The next time you are outside on a cloudless night, look up at the stars. If they look brighter or seem clearer during these winter nights, it’s not your imagination. Winter is actually better than summer when it comes to sky gazing.

Jim Sowell is director of the Georgia Tech observatory. He says there are a few reasons why the cosmos are clearer these days and months. One has to do with how the stars are clustered this season. Another is because of Earth’s atmosphere. The final reason has to do with your evening commute.

Watch to learn more.

(The Georgia Tech observatory hosts free public nights nearly every month of the year.)

First-passage percolation. It sounds like a superspecial way to brew coffee.

Actually, first-passage percolation (FPP) is a simplified model to describe growth in a random medium, says Michael Damron, an associate professor in the School of Mathematics.

Damron should know.  He just published a book on the subject – “50 Years of First-Passage Percolation” – with coauthors Antonio Auffinger, of Northwestern University, and Jack Hanson, of The City College of New York. 

Random growth is everywhere. Tumor growth, cell replication, the spread of coffee stains, and the propagation of flames are some examples. “These types of growth are expected to have statistical properties that are different from those scientists typically see in models from physics,” Damron says.

In particular, FPP describes growth, say of an infection, on a grid. At time zero, growth is confined to only one spot on the grid. Then it spreads across the edges of the grid according to random rules. The properties of the infected region after a long time has passed are of great interest to researchers. “It is known that this region has a specific shape,” Damron says. “But there is no known formula to determine the shape.” 

In a special case of FPP that models cell replication, for example, “it was once believed that a cell cluster after a long time has a circular shape,” Damron says. “However numerical evidence in the 1980’s showed that its radius is not the same in all directions, so it cannot be circular. There are no rigorous mathematical results on this major question.”

FPP is central to modern probability theory. It is used in many scientific areas, such as growth and infection in biology, optimization in computer science, and disordered media in physics. In mathematics, FPP has applications in analysis and geometry.

The subject has seen rapid growth in the past 10 years, but the last comprehensive survey of the field took place in the 1980’s, Damron says. “We felt it was time to summarize the state of the art for graduate students and researchers planning to work on this topic.”

Through this book, the authors give proofs of seminal results until the 1990’s, discuss recent perspectives and directions, and provide a collection of open questions, old and new. Published by the American Mathematical Society, the book is intended as a textbook for a graduate course and a learning tool for researchers.

It’s the first book Damron has coauthored. Already he is working on a second book, this time as co-editor of a proceedings volume for the American Mathematical Society.  

On February 10, 2018, CEISMC hosted a Division C regional tournament for the Science Olympiad, a nationally recognized competition for enhancing science education and interest. The regional tournament took place at Georgia Tech in the G. Wayne Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, where 20 teams of high school students competed in 23 different age-related events emphasizing STEM applications throughout the day. The teams represented high schools from the Metro Atlanta area and competed in events that involved topics ranging from life science to engineering design. Some of the 2018 Division C events included: anatomy and physiology, herpetology, astronomy, thermodynamics, material science, forensics, Fermi questions, and experimental design.

At the awards ceremony, the top three teams were awarded trophies, and the top two teams also received plaques. Tournament Director Tiarra Moore described the successful outcome of the competition. “As a novice Tournament Director for the 2018 Regional Science Olympiad Tournament, planning such a large and prestigious event was intimidating. However, I had a dynamic team of volunteers who made the event a success,” said Moore. She continued, “The competing teams were absolutely phenomenal, and I had a blast viewing the competition and watching the excitement on students' faces when they received their awards. I am very proud of all of the participants. Job well done!” All winning teams, listed below, will advance from regional to state to national competitions. The Division C Georgia State Tournament will be held in March.

Overall Winners:

First place: Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology Team 1

Second place: Walton High School Team 1

Third place: Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology Team 2

Fourth place: Walton High School Team 2

Fifth place: Wheeler High School Team 1

*Schools that advanced to compete at the state level: Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology, Walton High School, Wheeler High School, and Woodward Academy.

By Rosemary Pitrone - CEISMC Communications

February is Black History Month, a special time set aside to celebrate the contributions of African-Americans. The College of Sciences joins the celebration by inviting the perspectives of African-American colleagues through a two-part Q&A.

Lewis Wheaton is an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech with an adjunct appointmen in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.

