You could say that Avery Skye Zickar has Georgia Tech in her genes. Her mother, two uncles, and one brother are alumni. That affinity – and knowing that academics at Georgia Tech would be top-notch – cemented her decision to attend Tech after graduating from Hillgrove High School in Powder Springs, Georgia.

Avery comes from a family that highly values education. In high school, she took Advanced Placement courses for a taste of college academics. “They prepared me well for Georgia Tech by instilling a good work ethic and minimizing procrastination,” she says.

At Hillgrove High, Avery performed with the marching band and the wind symphony. She was also a horseback rider, participating in a few competitions but mostly riding recreationally. “Looking back,” she says, “I did a decent job of balancing my commitments to school, work, family, and friends. 

Avery is graduating with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Biology. She tailored her academic program with the intent to continue her education in the medical field. Throughout her undergraduate years, she says, “the Institute made me feel right at home.”

What is the most important thing you learned at Georgia Tech?
Georgia Tech honed my ability to solve problems. Throughout my time at Tech, I’ve had to find solutions to problems with homework, exams, personal conflicts, and community-wide issues.

My problem-solving skills will serve me well when I enter the working world. I am confident in my ability to tackle whatever life throws at me, thanks to my time at Georgia Tech.

What are your proudest achievements at Georgia Tech?
I received a bid from Tau Beta Sigma, the National Honorary Band Service Sorority, during spring 2015. Through that organization, I participated in service projects to benefit the School of Music and the Atlanta community.

I served as teaching assistant (TA) for Introductory Biology and Organic Chemistry 2.

I worked as a student assistant in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences’ office for over two years.

I was elected president of the Band Club and served the Georgia Tech Band program during the 2017-18 school year.

I was one of five finalists for Ms. Georgia Tech. Selection was based on interviews, grade point average, campus leadership, service, and love for the Institute.

These achievements contributed to my happiness and success at Tech.

Which professors or classes made a big impact on you?
I took CHEM 1211 and 1212 with Dr. Kimberly Schurmeier, who was also my advisor. She pushed me to be the best I can be in chemistry, even though I came to Tech without a strong chemistry background. She played in key role in my success in chemistry and in college.

Dr. Michael Evans helped me with Organic Chemistry 1, a well-known “weed out” course in my major. Although he wasn’t my professor, he went out of his way to help me understand the material.

Dr. Shana Kerr was also influential. She taught one of my favorite classes – Introduction to Organismal Biology. She was also the professor for the section of Biological Principles for which I was a TA in fall 2016. She taught me how to be an effective teacher, and I still use those concepts today.

I enjoyed working with Dr. Cameron Tyson as part of the BEST Study Abroad Program, first as a student and then as one of his TAs. A great professor, he taught us the foundations of Organic Chemistry 2. He also gave me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to teach in France!

Finally, I recognize the two teachers I’ve had every semester since day one: Chris Moore and B.J. Diden, my band directors. They are extremely supportive of my own and other band members’ endeavors, always pushing us to perform to our highest levels.

These wonderful people made a big impact on my life, and I’m very grateful for them.

What is your most vivid memory of Georgia Tech?
The Georgia Tech versus University of Georgia (UGA) football game in 2014.

We stood in Sanford Stadium, surrounded by red and black, just three points from moving into overtime. Harrison Butker (now a kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs) scored a field goal from 53 yards, tying the game and putting it into overtime.

The band players were screaming; the drum majors were scrambling for us to play the fight songs. Within minutes, the Yellow Jackets intercepted the ball from UGA, and the game ended.

The stadium fell silent, except for the sliver of Tech fans, who went wild.

We ran to the buses and got out of Athens fast. It was such an unforgettable moment. I think about that game every time I look at the score on my RAT cap.  

In what ways did your time at Georgia Tech transform your life?
I became a well-rounded individual, one more prepared to tackle life than the person I was in high school.

The “real world” seemed daunting. I thought it meant having to take care of myself without help from anyone. Tech taught me not only how to solve problems, but also that that we don’t have to solve problems alone. We can rely on loved ones, family, friends, coworkers, or peers for support.

I met incredible people on campus, many of whom I call my friends. Nothing seems insurmountable with them by my side. I hope to maintain these relationships for the rest of my life.

What unique learning activities did you undertake?
I participated in the BEST Study Abroad Program in summer 2016, taking Organic Chemistry 2, Cell and Molecular Biology, and Synthesis Lab. The program is eight weeks long, and courses are taught at CPE-Lyon University, in Lyon, France. I got a second summer abroad, when I returned to Lyon as a TA.

