Experts in the News

Where is cutting-edge engineering research being conducted in the U.S.? What are our leading universities for sponsored research in engineering subfields such as chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering? One answer to those questions can be found in the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, released in December by the National Science Foundation (NSF). That survey measures the dollars spent annually on research and development (R and D) at American colleges and universities. Georgia Tech is second on the overall list, with $839,071 on research and development expenditures. 

Many of us feel tethered to our water bottles because we've been told that being hydrated is key to being healthy. NPR's Life Kit and Short Wave colleagues teamed up to talk about what science says about hydrating. Turns out much of the lore is due for an update. Example: drinking eight glasses of water a day is good for you. That actually depends on body size and activity level. But Mindy Millard-Stafford, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and director of Georgia Tech's Exercise Physiology Lab, says even mild dehydration, or a two percent loss of water, can impact the brain's executive functions and ability to pay sustained attention. 

Where is cutting-edge engineering research being conducted in the U.S.? What are our leading universities for sponsored research in engineering subfields such as chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering? One answer to those questions can be found in the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, released in December by the National Science Foundation (NSF). That survey measures the dollars spent annually on research and development (R and D) at American colleges and universities. Georgia Tech is second on the overall list, with $839,071 on research and development expenditures. 

Henry Segerman, a British American mathematician and mathematical artist at Oklahoma State University, has invented a puzzle to help explain the Earth's annual trip around the sun: Continental Drift, a 3-D sliding puzzle that made its debut earlier this year. The underlying geometric concept is holonomy: When you travel a loop on a curved surface and return to the starting point, you arrive somewhat turned around, rotated, perhaps by 180 degrees. It's just one of Segerman's inventions that help visualize mathematics. A few years ago, Dr. Segerman demonstrated Extensors: a construction kit for making extending mechanisms from scissor-like hinged parts. Sabetta Matsumoto, an associate professor in the School of Physics, applied mathematician, and Dr. Segerman’s partner, gave input into the contraption’s development and came up with the name Extensor. Between them, math is “a pretty common conversation,” said Matsumoto, who was featured in a 2019 New York Times story about her project to investigate the mathematics and mechanics of knitting. (This story also appears in Yahoo! News.)

It sounds like a firework, a bang followed by a crackle of faint sparkles. Then, a background hum builds. Soon, that is overtaken by what sounds like crashing waves. In between them, random notes beep. This is the sound of a black hole. Specifically, a “black hole-star system” around 7800 light years from Earth called V404 Cygni. The firework is the sound of the black hole. This isn’t what a black hole would sound like in reality. It is a soundscape created by NASA to represent data from telescopes. Using sound this way, known as sonification, isn’t new. But in recent years, more and more astronomers are realizing the benefits of “listening” to the universe. “Our auditory system can often discern patterns and extract meaning, even when our visual system is not able to do so,” says Bruce Walker, professor in the Schools of Psychology and Interactive Computing who directs the Georgia Tech Sonification Lab.

It sounds like a firework, a bang followed by a crackle of faint sparkles. Then, a background hum builds. Soon, that is overtaken by what sounds like crashing waves. In between them, random notes beep. This is the sound of a black hole. Specifically, a “black hole-star system” around 7800 light years from Earth called V404 Cygni. The firework is the sound of the black hole. This isn’t what a black hole would sound like in reality. It is a soundscape created by NASA to represent data from telescopes. Using sound this way, known as sonification, isn’t new. But in recent years, more and more astronomers are realizing the benefits of “listening” to the universe. “Our auditory system can often discern patterns and extract meaning, even when our visual system is not able to do so,” says Bruce Walker, professor in the Schools of Psychology and Interactive Computing who directs the Georgia Tech Sonification Lab.

For centuries, mathematicians have sought to understand and model the motion of fluids. The equations that describe how ripples crease the surface of a pond have also helped researchers to predict the weather, design better airplanes, and characterize how blood flows through the circulatory system. Perhaps the oldest and most prominent of these equations, formulated by Leonhard Euler more than 250 years ago, describe the flow of an ideal, incompressible fluid: a fluid with no viscosity, or internal friction, and that cannot be forced into a smaller volume. Mathematicians have long suspected that there exist initial conditions that cause the equations to break down. But they haven’t been able to prove it. In a preprint posted online in October, a pair of mathematicians has shown that a particular version of the Euler equations does indeed sometimes fail. Rafael de la Llave, a professor in the School of Mathematics who studies dynamical systems and mathematical physics, comments on the findings. 

By growing an unusual tentacled microbe in the lab, microbiologists may have taken a big step toward resolving the earliest branches on the tree of life and unraveling one of its great mysteries: how the complex cells that make up the human body — and all plants, animals, and many single-celled organisms — first came to be. Such microbes, called Asgard archaea, have previously been cultured — once — but the advance reported in Nature marks the first time they’ve been grown in high enough concentrations to study their innards in detail. Jennifer Glass, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and a geo-microbiologist, didn't work on the study, but her research in 2020 finding unusual ribosome structures in Asgard microbes helped the scientists published in Nature zero in on what to look for in their specimens.

By growing an unusual tentacled microbe in the lab, microbiologists may have taken a big step toward resolving the earliest branches on the tree of life and unraveling one of its great mysteries: how the complex cells that make up the human body — and all plants, animals, and many single-celled organisms — first came to be. Such microbes, called Asgard archaea, have previously been cultured — once — but the advance reported in Nature marks the first time they’ve been grown in high enough concentrations to study their innards in detail. Jennifer Glass, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and a geo-microbiologist, didn't work on the study, but her research in 2020 finding unusual ribosome structures in Asgard microbes helped the scientists published in Nature zero in on what to look for in their specimens.

In this episode of the Talk Nerdy podcast, host Cara Santa Maria is joined by Feryal Özel, professor and chair of the School of Physics. They talk about her incredible career as a theoretical astrophysicist, her important work on the recent imaging of a black hole with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, and the critical need for representation in science.

As the home of prominent research universities like Georgia Tech, medical schools and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia is uniquely positioned to be a leader in public health — not just for the U.S. but around the world. Bolstered by the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), whose mission is to bring government, business and academia together to expand and further university research, the state is able to recruit the scientists who are making breakthroughs in major health issues. These include forecasting the next pandemic, developing new antibiotics, and tackling chronic health problems like high blood pressure. Marvin Whiteley, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Bennie H. and Nelson D. Abell Chair in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar is interviewed about his research into the social behaviors of bacteria and how they can point the way to new treatments.

As the home of prominent research universities like Georgia Tech, medical schools and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia is uniquely positioned to be a leader in public health — not just for the U.S. but around the world. Bolstered by the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), whose mission is to bring government, business and academia together to expand and further university research, the state is able to recruit the scientists who are making breakthroughs in major health issues. These include forecasting the next pandemic, developing new antibiotics, and tackling chronic health problems like high blood pressure. Marvin Whiteley, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Bennie H. and Nelson D. Abell Chair in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar is interviewed about his research into the social behaviors of bacteria and how they can point the way to new treatments.