Environment

Deep Dive Into Shark Ecology Provides Path to Conservation

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 18:22:41 +0000

Deep Dive Into Shark Ecology Provides Path to Conservation admin Thu, 07/24/2025 - 14:22

Few animals captivate people’s imagination like sharks. From the enduring cultural legacy of Jaws, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, to the continued popularity of the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, now in its 37th year, media portrayals of the apex predator can shape public perception, illuminate their role within Earth's ecosystems, and influence conservation efforts.

For Cameron Perry, every week is shark week. The Georgia Tech alumnus earned his Ph.D. in ocean science and engineering in 2024 and now leads the whale shark and manta ray initiatives at Georgia Aquarium.

As a 6-year-old listening to his mother read him Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and imagining the creatures Captain Nemo encountered, Perry had dreams of exploring the oceans for himself. When he saw his first whale shark in Georgia Aquarium's 6.3-million-gallon tank, he set out to learn as much as he could about the gentle giants and help to conserve the endangered species.

Perry's research has taken him around the world to observe whale shark behaviors in St. Helena and the Galapagos Islands, working to understand their migration habits, reproduction, and global ecology. While most people won't encounter sharks daily as he does, Perry sees the aquarium as well as the media as effective tools in showcasing sharks in the proper light.

"They are kind of mysterious and unknown. For many people, they've never encountered sharks in their lifetime, and part of that captivation could lead to fear, but education can turn that fear into wonder and awe. There's a narrative that these animals are mindless eating machines, but the more you learn, you realize that's not the case," he said. “These creatures have existed for 400 million years; they're older than trees, and understanding their role on our planet is important to changing the narrative around sharks."

Perry likens sharks to the white blood cells of the ecosystems in which they live, as they help prevent the spread of disease through the consumption of dead or diseased prey, contribute to population control, and provide balance to the ocean's biodiversity.

Understanding Our Role

While at Georgia Tech, Perry worked alongside Regents’ Chair and Harry and Anna Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology Mark Hay, whose research has highlighted the role that sharks, and other large predators, play in habitat regulation within coral reefs. Hay explains that overfishing and other human activities have decimated shark populations in certain parts of the world, significantly affecting coral reefs and the populations that rely on them.

As the manager of a freshwater beach in Kentucky in 1975, Hay saw firsthand the impact that Jaws had on the beachgoing public at the time — including his lifeguards.

“I had about 25 lifeguards, and I made them swim a mile every day on our buoy line. After we all went to see Jaws, about half of them refused to swim the mile for over a week. They'd look at me and say, 'You can fire me. I'm not going in,' and I'd laugh and say, ‘We're in freshwater. Jaws isn't in there.’"

Hay said that while the movie remains a favorite of his, its depiction of sharks isn't representative of their behavior in the wild, as shark attacks are often accidents, not predatory actions. Like Perry, Hay believes that education can help protect sharks and bring a renewed focus to solving the ongoing issues facing the oceans.

"These ecosystems are degrading, and it's us that's doing it. What I am trying to do in my teaching is to go beyond cataloging the demise and take a more Georgia Tech-type approach by saying, 'If the bridge is broken, we have to be the ones to rebuild it,'" he said.

Hay keeps a saber-toothed tiger fossil on his desk as a constant reminder to himself that "everything I study was shaped by what used to be here," and how understanding nature can help preserve it for the future. Sharks are a captivating species, and both Perry and Hay stress that continued research and a commitment to education are the key to their conservation.

Subtitle

Experts say that more accurate depictions of sharks can help protect them and highlight their role in global ecosystems.

Summary sentence

Experts say that more accurate depictions of sharks can help protect them and highlight their role in global ecosystems.

Summary

Experts say that more accurate depictions of sharks can help protect them and highlight their role in global ecosystems.

Dateline

Thu, 07/24/2025 - 12:00

Steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Gagliano – Institute Communications

Associated importer

Keywords

Sharks

Whale Sharks

conservation

College of Sciences

go-researchnews

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Categories

Digital Media and Entertainment

Environment

Life Sciences and Biology

Research

Mercury ID

683257

Source updated

Thu, 07/24/2025 - 14:21

‘Biochar’ Can Naturally Clean the Pollution that Rain Washes Off Georgia’s Roads

admin — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 17:12:51 +0000

‘Biochar’ Can Naturally Clean the Pollution that Rain Washes Off Georgia’s Roads admin Thu, 07/10/2025 - 13:12

A charcoal-like material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors could be a cheap, sustainable way to keep pollution from washing off roadways and into Georgia’s lakes and rivers.

