Experts in the News

Most people may think of bacteria, regardless of species and shape, as a single cell, or maybe several free-living cells. The problem with this image, according to microbiologists, is that it doesn’t reflect how most bacteria are likely to live. Often, bacteria use sticky molecules to anchor themselves to a surface, growing in collectives called biofilms. A new study shows that even bacteria floating in the open ocean, which lack an anchoring point for forming large conglomerates, exist in multicellular forms. The study builds on 2021 published research from Georgia Tech scientists that showed unicellular yeast forming multicellular clusters. The School of Biological Sciences researchers include Ozan Bozdag, research scientist; William Ratcliff, associate professor; Kai Tong, Ph.D. Quantitative Biosciences student, and Penelope Kahn. School of Physics researchers involved include Peter Yunker, assistant professor;  Thomas C. Day, graduate student; and Seyed Alireza Zamani-Dahaj, Ph.D. student. 

On paper, it might come as no surprise that Svetlana Jitomirskaya, born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1966, became a mathematician. Everyone in her family was one, and her mother was Ukraine’s only female full professor of mathematics. Jitomirskaya is now an award-winning mathematician, a distinguished professor at the University of California, Irvine, and was recently named the Elaine M. Hubbard Chair in the School of Mathematics. In this Q-and-A with Quanta Magazine, Jitomirskaya talks about her research, her experiences as a young Jewish woman in the former Soviet Union, and her hopes for math education. 

On Oct. 5th, 2022, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS) announced it would be awarding the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three individuals “for the development of click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry" — Carolyn R. Bertozzi of Stanford Univ., Morten Meldal from the Univ. of Copenhagen, and K. Barry Sharpless from Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. M.G. Finn, professor and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, deals directly with click and bio-orthogonal chemistry in his lab and research. Finn was also co-author on the original click chemistry paper alongside Hartmuth C. Kolb and Nobel laureate Sharpless.

Retired engineer Tom Crowley proves that you can play around with a hobby you love and see it grow into something extraordinary. The 80-year-old has turned his love of astronomy into consulting work with Georgia Tech's Aloha Telescope outreach program. He operates the robotic telescope on Maui through high-speed internet connections from his home in Stone Mountain. Crowley works in partnership with James Sowell, principal academic professional and astronomer in the School of Physics, and director of the Institute's observatory. Together, they’re bringing live video images of the moon into Georgia K-12 classrooms. (More information is available at the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Direct to Discovery outreach program website, which is creating a Zoom option so that multiple schools can participate at the same time.)

Although it’s understood that water ice exists below the lunar regolith (broken rock and dust), scientists don’t yet know whether surface ice frost covers the floors inside cold, dark craters. NASA is sending Lunar Flashlight, a small satellite (or SmallSat) no larger than a briefcase to find out. The mission, which will use lasers to shed light on those dark craters, will launch in mid-November aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Lunar Flashlight will be operated by Georgia Tech with its data set to be studied by the REVEALS (Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids and Lunar Surfaces) Lab, a collaborative effort involving students and researchers from the Colleges of Sciences and Engineering. Thomas Orlando, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and an adjunct professor in the School of Physics, is the principal investigator with REVEALS.

Imagining what it would be like to visit another planet has been a staple of science fiction for decades. Whether it's here in the Solar System or out somewhere else in the universe, other worlds tend to intrigue us. Yet it's worth remembering that humans exist on Earth, and not somewhere like Mars, for a reason — it's the only place in the universe that we know of that would not kill us horribly within minutes or less. This Newsweek story list the different ways humans would die on each planet in the Solar System, with Jennifer Glass, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, providing gruesome details on the effects of asphyxia (lack of oxygen), extreme temperatures, and crushing atmospheric pressure on the human body. 

Georgia Tech alumna C. Denise Okafor (M.S. Chemistry 2010, Ph.D. Biochemistry 2015) is the subject of this recent feature from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Okafor was heading to a career in medicine before following up on a suggestion to apply for a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). The decision changed her life, and led to her graduate student experiences at Georgia Tech, and her current position as an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State. Okafor, who recently received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER Award, credited her professors for helping her find the right academic path to follow.

A recently discovered, never-before-seen phenomenon in a type of quantum material could be explained by a series of buzzing, bee-like “loop-currents.” The discovery from physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) and Georgia Tech may one day help engineers develop new types of devices, such as quantum sensors, or the quantum equivalent of computer memory storage devices. The Georgia Tech researchers from the School of Physics who co-authored the study are Itamar Kimchi, assistant professor, and Sami Hakani, graduate student.

Don’t laugh off the potential value in finding nitrous oxide (N2O) in space atmospheres—scientists say the laughing gas could be a key biosignature in the search for life beyond our own planet. In a paper published earlier this month in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers say we’ve focused plenty on oxygen and methane as biosignatures, but skipping out on nitrous oxide “may be a mistake.” Researchers used simulations to show that with different stars from the sun we know and love, the biosignature search could well include N2O. One of those researchers is Chris Reinhard, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. 

A Georgia Tech alumnus, and School of Biological Sciences Professor and Associate Chair of Research Joel Kostka, are working to restore seven acres of degraded salt marsh in historic Ashleyville, S.C. Albert George, who received an M.S. from Georgia Tech, is a former conservation director with the South Carolina Aquarium who is credited with spearheading work to restore the marsh. A group led by Kostka, who has a joint appointment in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and is researching coastal wetlands, received a grant from the National Coastal Resilience Fund for the marsh restoration project. Ashleyville was formerly known as Maryville, once a self-sustaining Black community, chartered and settled in 1886. It offered formerly enslaved people safe places to buy land, raise families, and work in the Jim Crow era. South Carolina's Department of Natural Resources will work with Georgia Tech to monitor the restoration efforts.

Carolyn R. Bertozzi, K. Barry Sharpless, and Morten Meldal were jointly awarded this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a way of “snapping molecules together ... sort of like molecular Lego” that can be used to explore cells, map DNA and design drugs that can target diseases such as cancer more precisely. School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Chair M.G. Finn, who completed his Ph.D. with Sharpless and later collaborated with him on the Nobel-winning work, said click chemistry’s use in biology and drug development was still “at its infancy,” with more exciting discoveries to come.

Related coverage: Smithsonian Magazine, STAT News, Times of San Diego, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Yahoo! Life, Firstpost, Business Mirror, Chemistry World.

October is National Disabilities Employment Awareness Month, and The Able Channel is celebrating by raising awareness about the importance of work for those living and working with disability. Hosted by Paralympic Gold Medal-winning swimmer Mallory Weggeman, "Together We Are Able" showcases the stories of 10 Americans who have redefined perceptions of what the word able is all about. College of Sciences Advisory Board member Paul S. Goggin (Physics 1991, M.S. Atmospheric Sciences 1994) is the founder and chief operating officer of The Able Channel. "Together We Are Able" will air on NBC, CBS, Fox, and other channels, and on The Able Channel's streaming service.