Georgia Tech College of Sciences

Happy Wednesday! Meet Saamira: one of our communication assistants for the College of Science. Saamira is a 2nd year from Berkeley Lake, GA, who recently joined our team in early February. As a Communications Assistant Saamira mainly works with our social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to create posts about the articles posted on the College of Science website. I love working for the College of Science because I get to be exposed to new ideas about science every... single day. I love reading the articles posted on our website and getting to see all the cool things Georgia Tech researchers work on. It also has its perks like reminding myself to get tested every week when I post the testing reminders on Mondays and seeing the flavors for cookies and King of Pops for the week. #GTSciences #CommunicationsAssistant #GeorgiaTech

Interested in learning about the science behind the NOVID app? Faculty from GeorgiaTech and Carnegie Mellon University recently held a virtual seminar to share how network and game theory have helped build a different kind of contact tracing app: https://b.gatech.edu/3rR23Hy #GTSciences #COVID19 #ContactTracing #GameTheory

School of Physics at Georgia Tech professor Ignacio Taboada officially begins his term as the next spokesperson for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory an NSF-funded South Pole facility searching deep space for sources of high energy neutrinos on May 1, 2021. Taboada recently joined outgoing spokesperson Darren Grant for a Q&A about IceCube’s progress and plans: bit.ly/icecube-21

Pssst... Have you gotten your weekly test? Even if you're fully vaccinated, you should keep taking a few minutes each week to grab your surveillance test, plus free Tiff's Treats Insomnia Cookies (mornings) or King of Pops (afternoons) Want to help spread positivity about vaccines? Fill out this survey to share your vaccine stories with us, or tag us in pictures with your vaccine stickers, and we will post it to our story! https://b.gatech.edu/3sAOo8C #GTSciences #GetTested #MaskTestDistance #Vaccine #WeeklyTestingWorks #ScienceWorksYall

Disks of debris that surround stars and the cosmic bodies that crash into them may hold the key to unlocking the secrets of how planetary and solar systems form. School of Physics researchers Gongjie Li, Billy Quarles, and Nathaniel Moore have won a new NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration grant to look deeper into these "stellar flybys, which happen when stars fly over debris discs, change their form, and scatter fellow celestial bodies hither and yon.... For their new research, the team will study the curious dynamical history of a binary star system in the Crux constellation. The system features an asymmetric debris disk, as well as a massive planet in an extremely wide orbit picture a planet 11 times Jupiter’s mass Learn more: https://b.gatech.edu/3dj1S2r #GTSciences #Astrophysics #NASA #ATPGrant

Growing alongside the blossoming Astrobiology community at Georgia Tech is the ExplOrigins group, a group interested in the origins and evolution of life, the exploration of our Solar System, and the search for habitable planets beyond Earth. Co-founder Rebecca Guth-Metzler says that the group was founded to facilitate discussion between young researchers interested in space exploration and astrobiology. "We reached out to the community to say: hey, we want to start this... group where we meet with other young researchers and have these discussions, says Guth-Metzler. During weekly Zoom meetings, students, faculty and researchers come together to discuss the aeronautics and space mission side of astrobiology. The ExplOrigins group has also hosted 3 annual colloqiums, and is already planning their next colloquium in March 2021, with the format to be decided. Guth-Metzler adds that the group facilitates scientists in various disciplines extending discovery in the field. By bringing diverse voices to the table, we learn how to communicate with one another to navigate and lead the future direction of astrobiology, space exploration, and origin of life studies. : Micah Schaible, co-founder of the ExplOrigins group. Read more about the ExplOrigins group: https://b.gatech.edu/3jPtg9B

What happens when you flash-freezing pumpkins in nitrogen and drop them off from the roof of the Howey Building? A true "smashing pumpkin" experience! Today at 3 PM, tune into the Society of Physics students livestream of this year's annual pumpkin drop via Twitch. It's sure to be a gourd time! : Ed Greco, academic professional in the School of Physics, drops a pumpkin from the top of the Howey Physics Building as students look on.... Join the live-stream link: twitch.tv/gatechsps School of Physics at Georgia Tech