Wheaton strives to improve the lives of upper-limb amputees through a deeper understanding of the relationship between the neurophysiology of motor learning and prosthesis adaptation. Since joining Georgia Tech in 2008, he has been directing the Cognitive Motor Control Lab, which aims to understand the neurophysiological processes associated with motor control of the upper limbs.

In the state of Georgia, Wheaton is a Governor-appointed member of the State Rehabilitation Council. Mandated by the U.S. Congress, this council oversees the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency. In this capacity, Wheaton helps shape rehabilitation policy and management in the state of Georgia.

Wheaton is co-director of Georgia Tech’s working group on Race and Racism in Contemporary Biomedicine. 

What is the accomplishment that you are proudest of so far?
I am proudest of my ability to serve as a mentor and an example.  

My parents instilled in me at an early age that success – at any level -- comes with responsibility. For me, success means having the privilege and responsibility to be the best I can be daily to those around me. I have taken my parents’ advice seriously, proudly serving as mentor or example for others – including students in classes, research associates in my lab, and colleagues across various professional networks.  

For example, I have been collaborating with colleagues in CEISMC [Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing] on enhancing STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] education in middle and high schools, particularly one in Fulton County.  It has been humbling to hear teachers say that they see me as an example for students and themselves.  

I never aspired to be a mentor or example for others or thought that I could be one. The fact that I have become one reflects my parent’s advice about responsibility to one’s community that comes with success.  I am both proud and humbled to play these roles, which drive me daily to do better and do more.

What does Black History Month mean to you?
Black History Month is an empowering and sober period of reflection for me. It is easy to get used to passing reflections of some of the central figures of the Civil Rights era. One can become desensitized to the fact that our country experienced a tragic period when people of color suffered not only because of bias against them but also because they were prohibited legal access to facilities, services, and opportunities. 

That period has become a past so distant it seems unimaginable. In reality, it is very much a part of our recent history, one that we still struggle with today. People lived it, felt it, and died fighting it.  

That reality compels me to action. Black History Month presents the opportunity to understand more broadly the work that still needs to be done, the education that ought to continue, and the responsibility I have to be involved in shaping a better future for all of humanity.

Jenny McGuire is one of several scientists featured in a documentary that WyomingPBS will air twice in February. The documentary is part of a series called “Main Street, Wyoming.” The episode, “Natural Trap Cave,” is about a pitfall cave in the Bighorn Mountains of northern Wyoming. The cave harbors fossils from 150,000 years ago, which scientists have been collecting for research.

“Inside the cave is like a refrigerator,” McGuire says. “The temperature is 40 degrees all year round, so everything preserves beautifully.” In the cave are layers of fossils dating back from 150,000 years to recent times, giving McGuire the opportunity to study how a community changes over long periods.

McGuire is an assistant professor with joint appointment in the Schools of Biological Sciences and of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. She is using the fossils to understand what types of species fill ecological niches after extinction events and how long it takes populations to normalize after a major transition. Similar extinctions of large mammals are occurring today in Africa and South Asia, according to McGuire. She is using the data to determine what to expect not only from specific extinctions, but also from major ecological disruptions occurring worldwide.

In between field visits to Natural Trap Cave, McGuire outsources the fossil work through Fossil Wednesdays. On Wednesday afternoons, 3-5 PM, during the semester, McGuire’s lab is open to all who are interested in hunting for fossils in the rock samples she brought back from Natural Trap Cave.

“Folks come to Fossil Wednesdays to experience the excitement of making new discoveries, accompanied by dramatic soundtracks playing in the background,” McGuire says. “At the same time, it is a relaxed atmosphere for chatting and really getting your mind off the stresses of the week.”

Through Fossil Wednesdays, McGuire has brought the thrill of discovery-based biology to engineers, business majors, and staff members from across campus and beyond. She has also trained K-12 school teachers to bring the excitement of hypothesis-driven discovery to their students.

The WyomingPBS crew visited the cave in July 2017, according to McGuire. “They filmed us inside the cave and did individual interviews with several of us outside the cave.” In the preview provided by WyomingPBS, McGuire is on camera at the end, holding a fossil.  In the documentary itself, McGuire first appears at around 5:15.  

WyomingPBS will air the episode on Sunday, Feb. 18, at 9 PM and on Friday, Feb. 23, at 10 PM. It is at wyomingpbs.org and on WyomingPBS’s YouTube Channel after the broadcasts.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This item was revised on Feb. 20, 2018. The documentary was added from YouTube. 

