Experts are sounding the alarm about a growing epidemic of loneliness in the U.S. Despite a growing connectedness over social media, many people are dealing with social isolation. Learn about the Georgia State researchers who are working to identify solutions and create connections within their local communities. 

NASA astronaut Nick Hague will install patches to the agency’s NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray telescope on the International Space Station as part of a spacewalk scheduled for Jan. 16. Hague, along with astronaut Suni Williams, will also complete other tasks during the outing.

A team of University of Tennessee researchers, led by the College of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Qiang He, teamed with a group from Temple University to secure an NSF grant to perfect his research into turning wastewater into methane. This could eventually allow treatment plants to power themselves, lessening their environmental impact.

Chemistry students at the University of Cincinnati are exploring lab-grown crystals that do extraordinary things when exposed to light. They bend. They twist. They bounce. And sometimes they explode.

There’s a reason that electric vehicles (EV) in salvage yards are kept by themselves and spaced far apart. Their lithium-ion batteries can hold a lot of energy, and if one catches fire, it’s sometimes hard for firefighters to extinguish the blaze.

Avoiding digital censorship can sometimes feel like a game of whack-a-mole, with the same success rate, especially when the opponent runs one of the world’s most sophisticated surveillance networks, such as China’s so-called Great Firewall.  But what if out-maneuvering censors was played with a longer view and finer strategy, more like chess?

Tuberculosis remains a public health crisis. The World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report released in November 2024 painted a sobering picture; approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023, the highest number since the organization began global TB monitoring in 1995. A major challenge in tuberculosis treatment has been the long duration needed to effectively treat the disease.

Kobe University will establish a new “Department of Medical Device Engineering” in April 2025 for the development of medical devices through the fusion of medicine and engineering. The tentatively-titled new department will have a special focus on education, especially through integration with the medical device engineering major established in April last year in the Graduate School of Medicine. Building on the experience and knowledge gained from the joint development with industry of “Hinotori,” the first surgical robot produced in Japan, the department’s aim will be to cultivate human resources to lead the development of cutting-edge medical devices “made in Kobe” through collaboration among industry, government and academia. We interviewed MURAGAKI Yoshihiro, professor and director of the Center for Advanced Medical Engineering Research & Development, who himself is involved in the development of a number of medical devices, including the “SCOT: Smart Cyber Operating Theater,” a smart operating room, and who is playing a leading role in promoting the new department, about the objectives of the new department, its educational content and future goals.

Kobe University fosters academic exchange with universities in many countries and has more than 1,000 international students. To support currently enrolled international students in finding their first post-graduation employment, the university has established a system that focuses on career development from a global perspective. We interviewed IKEMURA Akiko, a project associate professor who supported international students’ job-hunting activities at the Career Center and who has been involved in the Global Career Development Program at the Graduate School of Agricultural Science since 2023, about past efforts and achievements as well as about current projects.