Archived articles

Apl

The Maker Buoy floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Smart tech
Buoys with a brain
Published Summer 2021
APL's Wayne Pavalko creates custom-designed, 3D-printed buoys that monitor our oceans / Johns Hopkins Magazine
Illustration of Europa's icy oceans
Space exploration
Otherworldly oceans
Published Summer 2021
Researchers are almost certain a liquid ocean is hidden beneath the surface of one of Jupiter's moons. The Europa Clipper mission will help determine whether it has all the ingredients necessary for life. / Johns Hopkins Magazine
illustration of two people looking up at the night sky
Going interstellar with a sun-skirting probe
Published Spring 2021
APL's Interstellar Probe will slingshot around the sun to explore the outer reaches of the universe / Johns Hopkins Magazine
illustration of a cellphone displaying photos of rashes
Lyme selfies
Published Spring 2021
Researchers look to AI to detect Lyme disease earlier / Johns Hopkins Magazine
Screen shot of Zoom call with 14 people
The unsung mapmakers
Published Oct 5, 2020
The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard requires an array of behind-the-scenes expertise from staff at multiple divisions, selflessly working at all hours. Here's their story.
A helicopter conducts a rescue for a boat in distress
Engineering
Enhanced search and rescue
Published Fall 2020
Search and Rescue GPS beacons aboard ships or in hikers' backpacks are the last line of defense against disaster, leading to more than 50,000 rescues to date. A new project by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory aims to make the technology even more accurate and efficient. / Johns Hopkins Magazine
Peter Thielen and Tom Mehoke prepare a hand-held DNA sequencer for operation at the molecular diagnostics laboratory at Johns Hopkins Hospital
Coronavirus
Sequencing genome of the virus behind COVID-19
Published March 30, 2020
Biologists from the Applied Physics Lab work to track the mutation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19
Researchers from APL work on their improved lithium-ion battery
Science+Technology
A lithium-ion battery that won't catch fire
Published Oct 17, 2019
Building on previous work, researchers at APL appear to have corrected the ubiquitous energy source's most significant safety hazard—its combustibility
An artist's rendering shows a dark spacecraft hurtling towards an orange ball of fire and gas
Mission to the Sun
Cool power
Published June 23, 2017
As the APL-built solar probe heads toward its historic encounter with the sun, revolutionary technologies will power and cool the craft
Emerging tech
Virtual reality goggles help kids understand prosthetics
Published May 26, 2017
The children of servicemen and women get a crash course in prosthetics in new APL program at Walter Reed medical center