Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
April 20, 2024

Science & Technology



Brain activity measured during real-life situations

We have always been baffled by the link between mind and brain. Even after dozens of years of research, people have not come to a general consensus on how the brain controls memories and thought. A team of researchers at Stanford University, however, recently made a breakthrough in this field in understanding how the brain acts in real-life situations.


Big Tobacco continues to have influence on market

When most think of the tobacco industry in this nation, they think of one that is in decline. While Big Tobacco held incredible amount of influence and controlled significant mindshare among the citizens of this nation, this no longer remains the case.



Researchers inch closer to a cure for allergies

I watched, mildly terrified, as my paramedic instructor stabbed an EpiPen into a sheet of cardboard. The shot of epinephrine, used to stave off the lethal effects of an anaphylaxis reaction, forcefully splattered against the wall a good ten feet away. Talk about intense.



Bioethics Corner: Google Glass raise privacy concerns

By now, most people will have heard that Google is developing a gadget known as Google Glass, an eyeglasses-like, wearable computer that features a heads up display. Glass is intended to be the next step in the evolution of the smartphone by making it wearable and unobtrusive. This allows the user to be more fully engaged with and through the device.


Particle accelerator designed to fit in a chip

We may not realize it, but we live in a world with particle accelerators all around us. While, the most commonly well known accelerator, The Large Hadron Collider, which recently went operational, is capable of moving protons and even entire atomic nuclei at speeds approaching relativity, we’ve been doing the same thing with electrons without many of us realizing it. From Dental X-Rays, to Security Scanning Devices and Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI), atomic particles moving at the speed of light are being harnessed for a variety of practical tasks all around us not including research in physics and many other sciences dependent on imaging technologies.



Lonely gas giant is found floating starless

If celestial bodies could embrace cultural titles, then the wandering planet named PSO-J318.5-22 would be the hipster of all hipsters. Recently discovered by a collaboration of astronomers working at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the planet — which I will endearingly bestow the nickname, PJ — is perhaps the boldest example yet of Tolkien’s “Not all those who wander are lost.”





Medicine Nobel winners show vesicle bubbles in cells key for cargo transport

On Oct. 7, the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof for their work on transportation mechanisms within the cell. Together, their research highlighted how vesicles, which are bubbles in the cell that contain molecules essential to the organism, transport their cargo. Previously, researchers had been puzzled by how vesicles know where to go and at what time. Thus, the discoveries of Rothman, Schekman and Südhof are a major step in understanding cell communication.



Bioethics Corner: Regulating the import of food

In an effort to promote the safety of imported food, the FDA proposed new regulations for importers this past July as part of implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) signed by President Obama in Jan. 2011. According to the FDA news release, the proposed regulations are a response to the modern global food system. The release also explains that imported food from 150 countries accounts for 15 percent of the United States food supply.  Foodborne diseases cause approximately 48 million (or one in six) Americans to get sick every year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).



Airlines may allow use of mobile devices during lift-off

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you kept your electronic device on during takeoff or landing? It’s a hassle to have to turn our electronic devices off, but pilots and flight attendants are adamant about reducing electronic device activity during take off. With our increased dependence and closeness to MP3 players, texting, web surfing, and a myriad of other functionalities in mobile devices, these airline policies are wearing passengers’ patience thin.


Hope is found even in flat-lined EEG

Most think of a coma as a state of limbo between life and death. The word “coma” conjures up an image of a seemingly lifeless patient, hooked up to a variety of monitoring devices. The most recognizable of these devices is the EEG. The EEG — or electroencephalogram — measures the brain activity of the patient.



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