Three researchers including Carey Business School Assistant Professor Mario Macis say economic incentives can motivate members of the public to increase their donations of much-needed blood, the economists write in the May 24, 2013, issue of Science.
Recent news from The Johns Hopkins University
This section contains regularly updated highlights of the news from around The Johns Hopkins University. Links to the complete news reports from the nine schools, the Applied Physics Laboratory and other centers and institutes are to the left, as are links to help news media contact the Johns Hopkins communications offices.
Researchers Explain Magnetic Field Misbehavior in Solar Flares: The Culprit is Turbulence
When a solar flare filled with charged particles erupts from the sun, its magnetic fields sometime break a widely accepted rule of physics. The flux-freezing theorem dictates that the magnetic lines of force should flow away in lock-step with the particles, whole and unbroken. Instead, the lines sometimes break apart and quickly reconnect in a way that has mystified astrophysicists. But in a paper published in the May 23 issue of the journal Nature, an interdisciplinary research team led by a Johns Hopkins mathematical physicist says it has found a key to the mystery.
New ‘Out of This World’ Space Stethoscope Valuable Here on Earth, Too
A team of students at the Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering has designed for NASA a new stethoscope that delivers accurate heart- and body-sounds to medics who are trying to assess astronauts’ health on long missions in noisy spacecraft.
Undergrads Adapt Video Game Unit to Help Save Kids Trapped In Overheated Cars
It’s a parent’s worst nightmare: a young child is accidentally left in a locked car on a warm and sunny day. The closed windows turn the car into a greenhouse, and the child dies of heatstroke. In a key first step toward preventing such tragedies, three undergraduate engineering students at Johns Hopkins have turned technology from a popular video game player into a detector for children left behind in dangerously overheated vehicles.
Mellon Foundation grants three awards totaling $2.5 million to Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University has been awarded three grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation—totaling $2.5 million—to create a new interdisciplinary program in music between the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Peabody Institute, to expand arts programming, and to support postdoctoral fellows in the humanities.
Diagnosis: ‘Irrationality in Health Care’
The debate over American health care didn’t end with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Now that the law is in place and its provisions are slowly becoming reality, the discussion has shifted to questions regarding whether the benefits are worth the costs, and whether we will actually be a healthier nation once every citizen has health insurance. Johns Hopkins University health economist Douglas E. Hough hopes his new book, which looks at the state of American health care through the lens of behavioral economics, will be helpful in framing this new wave of discourse in a more productive way.
Media Advisory: 36 Baltimore City School Teams to Compete in Robotics Contest at Johns Hopkins
More than 100 Baltimore City Public middle and high school students will compete in the Hopkins Robotics Cup, the first Baltimore City VEX Robotics Championship, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 4, in the Newton White Athletic Center on The Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus.
WEEKEND MEDIA ADVISORY: Robots That Dance—and Find ‘Tumors’
More than a dozen student teams from the Baltimore area will bring small autonomous robots to compete in various events during the competition, organized by Johns Hopkins graduate students from the university’s Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics. Contest events include slalom racing, mystery maze navigation, “tumor” detection, robot dancing and innovative use.
Johns Hopkins University and Waverly Elementary/Middle School to Host Health Fair
The Johns Hopkins University and Waverly Elementary/Middle School have partnered to teach young students about the benefits of healthy eating and regular exercise through a program called Food as Medicine. A special program event, the Safari of Health Fair, will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, April 26 at the school on 701 E. 34th St. Baltimore, MD 21218.
Johns Hopkins Team Deploys Hundreds of Tiny Untethered Surgical Tools in First Animal Biopsies
By using swarms of untethered grippers, each as small as a speck of dust, Johns Hopkins engineers and physicians say they have devised a new way to perform biopsies that could provide a more effective way to access narrow conduits in the body as well as find early signs of cancer or other diseases. In two recent peer-reviewed journal articles, the team reported successful animal testing of the tiny tools, which require no batteries, wires or tethers as they seize internal tissue samples.
Three Johns Hopkins Students Receive Prestigious Goldwater Scholarships
Three undergraduate researchers at The Johns Hopkins University are among the 271 students recently awarded Goldwater Scholarships for the 2013-2014 academic year. The one- and two-year funding the three Johns Hopkins students receive will help further their investigations in molecular dynamics, the biomedical science of disease, and developing a computational tool to help surgeons treat epilepsy.
