Experts in the News

Cognitive fatigue is viewed as an inflated cost of cognitive control. It is characterized by more impulsive decisions in which people lose the ability to manage their brain processes as easily and make more spur-of-the-moment judgments. It occurs when we must use our heads for extended periods of time, whether it is while researching, writing an article, making a timetable, or reading a book. Several scientists are interviewed, including Phillip Ackerman, professor in the School of Psychology, who says engaging in enjoyable activities makes you less prone to experiencing cognitive tiredness than engaging in boring activities.

Britney Schmidt hunts for clues about the universe in a West Australian salt lake. The NASA-funded researcher, formerly with the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, says the otherworldly landscape, with its pink-hued water and fringing trees, is no mere illusion; it is more like Mars than almost any other location on Earth. It could even help scientists detect extraterrestrial life on other planets. Joining Schmidt in that hunt is Taylor Plattner, a graduate student in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. 

As written by Martin B. Short, associate professor in the School of Mathematics, "the author goes about ruining an online word guessing game by generally trying to mathify the whole thing." Trying to find the secret solution word in Wordle has become the latest internet word game obsession for many, and as Short writes, it can indeed involve a judicious use of math to rapidly find the hidden word. (Registration required.)

Temperatures are climbing around the globe, leaving parts of the world sweltering under extreme heat, with record-breaking temperatures fueling wildfires and severe drought in some areas. Heat waves around the world have dashed records, threatened public health, and buckled infrastructure, in what Georgia Tech researchers say are signs of the climate crisis' impact on day-to-day weather. “This is a stronger heat wave than it used to be,” says Zachary Handlos, senior academic professional in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “But, really, the concern is that these are expected to happen more frequently as the globe warms and atmosphere warms. So, that means everything is warmer in general.”

Back in April, an unusual mix of scientists, artists, and magicians met in Atlanta for the 14th Gathering for Gardner (G4G14), a biennial conference inspired by the late Martin Gardner, who wrote the Recreational Mathematics column for Scientific American from 1957-1981. The emphasis is on mixing fun and science, and speakers must stick to six minute time limits during their stage presentations. One of those presenting was mathematician Lew Lefton, College of Sciences assistant dean of information technology and associate vice president for research computing, who spent his time onstage telling math/science jokes. Example: “You either believe in the law of the excluded middle or you don’t.” (The law of the excluded middle: a statement is either true or false.) Lew's follow-up: "That's the only time that joke has ever got a laugh."

Scientists at Georgia Tech and Clark University have developed robotic lizards in a collaboration combining robotics, math, biology, and artificial intelligence. The robots helped solve an evolutionary puzzle and could be the first step towards a new generation of wiggling robots. The team used artificial intelligence to study the movement of various lizard species.  “We were interested in why and how these intermediate lizards use their bodies and limbs to move around in different terrestrial environments,” says one of the study’s authors, Daniel Goldman, Dunn Family Professor in the School of Physics. “This is a fundamental question in locomotion biology and can inspire more capable wiggling robots.” Other School of Physics scientists involved in the research include Ph.D. students Baxi Chong and Tianyu Wang, and  Eva Erickson (B.S. PHYS '22).

Lew Lefton, College of Sciences assistant dean for information technology, associate vice president for research computing, and a mathematician, receives lots of media calls whenever a national lottery approaches record-breaking numbers. This time he was interviewed by NewsNation about the odds of winning the recent $1.337 billion-dollar Mega Millions jackpot, won by one person in Illinois during the July 30th drawing. Lefton explains that those who bought tickets and didn't win shouldn't take it personally; it's simply math. "That’s just the reality. The numbers are only going to pick 1 in 300 million,” he said. “A lot of people have no idea what that really looks like.”

Elisabetta Matsumoto, an assistant professor in the School of Physics, is featured in a documentary directed by Shruti Mandhani, a research fellow for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. student at Sheffield Hallam University. The documentary focuses on imposter syndrome, a psychological condition in which individuals doubt their skills and abilities, and fear being discovered as frauds. Mandhani interviewed other women in STEM (science, technology, mathematics, and engineering) disciplines for the documentary, which is shortlisted for the Bristol Science Film Festival in August. 

Has this summer felt hotter than usual? Atlanta has experienced once-in-a-century heat over the past six months. However, as the world battles rising sea levels and increasing CO2 emissions, the Supreme Court limited the power of the EPA to regulate industry into addressing climate change. This climate episode of Georgia Public Broadcasting's Political Rewind podcast includes the UrbanHeatATL project and other Georgia Tech-related climate research, and features Marilyn A. Brown, Regents' and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy. Brown is also co-founder of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance

New research from the University of Texas and Georgia Tech has revealed humans are likely responsible for rapidly melting glaciers. The study, published July 13 in the journal The Cryosphere, used computer models to test how global warming impacted glaciers. The team said its research could help predict when major ice loss would occur and the impact it could have on Earth’s oceans and climate. The Georgia Tech researchers from the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences include John Christian, postdoctoral fellow, and Alex Robel, assistant professor. (The study was also covered at Phys.org.)

We know that water is the key to life on Earth, but there are countless mysteries lurking in its depths. This "Oceans" episode of The Weather Channel's series The Earth Unlocked features an interview with Susan Lozier, Dean of the College of Sciences, Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair, and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. (This video is a preview for the episode, which can be accessed via a TV-only streaming platform that has an on-demand feature.) 

New research in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and other fields is published every day, but the gap between what is known and the capacity to act on that knowledge has never been larger. Scholars and non-scholars alike face the problem of how to organize knowledge and to integrate new observations with what is already known. Ontologies — formal, explicit specifications of the meaning of the concepts and entities that scientists study — provide a way to address this and other challenges, and thus to accelerate progress in behavioral research and its application. A new consensus study on the matter from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, includes contributions from NAS member Randall Engle, professor in the School of Psychology and principal investigator of Georgia Tech's Attention and Working Memory Lab.