Latest news with #UMassChanMedicalSchool
22-05-2025
- Science
Nanotech contact lenses give humans 'super vision,' even in total darkness with eyes shut: Study
Humans can now see in the dark -- and even with their eyes closed -- using nanotechnology contact lenses that turn invisible infrared light into visible images, according to a new study published in the journal Cell. After first testing in mice, scientists from China and the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School created contact lenses for humans infused with specialized "nanoparticles," thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand, that let people see in the dark and in foggy conditions. These nanoparticles are scattered throughout the soft lens material, where they absorb infrared light and convert it into images the human eye normally can't see. Gang Han, the study's lead author and a Ph.D.-level nanoparticle researcher at UMass Chan Medical School, told ABC News the lenses enhance how someone sees color. "When wearing them, you still see everything normally," Hans said. "The lenses simply add the ability to see infrared images on top of what we already normally see." Wearing the lenses, participants were able to recognize coded flashes of infrared light — similar to Morse code — identify basic shapes and patterns, and even distinguish colors in the infrared range, effectively adding a new dimension to human vision, Han explained. They could even perceive the images with their eyes closed, thanks to the ability of infrared light to pass through eyelids, he said. Humans can naturally see only visible light, a small slice of the full light spectrum that includes invisible wavelengths like ultraviolet and infrared. Night vision goggles can detect infrared light, but they're bulky, often need a power source, and usually show images in green or black and white, Han said. "What's special about our contact lenses is that they let you see infrared light in color — like red, green and blue — so you can tell different things apart more easily," Han emphasized. So far, the lenses have only been tested on a small group of individuals in China, all with normal vision. Han said the researchers now need to test them in a more diverse population, including people with different vision capabilities. "While we haven't specifically studied these lenses for people with vision impairments or eye diseases, this is an important area we hope to explore in the future," he said, adding that there needs to be further assessment to test their safety and spot any long-term effects to the eye. Advances in nanotechnology could bring everyday benefits, especially for first responders. "Our lenses help rescuers see clearly and navigate safely in dangerous environments like fires or dense fog," he said. Doctors already use infrared technology to highlight tumors treated with special dyes visible to infrared cameras. Han noted that the new lenses could enhance this approach by allowing surgeons to see near-infrared signals directly in their line of sight, without needing to glance at separate monitors. "This study opens the door to many exciting applications of wearable technology, potentially transforming how we see and interact with our environment, especially in challenging conditions," he said. The study was supported by the Human Frontier Science Program and included collaboration with U.S. scientists.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Nanotech contact lenses give humans 'super vision,' even in total darkness with eyes shut: Study
Humans can now see in the dark -- and even with their eyes closed -- using nanotechnology contact lenses that turn invisible infrared light into visible images, according to a new study published in the journal Cell. After first testing in mice, scientists from China and the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School created contact lenses for humans infused with specialized "nanoparticles," thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand, that let people see in the dark and in foggy conditions. These nanoparticles are scattered throughout the soft lens material, where they absorb infrared light and convert it into images the human eye normally can't see. Gang Han, the study's lead author and a Ph.D.-level nanoparticle researcher at UMass Chan Medical School, told ABC News the lenses enhance how someone sees color. "When wearing them, you still see everything normally," Hans said. "The lenses simply add the ability to see infrared images on top of what we already normally see." Wearing the lenses, participants were able to recognize coded flashes of infrared light — similar to Morse code — identify basic shapes and patterns, and even distinguish colors in the infrared range, effectively adding a new dimension to human vision, Han explained. They could even perceive the images with their eyes closed, thanks to the ability of infrared light to pass through eyelids, he said. MORE: FDA plans to limit COVID shots to those over 65 or with high-risk conditions Humans can naturally see only visible light, a small slice of the full light spectrum that includes invisible wavelengths like ultraviolet and infrared. Night vision goggles can detect infrared light, but they're bulky, often need a power source, and usually show images in green or black and white, Han said. "What's special about our contact lenses is that they let you see infrared light in color — like red, green and blue — so you can tell