Countdown to lift-off
Most students can only imagine what it feels like for an astronaut to conduct scientific research while floating freely inside a spacecraft. This week, for four Johns Hopkins undergraduates, that fantasy is set to become a reality.
   Flying in a NASA jet that produces brief periods of weightlessness, the students will get a small taste of space-travel sensations. They'll have to keep their feet on the ground figuratively, however, because these periods of microgravity will occur while they're conducting experiments to learn how liquids mix on a surface when gravity is not a factor. Their research could lead to more efficient ways to combine or move fluids aboard space shuttles and the International Space Station. Full story...

Stricter rules affect all JHU internationals
Faced with a quagmire of stricter federal immigration laws and procedures whose enforcement began this year, offices that serve Johns Hopkins' international population have had to adapt by taking on a more proactive and policing-type role when dealing with the university's more than 5,000 visiting students, faculty and other scholars.
   In particular, these offices and their constituents have been impacted by the new Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a rigid tracking system launched earlier this year, and by various Homeland security measures that have in some cases considerably slowed down the processing times for visas. Full story...

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