Experts in the News

Last week, Michael Wong and Robert Hazen of the Carnegie Institution for Science welcomed a diverse group of nearly 100 scientists, from microbiology to neuroscience, for a workshop on how complexity emerges and evolves. It was also a referendum on their audacious proposal, which, Wong said in a talk, is “an explanatory framework for the evolution of physical systems writ large, including, but not limited to, biology.”

It’s an appealing idea, says Loren Williams, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry who studies the origin of life and attended the workshop. “To me it seems very clear that there is evolution outside of biology.” Take the polypeptide backbone, the chain of molecules that forms the spine of all amino acids, he says. “[Biological] evolution doesn’t touch that, right? It’s the same in everything alive. It always has been. But it’s a product of evolution, I’m convinced.” It’s just that the evolution happened before life began, he says. And so when Hazen and his co-authors proposed their overarching theory, he says, “that just resonated with me.”

DNA samples from one of the world’s largest and oldest plants — a quaking aspen tree (Populus tremuloides) in Utah called Pando — have helped researchers to determine its age and revealed clues about its evolutionary history.

“It’s kind of shocking to me that there hasn’t been a lot of genetic interest in Pando already, given how cool it is,” says study co-author William Ratcliff, an associate professor in the  School of Biological Sciences.

By inputting Pando’s genetic data into a theoretical model that plots an organism’s evolutionary lineage, the researchers estimated Pando’s age. They put this at between 16,000 and 80,000 years. “It makes the Roman Empire seem like just a young, recent thing,” says Ratcliff.

(This also appeared at NewScientist.)

Hurricane Helene hit parts of inland North Carolina and caused flooding and damage in parts of Georgia, both areas not used to these sorts of conditions. Annalisa Bracco, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, said climate change is causing extreme weather conditions in places unfamiliar with these disasters.

“In general, [the increase in natural disasters] is telling us that the climate is indeed changing and that climate models have been overall correct in predicting conditions that will exacerbate extreme events, and we are seeing the impacts of that,” Bracco said. 

“Temperatures are getting higher and extremes are getting more common: more droughts, more heavy rains, more forest fires, more heat waves, increased storminess, also more strong cold spells in places not used to getting them as strong.”

Your gut is a battleground where rival tribes of bacteria armed with poison darts fight for territory – and these battles are often won by armies of traitors made to switch sides by selfish DNA transferred to them by their enemies.

“Side switching may be more common than we have appreciated,” says Brian Hammer, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences. The bacterium that causes cholera also constantly produces and fires dart guns. While it has been assumed that this behaviour is costly, last year Hammer’s team showed that strains of Vibrio cholerae that don’t produce T6SSs hardly grow any faster than those that do, suggesting that the cost of going around with guns blazing is surprisingly small.

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has been intense, marked by multiple powerful storms hitting the U.S. coast. The season runs from June 1 to November 30, with conditions like warm ocean temperatures and low wind shear fostering storm development. "Storms can intensify fast if they encounter the right conditions and that could happen at any time," says Annalisa Bracco, associate chair and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "But we are later in the season, and that means that favorable conditions for fast intensification are less likely than when Milton happened. Wind shear tends to be stronger — on average — at the end of October compared to early September, and sea surface temperatures are on average cooler than in August-September."

Talk about a Halloween treat. Astronomers say a recently discovered comet will be blazing by the Earth in broad daylight just in time for Halloween. Professor James Wray in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences says Comet C/2024 S1, first found at the end of September, will pass around the Earth on Oct. 24. "Look low in the eastern sky just before sunrise,” says Wray. "Then, after swinging around the sun, the comet may reappear in the western night sky right around Halloween.”

Related Coverage: The Times of India, Space.com

Extreme weather linked to climate change drives people to rely on familiar but unreliable sources like the Farmers’ Almanac for forecasts, which are only about 52% accurate. In contrast, the National Weather Service (NWS) offers structured long-term forecasts focused on temperature and precipitation. Senior Academic Professional Zachary Handlos in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences says both sources have the same general idea. "They have one or two writers that put out a winter forecast every year,” says Handlos. “I think they keep the identity of the writers a little cryptic. It’s part of the lore of reading it. Both claim that their forecasts are science based. But some of it’s also a mix of what farmers know in terms of intuition, astronomy and things like that. There's a little bit of folklore, which makes it fun.”

A potential tropical storm, which would be named Nadine, is forming in the central Atlantic with a low chance of developing into a hurricane. It’s expected to pass near the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas, though strong winds may prevent further strengthening. Annalisa Bracco, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, says very warm sea surface temperature — the engine in terms of energy for the storm to grow — along with low wind shear and low surface salinity, help storms intensify by concentrating the high temperatures near the surface. 

Two weeks ago, a facility owned by BioLab in Conyers, Georgia, outside of Atlanta blew up, sending a huge and rancid cloud miles around. It seems the water used to extinguish the fire reacted with pool chemicals in the plant, which made the cloud more noxious. Sally Ng, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, says a system known as the Atmospheric Science and Chemistry Measurement Network detected a 1,400-times increase in the amount of chlorine-containing particles in the air, and a 170-times increase in the amount of bromine-containing particles in the air over Decatur.

Through the weekend of Saturday, Oct. 19, and Sunday, Oct. 20, you'll be able to see a rare comet in the sky each evening above north Georgia. Comet C/2023 A3, known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will be visible about 30 minutes after sunset and can be seen in the western sky. James Wray, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, discusses his research on the comet and the Oort Cloud.  "The human mind may find it difficult to conceptualize: a cosmic cloud so colossal it surrounds the Sun and eight planets as it extends trillions of miles into deep space," Wray says. "The spherical shell known as the Oort Cloud is, for all practical purposes, invisible."

The Oort Cloud is a theoretical, massive spherical shell surrounding the Sun and planets. Though invisible due to its vast size and faint particles, astronomers infer its existence as it explains the appearance of long-period comets. In The Conversation, James Wray,  professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, discusses his research on the Oort Cloud, along with two comets—Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (Comet C/2023 A3) and C/2024 S1 (ATLAS)—which are expected to be visible this month. 

Related Coverage: Ars Technica, Discover Magazine, The Current

NASA images of Hurricane Milton, showing unusually high sea surface temperatures, highlight how climate conditions can accelerate hurricane intensification. The Gulf of Mexico’s waters, particularly those above 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit, played a key role in the rapid development of Milton into a Category 5 storm.

"Numerical models in the past five years or so have improved to resolve hurricanes and typhoons at global scales and they do agree that the intensification of hurricanes - more hurricanes of strength 4 or 5 - and typhoons, and a tendency for depression to turn more easily into hurricanes is the result of climate change," says Annalisa Bracco, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. 

Related Coverage: Cross Country