Experts in the News

"A dog is a man's best friend," the old saying goes. Can the same soon be said of robot dogs? This summer, a group of scientists including alumna Feifei Qian (M.S. PHYS 2011, Ph.D. ECE 2015) and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences assistant professor Frances Rivera-Hernández, will travel to Oregon's snow-capped Mt. Hood to train a dog-shaped robot named Spirit how to walk. The slopes of Mt. Hood are strewn with volcanic rocks and sprinkled with glaciers, a rugged environment that researchers think resembles the moon — which Spirit is being prepared to eventually explore. (This story also appeared at BBC, Reuters, Sharjah 24. and TAG 24).

In a new study, published in GEN Biotechnology titled, “Changes in Gene Network Interactions in Breast Cancer Onset and Development,” researchers from the School of Biological Sciences and the Integrated Cancer Research Center (Zainab Arshad, Stephen N. Housley, Kara Keun Lee, and John F. McDonald) have identified differential gene-network changes characteristic of the three most prevalent molecular subtypes of breast cancer, Luminal A, Luminal B, and the highly metastatic Basal-like subtype. In contrast to previous studies, the authors expanded their analysis beyond genes differentially expressed between normal and cancer samples, as differential gene expression may not be a prerequisite for changes in gene-gene interactions. (This story also appeared at Medical Xpress and Mirage News.)

In an opinion published in the May 2024 edition of APSNews, School of Physics Professor Andrew Zangwill reflects on the debate on the boundaries of physics and its impact on the discipline. Zangwill states “for more than a century, physicists have been drawing and redrawing the borders around the field, embracing and rejecting subfields along the way.”

A new study — led by Dolly Seeburger, a graduate student in the School of Psychology, alongside her advisor Eric Schumacher, a professor in the School of Psychology — investigates the brain’s mechanisms behind deep focus. The research employs fMRI to explore low-frequency fluctuations in brain networks during focused and less-focused states. The team discovered that certain brain networks synchronize and desynchronize, affecting an individual’s ability to maintain attention. This insight into the dynamic nature of brain activity could lead to better strategies for enhancing focus and attention in various cognitive tasks. (This story also appeared at Medical Xpress.)

The stars aligned to give a Georgia Tech undergraduate student and an alum the moment of a lifetime during the recent solar eclipse. Corinne Hill is currently majoring in physics with a concentration in astrophysics. Nathaniel Greve graduated in 2023 with a degree in computer science. The couple met in 2021 when they both played alto saxes in the Georgia Tech marching band. After being unable to experience totality in 2017, Greve said the pair made plans to go to Wapakoneta, Ohio, for 2024′s eclipse. Hill’s friends in the Astronomy Club went to the Ozarks to experience the eclipse, but Hill agreed to go to Ohio instead.

Researchers in the School of Psychology co-authored a 2017 study related to daydreaming. They found that daydreamers have unique connections in their brains, linking parts that handle deep thoughts and creativity. That means your daydreaming is more than just moments lost in thought. They’re actual signs that you’re sharper and more creative than you realize, especially when it comes to solving complex puzzles and coming up with new ideas.

Crowds in Georgia and people across the U.S. are gearing up to watch the 2024 Great North American Eclipse. The eclipse’s path of totality stretches across 13 states in the U.S. Georgia is not included in the path of totality, but Atlanta is expected to experience the effects of a partial eclipse. Show host Rose Scott speaks with Georgia-based astronomy expert Jim Sowell, a principal academic professional with the School of Physics and an astronomy expert who serves as the director of the Georgia Tech Observatory.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world’s top biomedical research funders, will from next year require grant holders to make their research publicly available as preprints, articles that haven’t yet been accepted by a journal or gone through peer review. The foundation also said it would stop paying for article-processing charges (APCs) — fees imposed by some journal publishers to make scientific articles freely available online for all readers, a system known as open access (OA). In 2015, the Gates Foundation announced that it would require its grant recipients to make their research articles freely available at the time of publication by placing them in open repositories. It later joined cOAlition S — a group of mainly European research funders and organizations supporting OA academic publishing — and endorsed the group’s Plan S, by which funders mandate that grant holders publish their work through an OA route. Ending support for APCs is a “very sensible plan” given the unsustainable increase in such charges in recent years, says Lynn Kamerlin, a computational biophysicist and professor at the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “The Gates Foundation plan is the open-access plan I would have liked to see when Plan S was announced.”

It’s been 10 years since the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, successfully launched the astronomy outreach program called Aloha Explorations at the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing site, or AMOS, in Maui, Hawaii. This STEM outreach project uses an 11-inch Celestron telescope, also known as the Aloha Telescope, to provide students in grades K-12 the ability to view live images from their classrooms and remotely control the telescope via an internet connection. The idea for this project originated from Dr. James Sowell, an astronomer and observatory director at the School of Physics. (This story also appeared at Los Alamos Daily Post and Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.)

Georgia Tech students associated with the Astronomy Club are traveling to Missouri in order to be in the path of totality for the April 8 solar eclipse. The path of totality is the prime spot for viewing the moon travel between the Earth and the Sun. For the eclipse viewing trip, the Club plans to bring along astrophotography gear, an 8-inch Celestron telescope with a solar filter, and other equipment for members to use. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also covered this story.)

Mega Millions breached the $1 billion mark, and it looks like the Powerball jackpot isn't too far behind. Yet, lottery games are mostly only lucrative for the private companies that states hire to run them, said Lew Lefton, emeritus faculty member with the Georgia Tech School of Mathematics, in a USA Today article. In fact, winning big in Mega Millions and Powerball is even harder now because recent rules make the odds even longer so lottery games can sell more tickets, he added.

Recent studies show nearly half of the world’s species are on the move because of the changing climate and habitat disruption. Apart from slowing fossil fuel production and prioritizing carbon storage, a direct solution for species inching north as temperatures rise is improving climate connectivity, a term likely coined by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in a 2016 study. The idea builds on the established science of wildlife corridors and land conservation that supports the migration of animals. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Assistant Professor Jenny McGuire, who worked on the study, said this kind of movement differs from traditional migration patterns. Instead of departing annually and returning, species are permanently moving to areas they’re finding more hospitable. “They’re moving in such a way that they’re tracking the climates they’re suited to live in or able to live in, and then staying in those places,” McGuire said.