Engineers at Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern University have found that this biological charcoal, or biochar, can be mixed with soil and used along roadways to catch grimy rainwater and filter it naturally before it pollutes surface water.

Their tests found the biochar effectively cleans contaminants from the rainwater and works just as well in the sandy soils of the coastal plain as in the clays of north Georgia. Their biochar-soil mixture can be easily substituted for expensive material mined from the earth that’s typically used on roads.

Though they focused on Georgia, the researchers said the findings could easily apply across the U.S., providing a simple, natural way to keep road pollutants out of water sources. They published their approach in the Journal of Environmental Management.

Learn about their system on the College of Engineering website.

Summary sentence

A new study shows how the material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors can be mixed with local soil to filter out road grime before it reaches waterways.

Summary

A new study shows how the material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors can be mixed with local soil to filter out road grime before it reaches waterways.

Dateline

Thu, 07/10/2025 - 12:00

jstewart@gatech.edu

Contact

Joshua Stewart
College of Engineering

Associated importer

Keywords

go-researchnews

go-rbi

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Categories

Engineering

Environment

Research

Mercury ID

683093

Source updated

Thu, 07/10/2025 - 13:12

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:52:41 +0000

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy admin Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

More than half a century after the United States won the race to the moon, the White House is setting its sights on a new frontier: Mars. In a move reminiscent of the Apollo era, the administration has proposed landing Americans on the red planet by the end of 2026 — a bold initiative that has reignited national ambition and drawn comparisons to the space race of the 20th century.

At Georgia Tech, researchers are already considering the mission’s implications, from engineering challenges to international diplomacy. While the White House has framed the mission as a demonstration of American leadership, experts say its success will depend on collaboration — across disciplines, sectors, and borders.

“This is more than a space race,” said Christos Athanasiou, an assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “Mars isn’t just the next step for space exploration — it’s a stress test for everything we’ve learned about sustainability, resilience, and engineering under uncertainty.”

Engineering for the Red Planet

For Athanasiou, the Mars mission is a test of human ingenuity, creativity, and endurance. Unlike the moon, Mars is months away by spacecraft, with no quick return option. That distance introduces a host of engineering challenges that must be solved before a single boot touches Martian soil.

“Ensuring astronaut safety on such a long-duration mission requires us to understand how the Earth materials we will be using in our mission behave in extraterrestrial conditions,” he said.

In his recent TEDx talk, Athanasiou emphasized that the mission must also consider its environmental impact. Mars may be barren, but it is not immune to contamination. Athanasiou believes that strategies used for environmental remediation on Earth — such as waste recycling, habitat sustainability, and pollution control — can be adapted to protect the Martian environment.

“If we can build structures that survive Mars using recycled materials, AI, and Earth-born ingenuity, we’ll unlock entirely new ways to live — both out there and back here,” he said.

Reading the Martian Landscape

James Wray, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has spent years analyzing Mars’ surface using data from orbiters and rovers. He sees the planet as both a scientific treasure trove and a logistical puzzle.

“Mars has vast lava plains, dust storms, and steep canyons that pose real risks to human settlement,” Wray said.

But beneath the challenges lies opportunity. Mars is home to significant deposits of water ice, especially near the poles and just below the surface in some mid-latitude regions. That water could be used not only for drinking but also for producing oxygen and rocket fuel — critical resources for long-term habitation and return missions.

“The presence of water ice near the surface is a game changer. It could support life, and more importantly, it could support us,” Wray said.

He also noted that Mars’ thin atmosphere — just 1% the density of Earth’s — complicates everything from landing spacecraft to shielding astronauts from cosmic radiation. “We’ve learned a lot from robotic missions. Now it’s time to apply that knowledge to human exploration.”

Diplomacy Beyond Earth

Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, says that the Mars mission could have significant diplomatic implications. “The Mars mission has little to no bearing on space security; it has no military value,” he said. However, he noted that international cooperation could still play a valuable role in reducing the financial burden of such a costly endeavor.

