The neuroscience of learning across borders

Brains without borders: Emory Laney Graduate School student Charlie Ferris, from psychologist Stephan Hamann's lab, poses with a brain sculpture at the Institute of Neurobiology in Querétaro, Mexico, during the recent Binational Mechanisms of Learning Forum. (Photo by COMEXUS) 

By Carol Clark

Jessica Dugan sits at a computer in the Emory University psychology department in Atlanta, training a rhesus monkey in a lab at a university in Querétaro, Mexico, on the concept of transitive inference. 

She watches the monkey in real-time on her screen. With a few clicks on her keyboard she can present the monkey with random images on a computer attached to its cage and see which image it chooses. The monkey is automatically rewarded with food pellets for correct choices. Eventually, the monkey begins to grasp that the computer “game” is based on a concept of transitive inference — the idea of a hierarchy based on a shared property.

“It’s pretty cool,” Dugan says. “As long as there’s a wi-fi connection, we can remotely put a monkey on task and conduct a training exercise or an experiment. Technology can make collaboration across countries a lot easier.”

The joint project between Emory and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Institute for Neurobiology is just one more in a series of doors opening for Dugan, leading to new ways of learning science and conducting research.

She entered Emory’s Laney Graduate School under the mentorship of psychologist Patricia Bauer, who focuses on human development of memory from infancy through childhood. Dugan is particularly passionate about designing and conducting experiments with children to get at some of the key questions surrounding metacognition — introspection about thought processes.

“Basically, I’m interested in how someone thinking about thinking may be able to improve their ability to learn new information,” she explains. “Self-generation of new knowledge is something that we use every day. It’s a process that’s critical to success in education and beyond.”

Dugan is simultaneously working with rhesus monkeys in the lab of Emory psychologist Robert Hampton. “Studying the cognition of the relatives of our earliest ancestors may help us understand if there was some evolutionary demand that led to us being able to perform certain cognitive tasks,” she says.

And now she’s broadened her horizons by working across countries through the UNAM collaboration.

In May, Dugan was part of a group of 15 Emory graduate students who traveled to Mexico for the UNAM Binational Mechanisms of Learning Forum. The forum was the capstone of a year-long graduate seminar held at both Emory and UNAM called “Mechanisms of Learning Across Species and Development.”

Emory psychologist Patricia Bauer, left, listens as Maria Jose Olvera, a graduate student from the Institute of Neurobiology, explains her research. (Photo by COMEXUS)

“It was an amazing experience,” Dugan says of the nearly week-long forum. “The neuroscience they are doing in Mexico is impressive. It makes me wonder why in the United States we tend to mainly focus on science done here or in Europe. It was as though I was watching a documentary about the cosmos and someone started describing our place on Earth and the camera zoomed out so you realized how small that we are. The Mexico forum gave me a much more universal perspective.”

“We want our students to have an international appreciation for science, so they’re not so America-centric,” Bauer says. “There are lots of things to learn from other parts of the world.”

Bauer co-taught the Mechanisms of Learning seminar in Atlanta this year with Emory psychologist Joseph Manns, and both also traveled to Mexico to participate in the forum. 

Meanwhile, Hampton co-taught the seminar to graduate students in Mexico with UNAM neuroscientist Hugo Merchant, who also researches rhesus monkeys. Hampton is on sabbatical from Emory and has been living in Querétaro and working at the Institute of Neurobiology for the past academic year, funded by the Fulbright Scholars Program.

“The idea is not just to exchange information that makes our science stronger,” Hampton says. “Mexico is a country with a huge border with the United States. We need to have more contact with one another so that we understand each other better and reduce the potential for conflicts between our two countries.”

Emory graduate student Kelly Chong, a member of the lab of biologist Robert Liu, discusses her research with Arturo Gonzalez Isla, a graduate student at the Institute of Neurobiology in Mexico. (Photo by COMEXUS)

UNAM, based in Mexico City, is one of the largest universities in the world, with nearly 400,000 students and faculty. Its Institute for Neurobiology is about three hours north in Querétaro, a small but growing city in the highlands of central Mexico.

“The air is a little bit thinner and the sun’s a bit stronger than in Atlanta,” Hampton says. “It’s ‘tranquillo’ — a calm place — with a high quality of life.”

The institute “is doing the full spectrum of neuroscience,” he adds, “from high-level primate cognition work to molecular biology, neuroanatomy, neurodevelopment and more.”

While most classes are taught in Spanish, the Mexican students are required to both read and publish scientific papers in English.

Emory has hosted the Mechanisms of Learning Forum for the past three years as a capstone to the graduate seminar and as part of a training program co-directed by Bauer and Hampton, funded by the National Institutes of Health.

This year, with Hampton based in Mexico, the decision was made to hold the forum in Querétaro, with funding from the Institute of Neurobiology and Emory's Halle Institute, Department of Psychology and Emory College. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico, Mexico’s National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES), and COMEXUS — the Fulbright Scholars Program supporting Hampton’s sabbatical — also pitched in to support the event.

Thirty-three graduate students from the U.S. and Mexico came together with nine faculty guest speakers from institutions in both countries to discuss their work. The speakers covered topics ranging from human language learning, avian song learning, rodent motor learning and the electrophysiology of memory in adult humans.

“It was a phenomenal opportunity,” says Emory graduate student Emily Brown, who had never been to Mexico. “The best part of the experience for me was meeting the other graduate students and expanding my scientific network to another country. It was neat to see that they are facing similar challenges as graduate students in the United States, and doing similar research.”

A central part of the forum is an open-ended hypothesis-generating exercise. “You get together with people from different backgrounds whom you don’t normally get to bounce ideas off,” Brown explains. “It’s a chance to play with ideas across boundaries and disciplines. The aim is to be creative and to not reject something that may sound a little crazy at first. Instead, you brainstorm about possible techniques or strategies that might make it work. It’s expansive thinking that you don’t necessarily get to do on a day-to-day basis.”

“It’s a great exercise,” Dugan adds, “because as a graduate student you spend a lot of time cranking out things that have to be immediately useful. You can get stuck in a mindset of what won’t work. It’s beneficial to get together with people who have different passions and just think creatively.”

Emory graduate student Emily Brown in the Advanced Facility for Avian Research in Ontario with one of her research subjects — a black-capped chickadee. "The people more likely to make the big discoveries are those willing to talk to each other across labs, institutions and countries," Brown says.

