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.
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
Georgia Tech has announced its commitment to addressing climate change by launching a Climate Action Plan. Its development began in 2022 and the plan will be put into place this year. According to a press release from the Institute, the plan “will include developing a greenhouse gas inventory, modeling potential mitigation strategies and engaging with faculty, students and staff from across campus.” Some of those students, including Rachel Chin, a fifth-year student in the School of Biological Sciences, are anxious to know more about carbon neutrality goals and other aspects of the plan.
Tech initiates new carbon neutrality plan by 2050 | 2023-01-27T00:00:00-05:00
In an advisory meeting in late January, the FDA signaled its intention to start doling out COVID vaccines just like flu shots: once a year in autumn, for just about everyone, ad infinitum. Joshua Weitz is a professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure. Weitz said that recommendations on the proper timing and number of doses have changed so many times that many Americans have simply "checked out." After the bivalent recipe debuted, polls found that an alarming proportion of people didn’t even know the shot was available to them. That is what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) for the week of January 20 found. Weitz and Stephen Beckett, a research scientist in the School of Biological Sciences, conducted research for the CDC report.
The Flu-ification of COVID Policy Is Almost Complete | 2023-01-26T00:00:00-05:00
The legendary ability of cats to fall back on their paws could one day help humans walk better after a spinal cord injury, according to research done at the Université de Sherbrooke. The knowledge could also help seniors whose sense of balance is more precarious. In collaboration with researchers from Georgia Tech and Drexel, the Sherbrooke researchers wanted to better understand how what science calls a somatosensory return allows a cat to coordinate the movement of its four legs. Boris Prilutsky, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, collaborated on the research.
Cats land on their feet, which could help humans walk better | 2023-01-23T00:00:00-05:00
2022 was an instrumental year for Zoo Atlanta’s research team, spearheading studies that change the way scientists and wildlife experts understand different species — ranging from mammals to reptiles — and inform best ways to care for and protect the animals. Last year, the team and partners published 16 peer-reviewed papers in total, according to Joseph Mendelson, adjunct professor in the School of Biological Sciences who is also Zoo Atlanta's Director of Research. For one paper, David Hu, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering was part of a study that focused on the mechanics of the skin wrinkles and folds in an elephant's trunk. Other School of Biological Sciences researchers assembled the genome of the critically endangered Guatemalan beaded lizard. Those researchers include former graduate student Carl J. Dyson, doctoral student Aaron Pfennig, Joseph Lachance, associate professor; Joseph Mendelson, and Michael Goodisman, professor.
A look at Zoo Atlanta’s breakthrough research findings in 2022 | 2023-01-20T00:00:00-05:00