different things apart more easily," Han emphasized. So far, the lenses have only been tested on a small group of individuals in China, all with normal vision. Han said the researchers now need to test them in a more diverse population, including people with different vision capabilities. "While we haven't specifically studied these lenses for people with vision impairments or eye diseases, this is an important area we hope to explore in the future," he said, adding that there needs to be further assessment to test their safety and spot any long-term effects to the eye. MORE: Tropical cyclones may be linked to infant mortality in at-risk low- and middle-income countries, new research suggests Advances in nanotechnology could bring everyday benefits, especially for first responders. "Our lenses help rescuers see clearly and navigate safely in dangerous environments like fires or dense fog," he said. Doctors already use infrared technology to highlight tumors treated with special dyes visible to infrared cameras. Han noted that the new lenses could enhance this approach by allowing surgeons to see near-infrared signals directly in their line of sight, without needing to glance at separate monitors. "This study opens the door to many exciting applications of wearable technology, potentially transforming how we see and interact with our environment, especially in challenging conditions," he said. The study was supported by the Human Frontier Science Program and included collaboration with U.S. scientists. Dr. Karen Tachi Udoh is an internal medicine resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit. Nanotech contact lenses give humans 'super vision,' even in total darkness with eyes shut: Study originally appeared on
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
America first? More like ‘America last,' Mass. Gov. Healey slams Trump during MSNBC interview
President Donald Trump's trade war, his attacks on universities, and his immigration policies are undercutting American competitiveness, driving up costs and advantaging rivals such as China, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said Wednesday. 'For a president who is about America first, he's making America last,' Healey said during an appearance on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' program. The Arlington Democrat, who has been boosting her nationwide profile as the Republican White House has escalated its attacks on the Bay State, offered some of her most comprehensive criticism yet of an array of Trump administration policies. Healey reflected on a visit to UMass Chan Medical School last week, where she and the school's leaders said cuts to the National Institutes of Health were already impacting the state's economy. 'Because of Donald Trump's cuts, they've had to lay off 200 faculty members,' Healey told 'Morning Joe' host Mika Brzezinski. 'They've had to rescind offers to 80 graduate students. Because these are scientists, okay?' Healey continued. 'These are people who are discovering and working on life-saving cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, ALS, you name it, and all of that is being shut down.' Read More: 200 jobs affected at UMass Chan in Worcester due to Trump cuts As a result, Trump's 'misguided attacks on our universities and on research,' at UMass, Harvard University and other schools 'are benefiting China,' Healey said. 'China is recruiting right now on our campuses, all those scientists and faculty members and students who've been laid off or had their offers rescinded and say, 'Come to China. We'll build you that lab,' she continued. Healey's comments on that score were substantially similar to those she made during an appearance on CBS News' 'Face the Nation' program on Sunday. Read More: Mass Gov. Healey: Trump's funding cuts, attacks on Harvard are 'bad for science' 'It's bad for patients, it's bad for science, and it's really bad for American competitiveness,' Healey said during that Sunday interview. 'As governor, I want Massachusetts to soar. I want America soaring. And what Donald Trump is doing is basically saying to China and other ... countries, come to the United States, take — take our scientists, take our researchers, and ... that's what's happening." As she has for weeks, Healey continued to stress that the state doesn't have the money to backfill the loss of billions of dollars of federal support that provide the underpinning for her $62 billion budget proposal for the new fiscal year that starts July 1. But she said the state is taking other steps, including meeting with business leaders and offering resources for those affected by tariffs. Read More: Are you a Mass. business feeling the bite from tariffs? New Healey admin effort aims to help 'It is challenging as a governor who cut taxes, as a governor who's building housing,' Healey, who signed a $5.1 billion housing bond bill into law last year, said. 'You know, it is so disruptive that we have these tariffs, where now my lumber is coming from Canada, and the gypsum and other materials are coming from Mexico, and Trump just made housing a lot more expensive to build,' she said. With Healey seeking a second term in 2026 and a growing field of Republican opponents emerging, the pressure is on the Democratic governor to deliver on a host of policy priorities. The twin challenges of Massachusetts' housing and shelter crisis have taken a toll on Healey's popularity, with a majority of respondents to a February poll giving her the thumbs-down on those two issues. On MSNBC on Wednesday, Healey laid the blame for the state's ills at Trump's feet. 'It's just another example of Donald Trump not showing up for everyday Americans, not delivering on results, making it very hard for governors like me, who want to deliver for our residents, who want to grow the economy,' she said. Hundreds of experts: US sliding toward authoritarianism GOP congressman asks audience 'Don't boo' after Elon Musk, DOGE remarks Mass. Sen. Warren, Dems ask inspector general for answers on Social Security cuts Trump supports no trials for undocumented immigrants before deportation Hollywood icon punches back with 3-word response to Trump taunt Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