Creative thinking has already led Brown into unexpected places. She began her graduate school career studying memory systems of rhesus monkeys in the Hampton lab, and thought she would stick to that path. Then she began hearing about memory work with wild birds and proposed a research project in collaboration with Hampton and Emory psychologist Donna Maney, who is focused on how genes, hormones and the environment affects the brains of birds.

One of the guest speakers at the 2014 Mechanisms of Learning Forum was David Sherry, an expert on bird cognition from the University of Western Ontario’s Advanced Facility for Avian Research in London, Ontario. Brown was inspired by his talk and ultimately able to expand her collaboration to include Sherry. She is now continuing as a graduate student at Emory while in the Sherry lab in Canada.

“It’s one of the top avian research facilities in the world,” Brown says. “I’m developing a technique to study memory and cognition in wild, free-living birds. Right now, I’m working with black-capped chickadees, which are known for taking bits of food, hiding them for later, and then using their memory to locate them. Ideally, the techniques I’m developing could be used with any small songbirds that you see coming to a feeder in your yard.”

Birds make a good model species because they are so widespread and their behavior in the wild is well-documented, she says. “You have some bird species that are closely related living in dramatically different ecosystems and those that are not closely related at all operating in similar ecosystems. So you can compare which cognitive functions of species might be more driven by the environment and the pressures that they’re facing there.”

Adding Mexico to the mix of her graduate school experiences seemed like a natural progression to Brown. “Scientists are doing science everywhere and we shouldn’t be closed off to each other because of some borders on a map,” she says. “Science is advanced by communication. The people more likely to make the big discoveries are those willing to talk to each other across labs, institutions and countries.”

And the talk doesn’t always have to be about work.

A highlight for Brown in Mexico was a social outing — a hike through a wildlife preserve with the host students. “I had a chance to see a lot of the local flora and fauna,” she says. “It’s a really different ecosystem than Atlanta or Ontario. It’s dry, full of cactuses and vermillion flycatchers. They’re very pretty birds.”

Dugan agrees that breaking down barriers is important to the future of science. “The science community is all over the world,” she says. “Science in general is in jeopardy right now but we’re stronger together. People around the world are benefitting from — and contributing to — scientific progress.”

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Georgia Climate Project creates state 'climate research roadmap'

Environmental sciences instructor Daniel Rochberg, chief strategy officer for Climate@Emory, says the Georgia Climate Research Roadmap aims to create "Georgia's Top 40," a set of targeted research questions to help the state understand and address climate change. (Emory Photo/Video)

By Kimber Williams
Emory Report

Scientists, researchers and environmental experts from across the state convened at Emory last week to draft the “Georgia Climate Research Roadmap” — a set of targeted research questions that could help Georgia better understand and address one of the century’s defining challenges.

The goal of the May 22-23 gathering was to formulate “Georgia’s Top 40,” key climate research questions that could eventually aid decision-making and planning for Georgia policymakers, scientists, communities and service organizations.

An initiative of the Georgia Climate Project, the roadmap was a response to the fact that communities across Georgia are already exploring strategies to address the impact of climate change, says Daniel Rochberg, chief strategy officer for the Climate@Emory initiative and an instructor in the Rollins School of Public Health and Emory College of Arts and Sciences, where he focuses on climate change and sustainable development.

Some Georgia communities are actively assessing vulnerabilities and strategies to build resilience to potential climate change impact, while others are developing technologies and policies to begin reducing emissions, according to Rochberg, who has also worked for the U.S. State Department as special assistant to the lead U.S. climate negotiators under presidents Bush and Obama.

“To inform this work, decision-makers at all levels need credible and relevant information from across the natural, applied and social sciences,” says Murray Rudd, an associate professor in Emory’s Department of Environmental Sciences and member of the climate research roadmap steering committee. “The Georgia Climate Research Roadmap seeks to fulfill this need by identifying the key research questions that, if answered, can lay the groundwork for the state and its residents to take effective, science-based climate action,” he says.

Read the full story in Emory Report.

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Climate change is in Atlanta's air
How will the shifting political winds affect U.S. climate policy?

Climate change is in Atlanta's air

"We're all partly responsible for our local air quality," says Emory graduating senior Emily Li. "Even if we don't hold ourselves accountable, our health will." (Emory Photo/Video)

By Carol Clark

Emory 2017 graduate Emily Li is leaving Atlanta this summer, but her student research will continue to have a presence here. For her undergraduate thesis, Li investigated the effects of shifting weather patterns on the air quality of Atlanta and the region — and how that relates to human health. She’s compiled her findings into a web site, Climate Change is in the Air, as a resource for local residents. 

“The web site explains some of the science involved, but it’s not just statistics,” Li says. “It also tells stories of real people. I wanted to put faces on these complex, scientific processes and explain how individuals are being directly affected by climate change, right now.”

In addition to science and stories from real people, the site offers solutions — what communities and individuals can do to address the issue.

Li, who majored in Environmental Sciences and English, sampled classes from a range of disciplines during college. No matter what the course, however, climate change kept coming up. “I think that it’s the most important issue that we face today, and I want to be part of the solution,” she says.

As a junior, Li took a course called Environmental Journalism, taught by Sheila Tefft, and realized that she could combine her two passions: Science and communication.

The web site focuses on how climate change is connected to Atlanta’s air quality, and how air quality is connected to the health of everyone living here. “Everybody has to breathe the air,” Li says. “We each need about 50 pounds of air a day and we can only go without it for about five minutes. Air is what we use the most and need the most to survive.”

The air pollutants that are contributing to a warming climate also contribute to problems of human health across the body — from the functions of lung and bronchial airways to cardiovascular diseases and central nervous system disorders. For the web site, Li concentrated on the respiratory health impacts of aeroallergens, wildfire emissions and ground-level ozone.

In lush Atlanta, a city famous for its “pollen explosions,” a warming climate may mean a longer exposure to pollen from many plants. Li tells the story of a fellow Emory student with a range of plant allergies to show the impact that high pollen counts can have on an individual’s life. “It’s hard to enjoy a nice spring day when you have to take a nap afterwards just for breathing the air,” she writes.

Hot, dry conditions also contribute to wildfires in Georgia, including an ongoing blaze in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Hundreds of firefighters are currently battling the fire as it threatens to spread beyond the swamp to nearby communities.

To personalize the impact of the wildfire emissions, Li interviewed a firefighter from north Georgia. She described his experience of a minor smoke inhalation episode: “The condition is first initiated by a deep-set exhaustion: He’s already usually hot, sweaty and tired out from the firefighting work. Overwhelmed, his respiratory system begins to let down its defenses. Then he starts to get a tightness in his chest, like his upper body is being squeezed by an invisible fist. It becomes hard for him to fully catch his breath, and he can feel a distinct obstruction in his windpipe with every attempt to suck air into his lungs. At the same time, his energy levels plummet dangerously.”

