Experts in the News

New research led by scientists working with Georgia State University’s TReNDS Center has identified age-related changes in brain patterns associated with the risk for developing schizophrenia. The discovery could help clinicians identify the risk for developing mental illness earlier and improve treatment options. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The research is part of a collaboration by experts from the University of Bari Aldo Moro, the Lieber Institute of Brain Development and the Tri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS) based at Georgia State University. The TReNDS Center is a collaboration among Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, and Emory University.

One of the most popular pop psychology concepts to take hold in recent years is that of the “growth mindset.” The belief that you can improve your mental powers (grow your brain) can be a powerful tool in helping you actually achieve the success you desire. The converse mindset, or “fixed,” keeps you tied so heavily to the idea that you need to perform well that you fear doing anything that could jeopardize a favorable outcome. But what if your mindset doesn’t really matter? What if the idea is just an oversimplification, as so many pop psychology concepts are? Alexander Burgoyne, postdoctoral researcher in the School of Psychology, co-authored research on 63 studies of growth mindsets showing that there was "no support for meaningful changes in motivation and behavior." Also, many of the studies showed inadequate study design, reporting flaws, and bias. 

Extreme weather isn't exclusive to the planet; storms twice the size of Earth, winds faster than the strongest hurricanes, and towering tornadoes thousands of miles high all rage in the distant corners of the universe. Episode 1 of the second season of The Weather Channel's show The Earth Unlocked features commentary from Annalisa Bracco, professor and associate chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Bracco's research includes a study of the atmospheric "oceans" of Jupiter and its polar cyclones. (DirecTV subscription required to view episodes.) 

Could the system of ocean currents that regulates the climate for a swath of the planet — currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) — collapse sooner than expected? New research, published in the journal Nature Communications, show that a sharp weakening of the currents, or even a shutdown, could be upon us by century’s end. In interviews, several researchers who study the overturning applauded the new analysis for using a novel approach to predict when we might cross a tipping point. But they voiced reservations about some of its methods, and said more work was still needed to nail down the timing with greater certainty. Susan Lozier, Dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair of the College of Sciences, and a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has researched the AMOC in the past and is involved in new efforts to directly measure its currents. But the projects began collecting data in 2004 at the earliest, which isn’t enough time to draw firm long-term conclusions. “It is extremely difficult to look at a short record for the ocean overturning and say what it is going to do over 30, 40 or 50 years,” Lozier said.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, now the protagonist of a much-anticipated film, is today most known for his scientific leadership of the U.S. Manhattan Project, the World War II–era crash program to build the first-ever atomic bombs. But just a few years earlier, Oppenheimer had found himself pondering very different “weapons” of mass destruction: black holes — although it would be decades before that name arose. “It was influential; it was visionary,” says Feryal Özel, professor and chair of the School of Physics, of Oppenheimer’s work on black holes and neutron stars, the superdense corpses of expired massive stars. “He has a lasting impact.” Özel is a founding member of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, which released the first-ever image of a black hole in 2019 — 80 years after Oppenheimer co-authored a paper theorizing that such objects could exist.

The work of School of Biological Sciences researchers William Ratcliff and Ozan Bozdag makes its way into this Cosmos Magazine column from Redmond Symons, who waxes eloquent how his body developed from a single cell. In May 2023, Ratcliff, an associate professor and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, along with Bozdag, a research scientist, released a study on how they developed multicellular colonies from single cells of snowflake yeast. The team showed how the cells evolved to be physically stronger and more than 20,000 times larger than their ancestor. This type of biophysical evolution is a pre-requisite for the kind of large multicellular life that can be seen with the naked eye. Their study is the first major report on the ongoing Multicellularity Long-Term Evolution Experiment (MuLTEE), which the team hopes to run for decades.

One of those signs involves being a bit absent-minded, but don't worry. If you’re a deep thinker, you’ll always be lost in your thoughts. Your brain is always busy imagining scenarios and solving problems big and small. This story points to a 2017 Georgia Tech-led study showing that daydreaming may be a sign of a creative, intelligent person. Eric Schumacher, professor in the School of Psychology, and then-Ph.D. scholar Christine Godwin were co-authors of that study.

Membrane efflux pumps play a major role in bacterial multidrug resistance. The tripartite multi-drug efflux pump system from Escherichia coli, AcrAB-TolC, is a target for inhibition to lessen resistance development and restore antibiotic efficacy, with homologs in other ESKAPE pathogens. Our results support a model where an inhibitor forms a molecular wedge within a cleft between the lipoyl and αβ barrel domains of AcrA, diminishing its conformational transmission of drug-evoked signals from AcrB to TolC. This work provides molecular insights into multi-drug adaptor protein function which could be valuable for developing antimicrobial therapeutics. Co-authors of the study include two School of Chemistry and Biochemistry researchers: Associate Professor James Gumbart and Ph.D. candidate Katie M. Kuo. (Gumbart is also an associate professor in the School of Physics.) 

As an organic chemist at Harvard Medical School, Liz Jones loves to study how bonds are made and broken in the molecules in our bodies. She manipulates those bonds when building molecular probes to study the gut microbiome and developing potential new drugs to treat microbiome-related illnesses. She also forges bonds among people, both as a scientist and as an Ultimate Frisbee coach.“I’m super drawn to team environments,” said Jones, research fellow in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS. Jones received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. 

Four science instruments at Delta Junction, Alaska, have begun gathering air quality data as part of a multi-state project to determine the chemical content and physical properties of airborne particulate matter. The Delta Junction site, one of 12 in 10 states, is managed by associate professor Jingqiu Mao of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and College of Natural Science and Mathematics. Nga Lee “Sally” Ng, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is the lead investigator. The instruments began operating June 26. The $12 million project, funded by the National Science Foundation, has created the nation’s first long-term network of monitoring stations on aerosol chemical content and properties.

The heart’s electrical system keeps all its muscle cells beating in sync. A hard whack to the chest at the wrong moment, however, can set up unruly waves of abnormal electrical excitation that are potentially deadly. The resulting kind of arrhythmia may be what caused the football player Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills to collapse on the field after he took a powerful hit during a 2023 National Football League game. In this Quanta podcast, Flavio Fenton, a professor in the School of Physics who studies the electrical dynamics of the heart, tells host Steve Strogatz about a new method under development for treating arrhythmias by stimulating the heart with mild, precisely timed shocks — or possibly even with light.

Ariel Marshall, who received a Ph.D. from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2014, is the new Chief of Staff, Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Innovation in the U.S. Department of Energy. Marshall, who joins the DOE after serving as legislative director for Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), will work alongside Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm to implement President Biden’s climate and energy agenda and the Administration’s investments in energy infrastructure across the nation.