200 jobs affected at UMass Chan in Worcester due to Trump cuts
UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester has laid off or furloughed about 200 employees, a spokesperson for the school confirmed to MassLive Thursday. The layoffs were conducted to make up for a shortfall of approximately $30 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, according to UMass Chan Media Relations Specialist Hayley Mignacca. The shortfall is due to long delays in funding new grants since the Trump administration took office in January, according to Mignacca. Last year, UMass Chan received $193 million from the NIH but is now preparing for financial uncertainties due to the Trump administration's plan to put a 15% cap on indirect costs on all future and existing grants from the NIH. UMass Chan could stand to lose $50 million next year as a result of this cap, according to the school's website. The furloughs and layoffs took place across the university, according to Mignacca. UMass Chan employs nearly 6,000 people. In response to these uncertainties, the school announced in March a hiring freeze, a spending freeze and rescinded admissions to the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. On Tuesday, Gov. Maura Healey visited UMass Chan to speak out against the decrease in funding from the Trump administration. 'The reason I am here today is because institutions like UMass Chan are under threat,' Healey said. 'These cuts don't reflect Massachusetts values. They don't reflect American values. They are not who we are.' A $100K salary isn't enough to live on in these cities — including 2 in Mass. Central Mass. school dedicates art show in honor of student who died Question on Worcester taking piece of college endowments to be on ballot
Boston Globe
16-04-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Retail sales rise 1.4% in March as shoppers stock up on big ticket items ahead of tariffs
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up HIGHER EDUCATION Advertisement UMass Chan Medical School lays off or furloughs about 200 employees after NIH funding shortfall Advertisement UMass Chan Medical School has laid off or furloughed an estimated 200 employees, a spokesperson said Wednesday. UMass Chan Medical School UMass Chan Medical School has laid off or furloughed an estimated 200 employees, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The cuts come after the school saw a $30 million funding shortfall from long delays in funding new research grants from the National Institutes of Health after President Trump took office in January, said Sarah Willey, the UMass Chan spokesperson. UMass Chan received $193 million from the NIH last year, Willey said, and is preparing for uncertain federal funding in the coming year. Under the Trump administration's proposed caps on indirect NIH funding, the school projects a $50 million loss in funding. The school has also paused faculty recruitment and significantly reduced the incoming class size of the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. All hiring and discretionary spending has also been paused, the spokesperson said. During a Tuesday visit to the school, which employs 6,000 people and contributes more than $2 billion annually to the economy, Governor Maura Healey highlighted the dangers of lost and unstable funding on the state's only public medical school. 'The funding cuts are very extensive, including supporting critical work in gene therapy, rare disease research, HIV research, digital medicine, neuroscience, and more,' Healey said. 'UMass Chan has held groundbreaking clinical trials of new genetic therapies for devastating conditions like ALS and so many other diseases. 'But this kind of progress is now at risk, and with that, hope is being stripped away from patients and families.' — MAREN HALPIN ACQUISITIONS Lyft to buy Freenow app for $197 million in global expansion Lyft signage on a vehicle in New York. Shelby Knowles/Bloomberg Lyft Inc. agreed to buy the European taxi-hailing app Freenow for about $197 million, marking its first global expansion beyond the United States and Canada. Lyft will acquire the app from BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz Mobility in a cash transaction expected to close in the second half of 2025, according to a statement Wednesday. Freenow will continue operating in nine countries and more than 150 cities across Ireland, the UK, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Poland, France, and Austria, Lyft said, but added that the two companies will be working on integration so riders can use either app 'seamlessly' across the Atlantic. Bloomberg reported last month that BMW and Mercedes were considering selling Freenow. While well known in the United States and Canada, Lyft currently doesn't operate outside of North America. In contrast, Lyft's much-larger ride-hailing rival, Uber Technologies Inc., operates in more than 70 countries globally. