Laura Castañón - News @ Northeastern

What if birth control pills could be taken monthly, instead of every day?

Currently, oral contraceptives need to be taken at the same time every day to be effective. Ambika Bajpayee, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Northeastern, has created a birth control pill that needs to be taken just once per month.

by Laura Castañón December 4, 2019

Robotic arms, a device that disinfects your iPhone, and other mechanical engineering wonders

A battery-powered water purification system. A machine to improve the processing of cocoa pods in Nigeria. A device to disinfect your iPhone. These were just some of the mechanical engineering projects on display Tuesday at Northeastern.

by Laura Castañón December 3, 2019

The future of computing is a better, faster cloud

Engineers and computer scientists at Northeastern, Boston University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, are receiving up to $5 million from the National Science Foundation to create a testbed that will enable researchers to design the next generation of cloud computing.

by Laura Castañón December 2, 2019

Northeastern University bioengineering student is named Rhodes Scholar

Kritika Singh has been selected for a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue a doctorate in biomedical sciences at Oxford University. Singh, who studies bioengineering and chemistry at Northeastern, has dedicated herself to researching treatments and educating at-risk communities about diseases, such as malaria, that have cures but still kill hundreds of thousands of people each year.

by Laura Castañón and Emily Arntsen November 24, 2019

This T-shirt could make you invisible (to deep neural networks)

“Deep neural networks are very powerful, but also can be vulnerable to adversarial attacks,” says Northeastern assistant professor Shelley Lin. She and her colleagues have designed a T-shirt that prevents these artificial intelligence systems from being able to recognize that the wearer is a person.

by Laura Castañón November 13, 2019

She realized that her blindness was a strength

The research of Mona Minkara, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Northeastern, could help researchers understand how vaping affects our lung function, as well as lead to better treatments for diseases such as respiratory distress syndrome. And she’s hoping to pave the way for other blind scientists.

by Laura Castañón November 7, 2019

The Gulf of Maine cod fishery is in rough shape. The fishermen aren’t doing much better.

Between 2011 and 2015, the amount of cod that New England fishermen were allowed to catch dropped more than 95 percent. Researchers from Northeastern have been working with fishing communities to understand how they were affected, and to enable regulators to manage for people, not just fish.

by Laura Castañón October 28, 2019

A picture of water dripping into a glass

What you need to know about the ‘forever chemicals’ in your food, water, and air

Chemicals that have been linked to cancer, thyroid disease, and pregnancy complications, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, are in our household products, food, water, and air. We’re constantly taking them into our bodies, and these chemicals don’t just break down and go away, says Phil Brown, who directs Northeastern’s Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute.

by Laura Castañón October 23, 2019

Here’s what works–and what doesn't–when it comes to coping with climate change at the edge of the sea

Northeastern students explored attitudes and interactions surrounding the ocean in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Gulf of Maine this summer as part of a Dialogue of Civilizations program focusing on coastal sustainability.

by Laura Castañón October 10, 2019

How to breed a better oyster

A group of shellfish geneticists, including Katie Lotterhos, an assistant professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern, is using genetic testing to help the oyster industry selectively breed the traits that will make oysters thrive in their environment and melt in your mouth.

by Laura Castañón October 7, 2019

Posts by Laura Castañón