Research

Adults who lose their hearing later in life also are more likely to have a hard time concentrating on a book or remembering a simple conversation, Johns Hopkins research has found. The same brain functions that affect hearing also may cause problems with memory and other cognitive function, according to the study, published this month in JAMA Internal Medicine. It is the latest to support a link between hearing loss and decline of memory. The Hopkins researchers said that many people view hearing loss as an inconvenience of old age but that it may also contribute to more serious health problems.

Researchers at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, are out with a new study that they say indicates that crabs feel pain. Or at least the shore crab ( Carcinus maenas ) does. The experiment, designed by Barry Magee and Robert W. Elwood, introduced crabs to a new environment that included two shelters, one benign and one that gave out mild electric shocks. When the crabs were reintroduced to the environment, they pretty much did whatever they did the first time. But the third time they went in the tank, they tended to steer clear of the shock-giving shelter.

Every flu season, doctors instruct their patients in the basics of respiratory etiquette: To limit spread of the disease, wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough and practice good hygiene. The practices are based on the belief that the flu and other viruses pass from person to person through indirect or direct contact. Somebody coughs in another's face, or an infected person touches a doorknob that dozens of others then grab, and the disease spreads. But what if the flu isn't transmitted by direct or indirect contact?

On a steep hillside up the street from an auto repair shop, a group of McDaniel College students are piecing together long-forgotten lives. The students pull back brambles, trim branches and press flour into tombstones carved a century or more ago. They are trying to uncover the details of the lives of some of the early African-American residents of this small Frederick County town. "They were forgotten, but we're bringing their names back," said junior Emoff Amofa, 21, who is taking professor Rick Smith's January session class on tracing family histories.

Description: Johns Hopkins researchers may have narrowed in on nerve cells in mice that signal when something feels itchy, but not when it causes pain. Even if a stimulus that would normally be perceived as painful is introduced to the nerve cells, the brain interprets the stimulus as itchy, the research found. Researchers: Eleven authors from the Hopkins school of medicine: Xinzhong Dong, Liang Han, Qin Liu, Hao-Jui Weng, Zongxiang Tang, Yushin Kim, Kush Patel, Zhe Li, Benjamin McNeil, Shaoqiu He and Yun Guan.

Even as they celebrate clearing a legal hurdle, worries of stem cell research grant money evaporating constantly weigh on scientists like Dr. Ted Dawson, whose projects at Johns Hopkins Hospital have helped inform treatment of neurological diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. A three-year court battle by two researchers to stop stem cell research using human embryos ended Monday when the Supreme Court declined to review the case. Scientists like Dawson say that frees up grant opportunities and are relieved — for now. "It takes some of the uncertainty out," Dawson said.

Johns Hopkins scientists have found a way to screen for hard-to-detect endometrial and ovarian cancers in women using a routine Pap smear, a discovery they hope eventually could reduce the number of deaths caused by the deadly malignancies. The researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center hope the Pap smear, a procedure in which cells are scraped from the cervix and examined under a microscope, can catch the two cancers in early stages and allow for earlier treatment. The Pap test has dramatically improved detection of cervical cancer over the years, curbing deaths by 75 percent among those who are screened.

A professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park who specializes in fundamental questions of the structure and behavior of the universe has been named a recipient of the National Medal of Science. Sylvester James Gates Jr., 62, was among 12 researchers named by President Barack Obama on Dec. 21 to receive the award at a White House ceremony this year. The medal, created in 1959 and awarded each year, recognizes what the White House described as extraordinary knowledge and outstanding contributions in science and engineering.

Attorneys challenging a death sentence before the state's highest court last week dug deeply into online historical documents to divine the intention behind what they think is a never-before-interpreted part of the state's constitution. Public defender Brian Saccenti and a team of lawyers rested their argument in part on a once-famous 18th-century book by a young Italian nobleman named Cesare Beccaria, who suggested that capital punishment should be reserved for treasonous criminals.

Even as epidemiologists worry about a shrinking arsenal of antibiotics to fight potentially deadly drug-resistant bacteria, researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital are betting on another weapon to prevent infections: robots. It sounds more futuristic than it looks: The hospital uses "robot" devices resembling portable air-conditioning units to saturate the air in sealed rooms with hydrogen peroxide, disinfecting all surfaces before converting the potent mist into water vapor. The technology has been used at the hospital more than 4,000 times over the past five years, with promising results.