Hines warned that shifting U.S. priorities from the moon to Mars could strain the international partnerships built through the Artemis program. He explained that some countries may view the Mars initiative as a distraction from the more immediate and economically promising lunar goals. Political instability in the U.S., he added, could further erode trust in its long-term commitments. “Countries may lose faith that the United States is a reliable partner to cooperate with for its lunar program if Mars seems to be the new priority,” he said.

He also pointed to existing legal frameworks like the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits sovereign claims on celestial bodies, and the Rescue Agreement, which obliges nations to assist astronauts in distress. While these agreements provide a foundation, Hines emphasized that they don’t fully address the complexities of future Mars missions.

Establishing international norms for Mars exploration, he said, will be challenging. “Norms are really hard to develop,” Hines explained, noting that countries often hesitate to commit to rules without assurance that others will do the same. Still, he suggested that Mars — with its limited material value — might offer a rare opportunity for cooperation, if nations are willing to engage in good faith.

Subtitle

Georgia Tech contributes to the national vision with research in engineering, science, and policy.

Summary sentence

As the White House accelerates plans for a 2026 crewed mission to Mars, Georgia Tech experts highlight the engineering, scientific, and diplomatic challenges that will shape the success—and sustainability—of humanity’s next giant leap.

Summary

Dateline

Wed, 06/25/2025 - 12:00

media@gatech.edu

Contact

Siobhan Rodriguez
Senior Media Relations Representative
Institute Communications

Keywords

Mars mission

White House space policy

2026 Mars landing

Georgia Tech

Christos Athanasiou

James Wray

Lincoln Hines

NASA

Artemis program

space exploration

international cooperation

Outer Space Treaty

space diplomacy

space security

lunar vs. Mars priorities

U.S.–China space relations

environmental impact on Mars

human spaceflight

Mars geology

Space Policy

go-researchnews

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Science and Technology

Categories

Aerospace

Engineering

Environment

Institute and Campus

National Interests/National Security

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Research

Mercury ID

682882

Source updated

Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

Tim Lieuwen Honored by Royal Academy of Engineering

admin — Tue, 20 May 2025 16:08:48 +0000

Tim Lieuwen Honored by Royal Academy of Engineering admin Tue, 05/20/2025 - 12:08

Professor Tim Lieuwen has been elected to the status of International Fellow by the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering. He is one of three other US engineers to receive this prestigious fellowship, which emphasizes enhancing the role of engineering in society and developing an inclusive future through research, education initiatives, and industry collaborations.

Lieuwen is a Regents’ Professor, the David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE), a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, among several others. For 12 years, he served as executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute; he is currently serving as Georgia Tech’s interim executive vice president for Research.

“Tim Lieuwen’s groundbreaking research and leadership have been instrumental in advancing the AE School’s mission,” said Mitchell Walker, AE chair. “His work in combustion dynamics, propulsion, and clean energy systems not only enhances our academic reputation but also drives significant, real-world impact, as recognized by the Academy.”

Lieuwen’s research focuses on developing clean combustion technologies for power generation and propulsion. He works closely with industry and government professionals to address energy concerns and set the standard for clean tech manufacturing. The Georgia Tech alumnus will formally be admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on November 27, 2024.

The 2024 class includes 60 Fellows, six International Fellows, and five Honorary Fellows, each of whom has made exceptional contributions to their own field, pioneering new innovations, leading progress in business or academia, providing high-level advice to government, or promoting wider understanding of engineering and technology.

Summary sentence

The former interim chair for the AE School has been elected an International Fellow for his contributions to the aerospace and energy professions.

Summary

The former interim chair for the AE School has been elected an International Fellow for his contributions to the aerospace and energy professions.

Dateline

Wed, 09/18/2024 - 12:00

Associated importer

Keywords

go-researchnews

Categories

Aerospace

Energy

Engineering

Environment

Institute Leadership

Research

Mercury ID

676918

Source updated

Wed, 09/18/2024 - 10:35

Thesis on Human-Centered AI Earns Honors from International Computing Organization

dgivens8 — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:30:41 +0000

Thesis on Human-Centered AI Earns Honors from International Computing Organization dgivens8 Tue, 04/22/2025 - 10:30

A Georgia Tech alum’s dissertation introduced ways to make artificial intelligence (AI) more accessible, interpretable, and accountable. Although it’s been a year since his doctoral defense, Zijie (Jay) Wang’s (Ph.D. ML-CSE 2024) work continues to resonate with researchers.

