To request a media interview, please reach out to School of Biological Sciences experts using our faculty directory, or contact Jess Hunt-Ralston, College of Sciences communications director. A list of faculty experts and research areas across the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech is also available to journalists upon request.
Fish that tend patches of stringy algae seem to shield branching corals from the worst effects of marine heat waves and help them recover after bleaching. In 2019, the reefs near the French Polynesian island of Moorea in the South Pacific Ocean endured their worst heat stress event in 14 years. Branching corals there bleached en masse. Some of those colonies were in "gardens" defended by farmerfish, which cultivate their own algae for food and chase off fish that eat plants and corals. The researchers discovered that, after one year, just 44 per cent of colonies inside gardens died compared with 67 per cent of those outside gardens. What’s more, colonies on the turf of the territorial fish were twice as likely to recover living tissue to the levels they had been before bleaching. Mark Hay, Regents Professor and Teasley Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, didn't work on the research but said that tissue recovery was "a big deal" and that the farmerfish seem to be having a positive effect. (Subscription required)
New Scientist | 2023-03-19T00:00:00-04:00
Plants, like animals and people, seek refuge from climate change. And when they move, they take ecosystems with them. To understand why and how plants have trekked across landscapes throughout time, researchers are calling for a new framework. The key to protecting biodiversity in the future may be understanding the past. Jenny McGuire, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the School of Biological Sciences, spearheaded a U.S. National Science Foundation-supported paper on the topic in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. McGuire and her collaborators highlight the outstanding needs for successful future conservation efforts. The paper brings together conservation research that illuminates the complex and constantly evolving dynamics brought on by climate change and the ever-shifting ways humans use land. These factors, McGuire said, interact over time to create dynamic changes and illustrate the need to incorporate time perspectives into conservation strategies by looking deep into the past. (This research was also covered in Time Magazine.)
National Science Foundation | 2023-03-06T00:00:00-05:00
Billions of years ago, before there were beasts, bacteria or any living organism, there were RNAs. These molecules were probably swirling around with amino acids and other rudimentary biomolecules, merging and diverging, on an otherwise lifeless crucible of a planet. Did one of those biomolecules lead to the development of 'protoribosomes' that would work their magic to kickstart life on early Earth? An Israeli biologist won a share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for that theory. That scientist and another in Japan say they're closing in on building that protoribosome in their labs. Nature asked scientists to weigh in on that prospect, and one of them is Anton Petrov, research scientist and evolutionary biologist in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Petrov is also a member of Georgia Tech's Center for the Origins of Life (COOL).
How did life begin? One key ingredient is coming into view | 2023-03-01T00:00:00-05:00
Can washing your hands help stop the evolution of antibiotic resistance? Mathematically, it’s possible. While bacteria that are more sensitive to the antibiotics are killed off, those that are able to survive will continue to reproduce with less competition. This results in increasing abundance of resistant bacteria that can undermine the effectiveness of the antibiotic. Kristofer Wollein Waldetoft is a postdoctoral fellow in infection medicine for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the School of Biological Sciences who researches in the lab of Sam Brown, professor and member of the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection. Woldetoft collaborated with Brown and other colleagues to develop a mathematical model of antibiotic resistance evolution to learn the role hygiene plays in that process.
One easy way to fight antibiotic resistance? Good hand hygiene | 2023-02-28T00:00:00-05:00
The Atlanta Science Festival will take place from March 10-25. This will be the 10th festival and is set to be the largest yet, with 150 science events over the course of 2 weeks (65 of which are free). These events are not just for kids. Some adult-friendly events to look out for are the recurring Breaking Down the Bean events, focused on coffee brewing, and the Water, the Source of Civilizations event exploring water’s role in human history through art. Several College of Sciences faculty, students, and staff are taking part in the festival. A recent Atlanta Science Festival media preview in Decatur included hive insects from the Goodisman Lab, led by Michael Goodisman, professor in the School of Biological Sciences. Also the last event in the Festival is set for Piedmont Park March 25. (More information on the Atlanta Science Festival can be found here.)
The thrill of discovery: Atlanta Science Festival returns next month | 2023-02-26T00:00:00-05:00
Walk around a forest in Canada and you can’t miss the precise piles of round animal poop: Deer, moose, and rabbits. But there is one animal in the world (that we know of) that poops in cubes and it’s a wombat. How does the Tasmanian mammal do that? Yes, serious researchers want to know. A team from the University of Tasmania has determined that a wombat’s surprisingly long and intermittently stretchy intestines compress their poop (or stool) into cubes. David Hu, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Biological Sciences, worked on the wombat research with the University of Tasmania.
Why wombats have cubed-shaped poop | 2023-02-22T00:00:00-05:00
The sheer speed of temperature increases in the climate crisis era, combined with the fragmentation of landscapes by human activity, is making it harder for trees and other plants to follow their preferred climate conditions. These changes are disrupting a millennia-old process of plant migration, and it could pose a major challenge to global efforts to protect wildlife and reforest land to fight climate change. A study published Feb. 6 by Georgia Tech researchers found that 75% of the dominant plant groups in North America, including trees like pines and oaks, have migrated across the region over the last 18,000 years to track the movement of their ideal growing conditions. That plant migration will be harder to pull off over the coming decades, according to Jenny McGuire, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the School of Biological Sciences, and a co-author of the study. “There’s so many barriers and filters to plant movement now. That could prevent them from shifting in some places,” she says.
Plants Must Migrate to Survive Climate Change. But They Need Our Help | 2023-02-15T00:00:00-05:00
Beginning this upcoming summer term, Georgia Tech’s School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) will offer three new Bachelor of Science degrees. These undergraduate opportunities will expand the breadth of the EAS program while simultaneously allowing students in the program to develop a more specialized plan of study in a field that aligns with their interests. The University System of Georgia (USG) has approved two new degrees within the school: Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences (AOS) and Solid Earth and Planetary Sciences (SEP). They also approved a new bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences (ENVS) that will be an interdisciplinary degree between EAS and the School of Biological Sciences (BIOS). (More information is available here.)
EAS school unveils three new major programs | 2023-02-13T00:00:00-05:00
Florida State University climate scientists and others were recently granted $3.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to investigate carbon storage in the peatlands environment. Peatlands can be found across the globe, covering almost every continent. The largest area of peatlands can be found towards the Northern and Southern hemispheres and closest to the equator. In Florida, the greatest example of a peatland environment is the Everglades. FSU will work with Georgia Tech researchers on the DOE grant, including Joel Kostka, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Department of Energy funds peatlands greenhouse gas study conducted by FSU Scientists | 2023-02-09T00:00:00-05:00
Without conservation-based understanding and intervention, plant and animal species across the globe face rapidly changing ecosystems that will require dynamic adaptation or lead them toward extinction. A special feature titled “The past as a lens for biodiversity conservation on a dynamically changing planet” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the overview article of the same name delves into how recent work in conservation biology, ecology and paleontology reveals how plants and animals respond to rapid and dynamic environmental changes. Jenny McGuire, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Science and the School of Biological Sciences, is a co-author of the study.
Special feature looks at history for biodiversity conservation | 2023-02-08T00:00:00-05:00