Between studying and gallivanting across Europe, I had many great experiences and learned a lot. The world extends beyond the U.S. borders; there are so many wonderful people, cultures, and histories to discover.

I learned about myself and what I can overcome – such as balancing the “study” with the “abroad,” navigating the Paris Métro system, or fumbling through several languages just to order lunch.

I came back stronger, wiser, and better.

What advice would you give to incoming undergraduate students at Georgia Tech?After my first year at Tech, I posted on Facebook what I felt summed up my experience:

“Say hello. Don't be afraid. Challenge yourself. Meet one professor. Find a passion. Pursue your passion. Make a friend. Define your values. Care about your appearance. Take a chance. Follow your heart. Fall in love. Lend a hand. Join an organization. Find your sphere of influence. Lift the fallen. Monitor your actions. Fail. Cry. A lot. Get mad. Get driven. Strive for your goals. Succeed. Give thanks. Relax. Breathe. Say goodnight, not goodbye.”

I think that says it all.

Where are you headed after graduation?
I will continue to work as an emergency medical technician (EMT) to accrue patient care hours in preparation for physician assistant (PA) school. Most PA schools require at least 1,000 hours. While I log those hours, I plan to get my Advanced EMT (AEMT) certification, which allows me to place intravenous (IV) lines and give other medications to patients.

I’d love to work in obstetrics and gynecology as a PA. Georgia Tech helped me complete all the courses needed for PA school. It also gave me important life skills to be a successful PA – problem solving, working in groups, and one-on-one interactions, which were instilled in me at Tech.

Sarthak Sharma hails from the small city of Meerut, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, in India. After going to school there, he moved to the state of Assam to pursue a Bachelor of Technology degree in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati. 

As an undergraduate student, and using computational approaches, Sarthak worked on the evolution of CRISPR-Cas systems. These systems form the innate immune systems in bacteria. “It was here that I learned about molecular biology and bioinformatics,” Sarthak says.

In IIT Guwahati, Sarthak joined the robotics club, participating in various intercollegiate robotics events. He also played for the institute's football club.

In his second-year at IIT Guwahati, Sarthak came across a piece of news: Georgia Tech researchers had combined biology and machine learning to seek biology-inspired – bio-inspired – solutions to various problems.

“This single article drove me to research various courses at Georgia Tech,” Sarthak says. “I found that the bioinformatics program at Georgia Tech was flexible and highly computation-oriented. It was perfect for someone like me – interested in computer science and biology. Not only was I impressed, I was inspired to join Georgia Tech.”

Sarthak started the Master of Science program in Bioinformatics in August 2017. In early 2018, he received the J. Leland Jackson Fellowship in Bioinformatics for the outstanding master’s student in the program.

For his research, Sarthak studied the nervous system of tunicates, “our closest living invertebrate relatives,” he says. His work resulted in first use of a technique called single-cell RNA sequencing to characterize the gene expression profiles of neurons in tunicates.

Sarthak has been working with Alberto Stolfi, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences and a member of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. “Sarthak’s accomplishments speak for themselves,” Stolfi says. “He so quickly and fundamentally elevated the research in the lab in such a short time. In addition, Sarthak is a courteous, kind, and mature student. Mentoring him has been a joyous experience.”

Sarthak graduates with a Master of Science in Bioinformatics.

What is the most important thing you learned at Georgia Tech?
The most important thing I learned at Georgia Tech is management – managing multiple projects simultaneously, managing stress, managing group work, and managing time.

I was aware that Georgia Tech is a tough school. I was also certain that it would be an enriching, albeit challenging, experience.

Georgia Tech met my expectations and then some! Instructions are excellent and instructors are very approachable. They are willing to attend to your problems almost anytime. Everyone at Tech is willing to give their time to you if you are interested in learning.

What are your proudest achievements at Georgia Tech?
Within one year, I submitted a paper as first author in the peer-reviewed journal Developmental Biology, and I received the Outstanding (Master’s) Bioinformatics Student Award. I am proud of these achievements because working on publishing a paper while taking difficult courses and maintaining a GPA of 4.0 was really challenging.

Which professor(s) or class(es) made a big impact on you?
Dr. Alberto Stolfi has been my research guide and mentor ever since I came to Georgia Tech. I was the first student in his lab. He has been a perfect leader for me. He clearly stated his research goals and his expectations of me. And then he gave me utmost freedom to deliver results.

