To request a media interview, please reach out to experts using the faculty directories for each of our six schools, or contact Jess Hunt-Ralston, College of Sciences communications director. A list of faculty experts is also available to journalists upon request.
Long-distance Reefs May Be Key to Coral Recovery From Bleaching in Moorea and Tahiti
Researchers, including Annalisa Bracco, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, used modeling to demonstrate that the quick recovery of bleached corals in the past five mass bleaching events in Moorea and Tahiti (within the Society Islands of French Polynesia) may be the result of long-distance connectivity with the Tuamotu Islands and undisturbed coral reefs within a 300 km radius.
National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science News
Airborne Lead and Chlorine Levels Soared as L.A. Wildfires Raged
Wildfires are becoming a bigger focus for scientists that study air pollution, said Nga Lee (Sally) Ng, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Ng is also the principal investigator of ASCENT, a new federally funded, national monitoring network that began last year to measure a wide range of air pollutants in real time. The readings from the Los Angeles area fires were captured at the network’s monitoring station in Pico Rivera, several miles from the active fires.
The New York Times
How to evaluate the cognitive abilities of LLMs
Language models have become an essential part of the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (AI) psychology. In an article published in Nature Human Behaviour, School of Psychology Assistant Professor Anna Ivanova discusses 14 methodological considerations that can be used to design more robust, generalizable studies that evaluate the cognitive abilities of language-based AI systems, as well as to accurately interpret the results of these studies.
Nature Human Behaviour
Learn how climatologists help our understanding of weather over time
In this piece, Zachary Handlos, senior academic professional in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, explains the work of climatologists, stating that “climatologists can take on a lot of roles. It’s important to understand the difference between weather and climate. So weather is the study of what's going on in the atmosphere right now. Climatology looks at data for a certain day and compares it to what’s called a climate normal. What this means is, they take a 30-year period of data for that day, and from that baseline, say, ‘Oh, the temperature today is above average or below average.'”
Augusta Chronicle
Months after Georgia chemical plant fire, residents still grapple with health issues
A chemical plant fire near Atlanta last fall released a toxic plume that disrupted the lives of nearby residents. Many still experience health problems and don't know what was released in the plume.
Researchers like Greg Huey, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, say early tests found other chemicals in addition to chlorine in the plume. They found irritants like bromine and isocyanic acid that can cause symptoms like coughing and wheezing. His team is analyzing more air quality data and expects to share the findings in the coming weeks.
“This might help people know what they're exposed to in this incident. But more importantly, if ever something like this happens again, we might have better ideas what to look for,” Huey explains.
NPR