY OF ANNIE HUANG Huang (top left) shares her experiences as a freshman participating in HopHacks, a 36-hour coding competition, alongside Tom Wang (bottom left), Jonathan He (top right) and Kevin Lie (bottom right).

Freshmen at HopHacks: 36 sleepless hours

By ANNIE HUANG | September 29, 2023

HopHacks is the big name that brings passionate engineering students from across Maryland together with the common fantasy of transforming innovative ideas into working prototypes within a mere 36 hours. 

RAWPIXEL.COM / CC0 1.0 Hopkins researchers’ conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide to useful chemical fuels may have important applications in electric vehicles and efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide can be transformed into a clean source of chemical energy

By JASON HAN | September 29, 2023

Contemporary scientists have been addressing the ever-pressing problem of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through carbon capture and storage, which captures, transports and stores CO2 produced by power plants and factories deep underground. A team led by Anthony Shoji Hall, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, recently took emissions reduction efforts one step further.

NIH IMAGE GALLERY / PUBLIC DOMAIN Ying’s many contributions to the field of nanotechnology were the subject of a seminar hosted by the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Jackie Ying describes the applications of nanostructured materials in energy and medicine

By WILSON HUANG | September 27, 2023

On Wednesday, Sept. 20, the director of NanoBio Lab and founding executive director of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore, part of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Jackie Ying discussed functionalizing nanomaterials for various applications, such as increasing energy storage in batteries, preventing antimicrobial resistance and delivering anti-cancer agents.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS / CC BY-NC 2.0 Among this week’s science news, the Curiosity Rover reached the Gediz Vallis Ridge, the suspected location of an ancient debris flow.

Science news in review: Sept. 26

By ARMAAN BAHL | September 26, 2023

Just as the seasons change, bringing rain with them, so too does scientific learning fall upon us. This week‘s scientific highlights include new insights into European Neanderthal populations, assumptions on one of Leonardo da Vinci‘s hypotheses proving false and a new phase for the Curiosity Rover.

PUBLIC DOMAIN PICTURES / CC0 1.0 The impact of COVID-19 on this year’s respiratory virus season is an ongoing topic of public interest and attention. 

The state of COVID-19 and influenza

By ARMAAN BAHL | September 20, 2023

Three years. Three years have passed since the emergence of the COVID-19 virus. Three years since “quarantine” and “mask-up” became a part of our daily vernacular. New coronavirus variants have been making headlines every day. A world of COVID-19 surges, masks and routine vaccinations is still settling as the new normal.

NIH IMAGE GALLERY / CC BY-NC 2.0 Hu shares her experiences as an undergraduate researcher in a lab studying neurotransmitter receptor function and synaptic transmission. 

Overcoming fears: Jennifer Hu discusses her research experience

By ZACHARY BAHAR | September 18, 2023

Sophomore Jennifer Hu expected that research would be part of her Hopkins experience, but that didn’t mean it came without surprises. Through the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships summer fellowship program, Hu began working with the Huganir Laboratory, which investigates neurotransmitter receptor function and synaptic transmission.

NASA HQ PHOTO / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 NASA announced the results of its UAP independent study team, depicted in a May 31 meeting, this week.

Science news in review: Sept. 17

By MOE FRUMKIN | September 17, 2023

Although we are only three weeks into the semester, science has continued to progress as usual. Read on for details about machine learning in medicine, using ecstasy (MDMA) to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), scientific fraud and NASA’s new approach to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). 

U.S. ARMY / CC0 1.0 A team of Hopkins researchers examined the neurosurgical application of a navigation system used in self-driving cars.

Brain surgery visualization with navigational technology found in self-driving cars

By JASON HAN | September 14, 2023

Prasad Vagdargi and his team from both the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Hopkins invented a real-time endoscopic guidance method for neurosurgeries that resembles navigational technologies in self-driving cars. Their findings were recently published in IEEE Transactions on Medical Robots and Bionics.

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