The firefighter explained to Li: “With wildfire, typically there’s a lot of walking that has to happen and a lot of strenuous activity getting to remote areas. It’s just not possible or feasible to carry air packs or self-contained breathing apparatus into the wilderness or remote areas and sustain that air supply.”

The topic of ground-level ozone is also covered on the web site, although the personal story for that section remains under construction.

Li is leaving Atlanta to pursue a masters degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania, but she plans to keep adding to the site — and perhaps expand it to encompass other cities across the country.

“My goal is to create an immersive experience that people can not just learn from, but connect to,” Li says. “I want to bridge the emotional distance between people and the science of climate change.” 

The solutions offered on the site are a critical part of that goal, she adds. “One of my main suggestions is to just stay informed and aware and spread that awareness any way that you can,” Li says. “The more people that understand the problem, the better.”

Atlanta residents also have a chance to make a difference as the Atlanta Regional Commission works on a Regional Transportation Plan aimed at meeting Clean Air Act requirements. “Anyone can join the conversation to help make the plan a reality,” Li says.

Researching the potential impacts of climate change was overwhelming at times but ultimately rewarding, Li says. “Working on this project has made me much more deliberate in my actions. It’s also made me aware of not only how I can contribute to solutions to climate change, but how I can help other people stay hopeful and helpful so they can take action as well.”

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A Reddit Science Q&A on medical ethnobotany

What does a medical ethnobotanist have growing in her home garden? Is it possible to patent the berry of a plant? What's the difference between a natural and a synthetic product?

Emory ethnobotanist Cassandra Quave answered these questions and many more during her popular Reddit Science Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) session last Friday. The lively session sparked more than 400 comments within a few hours. Quave, assisted by members of her lab, answered most of the questions posed to her. "I've enjoyed the opportunity to discuss our research with so many interested people," Quave told the Reddit community.

Click here to read her archived Reddit AMA.

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Atlanta Science Festival celebrates 'frontiers of the unknown'

Participants in the Zombie Outbreak Game scoured Peavine Creek on the Emory campus in 2016 for clues to the cause of a mock epidemic. The popular game returns this year on Sunday, March 19.

By Carol Clark

Watch for an astronaut, zombies, a hovercraft and liquid nitrogen ice cream to pop up on the Emory campus during the Atlanta Science Festival, March 14 to March 25. Thousands of science enthusiasts, of all ages, are also expected to appear for the fourth annual event – which includes lab tours, talks, a planetarium show, movie screenings, science-themed dance and games and lots more interactive fun.

The festival blasts off at Emory this year with a talk by NASA astronaut Mark Kelly. Tickets are going fast in the countdown to the event, set for 7 pm on Tuesday, March 14 at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church.

“Emory University is proud to be a founder and strong supporter of the Atlanta Science Festival, which is just one example of the university’s engagement with our city and region,” says Emory President Claire E. Sterk. “We welcome the local community to our campus for the launch of the 2017 festival and to hear astronaut Captain Mark Kelly. Captain Kelly is an inspiration to all of us who are seeking to push the frontiers of the unknown.”

Name the ASF mascot

The title of Kelly’s talk is “Endeavor to Succeed.” He will give an insider’s perspective on space travel and the year-long NASA experiment he is participating in with his twin brother, also an astronaut, on how space affects the human body.

The public is invited to enter a contest to name the festival's new astronaut mascot. Entries are due by Friday, March 10 at 5 pm, and the winner will receive four VIP tickets to Kelly's talk.

Following are highlights of other festival events set at Emory.

“STEM Gems: Giving Girls Role Models in STEM Careers,” brings together women leaders from business, academia, NASA and more for a panel discussion on Thursday, March 16. They will offer advice aimed at girls ages 10 and up, who are interested in careers involving science, technology engineering or math.

The “Zombie Outbreak Game” returns to campus this year, on Sunday, March 19, giving participants ages 12 and up a chance to investigate a mock zombie disease outbreak, using real-world tools employed by scientists at Emory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Actors from Out of Hand Theater will play the patients as participants don masks and gowns and follow a trail of clues through streams, woods and labs across campus.

A dance performance, “Creating a New Normal: Race, Identity, Health and Activism,” will explore the themes involved in working towards an AIDS free generation, on the afternoon of Monday, March 20. The performance will be followed by a conversation with scientists and public health researchers — hosted by the Emory Center for Ethics — on the past, present and future of viral diseases.

“Investigating Our Human Past,” the evening of Monday, March 20, will allow visitors to examine the Emory Anthropology Department’s cast collection of fossilized skulls of our ancestors. Scientists will be on hand to discuss recent advances in our understanding of how the human brain evolved.

The Mathematics and Computer Science Department will present “Unveiling the Internet,” geared for teens, on the evening of Thursday, March 23. Participants will meet in a computer lab to tinker with code and learn concepts like how Snapchat snaps move through space.

Physics Live! set for Friday, March 24

The ever-popular “Physics Live!” returns to the Emory Math and Science Center on Friday, March 24. Children will be entertained with giant soap bubbles, a hovercraft and liquid nitrogen ice cream, among other activities. This year, the physics fun will be joined by a “Chemistry Carnival” at the Atwood Science Center. Chemists will turn into midway barkers, awarding prizes to visitors who play games like Peptide Jenga and Bacterial Telepathy, based on ongoing research in Emory labs.

The Oxford Campus will host a “Critter Crawl” through Oxford Forest on Sunday, March 19, to learn about wildlife native to Georgia. And on Sunday, March 21, an event called “It’s About Time” will bring guests and local researchers together to share scientific and social concepts of time.

In addition to on-campus events, members of the Emory community will be featured in Atlanta Science Festival activities happening throughout metro Atlanta:

“Science and Spirituality” will explore the intersections of physics and faith, biology and belief. The panel of local scientists and theologians will include Arri Eisen, a biologist from Emory’s Center for Ethics. On Thursday, March 16 at First Christian Church of Decatur.

“The Science Behind Tremors, the Movie,” features Emory paleontologist Tony Martin who will provide a lively discussion about real animals that inspired giant fictional worms. On Sunday, March 19 at Fernbank Science Center.

A live show and podcast called “You’re the Expert” will bring together a panel of comedians and podcast host Chuck Bryant, who will good-naturedly grill Emory chemist Cora McBeth about her work. On Tuesday, March 21 at 7 Stages Theatre.

