A team of researchers including David Hu, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences and George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, have visualized mosquito flight behavior for the first time.

Based on their data, the researchers said they don’t think mosquitoes swarm because they’re following the pack. Each appeared to pick up on the cues independently, then found themselves at the same place at the same time.

“It’s like a crowded bar,” said Hu. “Customers aren’t there because they followed each other into the bar. They’re attracted by the same cues: drinks, music, and the atmosphere. The same is true of mosquitoes. Rather than following the leader, the insect follows the signals and happens to arrive at the same spot as the others. They’re good copies of each other.”

A similar story was published by The Economic Times.

ScienceDaily

Alex Robel, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, said pumping sand onshore is far from a perfect solution to stabilize a beach, but it’s “one of the best tools we have in our arsenal.”

“It’s been done in the United States for almost a century in different places and we know how to do it,” Robel said. “We’re good at it.”

But nourishment is only a Band-Aid for erosion. Once cities start replenishing sand, Robel said they have to keep doing it regularly. 

Atlanta Journal Constitution

If you’ve walked the aisles of a grocery store, scrolled through social media, watched television, or set foot in a fast-casual restaurant chain in recent months, you know that protein is having its moment.

So, why are brands pushing protein? An International Food Information Council study found that 70% of adults are looking to increase their protein intake. But as it makes its way into more products than ever before, is it too much of a good thing?

Lesley Baradel is a registered dietitian, nutritionist, and lecturer in the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech. In this episode of "Generating Buzz", she digs into the protein-packed trend, with implications ranging from health and wellness to marketing and how the rise of GLP-1s factors into the increased focus on the macronutrient.

Futurity

A special issue of Pure and Applied Functional Analysis honors mathematician School of Mathematics Regents' Professor Leonid Bunimovich on his 75th birthday. 

Bunimovich's pioneering contributions have shaped modern dynamical systems. He is best known for discovering a fundamental mechanism of chaos in dynamical systems, including systems of chaotic billiards such as the Bunimovich stadium, Bunimovich flowers, and elliptic flowers. Learn about his research in this 2023 news story: Bringing Understanding to Chaotic Dynamics with Billiards, Flowers, and ... Mushrooms?

Georgia Tech School of Mathematics

A recent publication from the group of Prof. Dan Goldman made it to the Cover of Physical Review Letters vol. 132, issue 8 (https://journals.aps.org/prl/covers/132/8). The research article “Probing Hydrodynamic Fluctuation-Induced Forces with an Oscillating Robot”, by Steven W. Tarr, Joseph S. Brunner, Daniel Soto, and Daniel I. Goldman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 084001 was published on 20 February 2024, and was also selected as an Editor’s Suggestion (https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.084001).

Physical Review Letters