This month, on our facebook and twitter pages, we’ll be celebrating the birthdays of a video game designer, two of the first black chemistry doctorates, a rocket scientist, one of the most prolific inventors of the 19th century, and one of the finest mathematical minds of all time. Gamers everywhere owe a tip of the hat to electronic engineer Gerald “Jerry” Lawson (April 9). … Continue reading April birthdays: rockets, trains, and video games
Call it expressionism—a team including physicians from the Morehouse School of Medicine is hoping that their portraits of proteins will save lives. Cancer doesn’t want you to know it’s there. It wants to blend in with the crowd. It wants to look innocuous. And to a large extent, it does. Prior to forming a tell-tale … Continue reading The beautiful, morbid art of cancer detection
Environmental scientists from Delaware State University, Virginia State University, and Morgan State University have devised a survival plan for a tiny island nation threatened by global warming. That the nation doesn’t exist is beside the point. By 2075, the Lao Pao River—the main water supply and lifeblood of the South Pacific’s Ayese Islands—will be a shell of … Continue reading Climate change in a land of make believe
With superbugs—drug-resistant bacteria—poised to bring an end to the antibiotics revolution, researchers affiliated with the South Carolina-based HBCU Claflin University review the history and potential of a controversial, virus-based therapy that is getting a second look. Continue reading Take this cocktail of viruses and call me in the morning
It’s being called one of the largest academic meetings of minority physicists in the United States. And with more than 600 expected attendees, it’s hard to argue with the claim. This week, the 2015 Conference of the National Society of Black Physicists will convene at the Hilton in Baltimore. Coincidentally (or maybe not), that’s a short drive away … Continue reading Five reasons we’re excited about the 2015 National Society of Black Physicists Conference
On a summer night in Colorado, a Hampton University scientist and his collaborator glimpsed one of Mother Nature’s weirdest, rarest fireworks shows Continue reading The tiger elves that live in the sky
Once known as the smog capital of the world, Los Angeles is on its way to shedding that reputation. Beijing, take notice! If you grew up in or near a large US city in the 1980s and 90s, you might recall the frequent warnings—especially on hot days—of high ozone (O3) levels. Breathing ground-level ozone—a product of … Continue reading Is clean air worth the cost? A case study for developing megacities
Plain faces are more expressive than fancy ones, according to a new paper coauthored by a Howard University professor. Continue reading Why it’s written all over your (plain) face
In January, HBSciU began featuring prominent Black scientists and inventors–alive or deceased–on their birthdays. You can find the features on the day they appear in our Facebook and Twitter feeds. We celebrated the birthdays of Daniel Hale Williams and John McNeile Hunter. Born on 18 January 1856, Dr. Williams (shown in the feature image) was a pioneer … Continue reading Birthdays of prominent Black scientists and inventors
Before Ebola, there was malaria. In recent months, the deadly Ebola virus has ravished West Africa, claiming more than 8400 lives to date. The much more ubiquitous malaria parasite has claimed even more victims: In 2013, an estimated 584 000 people—many of them children in Africa under age 5—died from malaria-related symptoms. One key to … Continue reading A fast, sensitive, and accurate tool for malaria diagnosis
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