The Exploration Expo, the culminating event of the festival, will include scientists from Emory biology, chemistry, environmental sciences, the Emory Herbarium and the Emory Center for the Study of Human Health. They will be among the hosts of 100 booths offering science-themed activities for families during the culminating event of the festival, set for Centennial Park on Saturday, March 25.

Contact tracing, with indoor spraying, can curb dengue outbreak

A traditional Queenslander home in Cairns, Australia, is open to breezes, as well as to disease-bearing mosquitoes. (Photo via James Cook University.)

By Carol Clark

Contact tracing, combined with targeted, indoor residual spraying of insecticide, can greatly reduce the spread of the mosquito-borne dengue virus, finds a study led by Emory University.

In fact, this novel approach for the surveillance and control of dengue fever – spread by the same mosquito species that infects people with the Zika virus – was between 86 and 96 percent effective during one outbreak, the research shows. By comparison, vaccines for the dengue virus are only 30-to-70-percent effective, depending on the serotype of the virus.

Science Advances published the findings, which were based on analyses from a 2009 outbreak of dengue in Cairns, Australia.

“We’ve provided evidence for a method that is highly effective at preventing transmission of diseases carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito in a developed, urban setting,” says the study’s lead author, Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, a disease ecologist in Emory’s Department of Environmental Sciences. “We’ve also shown the importance of human movement when conducting surveillance of these diseases.”

“The United States is facing continual threats from dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses,” says Sam Scheiner, director of the National Science Foundation’s Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Program, which funded the research. “For now, the response is to intensively spray insecticides. This research shows that a more targeted approach can be more effective.”

While the method would likely not be applicable everywhere, Vazquez-Prokopec says that it may be viable to control Aedes-borne diseases in places with established health systems and similar environmental characteristics to Cairns, such as South Florida or other U.S. states at risk of virus introduction.

“The widespread transmission of dengue viruses, coupled with the birth defects associated with Zika virus, shows the dire need for as many weapons as possible in our arsenal to fight diseases spread by these mosquitos,” he says. “Interventions need to be context dependent and evaluated carefully and periodically.”

A public health worker collects Aedes mosquito larvae from water that has pooled on a tarp at a residence in Cairns, Australia.

During the dengue outbreak in Cairns, public health officials traced recent contacts of people with a confirmed infection – a surveillance method known as contact tracing. This method is commonly used for directly transmitted pathogens like Ebola or HIV, but rarely for outbreaks spread by mosquitos or other vectors.

Using mobility data from the known cases, public health workers targeted residences for indoor residual spraying, or IRS. Walls of the homes – from top to bottom – and dark, humid places where Aedes mosquitos might rest, were sprayed with an insecticide that lasts for months.

The method is time-consuming and labor intensive, and health officials were not able to reach all of the residences that were connected to the infected persons.

The researchers found that performing IRS in potential exposure locations reduced the probability of dengue transmission by at least 86 percent in those areas, in comparison to areas of potential exposures that did not have indoor spraying.

“The findings are important,” Vazquez-Prokopec says, “because they demonstrate one of the few measures that we have for the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce the transmission of dengue.”

Many times, he says, in the face of a dengue outbreak public health officials end up using trucks to spray insecticide – despite the lack of scientific evidence for the effectiveness of fogging from the streets to control Aedes aegypti mosquitos.

Quantifying the effectiveness of existing methods, and the context within which they work, can strengthen the vector-control arsenal. “We need to develop plans for outbreak containment that are context-specific,” Vazquez-Prokopec says.

He is researching ways to scale up this intervention. While it now takes approximately half-an-hour to conduct indoor residual spraying in a single house, he would like to cut that time to as little as 10 minutes.

“We are evaluating how we can scale up and improve IRS for 21st-century urban areas,” Vazquez-Prokopec says.

Co-authors of the study include researchers from Queensland Health, the Rollins School of Public Health and James Cook University, Cairns.

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Astronaut Mark Kelly to launch Atlanta Science Festival at Emory

Captain Mark Kelly, who led NASA missions into space, will lead off the action-packed schedule of this year's Atlanta Science Festival on Tuesday, March 14. His talk is entitled "Endeavor to Succeed." (NASA photo)

By Carol Clark

The 2017 Atlanta Science Festival blasts off on Tuesday, March 14 with a talk by Captain Mark Kelly – commander of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final mission – at 7 pm in Emory’s Glenn Memorial Auditorium.

“We wanted to start off this year with someone who appeals to people of all ages and who epitomizes science in action,” says Meisa Salaita, co-executive director of the Atlanta Science Festival, which will continue through March 25 with events throughout the metro area. “Who better than an astronaut to show us how science can take us to new and exciting places?”

The title of Kelly’s talk is “Endeavour to Succeed.” Tickets for the event can be bought in advance on the Atlanta Science Festival’s web site for $12 ($8 for children 12 and under). They will also be available at the door the day of the event for $15.

Starting at 5:30 pm, during the countdown to Kelly’s talk, the public is invited to join toy rocket launching activities on the Glenn Memorial lawn, led by members of the Georgia Tech Ramblin’ Rocket Club and the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers.

Kelly, who began his NASA career in 1996, commanded the Space Shuttle Discovery, as well as the Endeavour. He left the astronaut corps in the summer of 2011 to help his wife, former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, recover from gunshot wounds she received in an assassination attempt on her life. The couple’s story captivated the nation, and they went on to found Americans for Responsible Solutions to advocate for gun control.

NASA is comparing biological data from the Earth-bound Kelly with his identical twin brother, Scott Kelly, who recently spent a year in space. The unique Twins Study may offer insights into how to prepare astronauts for a long-term mission to Mars.

Kelly is also a prolific author, including numerous children’s books with space themes, and he will be available for a book signing following his talk at Emory.

The 12-day Atlanta Science Festival features talks, lab tours, film screenings, participatory activities and science demonstrations — more than 100 events at dozens of different venues, including the Emory campus. “We’ve expanded the number of days at the festival of the year, to avoid scheduling conflicts and give people a chance to experience more of the festival,” Salaita says. (Click here for the full schedule of events.)

Physics Live (at the Emory Mathematics and Science Center) and a Chemistry Carnival (at the Atwood Chemistry Center) will be among the Emory campus highlights, featuring lab tours and science demonstrations from 3:30 to 7 pm on Friday, March 24. (Click here for a full listing of Emory-related events.)