February is Black History Month, a special time set aside to celebrate the contributions of African Americans. The College of Sciences joins the celebration by inviting the perspectives of African-American colleagues through a two-part Q&A.

Bonnie Harris is the program director of the Georgia Intern-Fellowships for Teachers (GIFT) program at CEISMC (Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing). The program is a collaborative undertaking of Georgia corporations and universities providing industry internships and research fellowships for K-12 teachers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Under Harris’s leadership, in 2012 GIFT received the inaugural STEM Education Award from the Technology Association of Georgia for excellence in promoting STEM in Georgia. A few years later, Casey M. Bethel was named 2017 Georgia Teacher of the Year. Bethel is the first-ever GIFT teacher to receive this award.

At CEISMC, Harris also manages the Research, Experiment, Analyze, Learn (R.E.A.L.) program, which places high-school students in STEM-related research internships or business internships. She also oversees the Siemens Region Six Annual Competition in Math, Science and Technology, which attracts high-school student researchers from Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Puerto Rico.

She serves on several civic boards and speaks widely on the subjects of teacher internships and the preparation of underrepresented students for STEM careers.

What is the accomplishment you are proudest of so far?
One of my favorite quotations is from the great German literary figure Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”

My job as GIFT program director provides me opportunities to live this philosophy every day!

I get to work with teachers desiring to be the best they can be. I get to see high-school students – many of whom are minorities – and our next generation of great scientists as if they were already what they are capable of becoming.

Facilitating opportunities for teachers, students, and future scientists to showcase their skills and accomplishments is what I am proudest of. Doing so is all about potential and what can be!

What does Black History Month mean to you?
I grew up during an era when the contributions and accomplishments of black Americans were seldom acknowledged. For me, Black History Month represents an opportunity to both inspire and educate: to inspire those who question their abilities and to educate those who remain uninformed about black Americans’ contributions in all endeavors throughout our country’s history.

Vinayak Agarwal and Lutz Warnke are among 126 outstanding U.S. and Canadian researchers selected to receive the 2018 Sloan Research Fellowships. Awarded yearly by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the fellowships honor early-career faculty whose achievements mark them as among the very best scientific minds working today.

Also named 2018 Research Fellow is Bilal Haider, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University.

Vinayak Agarwal is an assistant professor in School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research seeks to understand how natural products are produced, what biological forces drive their synthesis in nature, and how the knowledge can advance the well-being of humans. In particular, he is interested in the genesis of polybrominated compounds in ocean systems.

Agarwal seeks to understand how biosynthetic pathways manipulate halogens, especially bromine, to create polyhalogenated compounds, some of which are of great interest as anticancer agents. He has been at the forefront of efforts to decipher the routes for the natural production of polyhalogenated aromatic compounds by marine bacteria.  

Just like synthetic chlorofluorocarbons, which are now banned because they destroy Earth’s protective ozone layer in the stratosphere, polybrominated compounds can generate halogen species that can deplete stratospheric ozone. Agarwal aims to establish the biogenic basis for oceanic bromine radical production from polybrominated compounds.

To gain a deep understanding of biosynthetic pathways, he combines chemical and biochemical approaches, including molecular biology, phylogenetic and bioinformatics analysis, microbial genetics and metagenomics, structural and biochemical enzymology, protein biochemistry, synthetic chemistry, and analytical chemistry.

“The brightest minds tackling the hardest problems, and succeeding brilliantly – Fellows are quite literally the future of 21st-century science.”

Lutz Warnke is an assistant professor in the School of Mathematics. His research area lies at the interface of discrete mathematics and probability theory. In particular, he has extensively studied various random graphs (or networks), focusing on phase transition phenomena and other fascinating properties. 

In 2016, Warnke received the biennial Dénes König Prize from the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics for his contribution to the study of random graph processes. Because of Warnke’s work, theorems are now available to help mathematicians understand the behavior of a large class of discrete random graph processes close to phase transition.  

Earlier, Warnke received the biennial 2014 Richard-Rado-Prize, for his outstanding dissertation in discrete mathematics, titled “Random Graph Processes with Dependencies.”

