https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from New Jersey Institute of Technology Colon cancer is one of the most common cancers in the U.S., with more than 100,000 cases diagnosed each year. But some people develop a highly aggressive form of colon cancer that is extremely rare, making up 0.02% to 0.1% of all colon cancers. Known as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the colon, it originates in squamous cells, a type of epithelial cell. Epithelial cells line internal and external body tissues, but squamous cells are not normally found in the colon or rectum. Symptoms of colorectal SCC resemble those of other colon cancers but do not appear until later stages of the disease, making it harder to treat. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-student-rare-colon-cancer.html Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:10:02 EDT news693158701 Every eleven years, the sun's magnetic field flips. Sunspots—dark, cooler regions on the sun's surface that mark intense magnetic activity and often trigger solar eruptions—appear at mid-latitudes and migrate toward the star's equator in a butterfly-shape pattern before fading as the cycle resets. While this spectacle on the star's surface has long been visible to astronomers, where this powerful cycle begins inside the star has remained hidden until now. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-physicists-sun-magnetic-kilometers-surface.html Astronomy Tue, 17 Mar 2026 16:00:09 EDT news692976901 For the first time, scientists have observed how tiny metal "thorns" called dendrites sprout inside lithium-ion batteries, which can cause the batteries to short-circuit. Their findings, published in the journal Science, shed light on previously unknown mechanical properties of lithium dendrites as they grow. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-microscopic-metal-thorns-lithium-ion.html Engineering Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:00:08 EDT news692545861 Why did the rotisserie chicken cross the aisle—and end up in your shopping cart? Maybe you grabbed the container that was closest to you, or maybe you examined all of the chickens, checking dates and timestamps to see when they were cooked. Markets follow various display strategies for prepared foods, with many stores making older items more visible so they'll be sold before they spoil. However, a theoretical model created by an NJIT researcher suggests that customers prefer finding the freshest items at the front of the displays. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-supermarkets-fresh-meals-front.html Economics & Business Sun, 08 Feb 2026 09:40:01 EST news689765594 Solar physicists say they have found a key source of intense gamma rays unleashed when Earth's nearest star produces its most violent eruptions. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-solar-physicists-hidden-source-gamma.html Astronomy Wed, 07 Jan 2026 16:49:17 EST news687026942 As this month's string of powerful X-class solar flares sparked brilliant auroras that lit up skies across an unusually wide swath of the globe—from northern Europe to Florida—researchers at NJIT's Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) captured a less visible, but crucial, record of the storm's impact on Earth's upper atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-scientists-track-solar-flare-disruptions.html Space Exploration Sat, 22 Nov 2025 06:00:02 EST news683013168 Nearly half of adolescents and young adults with lingering symptoms of concussion suffer from eye coordination disorders that cause double and blurred vision, headaches and difficulties concentrating. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-vision-therapy-reverses-concussion-blurred.html Ophthalmology Thu, 02 Oct 2025 14:26:06 EDT news678633962 Think twice about eliminating those pesky ants at your next family picnic. Their behavior may hold the key to reinventing how engineering materials, traffic control and multi-agent robots are made and utilized, thanks to research conducted by recent graduate Matthew Loges and Assistant Professor Tomer Weiss from NJIT's Ying Wu College of Computing. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-ant-swarm-simulation-possibilities-materials.html Engineering Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:38:03 EDT news677169482 Billions upon billions of soot particles enter Earth's atmosphere each second, totaling about 5.8 million metric tons a year—posing a climate-warming impact previously estimated at almost one-third that of carbon dioxide. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-soot-climate-properties-hours-atmosphere.html Earth Sciences Wed, 03 Sep 2025 13:25:04 EDT news676124701 Researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have used artificial intelligence to tackle a critical problem facing the future of energy storage: finding affordable, sustainable alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-ai-tools-alternatives-lithium-ion.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 01 Aug 2025 15:50:05 EDT news673281624 Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths to which some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar—a taste for ants and termites. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-mammals-evolved-ant-eaters-dinosaur.html Evolution Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:27:09 EDT news671898422 Wherever there's dirt there's bound to be ants, but one particular group is so adept at blending in with the ground that they hold the name "dirt ant" (Basiceros) all to themselves. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-caribbean-dirt-ant-million-year.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:26:05 EDT news664021562 Potentially deadly mathematical errors are prevalent among mobile applications used in clinical and emergency room settings, but a team of researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology's Ying Wu College of Computing has found mathematically provable solutions that may save lives. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-critical-medical-mobile-apps.html Health Mon, 25 Nov 2024 10:50:01 EST news651753784 On a scale of one to ten, how much pain do you feel? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-technology-pain.html Neuroscience Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:03:37 EDT news641145814 While many serious cases of COVID-19 are marked by respiratory distress and dangerously low blood oxygen levels—a condition referred to as hypoxia—the occurrence of "silent or happy hypoxia" affecting a subset of patients has puzzled experts since the pandemic's onset. