COS News

After 58 years, the world-renowned researcher continues to explore the secrets of the universe. His explorations are a mystery to most of us, conducted with a stream-of-consciousness array of mathematical symbols reinforced by terminology that sounds like English taken to the third power.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the nation’s public health infrastructure was underprepared, to say the least. Public health officials relied on fax machines to deliver test results, hand wrote people’s vaccination status on small pieces of cardboard and discovered that stockpiles of masks and gowns to protect health care workers were insufficient. “We really have […]

A new astronomical observatory nearing completion atop a desert mountain in northern Chile will reveal the workings of the universe as never before. It might even revolutionize our understanding of the mysterious forces shaping the cosmos, such as dark energy, says Northeastern assistant physics professor Jonathan Blazek. With a telescope as wide as a tennis […]

In a striking example of old meets new, Northeastern University researchers say network science promises to be a powerful tool in evaluating the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine herbal remedies used for more than 2,000 years. Traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, has proved a challenge for researchers seeking to pinpoint the specific mechanisms by which […]

For Christian Bernier, it started with videos he saw as a kid on popular YouTube channels like Minute Physics. Bernier has always been interested in science, so he found topics around the fundamentals and building blocks of the world to be particularly fascinating. He quickly developed an “insatiable desire to know more about the universe, […]

Sharks lose teeth all their lives, replacing them in a kind of endless rotating Rolodex, while humans, of course, get only our two sets. Beavers’ teeth, notoriously, grow all their lives and have to be worn down to prevent injury. New research has now placed another animal into the self-sharpening set, Schistocerca gregaria, the desert […]

NASA has awarded Northeastern and partners a prestigious grant to launch a particle detector into earth’s upper atmosphere. How can we better understand vital questions about the unseeable dark matter that seems to constitute much of the vast universe around us? And how can we capture the faintest yet most information-rich signals from distant astrophysical […]

Henry Noyes’ wiring work can be seen all over COBRA, Northeastern University’s award-winning serpentine robot designed to tumble down the deep craters on the moon. As the electrical lead of the Crater Observing Bio-inspired Rolling Articulator project, Noyes designed the machine’s power system, allowing each of its individual modules to function in harmony. Noyes, who […]

Albert-László Barabási was sitting in Central Café in Budapest, Hungary, when he got the call that he had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his work in network science. Network science’s recognition has felt like a long time coming, he says. In 2005, the National Research Council — “the operating and […]

Codi Gharagouzloo, a physicist and bioengineer, enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Northeastern University in 2011, dreaming of curing cancer. “I originally came in with this sort of magic bullet idea,” he says. “I thought nanoparticles were just going to be the cure to cancer.” In the mid-2000s, nanoparticles, a class of tiny materials that […]

It has been more than 40 years since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and scientists still don’t fully understand how HIV enters and replicates in human cells, which has hindered the development of treatments. New research by a team of physicists led by Northeastern University professor Mark Williams is working on a solution. There is no […]

A new method of measuring brain signals that can be used to diagnose eye conditions such as macular degeneration, glaucoma and optic neuritis. Nano-medications that target cancerous tumors to reduce negative side effects that come with chemotherapy. AR technologies that can let users try on different makeup brands virtually from home. These are a few […]