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Georgia Tech alum and astrophysics major get engaged during eclipse
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.
Atlanta News First
Packs of dog-shaped robots could one day roam the moon — if they can find their footing on Earth first
"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).
Live Science
Gene Network Interactions Shed Insight into Breast Cancer Onset and Development
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.)
GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News
Georgia Tech group create world’s first graphene-based semiconductor
A group of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from graphene, a development that could lead to advanced electronic devices and quantum computing applications. Seen as the building block of electronic devices, semiconductors are essential for communications, computing, healthcare, military systems, transportation and countless other applications. Semiconductors are typically made from silicon, but this material is reaching its limit in the face of increasingly faster computing and smaller electronic devices, according to the Georgia Tech research team who published their findings in Nature earlier this year. In a drive to find a viable alternative to silicon, Walter de Heer, Regents' Professor in the School of Physics, led a team of researchers based in Atlanta, Georgia and Tianjin, China to produce a graphene semiconductor that is compatible with microelectronics processing methods.
Gas World
Sulfur oxidation and reduction are coupled to nitrogen fixation in the roots of the salt marsh foundation plant Spartina alterniflora
Heterotrophic activity, primarily driven by sulfate-reducing prokaryotes, has traditionally been linked to nitrogen fixation in the root zone of coastal marine plants, leaving the role of chemolithoautotrophy in this process unexplored. The researchers show that sulfur oxidation coupled to nitrogen fixation is a previously overlooked process providing nitrogen to coastal marine macrophytes. In their study, they recovered 239 metagenome-assembled genomes from a salt marsh dominated by the foundation plant Spartina alterniflora, including diazotrophic sulfate-reducing and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. Based on the findings, the researchers propose that the symbiosis between S. alterniflora and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria is key to ecosystem functioning of coastal salt marshes. The study's co-authors include School of Biological Sciences researchers: Jose Louis Rolando, Maxim Kolton, Tianze Song, Roth Conrad, Y. Liu, P. Pinamang, Professor and Associate Chair of Research Joel Kostka, and Professor Kostas Konstantinidis. (Konstantinidis is also professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.)
Nature Communications