Wang is a recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI). The award recognizes Wang for his lifelong work on democratizing human-centered AI.

“Throughout my Ph.D. and industry internships, I observed a gap in existing research: there is a strong need for practical tools for applying human-centered approaches when designing AI systems,” said Wang, now a safety researcher at OpenAI.

“My work not only helps people understand AI and guide its behavior but also provides user-friendly tools that fit into existing workflows.”

Wang’s dissertation presented techniques in visual explanation and interactive guidance to align AI models with user knowledge and values. The work culminated from years of research, fellowship support, and internships.

Wang’s most influential projects formed the core of his dissertation. These included:

CNN Explainer: an open-source tool developed for deep-learning beginners. Since its release in July 2020, more than 436,000 global visitors have used the tool.
DiffusionDB: a first-of-its-kind large-scale dataset that lays a foundation to help people better understand generative AI. This work could lead to new research in detecting deepfakes and designing human-AI interaction tools to help people more easily use these models.
GAM Changer: an interface that empowers users in healthcare, finance, or other domains to edit ML models to include knowledge and values specific to their domain, which improves reliability.
GAM Coach: an interactive ML tool that could help people who have been rejected for a loan by automatically letting an applicant know what is needed for them to receive loan approval.
Farsight: a tool that alerts developers when they write prompts in large language models that could be harmful and misused.

“I feel extremely honored and lucky to receive this award, and I am deeply grateful to many who have supported me along the way, including Polo, mentors, collaborators, and friends,” said Wang, who was advised by School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) Professor Polo Chau.

“This recognition also inspired me to continue striving to design and develop easy-to-use tools that help everyone to easily interact with AI systems.”

Like Wang, Chau advised Georgia Tech alumnus Fred Hohman (Ph.D. CSE 2020). Hohman won the ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2022.

Chau’s group synthesizes machine learning (ML) and visualization techniques into scalable, interactive, and trustworthy tools. These tools increase understanding and interaction with large-scale data and ML models.

Chau is the associate director of corporate relations for the Machine Learning Center at Georgia Tech. Wang called the School of CSE his home unit while a student in the ML program under Chau.

Wang is one of five recipients of this year’s award to be presented at the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025). The conference occurs April 25-May 1 in Yokohama, Japan.

SIGCHI is the world’s largest association of human-computer interaction professionals and practitioners. The group sponsors or co-sponsors 26 conferences, including CHI.

Wang’s outstanding dissertation award is the latest recognition of a career decorated with achievement.

Months after graduating from Georgia Tech, Forbes named Wang to its 30 Under 30 in Science for 2025 for his dissertation. Wang was one of 15 Yellow Jackets included in nine different 30 Under 30 lists and the only Georgia Tech-affiliated individual on the 30 Under 30 in Science list.

While a Georgia Tech student, Wang earned recognition from big names in business and technology. He received the Apple Scholars in AI/ML Ph.D. Fellowship in 2023 and was in the 2022 cohort of the J.P. Morgan AI Ph.D. Fellowships Program.

Along with the CHI award, Wang’s dissertation earned him awards this year at banquets across campus. The Georgia Tech chapter of Sigma Xi presented Wang with the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. He also received the College of Computing’s Outstanding Dissertation Award.

“Georgia Tech attracts many great minds, and I’m glad that some, like Jay, chose to join our group,” Chau said. “It has been a joy to work alongside them and witness the many wonderful things they have accomplished, and with many more to come in their careers.”

Summary sentence

Zijie (Jay) Wang (Ph.D. ML-CSE 2024) is a recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI).