New at the festival this year will be an appearance by New York rap artist Baba Brinkman. He will perform “Rap Guide to Climate Chaos” at 1:30 on Saturday, March 18 at the Drew Charter School. 

Also new this year is “The Art and Science of Cooking with Insects,” featuring free tastings, at 7:30 pm on Thursday, March 23 at Manuels Tavern.

About 20,000 visitors are expected for the festival’s culminating event, the Exploration Expo, from 11 am to 4 pm on Saturday, March 25 at Centennial Olympic Park. Around 100 interactive exhibits will delight curious minds of all ages, from Emory chemist’s Doug Mulford’s “Ping Pong Big Bang” to the immersive Google Village experience.

Leading sponsors of this year’s Atlanta Science Festival include Emory, Georgia Tech, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Delta Airlines and Google.

Experts warn of impending extinction of many of the world's primates

The black-and-white ruffed lemur of Madagascar is endangered due to hunting and to habitat loss. Most primates live in regions with high levels of human poverty and inequality, which contributes to the decline of the animals, says Thomas Gillespie, an Emory expert in the disease ecology of primates.

By Carol Clark

Urgent action is needed to protect the world’s dwindling primate populations, warns a group of 31 leading experts on primate conservation in Science Advances. Sixty percent of the more than 500 primate species worldwide are threatened with extinction, while more than 75 percent have declining populations, the landmark article reports. The authors include scientists and policymakers from the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

“The majority of primate species are endangered now. We are at a turning point where we must take action or lose many species during the next 50 years,” says co-author Thomas Gillespie, an associate professor in Emory University’s Department of Environmental Sciences and an expert in the disease ecology of primates.

A young orangutan

“Primates are our closest relatives and make up a large proportion of the mammals of the world,” he adds. “If we lose them, not only do we lose a lot of insights into ourselves, we lose the ecological services that they provide.”

The order primates – ranging from the tiny mouse lemurs of Madagascar to the massive mountain gorillas of Central Africa – is the third most diverse order of mammals, after rodents and bats. Primate species serve as seed dispersers, pollinators, predators and prey to keep ecosystems in balance. For instance, other rare animals – such as jaguars, leopards and harpy eagles – include monkeys in their diets.

Primates are so prevalent in zoos and in media imagery, many people are lulled into a false sense of security and do not realize how scarce they are becoming, Gillespie says.

The Science Advances article details how escalating human activities are putting unsustainable pressures on primates and their habitats, including extensive forest loss due to the expansion of industrial agriculture and large-scale catting ranching, logging, oil and gas drilling, mining, dam building and the construction of road networks for resource extraction.

In addition to habitat loss and poaching, disease is a major threat to many primate populations, and is often intertwined with the other two issues, Gillespie says. “It’s important to try to keep primate habitats as intact as possible,” he says, “because when they become fragmented primates may be forced to come out and raid agricultural crops just to get enough to eat. And crop raiding leads to all kinds of conflict, such as fights between dogs and primates, and opportunities for fecal contamination.”

A young chimpanzee in Gombe Stream National Park, where human misuse of antibiotics is putting the animals at risk for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. "If you help a local human population become healthier, you also reduce the potential for infectious disease in the surrounding wildlife," Gillespie says.

Disease is the main threat to the survival of the endangered chimpanzees of Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park, made famous by the work of primatologist Jane Goodall, who began observing them during the 1960s.

Work by Gillespie and his colleagues has found that human misuse of antibiotics is putting the Gombe chimpanzees at risk for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. The Gillespie lab is one of the few investigating the ecology and epidemiology of infectious disease in natural systems where domesticated animals, humans and wildlife overlap.

Among the pathogens threatening both humans and non-human primates are the malaria species Plasmodium knowlesi, which can cause disease in pigtail macaques in Southeast Asia; Ebola, which affects chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa; and yellow fever, which strikes brown howler monkeys in South America.

Most primates live in regions with high levels of human poverty and inequality, and the co-authors stress the need to improve human health and access to education, while also preserving traditional livelihoods that can contribute to food security and environmental conservation.

“If you help a local human population become healthier, you also reduce the potential for infectious disease in the surrounding wildlife,” Gillespie says.

The authors are calling on governmental officials, scientists, non-governmental organizations, businesses and individual citizens to mobilize and raise awareness of the plight of the world’s primates.

“If humans continue to alter and degrade habitats such that they are unsuitable for our primate relatives, then these habitats will eventually become unsuitable for ourselves,” they conclude.

Related:
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Disease poses risk to chimpanzee conservation, Gombe study finds
Sanctuary chimps show high rates of drug-resistant staph

How will the shifting political winds affect U.S. climate policy?

Emory seniors Emily Li (left) and Jennie Sun were part of an Emory delegation to Marrakech, Morocco, in November for a U.N. Climate Change Conference. Shortly after the event began, Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, won the U.S. presidential election. “We need to think about how to move forward," Li says, "because focusing on the negatives is ultimately not going to be useful.”

By Carol Clark

“No U.S. president has been as vocal about climate change, or as focused on mitigating it, as Barack Obama,” says Eri Saikawa, an assistant professor in Emory’s Department of Environmental Sciences and an expert in public policy and the science of emissions linked to global warming.

President-elect Donald Trump, however, has repeatedly called climate change a hoax.

“The concern about how Trump will deal with climate change is worldwide,” Saikawa says. “We all share the same atmosphere and the United States is a leading emitter of greenhouse gases. The impacts of global warming will affect the entire planet.”

Among Obama’s initiatives is the U.S. Clean Power Plan – which established the first national carbon pollution standards for power plants. U.S. leadership was also instrumental in the historic Paris Agreement to combat climate change. The 2015 agreement, organized by the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), brought more than 190 countries together to commit to a framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Paris Agreement is an amazing achievement, and there was so much momentum and excitement surrounding it,” Saikawa says.

On November 7, delegates from around the world gathered in Marrakech, Morocco, to hammer out details resulting from the Paris Agreement. Saikawa headed a 10-member Emory delegation to Marrakech for the two-week event, known as the U.N. 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22). (Emory, one of the few universities approved as an official U.N. observer by the COP, also sent a delegation to the Paris talks last year.)

Emory’s Marrakech delegation included six students and three staff members. They split into two teams, with half participating at COP 22 during the first week and the other half during the second. 

Emory delegates on the ground in Marrakech, including senior Emily Li (front left), and, from upper left: Kate Lee (clinical fellow and staff attorney for the Turner Environmental Law Clinic), sophomore Maya Bornstein, senior Jennie Sun and Tyler Stern (an Emory grad who is now a Residence Life Fellow).