In announcing the prize, Jiri Matousek of Charles University Prague, said: “[Warnke’s] work has all the attributes one may expect from excellent mathematics: very interesting topics appealing to [a] broad audience, in this case to a community including many theoretical physicists; improved methods and new ideas that both solve old problems and new horizons; considerable depth, breadth, and technical difficulty; and last but not least, careful and accessible presentation.   

“The Sloan Research Fellows represent the very best science has to offer,” said Sloan Foundation President Adam Falk. “The brightest minds tackling the hardest problems, and succeeding brilliantly – Fellows are quite literally the future of 21st-century science.”

Spring in Atlanta is just a few weeks away, and with it arrives science festival time. The 2018 Atlanta Science Festival (2018ASF) shifts the annual festivities to fifth gear with two major innovations: two weeks of science fun – March 9-24, 2018 – instead of one and the designation of an honorary chair.

“The festival has grown tremendously and has become a mainstay in the city,” says Meisa Salaita, cofounder and codirector of the Atlanta Science Festival. “It was time to expand it and to showcase the important people who have helped make this dream a reality. With a high-profile event to launch the festival, we have a highly visible platform for an honorary chair to speak and be recognized for their association with the festival.”

The festival’s board of directors selected College of Sciences Dean and Sutherland Chair Paul M. Goldbart to serve as inaugural honorary chair.

“Dean Goldbart exemplifies the spirit of curiosity that we hope to kindle among all festival-goers,” Salaita says. “He has championed the festival since its inception; he is a strong advocate for science education, public engagement with science, and scientists’ engagement with the public.”

“I’m delighted and honored to participate in this year’s festival in this novel capacity,” Goldbart says.  “With astronomer Carl Sagan, I see science as one of humanity’s candles in the dark, furnishing us with bright light that helps guide us to a better tomorrow, through the improvements in medicine, computing, architecture, and other technologies that greater scientific understanding brings.

“I admire and applaud the Atlanta Science Festival for bringing science to the Atlanta community in engaging, enthralling, and empowering ways that say to the not-yet-scientists, ‘Come on in. This is for you. What do you think?’ And for showing that science is fun, that there is joy and fulfillment in uncovering the workings of the natural world.”

By doing these things, Goldbart says, the Atlanta Science Festival is “helping ensure a bright future for science, drawing in future scientific talent from all quarters, as we must, as well as building support from our fellow citizens, who benefit from science and also decide how much stock society places in science and the rational, data-driven approach to problem solving.”

As Goldbart waits in excited anticipation for the 2018ASF to commence, he thanks the companies, organizations, institutions, and especially the people driving the festival’s success. “Your contributions, whether measured in days, calories, or dollars – all are important, all are treasured.”

[T]he Atlanta Science Festival is “helping ensure a bright future for science, drawing in future scientific talent from all quarters...as well as building support from our fellow citizens, who benefit from science...."

Georgia Tech participation in 2018ASF is stronger than ever, with two new events from the College of Sciences.

Following are events taking place in the Georgia Tech campus, sponsored or presented by Georgia Tech units, or featuring Georgia Tech faculty, students, and staff:

