Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology may have made headway in helping determine the origin of life by identifying three different molecules that self-assemble to form a molecular structure with features characteristic of modern RNA. In the new study, researchers led by Nicholas Hud studied reactions in conditions that mimicked rain and evaporation cycles on the early Earth. They identified three candidates for the bases of proto-RNA: barbituric acid,melamine, and 2, 4, 6-triaminopyrimidine. Reactions with these molecules and the ribose sugar produced nucleosides, which are composite molecules that are close to the sub-units of RNA. Hud is a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the director of the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, based in Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech has received an award for $3.7 million from the National Science Foundation to cover 70 percent of the cost of a new high-performance computing (HPC) resource that will be established at the Coda building at Tech Square, which is set to open next spring. Project participants include two from the College of Sciences: David Sherrill, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Deirdre Shoemaker, professor of physics. 

While earning her advanced chemistry degree at Georgia Tech, Rena Ingram had a change of heart. She realized that her true passion was teaching. So, with the help of her mentors, she pivoted to a teaching fellowship. Now, she's living her dream teaching high school chemistry. Her story is among those profiled in this feature about what happens when grad school doesn't pan out. Earlier, we wrote about Rena's experience; read our story here. 

Mathematicians have investigated the equations required to describe — or embed — different kinds of shapes in spaces with different numbers of dimensions. They ask questions like, “Do equations exist that describe this shape in that space?” and “How complicated are the equations required to describe a given shape in space?”...In 2006, a mathematician at the Georgia Institute of Technology named Matt Baker realized it was possible to build a new proof of the Brill-Noether theorem using techniques drawn entirely from the upstart field of tropical geometry. Baker is a professor in the School of Mathematics and associate dean for faculty development in the College of Sciences.

To revive antibiotics and devise new drug designs, Georgia Tech researchers team up with Oak Ridge’s Titan supercomputer....Knocking out efflux pumps is a promising strategy both to create new drugs and bring old antibiotics back to life, says physicist James C. Gumbart of the Georgia Institute of Technology...Gumbart and his team have used Titan, the Cray XK7 supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, a Department of Energy (DOE) user facility, to simulate the shape and related stability of proteins related to cells' machinery to expel toxic substances.