Experts in the News

The Artemis 1 mission to the Moon, launched from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16, did not have astronauts on board. It did have what NASA is calling "moonikins" — dummies wearing special spacesuits that will measure data on vibration, acceleration, and cosmic radiation. Thomas Orlando, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and an adjunct professor in the School of Physics, will study that data. Orlando is also the principal investigator for Georgia Tech's REVEALS (Radiation Effects On Volatiles And Exploration Of Asteroids And Lunar Surfaces), which will help NASA design the next generation of spacesuits and astronaut habitats. 

On a Midwestern farm growing corn and beans, a tractor will soon spread 1,543 tons of rock dust over 140 acres. The goal: fighting climate change. Over the next two growing seasons, the dust — crushed basalt — is expected to capture 384 tons of carbon on the farm while helping crops grow. The farm is one of 14 that are working with Lithos, a new startup pioneering an unusual approach to carbon capture. Instead of pulling carbon dioxide from the air, when rain falls, it combines with atmospheric carbon dioxide to make it slightly acidic, and when the combination hits certain kinds of rocks, it causes a chemical reaction that slowly removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Chris Reinhard, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is a Lithos cofounder. (This story is also covered in GeekWire and Carbon Herald.)

On a Midwestern farm growing corn and beans, a tractor will soon spread 1,543 tons of rock dust over 140 acres. The goal: fighting climate change. Over the next two growing seasons, the dust — crushed basalt — is expected to capture 384 tons of carbon on the farm while helping crops grow. The farm is one of 14 that are working with Lithos, a new startup pioneering an unusual approach to carbon capture. Instead of pulling carbon dioxide from the air, when rain falls, it combines with atmospheric carbon dioxide to make it slightly acidic, and when the combination hits certain kinds of rocks, it causes a chemical reaction that slowly removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Chris Reinhard, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is a Lithos cofounder. (This story is also covered in GeekWire and Carbon Herald.)

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, that cannot be forced into a smaller volume. In a new study, mathematicians show that a particular version of the Euler equations does indeed sometimes fail. The proof marks a major breakthrough — and while it doesn’t completely solve the problem for the more general version of the equations, it offers hope that such a solution is finally within reach. Rafael de la Llave, professor in the School of Mathematics who did not work on the study, comments on its findings. 

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, that cannot be forced into a smaller volume. In a new study, mathematicians show that a particular version of the Euler equations does indeed sometimes fail. The proof marks a major breakthrough — and while it doesn’t completely solve the problem for the more general version of the equations, it offers hope that such a solution is finally within reach. Rafael de la Llave, professor in the School of Mathematics who did not work on the study, comments on its findings. 

Climate change and melting glaciers are synonymous at this point when the topic is discussed, and usually addresses the future impacts of melting ice and its effects on coastal communities. But how do we determine what those impacts are and when they could occur? Joining the Weather Geeks podcast to talk about this topic is Alex Robel, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and a climate researcher who helps to develop mathematical models that provide this information.

The tax bite is not the only issue to worry about when playing the Powerball lottery. Maximizing your chances at winning what is now a record-breaking payout would mean buying more tickets. "The investment you make by playing multiple games also goes up, and the payoffs in a real lottery vary," said Lew Lefton, senior academic professional in the School of Mathematics, and assistant dean of IT and associate vice president for research in the College of Sciences. In other words, investing more money into a higher number of tickets may not always be worth the expense.

Scientists with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica have now analyzed a decade's worth of such neutrino detections and discovered evidence that an active galaxy called Messier 77 (aka the Squid Galaxy) is a strong candidate for one such high-energy neutrino emitter, according to a new paper published in the journal Science. It brings astrophysicists one step closer to resolving the mystery of the origin of high-energy cosmic rays. The IceCube international collaboration of scientists includes Ignacio Taboada, professor in the School of Physics who also serves as IceCube's spokesperson. (Coverage of this story also appears at Space.com, MSN.com, the Wall Street Journal (registration required), Phys.org, CNET, SciTechDaily, and Inverse.)

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.)