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“The basic premise is that AI can help us do better physics, and something that is less expected is that physics can also help us understand AI better,” said Northeastern professor James Halverson.
AI and physics have more in common than you might think.
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Mark Williams, Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics, will assume the role of Dean of the College of Science, effective July 1, 2026.
Mark C. Williams named Dean of the College of Science
Flu season is coming and COVID-19 is still here. Can disease forecasts tell them apart?
Flu season can be difficult for regular people, and those like Alessandro Vespignani who try to predict it. Adding in COVID could make it a nightmare.
People in the U.S. started moving around more before stay-at-home measures were lifted
Even before the vast majority of states were loosening the measures intended to keep people physically distant and slow the spread of the coronavirus, people were starting to travel further and see each other more, according to research from Northeastern’s Network Science Institute.
The coronavirus was in the US in January. We need to understand how we missed it.
SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, was circulating in major U.S. cities as early as January, says Alessandro Vespignani, director of Northeastern’s Network Science Institute. And if we want to keep our communities safe going forward, we need to understand how we missed a virus that was right under our noses.
Network scientists identify 40 new drugs to test against COVID-19
Researchers at Northeastern mapped the way proteins within human cells behave after the cells are hijacked by the virus to identify drugs that might be able to fight it. The team is now working with other experimental researchers to begin testing those drugs.
‘Social distancing’ is only the first step toward stopping the COVID-19 pandemic
After days of closures and requests—or orders—to stay home, many people caught in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic are wondering if these efforts will be enough. Network scientist Alessandro Vespignani says the answer depends on the ways that local, regional, and federal governments use the time.
The coronavirus outbreak is an international public health emergency. Here’s what that means.
“Either the screening, detection, and isolation in China will be able to contain the epidemic there, or it will be a global issue,” says Alessandro Vespignani, Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern. “And this will be decided in the next couple of weeks.”
It’s not just your genes that are killing you. Everything else is, too.
Environmental factors drive the majority of our risk for non-communicable diseases, says Albert-László Barabási, Robert Gray Dodge Professor of Network Science at Northeastern. We need to be studying them.
Lasers reveal the hidden lives of biomolecules
All around and inside us, an elaborate dance of molecular vibrations is constantly taking place.
Packing A ‘Super’ Punch
Northeastern hosted a lecture on Sunday on the physics of superheroes’ powers ahead of the American Physical Society’s annual meeting in Boston. Over the years, superhero stories have delighted millions of fans through movies, television shows and comic books. But these tales can also teach us a lesson in physics, according to physics professor and...