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 The nation's first research university, The
Johns Hopkins University opened in Baltimore in 1876. Founding president Daniel Coit
Gilman laid out his vision for this new type of institution in his inaugural address.
"What are we aiming at?" he asked. "The encouragement of research ...and
the advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance the sciences
they pursue, and the society where they dwell."
Today, his philosophy is widely accepted, but Gilman in his day was a pioneer in
suggesting that research and teaching should occur in the same institution, and that each
would strengthen the other. "The best teachers are usually those who are free,
competent and willing to make original researches in the library and the laboratory,"
Gilman said. "The best investigators are usually those who have also the
responsibilities of instruction, gaining thus the incitement of colleagues, the
encouragement of pupils, the observation of the public."
The realization of Gilman's philosophy at Hopkins, and at other institutions that later
attracted Hopkins-trained scholars, revolutionized higher education in America, leading to
the research university system as it exists today.
Today, Hopkins
remains a leader, in both teaching and research. The School of Medicine is one of the
best anywhere, and the School of Hygiene and Public Health is renowned for contributions
to health and preventive medicine worldwide. The other divisions, though smaller -- by
design -- than similar schools in other institutions, include eminent scholars and many
highly ranked departments.
From the introduction of surgical gloves to the identification of the genetic basis of
cancers, from laying the groundwork for the science of spectroscopy to the invention of
the all-plastic battery, Johns
Hopkins research has contributed to the betterment of the human condition for nearly a
century and a quarter.
Here is a sampling of
recent discoveries at Johns Hopkins:
Enlisting Sharks in the Cancer War
A chemical isolated from sharks' livers
can slow the formation of blood vessels that allow brain cancers and other tumors to
spread.
 Getting
a Leg Up on Batters
A pitcher need more than a good arm to retire Mark McGwire or Ken Griffey. Hopkins' chief
of sports medicine has calculated just how critical a good pair of legs is too. Plus
other health and medicine briefs from Johns Hopkins
Magazine.
No, We're Not Talking See-Through Steel
Metallic glass.
Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Well, you can't see through them, but metals that form as
glasses may prove useful in everything from electric transformers to golf clubs.
 Sleeping With Your Ears On
A Johns Hopkins undergraduate has located the area of the brain that processes sounds
while we're asleep; this may be part of the internal alarm system that rouses us when
a baby cries but lets us slumber peacefully through the rumble of a passing truck.
When Silence isn't Golden
Throat cancer or stroke can greatly weaken vocal cords, robbing patients of the ability to
speak. Johns Hopkins physicians have developed implants that
can reverse the condition.
Think Fast!
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have clocked the speed of
comprehension. They measured how long it takes a viewer to understand what objects he
or she sees in a picture.
 Surf's Up! Part One
A team of astronomers says there's enough water in an
interstellar cloud 1,500 light years away to fill the Earth's oceans at least a
million times. This discovery may not be of much help if you need to freeze a tray of ice
cubes or water your lawn, but it may help scientists understand how our own solar system
produced water.
Surf's Up! Part Two
Water, water everywhere... . Most human cells are about 70 percent water. Johns Hopkins
researchers who were actually looking for something else (as they say, chance favors the
prepared mind) stumbled on the mechanism
by which cells are able to shuttle all that water in and out. A report fromJohns Hopkins Medical News.
 Way Cool Graphics
A Johns Hopkins computer scientist has come up with a way to make even the most detailed
and complicated 3-D
computer graphics rotate more quickly on screen.
Feverish Research
Chemists are working on new compounds
that can entice the parasite that causes malaria into triggering its own destruction.
Another Myth Shattered
Contrary to the conventional wisdom of two centuries, physicists have discovered that intense auroras occur in Earth's
atmosphere more frequently when the sun is releasing less energy, not at the peak of solar
activity.
 Smarter
Dummies
Why settle for dumb dummies? Engineers at JHU's Applied Physics Lab are working on the next generation of crash test
dummies, mannequins that will be able to tell us far more about what happens to them
in a car crash. Plus other science and technology briefs from Johns Hopkins Magazine.
Maternal Risk
When it comes to increasing the risk of pre-term delivery by low-income
mothers, it's not leisure time exercise that's the problem. It's everyday physical
activity, like climbing long flights of stairs in a housing project or walking blocks to
the bus.
A Potentially Deadly Difference
HIV-infected women develop
AIDS as fast as men with twice as much virus in their bloodstreams. The discovery may mean
that women patients may have to start treatment much sooner than men.
Special Feature
 When Life Imitates Science
Sometimes, a scientist just can't remain totally objective about her research. Sometimes, a scientist who is also a mother
finds her work suddenly hits painfully close to home. A special Johns Hopkins Magazine report on the convergence of
Joan Richtsmeier's professional and personal lives.
Learn more about what Johns Hopkins
researchers are working on at
the following selected sites:
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