COS News

Northeastern University breakthrough gives public health officials a step up in preparing careworkers to handle spikes in the disease.

Scientists sometimes compare predicting the course of epidemics to forecasting the weather. But there’s a major difference — the impact of human behavior —  says Alessandro Vespignani, director of Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute.  Consider what happens during a downpour, he says. “If we all open an umbrella, it will rain anyway.” “In epidemics, if we...

Northeastern University astrophysicist Jonathan C. Blazek knew to expect stunning views of galaxies when the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile released its first images of the night sky on June 23. And the sights were extraordinary. With a telescope as wide as a tennis court and the world’s largest digital camera, the observatory captured more than 10...

Researchers at Northeastern University have discovered how to change the electronic state of matter on demand, a breakthrough that could make electronics 1,000 times faster and more efficient. By switching from insulating to conducting and vice versa, the discovery creates the potential to replace silicon components in electronics with exponentially smaller and faster quantum materials. ...

To some, fake news may be a tweet, a Facebook post or a url on the dark web. To Northeastern University professor Albert-László Barabási and students in the Barabási lab, fake news is hundreds of small spheres bubbling up across the walls of a darkened room, in reds, oranges, then blues and pinks, while unintelligible whispers grow louder...

Bryan Spring, associate professor of physics, along with colleagues has identified two proteins abundant on drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells that become receptive to chemotherapy when treated with light.

The COSMOS2025, an ongoing survey that makes use of NASA’s ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope, was released recently with work from two Northeastern researchers.

Northeastern University hosted the inaugural NU Cross-College Magnetics Center Workshop last week.

Jonathan Blazek, assistant professor of physics and astrophysicist, is developing new ways to map and predict galaxies.

Anh Nguyen, Ph. D student, and Max Bi, associate professor of physics, have observed that when subjected to sufficient stress, tissues can “suddenly and dramatically rearrange themselves,” similar to how avalanches are formed in the wild.

Arun Bansil, professor of physics, and two other Northeastern researchers, worked with an international group of scientist to successfully created laboratory conditions that allowed them to observe axion quasiparticles for the first time, bringing researchers closer to understanding dark matter.

Two northeastern labs, Barabási Lab and Paolo Ciuccarelli’s team, are working on a huge art installation for the Venice Biennale Archittetura 2025.