• Friday, March 9, 7-8:30 PM Rise Up Robots, featuring introductory remarks by College of Sciences Dean Paul Goldbart as the festival’s honorary chair, a robotic jokester, a robotic marimba player, and a bionic arm; Ferst Center for the Performing Arts at Georgia Tech, 349 Ferst Dr NW, Atlanta, 30332; admission $15; purchase tickets
• Saturday, March 10, 10-11:30 AM Stem Gems: Giving Girls Role Models In Stem Careers, featuring Georgia Tech alumnae Becky Yao and Marissa Connor; Goizueta Business School at Emory University, 1300 Clifton Rd, Room 234, Atlanta, 30322; admission $5 (free for parents attending with children); purchase tickets
• NEW! Saturday, March 10, 12-4 PM Taste of Science, featuring live demonstrations, food samples, and fascinating facts that tie science, culture, and food together; hosted by College of Sciences’ Ed Greco, Michael Evans, Jennifer Leavey, Enid Steinbart, and their students in the STEMcomm VIP class; Kessler Campanile at Georgia Tech, 350 Ferst Dr NW, Atlanta, 30332; admission $5 (free for students with ID); purchase tickets on site
• Sunday, March 11, 3-4:30 PM, The Golden Record, featuring aerial arts, modern dance, and live music exploring the themes in Carl Sagan’s time capsule called The Golden Record – two phonograph records of sounds and images – which Sagan intended for future life forms so they can one day look back upon our existence; sponsored by Georgia Tech Astrobiology; The Space, 4620-A S Atlanta Rd SE, Atlanta, 30339; admission $18 ($12 for students); purchase tickets
• Tuesday, March 13, 7-8:30 PM, The Power of Connected, a Honeywell Sponsored Panel & Customer Experience Tours, featuring CEISMC Executive Director Lizanne DeStefano and Georgia Tech Research Scientist Bill Eason; Honeywell Atlanta Software Center, The Event Center, Suite 600, 715 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, 30308; free admission with advance registration; register in advance
• Saturday, March 17, 9 AM-12 PM, K.I.D.S. Club, a CEISMC event where kids can explore hands-on STEM activities, work with LEGO Mindstorms EV3 in LEGO Robotics, or create their own mobile app or game; Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons at Georgia Tech, 266 Fourth St, NW, Atlanta, 30332; admission $45-$65 per child depending on age; purchase tickets
• Saturday, March 17, 9 AM-2:30 PM, Latino College & STEM Fair, a CEISMC event featuring bilingual workshops, hands-on activities for the entire family, a college fair, a majors fair, and an inspirational panel with Latino college students, parents, professors, and other professionals; Georgia Tech Student Center, 350 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, 30332; free admission
• Saturday, March 17, 11 AM-2 PM, Nerdy Derby, a CEISMC event where participants kids build their own cars and race them down a 30-foot track; M. R. Hollis Innovation Academy, 225 Griffin St NW Atlanta GA 30314, Atlanta, 30314; free admission
• Saturday, March 17, 11 AM-3 PM, G4C Game Jam, a CEISMC event where participants create digital games about issues affecting their communities; Historic Academy of Medicine, 875 W. Peachtree St, NW, Atlanta, 30309; free admission with advance registration; register in advance
• NEW! Saturday, March 17 12:30-3:30 PM; Sunday, March 18 12-2 AM, Silver Scream Science Spookshow, featuring a screening of “It Came from Outer Space” with live theater and music by Leucine Zipper (aka Jennifer Leavey) and the Zinc Fingers; Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, 30306; admission $10 adults, $7 children 12 years and under; purchase tickets on site
• Sunday, March 18, 1-2:30 PM, 3:30-5 PM, Science of the Circus, hosted by the Georgia Tech Graduate Association of Physicists; participants can immerse themselves in circus arts while learning basic scientific principles that make amazing feats of strength and balance possible; Circus School of Atlanta, 575 Boulevard SE, Atlanta, 30312; admission $10 early bird, $15 regular; purchase tickets
• Wednesday, March 21, 7-10 PM, Evolution Animated, featuring Jon Perry, creator of the hugely popular Stated Clearly animations; presented by the Georgia Tech-based NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution; Monday Night Garage, 933 Lee St NW, Atlanta, 30310; free admission
• Wednesday, March 21, 7:30-9:30 PM, Science Improv, featuring Georgia Tech mathematician Lew Lefton; Whole World Improv Theater, 1216 Spring Street, Atlanta, 30309; admission $10 regular, $5 students; purchase tickets
• Thursday, March 22, 7-10 PM, Science Trivia, featuring rousing rounds testing your knowledge of science trivia; presented by the Georgia-Tech based NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution; Manuel's Tavern, 602 North Highland Ave. NE, Atlanta, 30307
• Thursday & Friday, March 22-23, 8 AM-3 PM, STEAM Leadership Conference, a CEISMC event for STEAM decision makers, featuring two days of interactive, educational sessions, STEAM-focused work groups, inspiring TED talks, and panel discussions with experts; Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons at Georgia Tech, 266 Fourth St, NW, Atlanta, 30332; admission $200; purchase tickets

Festivities culminate at the Exploration Expo on March 24, 11 AM- 4 PM in Piedmont Park. 

Complete information about 2018ASF is available at https://atlantasciencefestival.org/.

Researchers in Germany and Japan report preparing a compound that could realize a quantum spin liquid, a rarely observed and delicate state of magnetic matter. Published in the journal Nature, the paper – “A spin-orbital-entangled quantum liquid on a honeycomb lattice” – is cause for excitement among researchers in condensed-matter physics. Among them is Martin Mourigal, who wrote an accompanying News & Views piece in Nature – “The two faces of a magnetic honeycomb” – to put the research in context and convey the excitement of the field of quantum materials.