Ocean Visions, chaired by the Director of Ocean Science & Engineering Emanuele Di Lorenzo, has announced a partnership with The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust. The new partnership is founded on shared missions to work to slow, and ultimately reverse, the climate crisis our planet is confronting. Partners with the skills of inventors, entrepreneurs, investors, and civil society will: ... Review and validate the science and engineering of particular opportunities. Provide guidance on risks, risk avoidance, validation frameworks, upstream and downstream impacts, and lifecycle analysis. Advise on the design of monitoring and evaluation frameworks. Collaborate on trials and experiments needed to evaluate technologies and their impacts. Read more about the collaboration: https://b.gatech.edu/2HD1Q9x

This year's Nobel Prize in Physics acknowledges David R. Finkelstein, late professor emeritus from the School of Physics at Georgia Tech, who worked on formulas that prove the science behind black holes. In 1958, Finkelstein was the first to posit the theory of an event horizon, or point of no return within a black hole. Through his work, the importance of different coordinate systems was fully understood. The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Roger Penrose, And...rea Ghez, and Reinhard Genzel for their pioneering work that has given us the most convincing evidence yet of a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. Read what Georgia Tech College of Sciences faculty and researchers had to say about the annual Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics, and learn more about Finkelstein: https://b.gatech.edu/3ospo1O

Want to enjoy a night under the stars without leaving the comfort of your own home? Join the Georgia Tech Observatory for their 3rd Online Public Observatory Night! The Online Public Night will take place tomorrow, Thursday, October 22nd at 8:00PM via YouTube livestream. Viewers will be led on a tour of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars by Observatory Director James Sowell (pictured above) from the lens of one of Georgia Tech's telescopes. The stream is dependent on clea...r weather to happen. View the event page to RSVP and access the YouTube channel of the Georgia Tech Observatory, where the event will be livestreamed! : https://astronomy.gatech.edu/Observatory.php : https://bit.ly/2M2tdJe

Since August, Georgia Tech's surveillance testing has administered more than 75,000 tests and has been instrumental in breaking chains of transmission that would otherwise spread Covid-19. To identify and isolate those infected quickly, the program needs a high participation rate. Have you been tested this week? It's quick, easy and free! Thanks to the incredible work of the logistics and testing community, we have the capacity for comprehensive surveillance testing, so... we are getting early warning signs that allow us to detect and respond to outbreaks earlier rather than later, shares Joshua Weitz, a leader on the team analyzing surveillance testing data. Details about all testing locations and options can be found at health.gatech.edu/coronavirus/testing. Before each visit, login to mytest.gatech.edu with your GT account, complete the survey, and save the tracking barcode to your phone. Bring your BuzzCard and a cell phone. Read more: https://b.gatech.edu/35kBWzo #GTSciences #WeeklyWreckCheck #TestingWorks #ScienceWorksYall

Tune in this week as Drawdown Georgia, the statewide effort powered by research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and other universities to find cost-effective ways to drastically cut the state’s carbon footprint, publicly rolls out its top 20 solutions this week. Drawdown Georgia’s mission is built on our state’s capacity for progress against emissions reductions in five high-impact areas: Electricity... Transportation Buildings & Materials Food & Agriculture Land Sinks Led by noted energy and climate policy expert Marilyn Brown, Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in Public Policy at Georgia Tech, the cross-campus research team identified solutions that could, based on existing science, cut the state’s CO2 emissions by one-third by 2030. This Wednesday October 21, join Georgia Tech, Emory University, and University of Georgia Professors for the webinar at 2:00 pm EST to discuss the science behind Drawdown Georgia and solutions to reduce Georgia's carbon footprint in beneficial and equitable ways. cBlueJeans Link to webinar: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/rqdytagb Read more about Dropdown Georgia: https://b.gatech.edu/3o0f2pE Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech Ray C. Anderson Foundation