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 04/17/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Bryant Wine, Communications Officer
bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu

Keywords

College of Computing

School of Computational Science and Engineering

artificial intelligence (AI)

Georgia Tech News Center

Daily Digest

Research Horizons

go-researchnews

go-ai

Categories

Computer Science/Information Technology and Security

Congressional Testimony

Digital Media and Entertainment

Economic Development and Policy

Education

Energy

Engineering

Environment

Exhibitions

Georgia Tech Arts

Industrial Design

Institute and Campus

Institute Leadership

International Education

Life Sciences and Biology

Military Technology

Music and Music Technology

Nanotechnology and Nanoscience

Performances

Physics and Physical Sciences

Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Research

Robotics

Special Events and Guest Speakers

Student Honors and Achievements

Student Research

Mercury ID

681961

Source updated

Tue, 04/22/2025 - 10:29

Machine Learning Encoder Improves Weather Forecasting and Tsunami Prediction

admin — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 01:20:41 +0000

Machine Learning Encoder Improves Weather Forecasting and Tsunami Prediction admin Tue, 03/25/2025 - 21:20

Successful test results of a new machine learning (ML) technique developed at Georgia Tech could help communities prepare for extreme weather and coastal flooding. The approach could also be applied to other models that predict how natural systems impact society.

Ph.D. student Phillip Si and Assistant Professor Peng Chen developed Latent-EnSF, a technique that improves how ML models assimilate data to make predictions.

In experiments predicting medium-range weather forecasting and shallow water wave propagation, Latent-EnSF demonstrated higher accuracy, faster convergence, and greater efficiency than existing methods for sparse data assimilation.

“We are currently involved in an NSF-funded project aimed at providing real-time information on extreme flooding events in Pinellas County, Florida,” said Si, who studies computational science and engineering (CSE).

“We're actively working on integrating Latent-EnSF into the system, which will facilitate accurate and synchronized modeling of natural disasters. This initiative aims to enhance community preparedness and safety measures in response to flooding risks.”

Latent-EnSF outperformed three comparable models in assimilation speed, accuracy, and efficiency in shallow water wave propagation experiments. These tests show models can make better and faster predictions of coastal flood waves, tides, and tsunamis.

In experiments on medium-range weather forecasting, Latent-EnSF surpassed the same three control models in accuracy, convergence, and time. Additionally, this test demonstrated Latent-EnSF's scalability compared to other methods.

These promising results support using ML models to simulate climate, weather, and other complex systems.

Traditionally, such studies require employment of large, energy-intensive supercomputers. However, advances like Latent-EnSF are making smaller, more efficient ML models feasible for these purposes.

The Georgia Tech team mentioned this comparison in its paper. It takes hours for the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts computer to run its simulations. Conversely, the ML model FourCastNet calculated the same forecast in seconds.

“Resolution, complexity, and data-diversity will continue to increase into the future,” said Chen, an assistant professor in the School of CSE.

“To keep pace with this trend, we believe that ML models and ML-based data assimilation methods will become indispensable for studying large-scale complex systems.”

Data assimilation is the process by which models continuously ingest new, real-world data to update predictions. This data is often sparse, meaning it is limited, incomplete, or unevenly distributed over time.

Latent-EnSF builds on the Ensemble Filter Scores (EnSF) model developed by Florida State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers.

EnSF’s strength is that it assimilates data with many features and unpredictable relationships between data points. However, integrating sparse data leads to lost information and knowledge gaps in the model. Also, such large models may stop learning entirely from small amounts of sparse data.

The Georgia Tech researchers employ two variational autoencoders (VAEs) in Latent-EnSF to help ML models integrate and use real-world data. The VAEs encode sparse data and predictive models together in the same space to assimilate data more accurately and efficiently.

Integrating models with new methods, like Latent-EnSF, accelerates data assimilation. Producing accurate predictions more quickly during real-world crises could save lives and property for communities.

To share Latent-EnSF to the broader research community, Chen and Si presented their paper at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE25). The Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) organized CSE25, held March 3-7 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Chen was one of ten School of CSE faculty members who presented research at CSE25, representing one-third of the School’s faculty body. Latent-EnSF was one of 15 papers by School of CSE authors and one of 23 Georgia Tech papers presented at the conference.

The pair will also present Latent-EnSF at the upcoming International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2025). Occurring April 24-28 in Singapore, ICLR is one of the world’s most prestigious conferences dedicated to artificial intelligence research.

“We hope to bring attention to experts and domain scientists the exciting area of ML-based data assimilation by presenting our paper,” Chen said. “Our work offers a new solution to address some of the key shortcomings in the area for broader applications.”

Summary sentence

Ph.D. student Phillip Si and Assistant Professor Peng Chen developed Latent-EnSF, a technique that improves how ML models assimilate data to make predictions.

Summary

Ph.D. student Phillip Si and Assistant Professor Peng Chen developed Latent-EnSF, a technique that improves how ML models assimilate data to make predictions.

