Litmus

There’s so much we haven’t observed in our universe, but of what we have observed, we at least know what it’s made of. We have physicists to thank for that, and Northeastern University physicists were part of their field’s biggest discovery in almost fifty years. But with more questions still unanswered, they’re just getting started.

In the 1850s, John Snow mapped out the London cholera outbreak and discovered where the disease was coming from. Or so the story goes. Some of the details have been lost to history, but why does it matter all these years later? Because spreading medical myths might be as dangerous as spreading the disease itself.

Have back pain? Ever been stressed? Are you a human? You might be a better actor than you think—at least when it comes to training nurses.

In part one of this story, we explored the tech that teaches nurses how to handle the things you can’t ask someone to do, even for education’s sake—bleed, give birth, have a heart attack. For everything the tech can’t convey, like psychological breakdowns, there are patient actors.

You can’t become a nurse before you practice on patients, but you can’t practice on patients before you’re a nurse… right? Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences has a solution: robots. And these ones can bleed.

In this episode, we talk to Jamie Musler (director of interprofessional medical simulation and the Arnold S. Goldstein Simulation Labs) and nursing students Nathalie Garcia and Julia Thompson.

Imagine this: You’re running outside, electrodes on your head, a psychologist trailing behind you. Oh, wait—you can’t imagine that? Probably because it would never happen. But scientists do want to know what’s going on in the brain while you’re exercising outside. That’s why this lab is bringing the outdoors inside and video games to life.

In this episode, we talk to Rachel Hopman (postdoctoral research associate in the Center for Cognitive and Brain Health) and Ruiming Wang (graduate student of Game Science and Design).

One small mix-up could be the difference between receiving life-saving medicine and losing your arm. The solution? Simply, a piece of plastic. But more generally, ergonomics: the practice of designing the work to fit the worker.

In this episode, we talk to Karen Giuliano (associate professor of nursing and executive director of Healthcare Innovation & EntreprenNURSEship) and Jack Dennerlein (professor of Physical Therapy, Movement & Rehabilitation Sciences).

Ever heard of stone soup? There might be some truth to that old tale. Researchers at Northeastern have discovered a species of clam that can turn sandstone into food, but not without a little help from its friends that live inside it. The clam is cool, but its little sidekicks? They rock—they could fuel a sustainable future and the medicine that might help us live long enough to see it.

For centuries, women have been dismissed as emotional and, thus, unreliable. The “scientific” proof? Hormones. This stereotype even extends to female rats, which have been excluded from biomedical research because their hormones supposedly make the results “messy.” But a Northeastern professor has found that these dreaded chemicals could actually cure certain mental health disorders. Now that’s something to get emotional about.

In this episode, we talk to Rebecca Shansky (associate professor of psychology and director of The Shansky Lab).

Wireless devices aren’t perfect. They can’t always connect to servers, and they’re easy targets for hackers. If only there were a stronger, more reliable way to send private information. Well, the solution isn’t just at your fingertips—it’s in them.

In this episode, we talk to Kaushik Chowdhury (associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and faculty fellow of the College of Engineering) and Stella Banou (Doctoral candidate in electrical and computer engineering).

Scientists have discovered how to make a certain kind of worm live ten times as long as it should. But staying young is actually pretty stressful. Now Northeastern researchers are trying to understand why things get old, if they have to at all. Maybe one day humans could live longer, too, minus the stress.

In this episode, we talk to Javier Apfeld (assistant professor of biology) and Sean Johnsen (lab technician in The Apfeld Lab).