7 min read
Corals are foundational for ocean life. Known as the rainforests of the sea, they create habitats for 25% of all marine organisms, despite only covering less than 1% of the ocean’s area. Coral patches the width and height of basketball arenas used to be common throughout the world’s oceans. But due to numerous human-generated stresses and coral disease, which is known to be associated with ocean sediments, most of the world’s coral is gone.
8 min read
The Georgia Institute of Technology has a long history in space research and exploration, from educating astronauts to developing and controlling spacecraft that can travel across the solar system. Some Georgia Tech researchers solve cosmic mysteries such as how supermassive black holes were born — and others now are getting a better, sharper look at those black holes.
1 min read
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms held together by the strongest bonds known. Semiconductors, which are materials that conduct electricity under specific conditions, are foundational components of electronic devices. The team’s breakthrough throws open the door to a new way of doing electronics.
3 min read
In the latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey released by the National Science Foundation, Georgia Tech ranks 17th among academic institutions across the U.S. in research and development expenditures — a jump from the No. 20 ranking it has held for the past two years. Georgia Tech was also ranked No. 1 among public universities without a medical school — a major accomplishment, as medical schools account for a quarter of all research expenditures nationally.
6 min read
Legendary blues guitarist B.B. King famously said, “I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.” In a way, that’s exactly what researchers in the lab of Gil Weinberg are trying to do in developing their Expressive Robotic Guitarist (ERG).
3 min read
By lassoing lizards, putting tiny chips on their legs, and tracking them for three years, Georgia Tech's James Stroud revealed why species often appear unchanged for millions of years despite Charles Darwin's theory of constant evolution.
2 min read
For years, scientists assumed these four groups evolved these ultrafast wingbeats separately, but research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) shows that they evolved from a single common ancestor. This discovery demonstrates evolution has repeatedly turned on and off this particular mode of flight. The researchers developed physics models and robotics to test how these transitions could occur.
