Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
November 9, 2025 November 9, 2025 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

Science & Technology

FLAVIO SERAFINI / CC BY-NC 2.0 Chung reflects on the iterative but reflective nature of research through which she learns important skills and obtains cherished moments in her research lab. 

Finding my place in the vast world of research

By CLAIRE CHUNG | March 11, 2024

When I was younger, I had always imagined a research lab as the kind of fancy modern room that we see in sci-fi movies — full of scientists in pristine white coats operating sleek machines and furiously pipetting into empty beakers (without any aseptic technique). Thus, my perception of a research lab was completely renewed when, as a freshman last winter, I joined Dr. Peter Searson’s lab at the Institute for NanoBioTechnology.

ANDREW REDING / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Gynandromorphism, a phenotypic trait where an animal has both male and female characteristics, is found in birds such as ducks, chickens and a green honeycreeper that was recently spotted in Colombia. 

Science news in review: March 10

By VICKY ZHU | March 10, 2024

As we approach the final stretch before spring break, let’s look beyond our class content and appreciate how scientists around the world have applied textbook knowledge to generate meaningful research findings. This week’s science news focuses on fascinating biodiversity in nature, humans’ impact on the environment and the potential to restore past lives on Earth. 

LARA JAMESON / PEXELS LICENSE Michael Goldfarb shared his experiences developing prosthetic limbs during a recent lecture.

Revolutionizing prosthetics: Balancing power and passivity

By SHREYA TIWARI | March 8, 2024

On Thursday, Feb. 29, The Johns Hopkins Department of Mechanical Engineering hosted Michael Goldfarb, the H. Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director at the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics at Vanderbilt University. The talk shed light on novel perspectives regarding powered lower limb prostheses. 

MICROBE WORLD / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 This week, a team at Rockefeller University published a study surveying Mtb's intentionally disrupted RNA sequencing.

Science News in Review: March 3

By VICKY ZHU and ZACHARY BAHAR | March 5, 2024

As the semester reaches its halfway mark and midterms ramp up before spring break, take a break to learn about this week’s breaking science news. This week includes (intentional) breaks in tuberculosis RNA, (unintentional) breakdowns on the moon, gene editing and particle masses.

WORLD WILDLIFE / CC0 1.0  Amy Balanoff discusses her research into the development of avian flight with The News-Letter.

New insights into the evolution of flight

By RITWIK RAJ | February 28, 2024

Researchers at Hopkins have made significant progress in unraveling the mystery of flight evolution. The findings, published in The Proceedings of The Royal Society, shed light on the evolutionary adaptations that enabled dinosaurs and birds to take to the skies.

NASA/ESA/STScI / PUBLIC DOMAIN This week, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered a shocking stellar display in the ancient universe.

Science news in review: Feb. 25

By JOSSELYN ROBLETO | February 28, 2024

With February rapidly drawing to a close, let’s dive into last week’s science and technology headlines: Microplastics are complicating efforts to define a new epoch in Earth’s history, poor metabolisms may be the cause of intestinal knotting, machines are reading minds to learn more about the mystery of the brain, and astronomers have discovered a billion-year-old black hole eruption that may have led to an unusual formation of stars.

MICHAEL HIMBEAULT / CC BY 2.0 Jessica Sorrell highlighted the different reasons why machine learning algorithms might be difficult to replicate.

Addressing the replication crisis in computer science

By SHIRLENE JOHN | February 21, 2024

The Department of Computer Science hosted Jessica Sorrell, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, for its seminar series on Feb. 15. In her talk, titled “Replicability in Machine Learning,” Sorrell examined a new approach to formalize a definition of replicability for machine learning algorithms.

CHAVAL BRASIL / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Miao shares her discovery of the parallels between two of her interests, research and skiing. 

Hypothesis testing in lab and on the slopes

By JUSTINA MIAO | February 20, 2024

As I stood at the top of a ski slope in a terrain park, I looked down upon the 20-foot jump that my friends and I wanted to hit. One critical question arose in my head: How fast should we hit the jump? 

ESO/M. KORNMESSER / CC BY 4.0 Cosmologist Joseph Silk explores the role of supermassive black holes in the early universe in a recent paper.