Not only has he been understanding throughout, but he has also been extremely supportive of my career choices and aspirations. If ever I hold a leadership position anywhere in life, I hope I can be half as good a leader as he has been for me.

What is your most vivid memory of Georgia Tech?
I witnessed the first snowfall of my life at Georgia Tech. I was in Dr. Stolfi's office. We were discussing some project when he abruptly pointed toward his office window. It was snowing! We quickly finished the discussion, and I left for home early.

I walked in the falling snow for more than a mile, slipping almost five times on the way. In the evening, when the entire campus was covered in snow, I got together with a few friends and made my first snowman.

It's still as clear in my memory as if it happened only yesterday. It was a special day. Although I fell ill the next day, it was all worth it!

In what ways did your time at Georgia Tech transform your life?
I have made significant contributions to various projects, developed skills that I had never even imagined, and evolved work ethics that had seemed impossible to me.

Georgia Tech drove me to push myself and get out of my comfort zone. I am a very different person today from who I was before attending Georgia Tech.

What unique learning activities did you undertake?
I took a special-problems course to do research alongside my studies. This enabled me to apply my classroom learning to real-world problems and to devise new methods and tools for answering intriguing questions.

What advice would you give to incoming graduate students at Georgia Tech?Manage your time. Otherwise, you will be in a sea of problems.

Do not take anything for granted, especially your health. At times, you'll have deadlines, exams, and presentations in a single week. Make sure you give yourself enough time and space to unwind. It’s not always be possible, but do the best you can.

Challenge yourself by taking a tough course, if you find one that interests you, without worrying about the grade. You might never get the opportunity to study those subjects again. 

Where are you headed after graduation?
I will not immediately go for a Ph.D. I’m looking for a bioinformatics software engineer position.  

Georgia Tech stresses ethical behavior in the workplace. These principles will guide me in making tough decisions. 

Georgia Tech has equipped me with a unique combination of technical and soft skills. My experience at Georgia Tech has made me capable of handling multiple projects simultaneously and work efficiently in both collaborative and independent work settings.

A new study demonstrates the physics that elephants use to feed themselves the massive quantities of leaves, fruit and roots needed to sustain their multi-ton bodies. 

A human can pick up multiple objects at once by squeezing them together with both hands and arms. An African elephant also picks up many items at once but with only one appendage—its soft, heavy trunk. How the elephant solves this challenge could provide inspiration for future robotics. 

A wild African elephant eats rapidly, consuming 190 grams of food a minute, to provide adequate fuel for its vast bulk. “Elephants are in a rush when they are eating,” said David L. Hu, associate professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The elephant diet consists of large volumes of plant materials such as leaves, fruit and roots. To eat these, elephants sweep loose items into a pile and crush them into a manageable solid that can be picked up by the trunk. 

“They don’t just use the trunk’s strong muscles to squeeze the plants together,” said Hu. “The elephants also use the weight of the trunk, and they do that by forming a joint in the trunk. The trunk below the joint becomes a stiff pillar that applies weight to the pile of plant materials.” 

About 30 percent of the applied force is derived from the pillar’s weight alone, and about 70 percent from exerting muscular effort, according to a new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface by Hu and colleagues at Georgia Tech, the Rochester Institute of Technology and Zoo Atlanta. 

The African elephant can raise or lower the trunk joint’s height by up to 11 centimeters to increase or reduce the applied force. “When elephants need more force, the joint is higher up on the trunk,” Hu said. Elephant trunks weigh about 150 kilograms and have 40,000 muscles. “The huge number of muscles in the trunk allows the elephant great freedom for where it puts this joint.”

Hu and his colleagues studied a 34-year-old female African elephant (Loxodonta africana) over several weeks in the summer of 2017. All experiments were supervised by the staff at Zoo Atlanta. Food was arranged by hand into a pile in the center of a force plate to measure how much force the animal generated. 

The elephant’s trunk is similar to other boneless organs in nature such as the octopus’s arm and the human tongue. But unlike an octopus’s arm, an elephant’s trunk is heavy enough to provide significant force on an object without muscular pressure. This is the first study to show that an animal can use the weight of its own appendage to help apply force and the first with a live elephant to understand forces that it can apply to materials. 

Using mathematical models, the researchers found that the greater the number of objects to be squeezed and picked up, the greater the force that must be applied. 

“Picking up two objects requires very little force to press them together, while picking up 40,000 objects requires a lot of force,” Hu said. This principle was tested experimentally with the live elephant by presenting multiple food items varying in number from four to 40,000 in number. The experiments showed that the elephant could vary forces applied with its trunk by a factor of four depending on the number of food items to be picked up.