Mourigal is an assistant professor in the School of Physics. His research group studies magnetic phenomena in quantum materials. In these materials, the impact of quantum mechanics transcends the atomic scale to produce new effects up to the human scale.

“This field of research touches on the deep and profound organizing principles of the universe,” Mourigal says. “At the same time, it is an area where we can explore and test abstract theoretical ideas from a simple piece of ceramic grown in the lab.”

In the following Q&A, Mourigal explains quantum spin liquids, why the recent findings of the research team led by Hidenori Takagi are noteworthy, and the role Georgia Tech can play in quantum materials research.

What is exciting about quantum spin liquids?
They are new forms of matter, predicted to exist in some quantum materials at temperatures close to zero degree Kelvin.

Spins are atomic-scale magnetic moments that make up any magnetic material. In ferromagnets – think refrigerator magnets – the spins are frozen in a periodic pattern.

In quantum spin liquids, spins do not freeze and keep dancing even at close to absolute zero temperature. As spins fluctuate, they share the same quantum state, and their collective behavior cannot be represented by the sum of individual behaviors. This phenomenon is called quantum entanglement.

Entanglement leads to physical properties that make quantum spin liquids appealing for both fundamental inquiries and practical purposes. Entanglement is required for quantum computers to work; it may also be used to create new electronic devices and technologies for the post-Moore’s law era.

Most importantly, quantum spin liquids quench our thirst for fundamental discoveries about matter. In particular, understanding the relationship between atomic-scale properties and macroscopic behavior is a central challenge. Quantum mechanics complicates the picture, primarily because of entanglement.

What is the breakthrough reported by the researchers in Nature?
Quantum spin liquids are notoriously difficult to realize in real materials, and their confirmation involves many steps.

The group led by Takagi started from a magnetically ordered material – a well-researched iridium oxide with a honeycomb structure – known to host an important ingredient of the quantum spin liquid recipe.

That ingredient is called Kitaev interactions. Usually, spins interact with neighbors in a simple way: they align in the same or the opposite direction. Kitaev interactions are different. Each spin is getting contradictory information from its neighbors and cannot decide what to do. Because spins cannot pick a preferred direction, they remain fluctuating all the way to absolute zero temperature.

The researchers applied a soft chemistry approach to modify the original iridium oxide, heating it to 120 degrees Celsius. In solid-state synthesis, reagents are usually heated to around 1,000 degrees Celsius to make a new compound.

Despite the mild conditions, the researchers got a dramatic change in the material’s physical properties, sufficient to produce a strong contender for a quantum spin liquid. More generally, it means it is possible to realize exotic states of matter through gentle modifications of existing materials.

How did the researchers show that the new material could be a quantum spin liquid?
It is not fully confirmed that the new material is a quantum spin liquid, but it passed a first battery of tests, which included nuclear magnetic resonance and heat capacity measurements. These tests showed that the spins remain fluctuating at 1 degree Kelvin and that no magnetic order is present at 0.05 degree Kelvin, which is very exciting.

Nevertheless, more investigations are required. The challenge for the researchers is to further characterize the spin dynamics in the new material. Progress in materials research usually comes from the confluence of different experimental techniques and expertise, and I expect this new material will generate a lot of interest in that direction.

What is Georgia Tech doing about quantum materials?
Quantum materials research is on the rise at Georgia Tech. Understanding and controlling quantum states of matter is a priority for the U.S. We have a lot of talent on campus to make an impact in that burgeoning area.

First, there is strong intellectual overlap between quantum materials research and the fields of atomic physics, quantum optics, and quantum information sciences. In all these fields, a profound understanding of quantum mechanics and entanglement is central.

Furthermore, quantum materials research cuts across all material-centric disciplines on campus: from the chemistry, synthesis, and characterization of new materials to their integration in devices for new electronics.

Finally, and close to my own research, Georgia Tech is ideally located to utilize the world-class neutron-scattering facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Because neutrons themselves carry a spin, they can scatter off the excitations of magnetic materials and are thus an ideal probe of quantum spin liquids and other magnetic quantum materials.

In popular culture, asteroids play the role of apocalyptic threat, get blamed for wiping out the dinosaurs – and offer an extraterrestrial source for mineral mining. 

