Experts in the News

Most large U.S. wildfires occur in the West. But the smoke doesn’t stay there. It travels eastward, affecting communities hundreds to thousands of kilometers away from the fires. In fact, the majority of asthma-related deaths and emergency room visits attributed to fire smoke in the United States occur in eastern cities, according to a study in the September 2021 GeoHealth. The big problem is fine particulate matter, tiny particles of ash, gases and other detritus suspended in smoke that are no more than 2.5 micrometers wide, small enough to lodge in the lungs and cause permanent damage. Nga Lee (Sally) Ng, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and colleagues found that smoke particulate matter is more toxic than urban particulate matter, “inducing about five times higher cellular oxidative stress,” Ng says. Oxidative stress damages cells and DNA in the body.

There's a special, Georgia Tech-centric reason why the new fundraising campaign for the Institute — a school known for science, engineering and computing — has an extremely specific goal of $2,147,483,647. "This figure was the largest known prime number by mathematicians from 1772 to 1867, and in computer science it represents the largest value that a signed 32-bit integer field can hold,” Georgia Tech said in its announcement. The campaign, the largest in its history, will raise money for need- and merit-based scholarships, as well as invest in student entrepreneurship and international recruitment. Philanthropy also will support faculty chairs and professorships, research facilities, intercollegiate athletics, campus enhancements, new global partnerships, and local programs that focus on science education in Atlanta high schools and in school districts around the state.

A group of researchers from the University of Missouri, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Harvard University has proved the successful use of a novel Type 1 diabetes treatment in a large animal model in a new study published in Science Advances. Their method includes transferring insulin-producing pancreas cells, known as pancreatic islets, from a donor to a recipient without the need for long-term immunosuppressive medicines. The Georgia Tech team includes Andres Garcia, executive director of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (IBB);  María M. Coronel, IBB postdoctoral fellow; and Michael Hunckler, bioengineering Ph.D. candidate. 

Humans’ historical greenhouse gas emissions have caused the climate crisis the world is in today. But it’s the amount emitted now and in coming years that will determine whether humanity can avert catastrophic climate changes. That’s the main finding of a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday, which says that even if the world cut emissions to zero today, there would still be a 42% chance of hitting 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels within a decade. That probability rises to 66% if the world waits until 2029 to reach zero emissions. “With respect to our ability to predict the timing and magnitude of peak warming, this paper shows that the devil is in the detail,” says Kim Cobb, Georgia Power Chair and ADVANCE Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “That may seem fairly ‘in the weeds’, but when you’re talking about a few tenths of a degree Celsius, that’s a big deal in terms of global warming levels.” Cobb, also director of Georgia Tech's Global Change Program, was not involved in the study.

How do we know what lands – or how much – to protect to maintain the current level of biodiversity? Jenny McGuire, an assistant professor with joint appointments in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and School of Biological Sciences, and Benjamin Shipley, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biological Sciences, share a byline for a Perspectives editorial in Science on that topic. In late 2021, McGuire received National Science Foundation and National Environment Research Council (NERC) funding to study the long-term relationships between Africa's large animals, their traits, and how they respond to changes in their environments. The goal is to use the data to forecast future changes and help inform conservation biology decisions for the continent. 

In the early 1980s, Atlanta’s zoo was known as one of the country’s worst — a depressing and woefully managed city-owned-and-operated mess. Animals died or disappeared, when they weren't confined to cages with little to no shade and with no access to open-air environments. Terry Maple — then a Georgia Tech primatologist, now a member of the School of Psychology's emeritus faculty — was the one who called it "a national disgrace." Maple was appointed executive director after an investigation, and is given credit for turning around the zoo's fortunes. Maple rallied investments and donations. Now named Zoo Atlanta, the facility has grown in size, diversity of animals, and is one of Atlanta’s biggest draws.

Abigail (Abbie) Johnson, who just received her Ph.D. in the Ocean Science and Engineering program of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, won first place in the student poster competition at AbSciCon 2022, held May 15-20 at Georgia Tech. AbSciCon 2022 featured guest lectures and workshops on the latest research in astrobiology, and was sponsored by the NASA Astrobiology Program and the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Johnson won first place for her poster, Bacterial Clathrate-Binding Proteins in the Deep Subsurface Biosphere: Implications for Gas Clathrate Stability and Habitability. (You can see the poster and hear Johnson's presentation here.)

Headlines about climate change can leave many of us a bit paralyzed, while we try to determine which individual course of action is better than another. In episode four of the Innovations Uncovered series, WebsEdge Founder/CEO Stephen Horn interviews Susan Lozier, Dean of Georgia Tech's College of Sciences, Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair, and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Lozier, a physical oceanographer and president of the American Geophysical Union, sheds light on the most impactful ways we could lessen our carbon footprint, and explains why she is so optimistic to move into the solution space of climate technology. 

Dolphins may rub on specific corals and sponges to treat their skin, researchers reported Thursday in the journal iScience. These stationary sea creatures may serve as drive-by pharmacies, dispensing a chemical cocktail that could treat bacterial or fungal infections or support skin health. The scientists said that cetaceans have not been observed self-medicating before. Some of these molecules may serve as immune boosters or sunscreens, said Julia Kubanek, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and vice president of Interdisciplinary Research, who wasn’t part of the work. People have known about corals’ and sponges’ medicinal properties for around 50 years, Kubanek said. “But dolphins may have known about how to use marine organisms as medicines much longer than we have,” she added.

Chemists say they have solved a crucial problem in a theory of life’s beginnings, by demonstrating that RNA molecules can link short chains of amino acids together. The findings, published in Nature, support a variation on the ‘RNA world’ hypothesis, which proposes that before the evolution of DNA and the proteins it encodes, the first organisms were based on strands of RNA, a molecule that can both store genetic information — as sequences of the nucleosides A, C, G and U — and act as a catalyst for chemical reactions. “If the origins of RNA and the origins of protein are linked, and their emergence is not independent, then the math shifts radically in favor of an RNA–protein world and away from an RNA world,” says Loren Williams, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry who was not involved in the study. 

The Faces of Resiliency video series highlights how communities are increasing their resilience to sea level rise, storm surge and flooding. The series, developed by Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant at the University of Georgia, features interviews with coastal residents and researchers who share stories of adapting to coastal hazards through community engagement and collaboration with scientists, nonprofits, or government agencies. The video "Conserving Georgia's Salt Water Marshes" features Joel Kostka, professor and associate chair of Research in the School of Biological Sciences, highlighting his studies on helping salt water marshes stabilize shorelines while providing space for marshes to migrate in the future.

Once upon a time, all life on Earth was alien. But eventually, strange single-celled organisms thriving on a harsh planet gave way to complex, multicellular organisms made up of the basic building blocks we associate with life today, including carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. NASA announced this week that a new collaboration of astrobiology researchers across the country, working together under a Research Coordination Network called LIFE, will spend the next five years dedicating their efforts to understanding this journey from alien to familiar. Frank Rosenzweig, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, will co-lead the effort, along with former College of Sciences postdoctoral fellow Betül Kaçar, now an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.