This research could have applications in robotics, where heavier machines would appear to have few advantages over smaller ones. But, in the future, heavy robotic manipulators could be designed with several adjustable joints that use the device’s own weight to provide adjustable pressure and save energy. There are currently no commercial robots designed to apply their own weight to objects, Hu noted. 

“You could have future robots with several joints, which could apply various weight pressures below joints to help compress objects together for lifting them efficiently,” said Hu. “This would allow you to use the weight of the joints themselves to provide force instead of relying on batteries and extra motors to apply these forces, and that would mean using less energy. For instance, you could have a heavy robot with four joints, and by bending the top joint, the weight below it could apply a load. If you wanted to provide less weight pressure, you could instead bend the second-from-the-top joint. This study shows that there are some advantages for robots in being big and heavy.”

African elephants like the ones in this study have two muscular extensions at the tip of their trunk resembling a pair of fingers that also could be studied as models for future robotics. It’s not well known that elephants have such projections, and this understanding could inform work that is already underway. “The elephant’s technique with these extensions might be used to develop soft robotic grippers that can pick up delicate items such as fruit without damaging them,” Hu noted.

This work was supported by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Office Mechanical Sciences Division, Complex Dynamics and Systems Program, under contract W911NF-12-R-0011.

CITATION: Jianing Wu, et al., “Elephant trunks form joints to squeeze together small objects,” (Journal of the Royal Society Interface 15, 2018) http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2018.0377

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986)(jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Tibbetts

Episode 7 of ScienceMatters' Season 1 stars Jennifer Leavey.  Listen to the podcast here and read the transcript here.

Jennifer Leavey is a principal academic professional in the School of Biological Science. She also serves College of Sciences as the coordinator of the  Integrated Science Curriculum and director of Georgia Tech Urban Honeybee Project.

The Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project is an interdisciplinary educational initiative to recruit and retain students in STEM careers through the study of how urban habitats affect honey bee health and how technology can be used to study bees. 

Leavey is also the faculty director of the Science and Math Research Training (SMaRT) and Scientific Health and Related Professions (SHaRP) Living Learning Communities of the College of Sciences.These communities aim to create lasting connections among College of Sciences majors who are interested in research (SMaRT) or intend to pursue additional education and training health-rleated fields. 

In Episode 7 of ScienceMatters, Leavey shares her long-lasting passion for both science and rock music. By day, she’s an academic professional; but when she straps on a guitar , she mutates to Leucine Zipper, leader of the rock band Zinc Fingers.

For a change of pace, ScienceMatters samples the band’s science-inspired songs. Leavey shares how the band uses music and other media to make science concepts fun and accessible.  

Take a listen at sciencematters.gatech.edu.

Enter to win a prize by answering the question for Episode 7: 

In episode 7, what is the name of the song that Jennifer Leavey says sounds like a love song but is actually about bacteria living together in biofilms?

Submit your entry by 11 AM on Monday, Oct. 8, at sciencematters.gatech.edu. Answer and winner will be announced shortly after the quiz closes.

Jennifer Leavey is the integrated science curriculum coordinator for the College of Sciences. She also directs the Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project, an interdisciplinary initiative designed to recruit and retain STEM students by studying how urban habitats affect honey bee health and how technology can be used to study bees. 

“Most of the programs I work on relate to encouraging undergraduates to become more engaged in studying science,” Leavey said. “The Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project sprouted out of the idea that if something is authentic, it doesn’t matter what discipline students are in or what class they’re taking, they’ll become interested in it.”

Learn more about Jennifer Leavey's activities, including leading a science rock band, in the full story by Victor Rogers.

Episode 2 of ScienceMatters' Season 1 stars Jenny McGuire. The assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the School of Biological Sciences has a tough commute to her summer research site: An 80-foot drop into Wyoming’s deep, dark Natural Trap Cave. There she collects fossils that she hopes will yield clues about the impact of climate change on animal and human populations.

Follow her journey at sciencematters.gatech.edu.

Enter to win a prize by answering the episode's question:

What small four-legged animals mentioned in Episode 2 help Jenny McGuire collect bones from Natural Trap Cave?

Submit your entry by noon on Friday, Aug. 31, at sciencematters.gatech.edu. Answer and winner will be announced on Monday, Sept. 3.