New paper demonstrates link between black holes and early star formation

By ZACHARY BAHAR | February 19, 2024

Supermassive black holes have long fascinated physicists and astronomers. Almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole located at its center, and with solar masses ranging from 100,000 to billions or even hundreds of billions, these structures bind galaxies. As gas falls onto its accretion disks, it heats up and releases powerful waves of electromagnetic energy. How do these cosmic maelstroms emerge? What could enable their formation?

ALEXAS_FOTOS / CC0 1.0 A new study reveals smoking’s long-lasting effects on immune system function and genetic activity even after individuals have quit smoking. 

Science news in review: Feb. 18

By SONYA ZHANG | February 18, 2024

As the midterm season begins to pick up, we recommend taking a breather and reading about this week’s biggest headliners in science and technology: Smoking causes even more harm than previously anticipated, SpaceX is launching a spacecraft to reach the moon, scientists discovered a reason behind long-lasting allergies and newly engineered beef-rice may help address food insecurity.

THISISENGINEERING / PUBLIC DOMAIN The Leading Change in Medicine series discussed the power of open-source software technology.

WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg discusses innovation at Hopkins lecture series

By SHREYA TIWARI | February 18, 2024

Matt Mullenweg participated in a discussion discussion led by Professor of Radiology and Radiological Science Elliot Fishman on Tuesday, Feb. 13 as part of the Leading Change: Perspective from Outside of Medicine Conversation series. Mullenweg is the founder of WordPress, and he shared insights from his journey with open-source technology, his leadership style and his vision for a more inclusive and innovative future.

NATIONAL HUMAN GENOME RESEARCH INSTITUTE / PDM 1.0 New bioinformatics software allows researchers to investigate vertebrate genomes in an efficient, organizable and accessible way. 

Insights across species: Mapping the genomes of vertebrates

By SHREYA TIWARI | February 18, 2024

Michael Schatz, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of the Department of Computer Science, collaborated with the Pennsylvania State University, Rockefeller University and various other institutions to increase the efficiency of whole genome assembly. They developed a pipeline, a software that automates critical processes for genome assembly. It is now publicly available on Galaxy, a hub for publicly storing large datasets and software for data analysis. 

JAMIE MCGARRY / CC0 1.0  Dr. Christopher Sogge, the current editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Mathematics, shared his experience working for the oldest journal published at the Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Most historical academic journal in mathematics started and continues at Hopkins

By VICKY ZHU | February 7, 2024

The Johns Hopkins University Press, established in 1878, is the oldest university press in the United States. It publishes academic journals and books, both online and in print, and advocates for the accessible distribution of various mediums of knowledge. The American Journal of Mathematics, the most historical mathematics journal in the Western Hemisphere, was founded and started publishing in the same year as the establishment of the press.

JEFF PANG / CC BY 2.0  By harnessing cloud computing methods, Berke has turned existing data sets into new results.

Seth Berke transforms genomics research through cloud computing

By ZACHARY BAHAR | February 6, 2024

Recent graduate Seth Berke didn’t expect to leave Hopkins interested in pursuing a research career but, after using cloud computing methods to analyze genomic data, that’s exactly what’s happened. Berke works with biostatistician Ingo Ruczinski where he develops more efficient methods of employing and gaining insight from preexisting data sets.

COURTESY OF SAIKAT DAN Dan discusses his research into computational mechanics in an interview with The News-Letter.

The “realness” of computer simulation: A conversation with Saikat Dan

By ANNIE HUANG | February 4, 2024

Saikat Dan is a research fellow affiliated with the Computational Mechanics Research Laboratory (CMRL) and is advised by Somnath Ghosh in the Civil Engineering Department. As a PhD student this past fall, he taught a HEART course titled Computer Simulations: How Real are They? in which he gave a high-level overview of the field as well as applications of his research.

Courtesy of Robert Johnston The Johnston Lab employed organoids to establish a relationship between red/green cone development and retinoic acid.

Hopkins lab uncovers mechanism behind cone cell development

By ZACHARY BAHAR | February 4, 2024

A recent paper published by a joint team of researchers from Hopkins and the University of Washington, Seattle used retinal cell organoids to establish that the human red and green cone cell development is regulated by retinoic acid. The paper, titled Retinoic acid signaling regulates spatiotemporal specification of human green and red cones, was published in PLOS Biology on Jan. 11, 2024.

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