Science fiction sometimes shows us the future, but really just shows us ourselves, asserts Associate Professor of Humanities and sci-fi aficionado Nancy Steffen-Fluhr. She was teaching the 2014 novel Station Eleven, about a troupe of actors and musicians struggling for normalcy after a global pandemic kills most of the world's population, in spring 2020 right as COVID-19 formed in Asia, reached America and found its way to Newark. "First time I ever taught it. I didn't know we were having a pandemic," joked Steffen-Fluhr, who teaches science fiction as a 400-level humanities senior seminar…

A fossil recently recovered from the age of the dinosaurs is giving scientists the most vivid picture yet of how one of the most enigmatic and fearsome groups of ants to exist once used their uncanny tusk-like mandibles and diverse horns to successfully hunt down victims for nearly 20 million years, before vanishing from the planet... In findings published Aug. 6 in the journal Current Biology, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Rennes in France have unveiled a…

A team of researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed an algorithm through machine learning that helps predict sites of DNA methylation – a process that can change the activity of DNA without changing its overall structure – and could identify disease-causing mechanisms that would otherwise be missed by conventional screening methods. The paper was published online by the journal Nature Machine Intelligence. DNA methylation is involved in many key cellular processes and is an important component in gene…

In a study published in Nature Astronomy, an international team of researchers has presented a new, detailed look inside the “central engine” of a large solar flare accompanied by a powerful eruption first captured on Sept. 10, 2017 by the Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) — a solar radio telescope facility operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR).  The new findings, based on EOVSA’s observations of the event at microwave wavelengths, offer the first measurements characterizing the magnetic…

Last summer 35 11th-graders from four Newark high schools — Central, Malcolm X Shabazz, Science Park and Technology — participated in a seven-week enrichment program as part of the inaugural Math Success Initiative (MSI), an academic partnership between NJIT, the city of Newark and the Newark Board of Education (NBOE). During the past school year, 23 of the 35 completed either Math 110 or Math 111 as a student at the university. And come this fall, 17 of the 23 will be full-time Highlanders; another two will begin attending NJIT in spring 2021.  Beyond representing the first cohort of…

In this unprecedented era of the COVID-19 pandemic and many other disruptive occurrences, the landscapes of society, industry and academics have been and will continue to be reshaped. Resilience and sustainability have become more imperative than ever before, and leveraging innovative technology to embrace the new normal is a strategic necessity. Biotech, for example, has changed the practice of medicine dramatically over the years, with millions of patients worldwide benefiting from the discovery, development and delivery of innovative medicines that treat grievous illnesses, such as COVID-…

By: Rosanna Dent, Assistant Professor of History Every year, with the dry season, come the researchers. They arrive with audio recorders, microscopes and glucose meters. They bring backpacks filled with GPS recorders, cameras and field notebooks. They ask endless streams of questions about how to live in the Cerrado of Central Brazil. The Xavante community members who receive and host us are long accustomed to these visits. My scholarship on the history of research in Xavante territory asks: What would it be like to be studied again and again? Why would a community consent to host…

More than 20 employers have been recognized by NJIT’s Career Development Services (CDS) as the university’s top recruitment partners, based on their 2019 hiring numbers. The honors mark the seventh consecutive year that CDS has paid tribute to employers for their engagement with and recruitment and hiring of students. “Each of the employers on this list has offered exciting and rewarding career opportunities to many NJIT students this year, and we truly could not achieve our mission without them,” noted Patrick Young, associate director of employer relations. “During this time of uncertainty…

Despite being such a tiny earth dweller, the roundworm species Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) has become one of the biggest workhorses in the lab for biological researchers. Due in part to the organism’s transparent skin and compact size — just about the size of a comma at 1 mm in length — it’s the only animal to have successfully had a complete mapping of its connectome, or its neural circuitry comprised of 302 neurons and their 7,000 synaptic connections.  Boasting this comprehensive neural map has made the modest worm a popular model for exploring fundamental principles that…

The New Jersey Chemistry Olympics (NJCO) has become an NJIT springtime tradition — for more than three decades, scores of young chemists prepare throughout the year for the competition, culminating on campus in a one-day test of wits among high school teams from across the state. Of course, this year's event saw a slight break in that tradition, but the 2020 class of nearly 100 ambitious Olympians wouldn't be denied from carrying forward the competition's torch and chasing gold-medal glory at the first-ever Virtual NJCO.  This year's Olympics, held online from June 1-11, recently…