Congratulations to Vineeth Aljapur, winner of Episode 1 quiz. Aljapur is a first-year student in the Georgia Tech Bioinformatics Graduate Program.  

Episode 3 of ScienceMatters' Season 1 stars M.G. Finn. Listen to the podcast and read the transcript here!

Leishmaniasis is a scary parasitic disease; it can rot flesh. Formerly contained in countries near the equator, it has arrived in North America. School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor and Chair M.G. Finn explains why it’s so tough to fight this disease. His collaboration with Brazilian researcher Alexandre Marques has raised hopes for a possible vaccine.

Follow the the researchers' journey at sciencematters.gatech.edu.

Enter to win a prize by answering the episode's question:

What sugar molecule mentioned in Episode 3 is the main reason surgeons can’t transplant organs from animals into humans?

Submit your entry by noon on Friday, Sept. 7, at sciencematters.gatech.edu. Answer and winner will be announced on Monday, Sept. 10.

Results of Episode 2 Quiz

Q: What small four-legged animals mentioned in Episode 2 help Jenny McGuire collect bones from Natural Trap Cave?

A: Wood rats, pack rats, or rats

The winner is Pedro Marquez Zacarias. He was listening to ScienceMatters while doing routine data analysis for his research.

A third-year Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech Quantitative Biosciences Graduate Program, Marquez Zacarias aims to add to the understanding of how biological complexity evolved, particularly multicellularity.

Marquez Zacarias comes from a small town in rural México, an indigenous community called Urapicho, in the state of Michoacán.

They may look a little like space capsules, but nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers stay planted on the floor and use potent magnetism to explore opaque constellations of molecules.

Three Atlanta area universities jointly launched a nuclear magnetic resonance collaboration called the Atlanta NMR Consortium to optimize the use of this technology that provides insights into relevant chemical samples containing so many compounds that they can otherwise easily elude adequate characterization. The consortium has been operating since July 2018.

Crab pee

Take, for example, crab urine. It’s packed with hundreds to thousands of varying metabolites, and researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology wanted to nail down one or two of them that triggered a widespread crab behavior. Without access to NMR they may not have found them at all even after an extensive search.

The spectrometer pulled the right two needles out of the haystack, so the researchers could test them on the crabs and confirm that they were initiating the behavior.

Emory University, Georgia State University and Georgia Tech already have NMR technology, but the Atlanta NMR Consortium will enable them to fully exploit it while cost-effectively staying on top of upgrades.

“NMR continues to grow and develop because of technological advances,” said David Lynn, a chemistry professor at Emory University.

That means buying new machines every so often, and one new NMR spectrometer can run into the millions; annual maintenance for one machine can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Thus, reducing costs and maximizing usage makes good sense.

Medicine, geochemistry

The human body, sea-side estuaries, and rock strata present huge collections of compounds. NMR takes inventory of complex samples from such sources via the nuclei of atoms in the molecules.

A nucleus has a spin, which makes it magnetic, and NMR spectrometry’s own powerful magnetism detects spins and pinpoints nuclei to feel out whole molecules. These can be large or small, from mineral compounds with three or four component atoms to protein polymers with tens of thousands of parts.

Researchers in medicine, biochemistry, ecology, geology, food science – the possible list is exhaustive -- turn to NMR to untangle their particular molecular jungles. The consortium wants to leverage that diversity.

“As we go in different directions, we will benefit from a cohesive community of people who know how to use NMR for a wide range of problems,” said Anant Paravastu, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

“The most important goal for us is the sharing of our expertise,” said Markus Germann, a professor of chemistry at Georgia State.

Consortium members will benefit the most from the pooled NMR resources, but non-partners can also book access. Read more about the Atlanta NMR Consortium here on Georgia Tech’s College of Sciences website

Mention “peat moss,” and many people will conjure up the curly brown plant material that gardeners use. “Oh, the thing you get at Home Depot” – is a common reaction Joel Kostka receives when he mentions that he studies peat moss. His response: “Peat moss is a really cool plant that’s important to the global carbon cycle.”

Joel Kostka is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech. The National Science Foundation has just awarded him and three co-principal investigators a $1.15 million, three-year grant to study the microbes in peat moss. The goal is to understand the microbiome’s role in nutrient uptake and the methane dynamics of wetlands and the impact of climate change on these activities.

Kostka’s collaborators are Jennifer Glass, an assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Xavier Mayali, a research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and David Weston, a staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“It has been shown that microbes that live with peat moss help them to grow better by aiding their uptake of carbon and major nutrients such as nitrogen,” Kostka says. “This project will explore which microbes help to keep peat moss plants healthy, how plants and microbes interact, and how these relationships will be affected by climate change?”