Emily Li, a senior majoring in environmental sciences and English, was there when the U.S. presidential election results were announced.

“Everyone was in shock,” Li says, of the surprise victory by Trump. “You could tell which delegates were from the U.S. because they just looked so tired that morning. The U.S. press office was total chaos.”

Li also struggled to take in the turn of events. “It was discouraging at first,” she says. “I’m really passionate about mitigating climate change and to have a national leader who doesn’t recognize it as an important issue is really disheartening.”

During the election campaign, Trump threatened to ax the Clean Power Plan and to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement. After winning, Trump seemed to soften his stance somewhat, saying he would keep an “open mind” about the agreement. But he tapped Myron Ebell, a well-known climate-science denier, to lead his administration’s revamping of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Li summed up the post-election mood at COP 22 in a blog post called “Talking about the Elephant in the Room.” You can read it, along with posts by other members of the Emory delegation, on the Emory Climate Organization (ECO) web site, founded by students focused on understanding climate change.

The mood at COP 22 soon shifted from shock to a sense of renewed urgency. “A lot of the younger delegates, in particular, were saying how the Trump administration could help bring people together and motivate more engagement and action,” Li says. “We need to think about how to move forward because focusing on the negatives is ultimately not going to be useful.”

Local initiatives are more important than ever, she noted. For her senior thesis in environmental sciences, Li is zeroing in on ways that climate change may affect public health in Atlanta. “I’m doing a lot of research, looking at different studies to learn the scientific consensus. I’m also interviewing policy makers and people affected by events like the drought and the recent wildfires,” she says.

She plans to translate the science into engaging stories that she will post to a public web site, along with possible solutions. “I want to help communicate the direct effects of climate change on public health in Atlanta, so people living here can better understand the potential impact on themselves and their children,” Li explains. “I think that the more local an issue is, the more people tend to care about it.”

Geoff Martin, who is working on a master degree in environmental sciences, participated in the second week of COP 22. “In the month leading up to Morocco, I was really excited,” he recalls. “The Paris Agreement had finally gotten things moving in the right direction and I was going to this great event, COP 22, the first step towards implementation.”

The election results took the wind out of his sails, but only momentarily. “Being at the conference helped me regain my perspective,” Martin says. “People from all different levels and areas – government officials, those from the private sector and from non-governmental agencies – found reasons to still be hopeful.”

One of the major take-home messages for him is that the international community is going to continue to move forward in combating climate change, with or without the United States.

Another theme he heard repeatedly was that governing is a lot different from campaigning. “Trump will likely find that many of the things he said he was going to do during his campaign, like dismantle the EPA and cancel the Paris Agreement, may be easier said than done,” Martin says.

He also draws hope from the fact that the energy market is shifting. “The price of renewable energy keeps going down, making it increasingly competitive with fossil fuels in many places,” he says. “Regardless of government policy, the market could continue to drive a transition towards renewable energy.”

Martin is at work on a thesis, focused on analyzing the effectiveness of state-level climate and energy policies. He agrees with Li that the election of Trump could serve as a wake-up call for those concerned about climate change to take action at the local level, and not wait for the federal government to take the lead.

“Lots of talks at COP 22 were focused on sub-national efforts to mitigate climate change, not just in the United States, but throughout the world,” Martin says. He cites the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a successful cap-and-trade program for the power sector comprising nine U.S. states in the northeast.

The recent victory by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to block the $3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline is another hopeful sign, Martin says. “Their victory was entirely a result of grassroots activism,” he says. “It shows how, if people really care about an issue and come out to protest and pressure government officials, they can make a difference.”

Related:
Peachtree to Paris: Emory delegation headed to U.N. climate talks

The top 10 policies needed now to protect pollinators

Bee thankful: “If you enjoyed a bountiful Thanksgiving Day dinner, you should give thanks to pollinators,” says Emory biologist Berry Brosi.

By Carol Clark

Scientific experts from eight different countries developed a list of the top 10 policies needed to reverse the decline of pollinators crucial to the world’s food supply.

The journal Science is publishing the recommendations for the global community in a forum article, “10 Policies for Pollinators.” The recommendations will be presented at the United Nations Convention of the Parties on Biological Diversity (CoP13), to take place in Mexico December 4 to 17.

“If you enjoyed a bountiful Thanksgiving Day dinner, you should give thanks to pollinators,” says Berry Brosi, a biologist and ecologist in Emory University’s Department of Environmental Sciences and a co-author of the article.

Brosi cites the first policy recommendation on the list as the most concrete and actionable: Better pesticide regulatory standards.

He adds that several of the recommendations related to sustainable agriculture more broadly include making chemical control for insects and other pests a last resort.

“Especially in light of the emergence of the Zika virus, and widespread public concern about mosquito-borne diseases, we are likely to see increased demands for pesticide use,” Brosi says. “Mosquito control is, of course, important, but we also need to be thoughtful about what kinds of pesticides we use and how we use them. We should carefully consider the impact on pollinators and other biodiversity.”

The Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing a class of insecticides commonly used in agriculture, neonicotinoids, which have been linked to wide-scale bee declines and impacts to other pollinator species by a range of scientific studies.

"Neonicotinoids are known to kill bees and other insect pollinators in very low doses, and to cause behavioral disruptions in even minute concentrations, measured in parts-per-billion," says Brosi, whose research focuses on both managed honeybees and wild bees.

In 2014, Emory began taking steps to eliminate the use of neonicotinoid-based pesticides and pre-treated plants on its campus grounds, the first university to do so worldwide.

The EPA’s review of the safety of neonicotinoids is not due until 2017.

The complete list of recommended policies for pollinators is as follows:

1. Raise pesticide regulatory standards
2. Promote integrated pest management
3. Include indirect and sublethal effects in GM crop risk assessments
4. Regulate movement of managed pollinators
5. Develop insurance schemes to help farmers
6. Recognize pollination as agricultural input in extension services
7. Support diversified farming systems
8. Conserve and restore “green infrastructure” (a network of habitats that pollinators can move between) in agricultural and urban landscapes
9. Develop long-term monitoring of pollinators and pollination
10. Fund participatory research on improving yields in organic, diversified and ecologically intensified farming

The policy recommendations follow a United Nations warning in February that pollinators were under threat. Brosi was among 77 international experts who worked on that report, the first global pollinator assessment for the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The assessment found that more than 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species, particularly bees and butterflies, face extinction. And 16 percent of vertebrate pollinators are under threat. The issue is critical to agricultural, economics and the health of humans and ecosystems: 75 percent of the world’s food crops depend on pollination by at least one of 20,000 species of pollinators, including bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles, birds, bats and other vertebrates.