Dateline

Fri, 03/14/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Bryant Wine, Communications Officer
bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu

Keywords

College of Computing

School of Computational Science and Engineering

go-researchnews

Research Horizons

Daily Digest

Georgia Tech News Center

machine learning

artificial intelligence

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Science and Technology

Categories

City Planning, Transportation, and Urban Growth

Community

Computer Science/Information Technology and Security

Engineering

Environment

Research

Student and Faculty

Student Research

Mercury ID

681164

Source updated

Tue, 03/25/2025 - 21:19

Nature's Time Machine: How Long-Term Studies Unlock Evolution's Secrets

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 15:24:41 +0000

Nature's Time Machine: How Long-Term Studies Unlock Evolution's Secrets admin Mon, 03/24/2025 - 11:24

Georgia Tech scientists are revealing how decades-long research programs have transformed our understanding of evolution, from laboratory petri dishes to tropical islands — along the way uncovering secrets that would remain hidden in shorter studies.

Through a new review paper published in Nature, the researchers underscore how long-term studies have captured evolution's most elusive processes, including the real-time formation of new species and the emergence of biological innovations.

"Evolution isn't just about change over millions of years in fossils — it's happening all around us, right now," says James Stroud, the paper’s lead author and an Elizabeth Smithgall Watts Early Career Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech. "However, to understand evolution, we need to watch it unfold in real time, often over many generations. Long-term studies allow us to do that by giving us a front-row seat to evolution in action."

The paper, “Long-term studies provide unique insights into evolution,” is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of these types of long-term evolutionary studies, and examines some of the longest-running evolutionary experiments and field studies to date, highlighting how they provide new perspectives on evolution. For example, in the Galápagos, a 40-year field study of Darwin’s finches — songbirds named after evolutionary biology’s famous founder — documented the formation of a new species through hybridization. In the lab, a study spanning 75,000 generations of bacteria showed populations unexpectedly evolving completely new metabolic abilities.

“These remarkable evolutionary events were only caught because of the long-term nature of the research programs,” Stroud says. “Even if short-term studies captured similar events, their evolutionary significance would be hard to assess without the historical context that long-term research provides.”

“The most fascinating results from long-term evolution studies are often completely unexpected — they're serendipitous discoveries that couldn't have been predicted at the start,” explains the paper’s co-author, Will Ratcliff, Sutherland Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences at Georgia Tech.

“While we can accelerate many aspects of scientific research today, evolution still moves at its own pace,” Ratcliff adds. “There's no technological shortcut for watching species adapt across generations.”

Decades of discovery — from labs to islands

The new paper also highlights a growing challenge in modern science: the critical importance of supporting long-term research in an academic landscape that increasingly favors quick results and short-term funding. Yet, they say, some of biology's most profound insights emerge only through multi-decadal efforts.

Those challenges and rewards are familiar to Stroud and Ratcliff, who operate their own long-term evolutionary research programs at Georgia Tech.

In South Florida, Stroud’s ‘Lizard Island’ is helping document evolution in action across the football field-sized island’s 1,000-lizard population. By studying a community of five species, his research is providing unique insights into how evolution maintains species’ differences, and how species evolve when new competitors arrive. Now operating for a decade, it is one of the world’s longest-running active evolutionary studies of its kind.

In his lab at Georgia Tech, Ratcliff studies the origin of complex life — specifically, how single-celled organisms become multicellular. His Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment (MuLTEE) on snowflake yeast has run for more than 9,000 generations, with aims to continue for the next 25 years. The work has shown how key steps in the evolutionary transition from single-celled organisms to multi-celled organisms occur far more easily than previously understood.

Important work in a changing world

Stroud says that the insights from these types of studies, and this review paper, are arriving at a crucial moment. “The world is rapidly changing, which poses unprecedented challenges to Earth's biodiversity,” he explains. “It has never been more important to understand how organisms adapt to changing environments over time.”

“Long-term studies provide our best window into achieving this,” he adds. “We can document, in real time, both short-term and long-term evolutionary responses of species to changes in their environment like climate change and habitat modification."

By drawing together evolution's longest-running experiments and field studies for the first time, Stroud and Ratcliff offer key insights into studying this fundamental process, suggesting that understanding life's past — and predicting its future — requires not just advanced technology or new methods, but also the simple power of time.