Peat moss, also called Sphagnum, carpets the surface of peatlands. This type of wetland locks up huge amounts of carbon in the form of thick, peat soil deposits. When peat is broken down by microbes, greenhouse gases – methane and carbon dioxide – are produced. Methane is of particular interest, because when released to the atmosphere, it has a warming potential that is 21 times that of carbon dioxide.

Scientists hypothesize that environmental warming could cause peatlands to release a lot more methane, which in turn would accelerate climate change.    

“Our project is fundamental science. We’re trying to figure out how the microbes help the plants grow better.”

Lots of evidence suggest that peatlands will produce more methane as the environment warms up. “Methanogens [methane-producing bacteria] don’t like the cold,” Kostka says. “The warmer it gets, the better they are in producing methane.”

Methane in peatlands bubbles up to the peat moss layer. Methane-consuming microbes in peat moss eat some of the gas released. In effect, microbes in peat moss comprise a biofilter that reduces the amount of methane reaching the atmosphere.

However, “we hypothesize that the methane-eating microbes in peat moss may crash as the climate gets warmer,” Kostka says.  That sets up a double-whammy scenario: As the climate gets warmer, microbes in peatlands produce more methane, while other microbes in peat moss become less able to consume the greenhouse gas. “We could get an explosion of methane much more than we can predict,” Kostka says.   

Information about plant microbiomes is scant. Most plants whose microbiomes are being studied are crops, like corn and soybeans. “Few studies are available on plants that are environmentally important but not so economically important,” Kostka says. “A lot of our work is to build better models for how these wetlands respond to climate change.”

“Few studies are available on plants that are environmentally important but not so economically important. A lot of our work is to build better models for how these wetlands respond to climate change.”

Georgia Tech’s Glass will study the geochemical aspects of the peat moss microbiome. She will measure how fast peat moss microbes fix nitrogen and consume methane. She will also identify the trace nutrients available to peat moss in the wetland.

“Because these peatlands receive most of their nutrient input from precipitation, they contain extremely low concentrations of some bioessential trace metals,” Glass says. “We're interested in testing how trace nutrient availability impacts the growth of methane-cycling microbes exposed to warming temperatures.”

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mayali will use NanoSims, an imaging mass spectrometer, to identify what microbes are eating the methane or fixing nitrogen. He will incubate microbe samples with substrates – methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen – enriched in rare isotopes such as carbon-13 instead of the normally abundant carbon-12. Analysis by NanoSims creates isotope maps that enables detailed tracing of who did what.

“Our instrument is able to not only track who is eating the methane or fixing nitrogen from the air, but more importantly, how much and where it ultimately ends up, for example into the Sphagnum plant versus being kept by the microbes,” Mayali says.

Meanwhile, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Weston will use genetically characterized peat moss and microbial members to construct synthetic communities to test how host moss genes influence microbiome assembly and functioning. “Peat moss microbiomes are extremely complex with thousands of members with diverse metabolic capabilities,” Weston says.

“To help determine the role of specific community member interactions,” Weston adds, “we will decompose the field system into simplified synthetic communities where community changes and nutrients can be accurately measured and subjected to precise environmental manipulations.”

“We can engineer wetlands to encourage the growth of peat moss, but that’s not our goal,” Kostka says. “Our project is fundamental science. We’re trying to figure out how the microbes help the plants grow better.”

Episode 4 of ScienceMatters' Season 1 stars Nastassia Patin. Listen to the podcase here and read the transcript here!

Massive whale sharks headline the Ocean Voyager exhibit at Georgia Aquarium.  Its tiniest residents are the ones that concern Nastassia Patin. Patin is a postdoctoral researcher working in the lab of Frank Stewart. Stewart is an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences and a member of Georgia Tech's Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.

Patin's research interests are microbial ecology, environmental microbiology, chemical ecology, metagenomics. Episode 4 describes her findings after studying the microbiome of the Ocean Voyage exhibit at Georgia Aquarium.  What she’s learning may help keep all aquariums clear and healthy.

Take a listen at sciencematters.gatech.edu.

Enter to win a prize by answering the question for Episode 4:

What is the name of the Georgia Aquarium sea turtle mentioned in Episode 4?

Submit your entry by 11 AM on Monday, Sept. 17, at sciencematters.gatech.edu. Answer and winner will be announced shortly after the quiz closes.