BRITTANY STEFF | Science Writer

The key to fighting viruses: Understanding their structure is vital to unlock a healthy future for humanity

There is no cure for the common cold. But there are cures — or at least vaccines — for other viruses, and researchers are working hard to build a toolbox to be able to rapidly develop vaccines for new and emerging viruses. Viruses are so small that tens of millions of them can fit on the head of a pin. Understanding, let alone fighting, something so infinitesimally small is a crowning challenge of modern medicine. The physical structure of its molecules dictates how a virus infects people and moves through their bodies as well as how to formulate effective vaccines and treatments.

Computing for contentment: Computer scientist uses AI to model fairness and maximize the benefits of donated food

A coin flip. A roll of the dice. A shake of the Magic 8 Ball. Humans have been outsourcing their decision-making to inanimate objects since long before recorded history. But when a Magic 8 Ball reports “outlook good,” it’s random chance. It lacks any information about the situation. Computer scientist Alex Psomas is designing artificial intelligence models to outsource decisions to make better, more informed and fairer choices, including how best to distribute food among food pantries.

Raising robots: Teaching robots things humans learn, including navigation, movement, dance, spatial reasoning

Being a baby is harder than it looks. Born into the world knowing almost nothing, they spend their first few years getting a PhD in navigating a physical environment. Likewise, artificial intelligence programs come into the world as a stream of code, knowing nothing, with no experience and no abilities. But while babies learn about physics from the moment they’re born, robots have to be programmed to understand innately human traits.

New twists on tornadoes: Earth scientist studies why U.S. has so many tornadoes

Across the Midwest during the warmer months, studying the sky for signs of storms and tornadoes becomes one of the most popular pastimes. Weather expert Dan Chavas takes it further: All day every day, he studies what makes tornadoes tick. Working at the intersection of climate science and meteorology, he looks at the big picture of what causes severe storms and tornadoes — and what dictates where they occur.

More than machines: Computer scientist prepares robots to improve human lives

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — There is no avoiding robots. With increasing autonomy, satellites span the skies, vacuums vroom underfoot and bots conduct surgery, deliver packages and explore the solar system. Robot expert Sooyeon Jeong works in artificial intelligence to ensure that those robots are more friendly helpers to humans and less inscrutable interlopers, more R2-D2 than HAL, more Baymax than Terminator. “My goal, and the goal of my research group, is to design robots and AI that can have socially and emotionally natural interactions with people,” Jeong said. “I want anything I make or design to have a measurable positive impact on people’s lives.”

Cloudy science, clear insights: Atmospheric scientist studies clouds’ causes and effects

Every cloud is lined, not with silver, but with science — at least from cloud expert Alexandria Johnson’s point of view. Clouds are ubiquitous. They are one of the most notable characteristics of planet Earth. Studying them is akin to studying the blood and arteries of the planet itself. Johnson, an atmospheric scientist and assistant professor in Purdue University’s College of Science, studies clouds wherever they are: in her lab, on Earth, throughout the solar system and into the galaxy.

Icy impacts: Planetary scientists use physics and images of impact craters to gauge the thickness of ice on Europa

Sometimes planetary physics is like being in a snowball fight. Most people, if handed an already-formed snowball, can use their experience and the feel of the ball to guess what kind of snow it is comprised of: packable and fluffy, or wet and icy. Using nearly the same principles, planetary scientists have been able to study the structure of Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon.

A walk in the woods is a boost for the brain

Modern urban life has its advantages and opportunities (e.g., access to education, jobs, health care, transportation, etc.). But with more than half the world’s population now living in urban centers, and with that number expected to rise to 70 percent by 2050, urban living exacts a price—negative health and cognition effects due to “pollution, artificial light, stress, and overstimulation,” according to a team of scientists, who set out to quantify these effects. What they found confirms an age-old intuitive assumption: that a walk in nature is a good way to clear one’s head.

Stellar forensics: Clearest ever look at Cassiopeia A sheds light into the heart of an exploding star

Images of stars released to the public, like the new image of Cassiopeia A revealed last month, fire the public’s imagination and kindle wonder in the breadth and beauty of the universe. But those images are more than just awe-inspiring art — they are treasure troves of priceless scientific information. By taking photos of the stellar remnant using a range of tools and filters on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers are getting their clearest look ever at Cassiopeia A. Astronomer and star expert Danny Milisavljevic (pronounced mili-sahv-la-vich), an associate professor of physics and astronomy in Purdue University’s College of Science, led an enormous international team of researchers on a JWST Year 1 project to study the supernova remnant.

Exposure to cigarette smoke increases cancer risk in dogs

Dogs are humans’ best friends. Need to quickly locate a bomb? There’s a dog for that. Can’t see very well? There’s a dog for that. Searching for a lost hiker in the mountains or survivors in an earthquake, diagnosing illness, comforting the bereft — there are dogs for every need. They are even helping humans track down the causes of cancer. A new study links cigarette smoke exposure to an exponentially higher rate of bladder cancer in Scottish terriers. By assessing individual dogs and studying their medical history, scientists are beginning to untangle the question of who gets cancer and why, and how best to detect, treat and prevent cancer.

Star of wonder: Dazzling new image of supernova Cassiopeia A released by First Lady Jill Biden and Purdue astronomer

Ten thousand years ago, a star exploded. Now scientists are getting their best look ever at the details of that explosion, Cassiopeia A. Space-age tools and methods are allowing them to glimpse never-seen-before details that may change forever the way scientists think about star death, star formation and the distribution of matter in the galaxy. And now, a new image of that dead star has a starring role in First Lady Jill Biden’s digital Advent calendar this year.

Signatures of the Space Age: Spacecraft metals left in the wake of humanity’s path to the stars

The Space Age is leaving fingerprints on one of the most remote parts of the planet — the stratosphere — which has potential implications for climate, the ozone layer and the continued habitability of Earth. Using tools hitched to the nose cone of their research planes and sampling more than 11 miles above the planet’s surface, researchers have discovered significant amounts of metals in aerosols in the atmosphere, likely from increasingly frequent launches and returns of spacecraft and satellites. That mass of metal is changing atmospheric chemistry in ways that may impact Earth’s atmosphere and ozone layer. Airplane

Bringing home asteroids: Purdue scientist will be among the first to examine asteroid pieces from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission

To study the planets, someone has to go there: Either a human or a bot launches into space to physically explore other worlds. Scientists who study extraterrestrial materials can’t usually bring their work home. That’s exactly what’s happening this month, though, as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx project brings home pieces of the asteroid Bennu.

Buzzing down the primrose path: Specialist bee species prefer abundant host plants

How do bees choose which flowers to visit? Some bees will visit almost any bloom, while others are more discerning. How, and whether, bees choose to specialize in one kind of flower or pollen is a question entomologists and ecologists have puzzled over for years. Now, a team of scientists is deciphering why some species of bees specialize in visiting one type of plant over others. They concluded that bees who specialize tend to focus on the most abundant species in an ecosystem – at least in the eastern United States.
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Spe·cies rich·ness  (noun)

  1. A technical term from the field of ecology. The number of different species present in an ecological community, landscape, or region.
  2. More philosophically, a lovely and poetic phrase that conveys the value and wonder inherent in the range of species on the planet and in all the amazing detail of the living world.
  3. A freelance science writer's call sign (see above).

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