Related:
Pollinators vital to food supply facing extinction, U.N. report warns 
Emory to ban bee-harming pesticides, protect pollinators

Companies pushing 'toddler milk' for 'growth' need oversight, experts warn

"Parents are commonly concerned about the size of their children and how well they are doing developmentally," says Emory's Michelle Lampl, MD, PhD, adding: "Not all kids who are smaller than average have a problem."

By Carol Clark

Liquid-based nutritional supplements, originally formulated for malnourished or undernourished children, need more regulatory oversight as they are increasingly marketed to promote growth in children generally, warn researchers at Emory University.

The journal Healthcare published their commentary article, citing the lack of scientific evidence to support marketing claims of the benefits for growth of giving healthy children liquid-based nutritional supplements, commonly known as “toddler milks.”

“A plumper baby is not necessarily a healthier baby,” says Michelle Lampl, who is the lead author of the article, director of the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University and an internationally recognized expert in human growth.

In fact, toddler milk supplements may actually be doing harm by fueling rapid, unnecessary weight gain in young children in the midst of a global obesity epidemic, she adds.

She notes that the liquid supplements may have as much as 240 calories per serving and have the potential to turn a healthy, lean toddler into an overweight one. “Healthy developmental growth does not mean gaining weight and getting fat,” she says. “It is primarily measured by whether a child is growing a stronger, longer skeleton.”

Liquid-based nutritional supplements fall into a regulatory loophole, because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not consider supplements to be a drug or a “conventional” food. “When a mother goes into a store and sees a toddler milk supplement on a shelf, she has no idea that it falls into a less rigorous FDA category than those covering so-called conventional food and medicine,” Lampl says. “We have a product aimed at a vulnerable population – infants and young children – that does not have adequate oversight.”

Co-authors of the commentary article are: Meriah Schoen, a research assistant at Emory’s Center for the Study of Human Health and a graduate student focused on nutrition at Georgia State University; and Amanda Mummert, who recently received a PhD in Anthropology from Emory's Laney Graduate School.

The commentary appears in a special issue of Healthcare, dedicated to the physician-scientist David Barker, who died in 2013. He originated the Barker Hypothesis, also known as the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease model, linking fetal and early infant experiences to an individual’s health status across the lifespan.

“David Barker opened the door to the importance of early influences, including nutrition and other environmental factors, for lifelong health,” Lampl says. “He believed that we have an ethical responsibility to ensure that the next generation is as healthy as it can be.”

Companies have marketed infant formulas for decades. In 1981, however, the World Health Organization (WHO) voted to recommend banning marketing of formulas for babies under six months, since the formulas were associated with lower rates of breastfeeding, and increased disease and malnutrition in the developing world.

Countries around the world adopted the rules and breastfeeding rates went up globally. The formula industry responded by focusing on toddler milk supplements, aimed at children ages six months and up.

Liquid-based supplements containing vitamins and minerals may be beneficial to children that are malnourished, or suffering from chronic diseases that prohibit their ability to consume solid foods, Lampl says. The problem, she adds, is that toddler milks have grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry that is expanding internationally to encompass healthy children.

Rapidly boosting the weight of children who are simply smaller than average but healthy could have lifelong consequences, she says. Barker, for instance, found a direct link to higher rates of metabolic disorders among individuals who were born relatively small and grew rapidly in the first few years of life.

“Parents are commonly concerned about the size of their children and how well they are doing developmentally,” Lampl says, adding that the growth charts used in pediatrician offices are often misunderstood. “Not all kids who are smaller than average have a problem.”

Busy mothers on the go, who may be consuming “energy drinks” and liquid supplements themselves, are primed to buy toddler milk for young children under the assumption that they are healthy choices, particularly for children who may be picky eaters.

“Although it can take a picky eater up to 20 times of trying a food to decide if they like it, most mothers offer a food fewer than five times before switching to something more convenient,” Lampl says. “It’s much easier to hand your child a sugary ‘toddler milk,’ thinking it’s healthy and it helps them grow.”

The WHO is set to consider recommendations concerning calorie amounts and ingredients for liquid-based nutritional supplements marketed to toddlers and older children during a meeting in early December.

Those recommendations will not have teeth, however, and it will be up to individual governments whether they decide to adopt them and enforce them.

“We are really behind when it comes to regulatory oversight for the marketing of these supplements, and for rigorous scientific research showing the impact of their widespread use on children,” Lampl says.

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Emory's Rolosense wins bronze in Collegiate Inventors Competition

Emory graduate student Aaron Blanchard, left, and Kevin Yehl, who recently received his PhD in chemistry from Emory, were awarded bronze medals at the recent Collegiate Inventors Competition in Washington D.C. (Photo by the National Inventors Hall of Fame.)

By Carol Clark

Emory University’s Rolosense – the first rolling DNA motor – took the bronze medal in the graduate division of the 2016 Collegiate Inventors Competition, held recently in Washington D.C.

The Rolosense, and its application as a chemical sensor, was developed in the lab of Emory chemist Khalid Salaita by his students Aaron Blanchard and Kevin Yehl. Blanchard is a PhD student in Emory’s Laney Graduate School and the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Georgia Tech and Emory, while Yehl recently received his PhD in chemistry from Emory.

The Rolosense is the biological equivalent of the invention of the wheel for the field of DNA machines. “It’s a completely new approach at using DNA motors for sensing and diagnostics,” Yehl says. “We now hope to keep broadening the scope of the technology and really prove it out in the field.”

The Rolosense is 1,000 times faster than other synthetic DNA motors. Its speed, which is powered by ribonuclease H, means a simple smart phone microscope can capture its motion through video.

Watch a video to learn more about the rolling DNA motor:


The researchers have filed an invention disclosure patent for the concept of using the particle motion of the rolling molecular motor as a sensor for everything from a single DNA mutation in a biological sample to heavy metals in water. It offers a way of doing low-cost, low-tech diagnostics for researchers working in settings with limited resources, or for consumers themselves.

Yehl and Blanchard were one of six teams of graduate students that competed in early November in the finals at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Washington D.C. The Collegiate Inventors Competition is considered the foremost program in the country encouraging invention and creativity in undergraduate and graduate students. The entries of the elite student teams represent the most promising inventions from U.S. universities.

The judges included inductees to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, officials from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and scientists from the global healthcare firm AbbVie.