Funding: The US National Institutes of Health and the NSF Division of Environmental Biology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08597-9

Summary sentence

Through a new review paper published in Nature, Georgia Tech scientists are revealing how decades-long research programs have transformed our understanding of evolution, uncovering secrets that would remain hidden in shorter studies.

Summary

Through a new review paper published in Nature, Georgia Tech scientists are revealing how decades-long research programs have transformed our understanding of evolution, uncovering secrets that would remain hidden in shorter studies.

Dateline

Wed, 03/19/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Written by Selena Langner

Contact: Jess Hunt-Ralston

Keywords

cos-climate

go-bio

go-researchnews

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Categories

Environment

Life Sciences and Biology

Research

Mercury ID

681221

Source updated

Mon, 03/24/2025 - 11:22

Organization Spotlight: ElectrifyGT

admin — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:39:49 +0000

Organization Spotlight: ElectrifyGT admin Thu, 03/13/2025 - 12:39

ElectrifyGT is at the forefront of Georgia Tech’s push for a cleaner future.

As a student-led consulting organization, ElectrifyGT focuses on decarbonization strategies, aiming to replace fossil fuel or carbon-intensive campus infrastructure with electric alternatives.

In alignment with Georgia Tech’s ambitious goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, ElectrifyGT receives data from Institute departments and administrators, performing financial and carbon analyses to develop informed proposals.

“We’re like a consulting group, but our only client is Georgia Tech,” Khim Viravan, second-year electrical engineering major and president of ElectrifyGT, explained. “Our mission is to raise the student body’s awareness of electrification and work toward obtaining 100% campus electrification.”

To achieve this, ElectrifyGT operates as a project-based organization, enabling members to work as consultants.

Past projects include securing two Ford Mustang Mach-E SUVs for the Georgia Tech Police Department as part of an ongoing effort to electrify campus fleets. In 2023, they submitted a Holland Plant electrification paper that won the Carbon Reduction Challenge for the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business in the Scheller College of Business.

This semester, ElectrifyGT has five project teams focusing on fleet electrification analysis, regenerative elevators, building air conditioning efficiency, anaerobic digestion, and supercritical carbon dioxide mask sterilization.

The organization also engages its members by inviting guest speakers. In October, ElectrifyGT hosted Chad Bednar, Delta's senior global sustainability manager, to discuss the sustainability industry. This semester, they plan to host three speakers.

When asked about the future of ElectrifyGT, Viravan discussed her hopes to scale their efforts beyond Georgia Tech’s campus.

“This is our fourth year on campus, so we are a relatively new, smaller organization. I want to see member growth to expand the number of projects we do, but also to consult beyond campus to address the needs of the Atlanta metro area.”

ElectrifyGT hosts its general body meetings every Thursday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Room 200, Scheller College of Business.

Check out the organization on Engage and at @electrify_gt on Instagram to learn more.

Summary sentence

ElectrifyGT is at the forefront of Georgia Tech’s push for a cleaner future.

Summary

ElectrifyGT is at the forefront of Georgia Tech’s push for a cleaner future.

Dateline

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Emily Russell

Associated importer

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Environment

Mercury ID

681151

Source updated

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 12:39

How Earth's Early Cycles Shaped the Chemistry of Life

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 19:02:37 +0000

How Earth's Early Cycles Shaped the Chemistry of Life admin Tue, 03/04/2025 - 14:02

A new study explores how complex chemical mixtures change under shifting environmental conditions, shedding light on the prebiotic processes that may have led to life on Earth.

Led by Loren Williams (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Moran Frenkel-Pinter (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and published in Nature Chemistry, the team’s paper investigates how chemical mixtures evolve over time, offering new insights into the origins of biological complexity.

“Our research applies concepts from evolutionary biology to chemistry,” explains Williams, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “We know that everything in biology can be reduced to chemistry, but the idea of this paper is that in the right conditions, chemistry can evolve, too. We call this chemical evolution.”

While much research has focused on individual chemical reactions that could lead to biological molecules, this study establishes an experimental model to explore how entire chemical systems evolve when exposed to environmental changes.

“Chemical evolution is chemistry that keeps changing and doing new things,” Williams explains. “It’s unending chemical change, but with exploration of new chemical spaces. We wondered if we could set up a system that does that without introducing new molecules ourselves — instead we had the system oscillate between wet and dry conditions.”

