Findings
Turn that noise down
Unlike the other senses, hearing involves modulation by the
brain. Signals travel not only from the inner ear to the
brain
but from the brain to the ear. A team of American and
Argentine
researchers, including Paul Fuchs, professor of
otolaryngology at the School of Medicine, has found that
nerve signals from the brain act through a protein to "turn
down"
the sensory hair cells within the cochlea and thus protect
the
ear from acoustic trauma. Fuchs and his co-researchers
genetically altered the protein, nAChR, in mice to enhance
its
sound-limiting capability. They found that when subsequently
exposed to loud noise, the altered mice suffered less
permanent
hearing damage. This was the first time scientists had
demonstrated that nAChR's function could actually protect
hearing. The research appeared in the January 20 online
edition
of PLoS Biology.
Mucus, now new and improved
Johns Hopkins researchers have found a way to improve mucus.
Before you stop reading, understand that, throughout the
body,
mucus barriers bar entry to pathogens, allergens, and
pollutants.
But microscopic fibers in those barriers, called mucin
fibers,
naturally tend to bunch up, creating holes that harmful
ultrafine
particles can slip through. Principal investigator Justin
Hanes,
a researcher in the Whiting School's Institute for
NanoBioTechnology,
and his team found that application of a simple detergent
decreased the size of the holes, thus significantly
improving the
mucus barrier's ability to snag tiny harmful particles. The
findings appeared in the January 28 online edition of
PLoS
One.
— Dale Keiger
Vignette
As a freshman at Johns Hopkins in 1966, Neil A. Grauer, A&S
'69,
drew a comic strip for the
News-Letter
that
included a blue jay. He also sketched blue jays to adorn the
student newspaper's sports pages, and each week of lacrosse
season,
he would portray a jay trashing Hopkins' opponent —
say,
stirring a pot of Maryland terrapin soup. What he didn't
know at
the time was that lacrosse head coach Bob Scott was posting
the
drawings on the locker room's bulletin board to motivate his
players. Over the years, the Neil Grauer blue jay, often
known as
the "NAG Jay," became the de facto mascot for Hopkins
lacrosse. It
has appeared on caps, drinking cups, umbrellas, T-shirts,
polo
shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, windbreakers, banners,
posters,
seat cushions, and travel bags.
Grauer claims no ornithological accuracy. "I just drew a
bird," he
says. "I'm not sure I even looked at a picture of a blue
jay." In
1996, he began donating NAG Jay memorabilia to the Sheridan Libraries,
and
this spring the Milton S. Eisenhower Library has put part of
the
collection on exhibit. "Grauer's Blue Jay: A Hopkins
Tradition"
runs through May 25.
The cartoonist, now a senior writer for the Johns Hopkins
Medical
Office of Marketing and Communications, had one of his
proudest
moments when the players on the 2007 team elected to wear
helmets
decorated with his blue jay for their winning run through
the NCAA
national championship tournament. He also notes that his jay
adorns
the skin of more than a few former Hopkins players, who have
the
bird tattooed on various body parts. Some — Stephen
Peyser,
A&S '08, Peter Jacobs, A&S '95 — have gone public. But
Johns Hopkins Magazine chooses to withhold the names
of
other players implicated in the tattoo cult, on the chance
that
their parents still don't know. — DK