Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
April 25, 2024

Science & Technology




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Birds that have adapted to living in the city are more successful in attracting mates.

City-dwelling birds are smarter than rural birds, study finds

Animals adapt to survive. When we think of this concept, we can imagine animals facing challenges in the wild: foraging for food, searching for shelter or competing for a mate. Recent studies show that animals living in our cities also need to adapt in order to survive in the urban jungle. Some of their unique adaptations allow them to survive just as well as, if not better than, their counterparts in the wild.



Marijuana use disorder increases nationwide

With the legalization of marijuana for adult use in four United States states and the District of Columbia since 2012, it seems that there has been a shift in the general attitude towards marijuana use in America.


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Revenue from the Telsa Model S, which costs $89,000, was used to fund development of Tesla’s Model 3.

Thousands pre-order cheaper Tesla model

On Aug. 2, 2006, Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, released a blog called, “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me),” in which he explained the premise behind Tesla.


New rocket employs reusable technology

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is in the process of launching his newest project: low-cost spaceflight. Bezos has built his rocket company Blue Origin around finding a better and cheaper method of space travel. In doing so, Bezos planned to develop a new technology to move past chemical rockets, primarily focusing on reusable parts and fuel.


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New, portable machines can produce a variety of drugs at a lower cost.

Drug manufacturing may become portable

Although the drug manufacturing process has improved over time, there are still substantial problems that plague the industry. Large scale productions of drugs center on a few plants, which can cause severe disruptions when one of them is shut down. Furthermore, a significant shortage exists for many drugs due to limitations in current production processes. To address these shortcomings, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a portable, configurable manufacturing system.


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Astrocytes sometimes surround the endothelial cells of the capillaries in the brain.

Drug repurposed to activate endothelial cells

Researchers at Cornell University have discovered a way to penetrate the blood brain barrier (BBB). This novel finding may soon allow direct drug delivery to the brain for disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and chemotherapy-resistant cancers.


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Synthetic gold can be created in the lab, but natural gold was created by the deaths of stars.

Gold creation requires cataclysmic event

While many might believe it’s the shiny surface that sets gold apart from the other earth metals, the uniqueness of this metal can actually be traced all the way back to its creation. Most elements such as carbon and iron are created within a star through slow natural processes. Gold, on the other hand, as well as other heavy metals, requires a much more extravagant, cataclysmic event.



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Microsoft wanted people to interact with Tay using social media.

Microsoft creates human-like chatbot

In a world that can now create anything, from artificial intelligence (AI) that can beat Chess and Go Masters to robots that can paint beautiful works of art, there are still a few things that hold these programs back from being realistically considered “human.” One of those things is the ability to display human thought and emotion.


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Humans are currently releasing carbon at an unprecedented rate.

Model points to fast release of carbon

As Earth’s climate continues to change, some scientists wonder whether these fluctuations are anthropogenic, or human-induced, ramifications of increased carbon release, or whether they are simply part of Earth’s natural carbon cycle. Since the earliest instrumental records of our planet’s climate, measured by thermometers and other rudimentary tools, begin only in the 1850s, it may seem impossible to look far enough into the past to lay this controversy to rest.


Researchers discover most luminous galaxies

Astronomers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) announced that they have observed the most luminous galaxies that were ever seen in our universe. In fact, the galaxies are so bright that they cannot be described by previous descriptors like “ultra” and “hyper-luminous.” According to the researchers, those terms are inadequate, as they have previously been used to describe the luminosity of galaxies that are not nearly as bright as the ones the researchers just observed.


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62 percent of Americans do not eat a healthy diet and 90 percent have an unhealthy body fat percentage.

Three percent of Americans live healthy lifestyles

If you currently consider yourself healthy, you may need to rethink this conclusion. Statistically, according to a recent study conducted at the Mayo Clinic, only three percent of Americans live a healthy lifestyle. Perhaps this statistic is not surprising given that the average American male body weight falls just below the cutoff for obesity and more than half of the food consumed in America is “ultra processed.”



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People born in the winter have a higher risk of neurological disorders.

Does your birth month affect your health?

Hippocrates, who lived in ancient Greece, first described a connection between seasonality and disease almost 2,500 years ago, and the study of the seasonality of birth and its relationship to health and disease has been the focus of many research projects in recent years.



B cell-based vaccine effectively targets HIV

Since the start of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in the late 20th century, nearly 78 million people have been infected and 39 million people have died of HIV, according to the World Health Organization.



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