In nature, these systems might look like a landscape where water condenses, and then dries out, over and over again — conditions that arise naturally from the day-night cycles of our planet.

From simple molecules to complex systems

The study identified three key findings — chemical systems can continuously evolve without reaching equilibrium, avoid uncontrolled complexity through selective chemical pathways, and exhibit synchronized population dynamics among different molecular species. This suggests that environmental factors played a key role in shaping the molecular complexity needed for life to emerge.

“This research offers a new perspective on how molecular evolution might have unfolded on early Earth,” says Frenkel-Pinter, assistant professor in the Institute of Chemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “By demonstrating that chemical systems can self-organize and evolve in structured ways, we provide experimental evidence that may help bridge the gap between prebiotic chemistry and the emergence of biological molecules.”

Beyond its relevance to origins-of-life research, the study’s findings may have broader applications in synthetic biology and nanotechnology. Controlled chemical evolution could be harnessed to design new molecular systems with specific properties, potentially leading to innovations in materials science, drug development, and biotechnology.

This research is shared jointly with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem newsroom.

Summary sentence

A new study explores how complex chemical mixtures change under shifting environmental conditions, shedding light on the prebiotic processes that may have led to life on Earth.

Summary

A new study explores how complex chemical mixtures change under shifting environmental conditions, shedding light on the prebiotic processes that may have led to life on Earth.

Dateline

Tue, 02/25/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Contact: Jess Hunt-Ralston

Keywords

cos-microbial

go-researchnews

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Categories

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Environment

Life Sciences and Biology

Research

Student and Faculty

Mercury ID

680724

Source updated

Tue, 03/04/2025 - 14:02

Using Hemp in Building Insulation Could Make Structures Greener, Create Jobs, and Be a Profitable Industry

admin — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:19:41 +0000

Using Hemp in Building Insulation Could Make Structures Greener, Create Jobs, and Be a Profitable Industry admin Thu, 02/27/2025 - 10:19

It’s a fairly niche product now, but a new study from Georgia Tech engineers suggests insulation made from hemp fibers could be a viable industry in the U.S., creating jobs, a manufacturing base, and greener homes and buildings at the same time.

Making the switch could slash the impact of one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions: Buildings account for roughly 1/5 of emissions globally. By some estimates, using hemp-based products would reduce the environmental impact of insulation by 90% or more.

The Georgia Tech researchers’ work, reported this month in the Journal of Cleaner Production, is one of the first studies to evaluate the potential for scaling up U.S. production and availability of hemp-based insulation products.

Read about their findings on the College of Engineering website.

Summary sentence

CEE researchers’ analysis outlines path to a U.S. construction market for hemp-based fibers, which are already used for clothing and biodegradable plastics.

Summary

CEE researchers’ analysis outlines path to a U.S. construction market for hemp-based fibers, which are already used for clothing and biodegradable plastics.

Dateline

Thu, 02/27/2025 - 12:00

jstewart@gatech.edu

Contact

Joshua Stewart
College of Engineering

Associated importer

Keywords

Joe Bozeman

Akanksha Menon

go-researchnews

News room topics

Earth and Environment

Categories

Engineering

Environment

Research

Mercury ID

680745

Source updated

Thu, 02/27/2025 - 10:18

Environment

Deep Dive Into Shark Ecology Provides Path to Conservation

Understanding Our Role

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

‘Biochar’ Can Naturally Clean the Pollution that Rain Washes Off Georgia’s Roads

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Tim Lieuwen Honored by Royal Academy of Engineering

Keywords

Categories

Thesis on Human-Centered AI Earns Honors from International Computing Organization

Related links

Keywords

Categories

Machine Learning Encoder Improves Weather Forecasting and Tsunami Prediction

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Nature's Time Machine: How Long-Term Studies Unlock Evolution's Secrets

Decades of discovery — from labs to islands

Important work in a changing world

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Organization Spotlight: ElectrifyGT

News room topics

Categories

How Earth's Early Cycles Shaped the Chemistry of Life

From simple molecules to complex systems

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Using Hemp in Building Insulation Could Make Structures Greener, Create Jobs, and Be a Profitable Industry

Keywords

News room topics

Categories