Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
May 4, 2024

Science & Technology



 COURTESY OF SARAH LEE
Kubanda members will be attending the Collegiate Inventors Competition in November.

BME team named Collegiate Inventors finalist

Hopkins is no stranger to the Collegiate Inventors Competition, a national competition that awards undergraduate students for cutting-edge and creative inventions. In the past three years, four different Hopkins student projects have placed in the competition.



 Karen Beate Nøsterud/CC-BY-2.5-DK
The average maximum human lifespan, according to researchers, is around 115 years.

Scientists calculate maximum human lifespan

Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have recently published evidence that suggests that the human lifespan may not be lengthened beyond the ages on record. The paper, titled “Evidence for a Limit to Human Lifespan,” was published in Nature and the researchers stated that the “upward arc for maximum lifespan has a ceiling — and we’ve already touched it.”


 Transisto/CC BY-SA 3.0
Transistors come in different sizes.

Researchers reduce transistor gate length

The semiconductor industry has long regarded five nanometers as the limit for transistor gate length. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) claim to have successfully shrunk the transistor gate to one nanometer.


 Ravzman/CC-BY-SA 2.0
2.5 million Note 7 phones were recalled due to reported explosions.

Samsung ends Galaxy Note 7 production

Samsung has officially ended its production of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone. The announcement occurred after multiple reports of the Note 7 phones exploding. After various inspections and investigations on the phone, the battery was the perceived reason for the phones catching fire.


Rollercoasters can help pass kidney stones

There may finally be an excuse to make amusement park trips a priority yearly. Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) discovered that riding certain types of roller coasters can help patients pass kidney stones with an approximated 70 percent success rate. They suggest trying to ride roller coasters once a year as maintenance to reduce the chance of developing any stones.



 NICHD/cc-by-2.0
Mitochondria (shown in red) are typically inherited from the mother.

Babies with three parents: mitochondrial donation

The term “mitochondrial donation” might be a foreign concept even to professionals who are at the forefront of the biological fields. It is a newly developed medical technique used to repair the genetically defective mitochondria in a mother’s egg before it can be fertilized with a father’s sperm in a lab setting.


DAY DONALDSON/CC-BY-2.0
The Zika virus is most commonly spread by the Aedes mosquito.

Zika case puzzles Utah doctors and researchers

Recently, the outbreak of the Zika virus has been a cause for global concern. It is widely understood that the virus can be spread through mosquitoes, blood, sexual contact and contact between a pregnant mother and her fetus. However, a case in Utah where the virus may have been spread through tears or sweat has puzzled many scientists.


 RELAXINGMUSIC/ CC BY-SA 2.0
ERP brain signals corresponding to affective psychopathology decreases during meditative exercise.

Mindfulness can reduce emotional reactivity

Mindfulness, a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s current internal and external experience, has increasingly gained traction as a psychotherapeutic tool in emotion regulation.


 JOHN KEITH/PUBLIC DOMAIN
Research and development for the seasonal flu shot is costly and labor intensive.

Is a universal flu vaccine within reach?

First, you see someone nearby turning their head towards their inner elbow to cough or sneeze. Then you see someone else sniffling while desperately looking for a tissue. Yes, it’s that time of year again when everyone gets sick: flu season.


 GENTLEMANROOK/ CC BY-SA 2.0
Particles in cosmetics and cleaning products can pollute oceans.

U.K. bans Microplastics to prevent pollution

The U.K. placed a ban on microplastics because of a recently published study in Scientific Reports. Scientists working in the mid-Atlantic and southwest Indian Oceans have found evidence that deep-sea animals such as hermit crabs, squat lobsters and sea cucumbers, eat the microbeads, which are typically found in cosmetics and cleaning products.


Alcohol intake follows antidepressant path

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found that ethanol followed the same biochemical pathway as rapidly effective antidepressants. Consequently, patients with major depressive disorder who ingested ethanol felt non-depressant effects that lasted at least 24 hours. This study supports the high comorbidity between alcoholism and depression and supports the notion of self-medication, although researchers emphasized that alcohol is not a treatment for depression.


 SVENSKA/CC-By-2.0
Influx of hormones during puberty may assist in facial recognition.

Puberty shown to influence facial recognition

Recent research conducted by Pennsylvania State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Suzy Scherf suggests that facial recognition transforms as adolescents transition into adulthood. That is, Scherf identifies puberty, not age, as refining one’s ability to recognize faces.


 ALESPA/CC-BY-SA-3.0
Traditional solar cells use silicon, a less efficient material than HOIPs.

Lab develops hybrid organic solar cells

New research, led by Xiaoyang Zhu, a professor of chemistry at Columbia University, reveals the potential of using a new kind of material, hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs), to manufacture solar cells. The results conclude that HOIPs can achieve much higher solar efficiencies than traditional solar cells, which are typically made out of silicon.


 CAROLINE DAVIS 2010/cc-by-2.0
One researcher has edited the genes in a human embryo using CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

Swedish researcher edits human embryo

Developmental biologist Fredrik Lanner of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm recently publicized his successful editing of human DNA in embryos. Despite previous attempts to edit genes in human embryos, Lanner is the first to yield viable human embryos after gene editing and announce it to the public.




 E. Schokraie/CC BY 2.5

Genes help water bears survive harsh conditions

If you consider Siberian tigers or saltwater crocodiles to be the toughest animals on the planet, think again. Tardigrades, also known as “water bears,” are microscopic aquatic animals with four pairs of legs that average half a millimeter in length.


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