Turning Algae into Clean Energy and Fish Food; Helping Africans to Irrigate Crops
Could algae that feast on wastewater produce clean bio-fuels and a healthful supply of fish food? Can impoverished African community gardeners learn to use and maintain a simple centuries-old, non-electric water pump to grow more vegetables? Two Johns Hopkins student teams are working hard to move these “green” ideas off the drawing board and into the real world. Both teams will showcase their progress at the 2013 National Sustainable Design Expo, scheduled April 18 and 19, in Washington, D.C. The event, which will be open to the public on the National Mall, is sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Carey Business School’s ‘Innovation for Humanity’ Course Wins Sustainability Award from Johns Hopkins
The Innovation for Humanity course of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School’s Global MBA program is being honored in the inaugural Green Blue Jay Awards presented by the Johns Hopkins University Office of Sustainability.
Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa to speak at Johns Hopkins’ Commencement Ceremony
Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, a renowned neuroscientist and neurosurgeon at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will be the featured speaker at the university’s Thursday, May 23, commencement ceremony. He will address graduates from all Johns Hopkins schools at the morning university-wide event at the Homewood campus at which their degrees are officially conferred.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Student Teams to Compete for Johns Hopkins Business Plan Prize Money on April 12
Johns Hopkins Business Plan Competition presentations and judging will take place from 1:30 to 5 p.m. on Friday, April 12. Twenty-four finalist teams will present their business plans to judges in three categories: medical technologies and life sciences, general business and social enterprise. Each team is composed of two to 10 undergraduates, graduate students or post-doctoral fellows who have devised a product or service they propose to sell. The finalist teams come from seven Johns Hopkins University divisions.
Johns Hopkins team uses Hubble in record-breaking search for farthest supernova
A team of astronomers at The Johns Hopkins University has used data gathered by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to spot a supernova that exploded more than 10 billion years ago, breaking the previous record by roughly 350 million years. Nicknamed in a nod to Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States and a Johns Hopkins alumnus, “SN Wilson” now stands as the farthest known supernova of the type used to measure cosmic distances.
Johns Hopkins University’s Annual Physics Fair is Saturday, April 13
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University is hosting its 10th annual Physics Fair from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, coinciding with the annual Spring Fair celebration on the Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. Events will take place in the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, located on the north end of the campus near Homewood Field.
Low-Cost ‘Cooling Cure’ Could Avert Brain Damage in Oxygen-Starved Babies
When babies are deprived of oxygen before birth, brain damage and disorders such as cerebral palsy can occur. Extended cooling can prevent brain injuries, but this treatment is not always available in developing nations where advanced medical care is scarce. To address this need, Johns Hopkins undergraduates have devised a low-tech $40 unit to provide protective cooling in the absence of modern hospital equipment that can cost $12,000.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Higgs boson news – Johns Hopkins expert available
The announcement that researchers are closer than ever to confirming the existence of the Standard Model Higgs boson particle was made possible in part by contributions from physicists at The Johns Hopkins University who are members of one of two teams conducting experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.
Cartoonist Gilbert Hernandez to speak at Johns Hopkins
Cartoonist and graphic novelist Gilbert Hernandez will present a slide talk on his work on Monday, April 15 at The Johns Hopkins University. Hernandez’ talk, “From Funnybooks to Graphic Novels,” will begin at5:30 p.m.in Room 101 of the F. Ross Jones Building,MattinCenter, on the Homewoodcampus at3400 N. Charles St.inBaltimore. A book-signing will follow.
For Love or Money – Sheridan Libraries Open Stephen Crane Exhibition
The Sheridan Libraries at The Johns Hopkins University announce the opening of For Love or Money: Art, Commerce & Stephen Crane at the George Peabody Library in Baltimore. The exhibition is drawn from the Wertheim-Frary Collection of Stephen Crane, which covers the writer’s entire career and much of his posthumous legacy.
Hands-on lab research in high school influences career plans for gifted minority students
Waiting until college to attract minority students to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields may be too late. But mentoring in the sciences at the high school level can help influence gifted minority students to pursue scientific careers, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins.