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Advertisement TECH On the stand, Zuckerberg says TikTok is a major competitive threat Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, left the federal courthouse in Washington on Wednesday. TOM BRENNER/NYT Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, took the witness stand in a landmark antitrust trial for a third day, saying on Wednesday that the video app TikTok has emerged as a serious competitor in social networking. In a friendly exchange led by lawyers for Meta, Zuckerberg said that the fast growth of the Chinese-owned app was 'probably the highest competitive threat for Instagram and Facebook over the last few years.' Zuckerberg's lawyers were trying to poke holes in the case, Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms, which went to trial on Monday. The FTC has accused the social media company, which was previously known as Facebook, of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp when they were tiny startups in a 'buy-or-bury strategy' to snuff out competition. Meta's core function is connecting friends and family, making Snapchat its only serious social media competitor, the FTC has said. Zuckerberg countered during his more than seven hours of testimony so far this week that Meta faces significant competition in the world of social networking, including from TikTok and Apple's iMessage. On Wednesday, he said Meta's addition of a short-video feature known as Reels to Instagram and Facebook was in large part a response to TikTok's rise. Users continue to engage more on TikTok than with his apps, he said. 'TikTok is still bigger than either Facebook or Instagram, and I don't like it when our competitors do better than us,' Zuckerberg said. — NEW YORK TIMES Advertisement FINANCE Court scraps $8 credit card late fee limit, at Consumer Bureau's request A shopper paid with a credit card at a farmer's market in San Francisco. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg A government-imposed $8 limit on most credit card late fees is the latest consumer protection regulation to be scrapped by President Trump's administration. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau adopted the fee cap last year, estimating that it would save households $10 billion a year. A coalition of banking and business trade groups immediately sued to block the rule, arguing that the bureau had exceeded its statutory authority, and won an injunction that prevented it from taking effect. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Texas vacated the fee limit at the joint request of the banks and the consumer bureau. Now under the leadership of Russell T. Vought, the White House budget office leader who is also serving as the bureau's acting director, the consumer bureau reversed its stance and said in court filings that it agreed with the banks that the fee limit illegally stretched beyond the agency's bounds. Banks and lenders, whose late fees typically average around $32, celebrated their victory. 'If the CFPB's rule had gone into effect, it would have resulted in more late payments, lower credit scores, higher interest rates and reduced credit access for those who need it most,' the lawsuit's plaintiffs said in a joint statement. The group included the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and the United States Chamber of Commerce, along with three Texas business associations. Consumer advocates took the opposite stance. 'This decision will allow big banks to exploit consumers to the tune of $10 billion annually by charging inflated late fees that far exceed what late payments cost them to collect,' said Chi Chi Wu, a senior lawyer with the National Consumer Law Center. — NEW YORK TIMES Advertisement MEDIA Don't like a columnist's opinion? Los Angeles Times offers an AI-generated opposing viewpoint. The Los Angeles Times newspaper logo is seen at its headquarters in El Segundo, Calif. Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press In a colorful commentary for the Los Angeles Times, Matt K. Lewis argued that callousness is a central feature of the second Trump administration, particularly its policies of deportation and bureaucratic cutbacks. 'Once you normalize cruelty,' Lewis concluded in the piece, 'the hammer eventually swings for everyone. Even the ones who thought they were swinging it.' Lewis's word wasn't the last, however. As they have with opinion pieces the past several weeks, Times online readers had the option to click on a button labeled 'Insights,' which judged the column politically as 'center-left.' Then it offers an AI-generated synopsis — a CliffsNotes version of the column — and a similarly-produced opposing viewpoint. One dissenting argument reads: 'Restricting birthright citizenship and refugee admissions is framed as correcting alleged exploitation of immigration loopholes, with proponents arguing these steps protect American workers and resources.' The feature symbolizes changes to opinion coverage ordered over the past six months by Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who has said he wants the famously liberal opinion pages to reflect different points of view. Critics accuse him of trying to curry favor with President Trump. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