A powerful, first-of-its-kind partial-hand prosthesis simulator has been developed by Lewis Wheaton's Cognitive Motor Control Laboratory to mimic the properties of a prosthetic device typically used by those who have had a partial hand amputation. View the attached YouTube video to see the prosthesis in action! Currently, the rehabilitation market currently does not offer any device that simulates the loss of digits of the hand. The new device seeks to remedy this absenc...e. By restricting movement and sensation to mimic a partial-hand amputation, the new Georgia Tech device provides a more realistic experience and therefore may improve patient outcomes. Read more about the device and the Cognitive Motor Control Lab: https://b.gatech.edu/2GTXmeI

Free surveillance testing? Preventing the spread of Covid-19? Tiff's Treats as a reward? Say less! This week take advantage of free saliva-based testing for all students, faculty, staff. New hours through October 15 now available. Another perk of getting tested? Fun giveaways! Each testing location will give away GT Mask Lanyards and Hand Sanitizer during operating hours, and grab @tiffstreats from specific locations around campus. health.gatech.edu/coronavirus/testin...g mytest.gatech.edu APPOINTMENTS: No appointment is needed. Testing is done on a walk-up basis. Complete a one-time registration prior to your first visit. You will need to complete a survey before each subsequent visit in order to receive a tracking barcode. Visit the Health site above for directions and maps. COST: Free WHAT TO BRING: Your BuzzCard and a cell phone. RESULTS: Available on average within 48 hours. #GTSciences #WeeklyWreckCheck #TestingWorks #GetTestedYall

Using a new framework, Georgia Tech astrophysicists searched for exomoons on six exoplanets, planets outside our solar system, that were discovered with the Kepler Space Telescope. Determining factors for researchers are orbital stability, the gravitational balance between the host star and the moon, and tidal migration, the forces buffeting the planet because of a moon’s impact on tides. As for the results of the study? When it comes to four of the six exoplanets, there a...ren’t exomoons. However, studying these moons teach us much about the planets. The moons tell us the formation history of the solar system. For instance, Earth’s moon reveals to us a possible collision between the Earth and another small-sized planet, which produced the moon from the giant impact," shares Gongjie Li. The search for exomoons outside our solar system could also be a part of the search for life elsewhere. The discovery of rocky exomoons in the habitable region around gaseous giant planets would provide valuable candidates for habitable worlds, Li says. : Billy Quarles, research scientist in the School of Physics and member of Georgia Tech’s Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, with the Georgia Tech telescope. Read more: https://b.gatech.edu/3lka2dh School of Physics at Georgia Tech @Center for Relative Astrophysics

Did you hear? Weekly testing works! Take advantage of free saliva-based testing for all students, faculty, staff. New hours through October 9 now available. Another perk of getting tested? Fun giveaways! Each testing location will give away GT Mask Lanyards and Hand Sanitizer during operating hours, and grab your @kingofpops giveaway from 1-5 PM at the Price Gilbert Memorial Library or Curran Street Parking Deck site. health.gatech.edu/coronavirus/testing... mytest.gatech.edu APPOINTMENTS: No appointment is needed. Testing is done on a walk-up basis. Complete a one-time registration prior to your first visit. You will need to complete a survey before each subsequent visit in order to receive a tracking barcode. Visit the Health site above for directions and maps. COST: Free WHAT TO BRING: Your BuzzCard and a cell phone. RESULTS: Available on average within 48 hours. #GTSciences #WeeklyWreckCheck #TestingWorks #GetTestedYall

Paul M. Dabbar, undersecretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy, recently toured several of Georgia Tech’s energy related labs. In putting together Undersecretary Dabbar’s visit, we attempted to demonstrate the full range of Georgia Tech’s energy research portfolio, from basic science to industry scale testing, and our deep understanding of national security, national lab partnerships, corporate partnerships, and company startups, Tim Lieuwen said. Topics of dis...cussion included cybersecurity and energy infrastructure, carbon capture and synthetic fuels, and microgrids and electric infrastructure. All aspects of Undersecretary Dabbar’s tour were arranged with special considerations for maintaining full compliance with safety and health guidelines. Read more about the tour and Undersecretary Dabbar: b.gatech.edu/3l1H5mr U.S. Department of Energy Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Strategic Energy Institute Georgia Tech Research Institute