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-happy-hypoxia-covid-patients.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:17:03 EDT news637928221 Vaccines remain the gold standard of protection against dangerous pathogens, but take considerable time and vast resources to develop. Rapidly mutating viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 can blunt their effectiveness and even render them obsolete. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-muffle-invading-pathogens-molecular-mask.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 24 Apr 2024 10:59:03 EDT news633175141 Application data requirements vs. available network bandwidth have been the ongoing Battle of the Information Age, but now it appears that a truce is within reach, based on new research from NJIT Associate Professor Jacob Chakareski. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-04-neural-networks-download-size-quality.html Internet Mon, 22 Apr 2024 16:07:03 EDT news633020821 Practice makes perfect, and a new system is being tested and perfected that enables surgical trainees to obtain cutting-edge instruction in real-time, all through a new artificial intelligence program. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-ai-powered-surgical-real-feedback.html Surgery Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:40:04 EST news628177202 Machines still can't think, but now they can validate your feelings, based on new research from New Jersey Institute of Technology Assistant Professor Jorge Fresneda. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-experts-brain-skin-current-emotions.html Economics & Business Fri, 23 Feb 2024 14:10:05 EST news627919801 PFAS have earned the name "forever chemicals" with good reason—the man-made compounds, which can take thousands of years to degrade and are found in everything from grease-resistant food packaging to water-repellent clothing, have made their way into nearly half the U.S. tap water supply. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-unveil-method-chemicals-minutes.html Biochemistry Thu, 08 Feb 2024 16:02:06 EST news626630521 New findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience have shed light on a mysterious pathway between the reward center of the brain that is key to how we form habits, known as the basal ganglia, and another anatomically distinct region where nearly three-quarters of the brain's neurons reside and assist in motor learning, known as the cerebellum. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-brain-pathway-linking-addiction-disease.html Neuroscience Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:53:03 EST news625398781 In a study published in Nature Astronomy, astronomers from New Jersey Institute of Technology's Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (NJIT-CSTR) have detailed radio observations of an extraordinary aurora-like display occurring 40,000 km above a relatively dark and cold patch on the sun, known as a sunspot. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-scientists-uncover-aurora-like-radio-emission.html Astronomy Mon, 13 Nov 2023 16:49:04 EST news619116542 Increased computational power has dramatically improved climate modeling over the past several years, allowing scientists to better forecast long term climate evolution. Despite the computers becoming faster and more efficient, cloud modeling was still a hazy prospect until a recent algorithmic improvement. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-advance-climate-higher-fidelity.html Earth Sciences Tue, 20 Jun 2023 15:04:03 EDT news606492241 Nearly 5,000 kilometers above the sun's surface lies a century-old question for solar physicists—how are temperatures in the star's upper atmosphere (corona) hundreds of times hotter than temperatures at the sun's visible surface? https://phys.org/news/2023-06-sun-coldest-region-secret-million-degree.html Astronomy Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:44:31 EDT news605976260 A solar radio burst with a signal pattern, akin to that of a heartbeat, has been pinpointed in the Sun's atmosphere, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-mysterious-source-heartbeat-like-radio-solar.html Astronomy Wed, 22 Feb 2023 04:16:22 EST news596261776 A forest's resilience, or ability to absorb environmental disturbances, has long been thought to be a boost for its odds of survival against the looming threat of climate change. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-forest-resilience-linked-higher-mortality.html Plants & Animals Mon, 05 Dec 2022 16:08:40 EST news589478916 Their nomadic lifestyle and ravenous raiding have taken army ants (Dorylinae) to most continents on Earth, but a rare fossil discovery is now offering first evidence that the infamous predators once swarmed a land they are strikingly absent from today—Europe. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-oldest-army-ant-reveals-iconic.html Plants & Animals Tue, 22 Nov 2022 19:00:01 EST news588345243 New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) researchers have unveiled a new lab technique they say represents a "paradigm shift" in how pharmaceutical laboratories test and produce new protein-based drugs, such as therapeutic monoclonal antibodies being developed to treat a variety of diseases, from cancers to infectious diseases. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-method-protein-based-drugs.html Biochemistry Tue, 27 Sep 2022 16:50:26 EDT news583516223 Researchers from Santa Clara University, New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Hong Kong have been able to successfully teach microrobots how to swim via deep reinforcement learning, marking a substantial leap in the progression of microswimming capability. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-08-smart-microrobots-artificial-intelligence.html Engineering Fri, 05 Aug 2022 07:48:08 EDT news578904474 Solar flares are among the most violent explosions in our solar system, but despite their immense energy—equivalent to a hundred billion atomic bombs detonating at once—physicists still haven't been able to answer exactly how these sudden eruptions on the sun are able to launch particles to Earth, nearly 93 million miles away, in under an hour. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-unveil-particle-region-solar-flare.html Astronomy Wed, 08 Jun 2022 12:40:43 EDT news573910840