Science & Technology

The rate of babies born with syphilis is rising

By RACHEL HUANG | October 11, 2018

Syphilis was nearly wiped out in the United States under the leadership of Gail Bolan, the director of the Division for Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, in the last four years, syphilis has made a comeback and it has particularly been affecting newborns at high rates.

Wrap up: the latest in technology

By WILLIAM XIE | October 11, 2018

Amazon and Apple deny their information was compromised A Bloomberg Businessweek report claimed that Amazon, Apple and 30 other U.S. companies had their technologies compromised by Chinese espionage. The report declared that Chinese spies infiltrated multiple companies by installing microchips into their servers.

3D printed phantom head aids in MRI studies

By JERRY YAN | October 4, 2018

Safer testing options of magnetic resonance technology are now readily available with the successful development of a 3D phantom head by Sossena Wood, a postdoctoral candidate in Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. 

   torange.biz/ CC by 4.0  Blood cells can potentially carry treatment for TTP directly to where it will work best.

Trojan Horse method could treat a rare blood disorder

By JAEMIE BENNETT | October 4, 2018

Remember the tale of the Trojan Horse?  The Greeks gift Troy a large, wooden horse as a peace offering. Then, at night, soldiers spill out of the belly of the gift and open the doors to Troy, laying waste to the city and effectively ending a 10-year war. It may be ancient Greek mythology, but the medical field had something important to learn from it: Attach medicine to a vehicle that can take it directly where it needs to go, then unleash it to do what medicine should. It’s not the same as decimating an entire population, but it’s just as important when human lives can be saved.

Nanotherapy offers hope for renal cell carcinoma

By LAURA WADSTEN | October 4, 2018

Kidney cancer is among the 10 most common cancers in both men and women. In adults, renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer. The American Cancer Society predicts that there will be 65,340 new diagnoses and 14,970 deaths due to renal cell carcinoma in 2018. A novel treatment has been developed that may be able to reverse drug resistance in renal cell carcinoma, using nanotherapy in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs. 

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 PUBLIC DOMAIN Brain cell death is a predominant feature of Alzheimer’s patients.

Biomarker is discovered for study of Alzheimer’s

By CINDY JIANG | October 4, 2018

An estimated 5.4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. In comparison to more well-understood diseases like cancer and heart disease, Alzheimer’s is difficult because there aren’t any tools that easily diagnose it or any medications to effectively treat it.

New study reveals four major personality types

By ELAINE CHIAO | October 4, 2018

As early as Hippocrates’ time, people have pondered on the best way to classify personalities. In fact, Hippocrates came up with one of the oldest personality type systems in the world, where he defined four personality types based on a person’s “humor” or the proportion of bodily fluids in one’s body. The predominant form of fluid determines the person’s appearance, behavior and psychological type.

BERNARD DUPONT/ CC BY-SA 2.0 Scientists recently found evidence that octopuses and humans have genetically-similar serotonin receptors.

Octopuses and humans share serotonin receptors

By TRISHA PARAYIL | October 4, 2018

Scientists have found preliminary evidence that humans and octopuses have an evolutionary link that diverged over 500 million years ago. Serotonin receptors conserved in the brains of both octopuses and humans show that they both exhibit similar behaviors. 

How do we teach sex ed in America?

By MORGAN OME | October 4, 2018

In light of the #MeToo Movement and the allegations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh, many educators and students are looking at how youth are taught about consent and healthy sexual relationships in primary school. 

PUBLIC DOMAIN Many college counseling centers are not large enough to help all students.

One in three freshmen has mental health issues

By ISAAC CHEN | September 26, 2018

In a survey aimed to estimate the prevalence of mental health disorders among incoming first-year college students, 35 percent of the 13,984 respondents reported a history of one or more mental disorders. This study was conducted at 19 colleges across 8 different countries (Australia, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Spain and the United States) by the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) project.

Lunar swirls are remnants of moon's geological past

By JAEMIE BENNETT | September 26, 2018

Like a comforting presence, the moon is constantly circling above our heads and shining down on us when the sun sets, lighting up our night sky. But for an object that is always hovering near by, it has features that we are still unable to explain. Lunar swirls look like bright, beautiful clouds scattered across the moon’s surface, but why and how they got there was always a mystery. 

  Public Domain Lunar swirls may be a sign that the moon contains lava tubes that trapped an electric field.

How stress can impact us on a cellular level

By JESSICA KASAMOTO | September 27, 2018

Stress seems to be an integral part of everyday life, especially on college campuses. While some students may cope with ups and downs better than others, most people are familiar with the physical and psychological responses that come with the pressures of everyday life. 

Study finds barriers to expressing gratitude

By TRISHA PARAYIL | September 26, 2018

A study conducted by Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley at the University of Chicago (UChicago) found that people routinely undervalue the benefits of expressing gratitude. Their findings suggest that the disconnect between the expresser’s expectations and the recipient’s experience may prevent people from conveying gratitude, such as through sending letters that increase positive feelings for the recipient and expresser.

PUBLIC DOMAIN Research shows that expressing gratitude is important for social relationships.

The brain’s opioid system may lead to overeating

By RACHEL HUANG | September 26, 2018

Most people have had the experience of being full, yet still eyeing the plate of fries sitting at the end of the table. As friends and families continue to chat around the dinner table after a three-course meal, hands continue to subconsciously reach out, time after time, for more food. But what physiological process actually takes place when someone becomes excessively full from food?

A conversation with an avatar could detect dementia

By CINDY JIANG | September 27, 2018

Technology has come a long way, from using a telegraph to transmit morse code to high-speed computers and touchscreen phones that can do virtually anything. It has expanded to encompass a large part of daily life with a wide array of applications. Technology continues to branch out into various other disciplines and has already helped to make huge strides in improving the quality of health care. 

  Norwood charity/ CC BY-SA 3.0  Dementia, a debilitating disease, may be diagnosable by a computer.
PUBLIC DOMAIN Social media posts often contain abusive content that is overlooked by machine learning algorithms.

Quantifying hatred: pitfalls of social media AI

By CHRISTIAN SEREMETIS | September 26, 2018

No technological innovation since the telephone has influenced human communication like social media. Never before has it been easier to keep in touch with old friends from high school, remember your great uncle’s birthday or waste study time watching short videos. 

Hopkins issues 24 new BME recommendations

By JAEMIE BENNETT | September 27, 2018

Hopkins may be best known for its medical training, but it also has a more-than-sizeable dent in the biomedical engineering (BME) world. BME scientists at Hopkins research everything from electronic models of hearts tailored for a single patient to using molecular mechanisms in a cell to pinpoint a disease.