Experts in the News

Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Professor Jennifer Glass comments on a paper recently published in Science that details “photochemodenitrification,” a nitrous oxide production pathway through which sunlight induces substantial and consistent nitrous oxide formation under oxic abiotic conditions in fresh and marine surface waters. 

“I think it’s a beautiful [study],’ says Glass, noting that researchers have previously shown similar light-driven processes in atmospheric aerosols, but never in aquatic environments. “As we’ve been sequencing more and more genomes in the environment a lot of us have moved really into that -omics space, looking for key markers for genes … This just goes to show that sometimes it’s not biological,” she says. “You have to think outside the box and consider all the chemistry that can be happening, not just the enzymes.”

Nga Lee "Sally" Ng, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, leads the U.S. National Science Foundation-supported Atmospheric Science and Chemistry mEasurement NeTwork (ASCENT), which includes 12 air quality measurement sites nationwide. Each site has state-of-the-art instruments that help us understand aerosols, or tiny particles in the atmosphere. The network is constantly analyzing the chemical constituents of aerosols with a diameter smaller than 2.5 micrometers, referred to as PM2.5, which contribute to more than 90% of the adverse health impacts associated with air pollution.

"We provide ASCENT data to the public in real time so that people know what's in the air we're breathing," Ng said.

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia named Robert Scott president of Albany State University, effective May 1, 2025. Scott, who holds a Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, will return to higher education after almost two decades working in the private sector. 

Georgia Tech’s campus was recently the site of an interactive celebration of science. The 2025 Atlanta Science Festival launched Saturday, March 8, 2025 at Georgia Tech. Dozens of exhibits were spread out all over the campus, with hands-on STEM activities, demonstrations, and information about the research currently happening on campus. 

(A similar story appeared at WABE.)

Four million Americans suffer from glaucoma, an incurable eye disease that slowly degrades peripheral vision and eventually leads to blindness. A new treatment could potentially stop this degradation and possibly save people’s vision before it’s too late.

Raquel Lieberman, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and her lab team have discovered two new antibodies with promise to treat glaucoma. The antibodies can break down the protein myocilin, which, when it malfunctions, can cause glaucoma.

Lieberman’s group recently published this research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Nexus.

National Weather Service staff cuts may put lives at risk, meteorologists say

The firings of hundreds of National Weather Service employees will affect local forecasters’ ability to warn the public about dangerous weather, local meteorologists warn. And that could have deadly consequences when there are tornado outbreaks or an approaching hurricane, some say.

Georgia Tech’s Dean of the College of Sciences, Susan Lozier, says the weather forecasts aren’t just useful for those planning outdoor activities.

“It goes beyond protecting people and personal property, which is great. But it just impacts so many corners of our economy,” Lozier said. “Transportation relies on the weather. Do we really want the safety of our skies dependent on private industry? Or our armed forces? There are just amazing stories about how accurate weather forecasting has won battles."

A shallow magnitude earthquake shook parts of middle Georgia earlier Tuesday evening, less than half a day after tremors were felt in northwest Georgia in Chattooga County.

11Alive meteorologist Melissa Nord (EAS 2013) spoke with a Georgia Tech seismologist, who explained Northwest Georgia is the state's most active seismic region. It is located within the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone, which experiences frequent, small earthquakes. 

Zhigang Peng, professor of geophysics in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, recently co-authored a research study on the frequency of earthquakes in this Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone.

"We connected all of the data that has been recorded in that region over the past 15 years or so. And then we carefully relocated, trying to determine exactly where they're located. And after we did that, we found out that many of them occur in small kind of ligament, which is probably an indication that there are some small faults," Peng said. 

It's possible that Tuesday's earthquake in northwest Georgia was one of those small ligaments or faults, but Dr. Peng said he'd need to investigate further. 

The Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space (GEARS) experiment, managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, is designed to analyze microbial resistance in space. As part of the study, astronauts collect samples from interior surfaces aboard the ISS to detect antibiotic-resistant bacteria, particularly Enterococcus faecalis, a microorganism naturally found in the human body. This initiative marks the initial phase of broader research on microbial behavior in space and its implications for medicine on Earth.

"Enterococcus is an ancient organism that has coexisted with humans since our evolutionary origins," explained Christopher Carr, co-principal investigator of GEARS and assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the School of Aerospace Engineering. "It thrives inside and outside its host, contributing to its status as the second leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Our goal is to understand how this microbe adapts to space conditions."

GEARS aims to refine methods for detecting and identifying resistant bacteria, expanding upon ongoing microbial monitoring efforts aboard the ISS.

Mustard gas, or sulfur mustard, is one of the most harmful chemical warfare agents, causing severe blistering of the skin and mucous membranes upon contact. To enhance battlefield detection of this hazardous substance, a team of chemists, including M.G. Finn, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Biological Sciences, will develop a streamlined method for detecting vesicants—a broader class of chemical agents that includes sulfur mustard.

“We will initially focus on model compounds that act like mustards, but that can be handled safely in the laboratory. This will allow us to test different molecular sensor designs, with Professor Jennifer Heemstra's lab and ours working together on complementary approaches,” Finn explains.

School of Physics Professor Ignacio Taboada provided brief commentary on KM3NeT, a new underwater neutrino experiment that has detected what appears to be the highest-energy cosmic neutrino observed to date.

“This is clearly an interesting event. It is also very unusual,” said Taboada, spokesperson for the IceCube experiment in Antarctica. IceCube, which has a similar detector-array design as KM3NeT but is encased in ice rather than water, has detected neutrinos with energies as high as 10 PeV, but nothing in 100 PeV range. “IceCube has worked for 14 years, so it’s weird that we don’t see the same thing,” Taboada said. Taboada is not involved in the KM3Net experiment. 

The KM3NeT team is aware of this weirdness. They compared the KM3-230213A event to upper limits on the neutrino flux given by IceCube and the Pierre Auger cosmic-ray experiment in Argentina. Taking those limits as given, they found that there was a 1% chance of detecting a 220-PeV neutrino during KM3NeT’s preliminary (287-day) measurement campaign. 

This also appeared in Scientific American and Smithsonian Magazine.

Marvin Whiteley, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, has been named the new editor in chief of mBio, an open-access journal that explores the interconnected microbial world and publishes research in microbiology and allied fields. Whiteley’s term will begin on July 1, 2025. 

A chemical plant fire near Atlanta last fall released a toxic plume that disrupted the lives of nearby residents. Many still experience health problems and don't know what was released in the plume.

Researchers like Greg Huey, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, say early tests found other chemicals in addition to chlorine in the plume. They found irritants like bromine and isocyanic acid that can cause symptoms like coughing and wheezing. His team is analyzing more air quality data and expects to share the findings in the coming weeks.

“This might help people know what they're exposed to in this incident. But more importantly, if ever something like this happens again, we might have better ideas what to look for,” Huey explains.