But for researcher Nicholas Hud, asteroids play an entirely different role: that of time capsules showing what molecules originally existed in our solar system. Having that information gives scientists the starting point they need to reconstruct the complex pathway that got life started on Earth.

Director of the NSF-NASA Center for Chemical Evolution at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Hud says finding molecules in asteroids provides the strongest evidence that such compounds were present on the Earth before life formed. Knowing what molecules were present helps establish the initial conditions that led to the formation of amino acids and related compounds that, in turn, came together to form peptides, small protein-like molecules that may have kicked off life on this planet.

“We can look to the asteroids to help us understand what chemistry is possible in the universe,” said Hud. “It’s important for us to study materials from asteroids and meteorites, the smaller versions of asteroids that fall to Earth, to test the validity of our models for how molecules in them could have helped give rise to life. We also need to catalog the molecules from asteroids and meteorites because there might be compounds there that we had not even considered important for starting life.”

Hud was a panelist at a press briefing “Asteroids for Research, Discovery, and Commerce” February 17 at the 2018 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Austin, Texas. 

NASA scientists have been analyzing compounds found in asteroids and meteorites for decades, and their work provides a solid understanding for what might have been present when the Earth itself was formed, Hud says.

“If you model a prebiotic chemical reaction in the laboratory, scientists can argue about whether or not you had the right starting materials,” said Hud. “Detection of a molecule in an asteroid or meteorite is about the only evidence everyone will accept for that molecule being prebiotic. It’s something we can really lean on.”

The Miller-Urey experiment, conducted in 1952 to simulate conditions believed to have existed on the early Earth, produced more than 20 different amino acids, organic compounds that are the building blocks for peptides. The experiment was kicked off by sparks inside a flask containing water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen, all materials believed to have existed in the atmosphere when the Earth was very young.

Since the Miller-Urey experiment, scientists have demonstrated the feasibility of other chemical pathways to amino acids and compounds necessary for life. In Hud’s laboratory, for instance, researchers used cycles of alternating wet and dry conditions to create complex organic molecules over time. Under such conditions, amino acids and hydroxy acids, compounds that differ chemically by just a single atom, could have formed short peptides that led to the formation of larger and more complex molecules – ultimately exhibiting properties that we now associate with biological molecules.

“We now have a really good way to synthesize peptides with amino acids and hydroxy acids working together that could have been common on the early Earth,” he said. “Even today, hydroxy acids are found with amino acids in living organisms – and in some meteorite samples that have been examined.”

Hud believes there are many possible ways that the molecules of life could have formed. Life could have gotten started with molecules that are less sophisticated and less efficient than what we see today. Like life itself, these molecules could have evolved over time.

“What we find is that these compounds can form molecules that look a lot like modern peptides, except in the backbone that is holding the units together,” said Hud. “The overall structure can be very similar and would be easier to make, though it doesn’t have the ability to fold into as complex structures as modern proteins. There is a tradeoff between the simplicity of forming these molecules and how close these molecules are to those found in contemporary life.”

Geologists believe the Earth was very different billions of years ago. Instead of continents, there were islands protruding from the oceans. Even the sun was different, producing less light but more cosmic rays – which could have helped power the protein-forming chemical reactions.

“The islands could have been potential incubators for life, with molecules raining down from the atmosphere,” Hud said. “We think the key process that would have allowed these molecules to go to the next stage is a wet-dry cycling like what we are doing in the lab. That would have been perfect for an island out in the ocean.”

Rather than a single spark of life, the molecules could have evolved slowly over time in gradual progression that may have taken place at different rates in different locations, perhaps simultaneously. Different components of cells, for example, may have developed separately where conditions favored them before they ultimately came together.

“There is something very special about peptides, nucleic acids, polysaccharides and lipids and their ability to work together to do something they couldn’t have done separately,” he said. “And there could have been any number of chemical processes on the early Earth that never led to life.”

Knowing what conditions were like on the early Earth therefore gives scientists a stronger foundation for hypothesizing what could have taken place, and could offer hints to other pathways that may not have been considered yet. 

“There are probably a lot more clues in the asteroids about what molecules were really there,” said Hud. “We may not even know what we should be looking for in these asteroids, but by looking at what molecules we find, we can ask different and more questions about how they could have helped get life started.”

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