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.
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.
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).
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.
On Tuesday, Sept. 5, Grossman School of Medicine of New York University (NYU) professor Damian Ekiert presented his research on the proteins that transport lipids across the cellular membranes of gram-negative bacteria.
As an eight-year-old in Shanghai who did not accurately communicate pick-up time with my parents, I once managed to walk two miles from school to home without getting lost in the city traffic. However, I could not summon up the courage to do so until I mentally mapped the route I would take with great precision. In doing so, I created a cognitive map where external landmarks provided me with spatial directions that guided me home.
This week’s news highlights work from researchers around the world whose focuses range from sleep deprivation to flexible robots. We invite you to take a moment to appreciate endeavors and advances in a variety of science fields made by experts around the globe.
Welcome back, Blue Jays! As the semester begins, The News-Letter’s Science and Technology section invites you to take a moment each week to learn about the exciting developments in STEM. Part of doing research is noting the research done by others, and we hope to provide you with a resource to do just that. In the news this week are the impacts of ancient climate change on early humans, a new species of deep-sea bacteria, the discovery of new exoplanets and a survey of whale mutation rates.
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.