“It was really cool to meet students from the other teams, and also the judges, to get their feedback,” Yehl says.

His main takeaway message: Keep on inventing.

Yehl is taking that advice to heart. In his new position as a post-doctoral associate in a synthetic biology lab at MIT, he’s now working on novel therapeutics to target drug resistant bacteria.

Blanchard agrees that a highlight of the competition was networking with the other competitors and the judges. “Several of the judges encouraged me to focus on areas of research that I’m passionate about, and not just choose things to pad my resume,” he says. “The judges are inventors themselves and, in some cases, they’ve had an impact on millions of people, so their input is important to me. I really took a lot away from the competition besides a bronze medal.”

The National Inventors Hall of Fame does outreach around the country. Blanchard says he hopes to get involved in future outreach projects in his hometown of El Paso, Texas. “It’s an amazing city,” he says, because it’s in the United States but is predominantly Hispanic. You encounter many different types of people and that helps drive adaptability and creativity. Unfortunately, it’s also geographically and culturally isolated so it’s harder for students to obtain exposure to scientific research. El Paso produces some great minds with great potential to make a difference in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines. I think it’s important to give kids there more exposure to STEM fields so they have an idea of the possibilities.”

Meanwhile, Blanchard and Yehl will continue developing the Rolosense with Salaita.

“We have this phenomenal technology that can make a difference in the world and we want to keep moving forward with it,” Blanchard says.

Related:
Emory's 'Rolosense' rolling to finals of Collegiate Inventors Competition
Nano-walkers take speedy leap forward with first rolling DNA motor

The White House celebrates math and mentorship

By Carol Clark

“It’s not every day that the White House invites you to a reception in honor of what you do for a living,” said Emory mathematician Ken Ono.

He was a featured speaker at “Math and the Movies,” recently hosted by the White House Office of Science, Technology and Policy (OTSP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The evening included a screening of the film “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” the true story of how the genius of an obscure Indian clerk, named Srinivasa Ramanujan, was discovered and nurtured by G. H. Hardy, a leading mathematician at Cambridge University. Their unusual collaboration changed the field of math and science forever.

Ono served as an associate producer and math advisor for the film, and afterwards helped found “The Spirit of Ramanujan Math Talent Initiative,” which aims to find exceptional mathematicians around the world and match them with advancement opportunities in the field.

France Cordova, director of the NSF, was among the speakers during the evening at the White House, which was focused on the importance of inspiring and mentoring students of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Ken Ono (center), accompanied by U.S. chief Data Scientist D. J. Patil (left) and actor Jeremy Irons, presents a math problem to the nation while at the White House: What is the smallest number that is the sum of two cubes in two different ways? Click here for the answer.

“Tonight’s event addresses issues that we at NSF believe are critical for the nation,” Cordova said. “There is widespread recognition of the need to open up STEM opportunities for everyone. We’re looking for ways to broaden opportunities and include those who are underrepresented. That includes working with partners in museums, in social media and the entertainment industry to do a better job of telling the diverse stories of science and scientists.”

Hannah Larsen, a senior majoring in math at Harvard University, thanked the NSF for funding the Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Emory, where she spent three summers doing number theory research with Ono. The steadfast support of Ono and other mentors “deepened my love of mathematics,” Larson said, and was key to her decision to apply to graduate school and pursue a career in math research. Larsen recently won the Alice T. Schaefer Prize, given annually to the top undergraduate woman in math in the United States.

Following are highlights of remarks by other speakers.

Ken Ono: “Every few months you’ll hear about breakthroughs in black hole physics. Or solutions to ancient mathematical mysteries. Or even applications that help drive the Internet. I can tell you that the work of Ramanujan plays a role in all of those. If you want a role model for young students, if you want to help create world-class scientists, I think we should all do our part to make Ramanujan a household name.”

Andrea Hariston, applied research mathematician at the National Security Agency (NSA): “Exposure is a big, big deal for students who may not know what their options are. I had a mathematical curiosity growing up but I saw it as a hobby – solving puzzles – not as a career. A fellowship obligated me to do an internship at the NSA. That’s when I got mentors who opened up mathematics for me. They showed me you can do really interesting things with mathematics, really important things for the nation, using mathematics.”

D.J. Patil, chief data scientist for the OTSP: “People don’t always appreciate how much president Obama has done to return science to its rightful place, at the forefront of the nation, in leading and driving innovation. … What gets a kid excited about math? There are lots of different paths, but one of them is inspiration. I had really excellent coaches, people who were there to inspire, shape and mold me.”

Actor Jeremy Irons, who plays Hardy in the film: “Pure mathematics is rather similar to poetry and art. It’s something about which you can become passionate. It’s something that requires a mind that is really open and free to allow whatever to come to you. I thought, I know about that because that’s the state I try to get into when I’m acting.”

Related:
The beauty of math and Pi: Ken Ono chats with Neil deGrasse Tyson
Mathematicians find 'magic key' to drive Ramanujan's taxi-cab number

The beauty of math and Pi: Ken Ono chats with Neil deGrasse Tyson on 'StarTalk'

StarTalk formula: What do you get when you add an astrophysicist and a number theorist to a comedian? A fun conversation when those variables are (from left) National Geographic Channel's Neil deGrasse Tyson, Emory mathematician Ken Ono and stand-up comic and writer Eugene Mirman.

“Math is one of the most feared subjects in school,” says astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of the National Geographic Channel’s “StarTalk,” to kick off an upcoming episode with Emory number theorist Ken Ono. “The phrase, ‘I was never good at math’ is probably uttered more than ‘I was never good’ at any other subject. What gives there?”

“Think of it this way,” Ono responds. “If you were an athlete, training for a marathon, you wouldn’t just expect to be fast at it. You’d have to practice. I think the reason people say they’re not good at math is because there’s this belief that if you’re good at math you’re just born with it. And that’s just so untrue.”

You can see a clip from the episode, to air Monday, November 7 at 11 pm, in the video below.

Ono and deGrasse, who are also joined by comedian Eugene Mirman, discuss everything from serial killers to the beauty in hidden patterns and how the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan tamed Pi.

The episode, which is devoted to Ramanujan, will also feature actor Jeremy Irons. He will discuss his role as the mathematician G. H. Hardy, Ramanujan's mentor, in the film "The Man Who Knew Infinity." Ono served as an associate producer and the mathematical consultant for the film.

Ono and Irons will also be featured in a White House panel discussion as part of an event entitled "Math and the Movies" on Friday, October 28. You can watch the event live, starting at 5:30 pm, via this link.

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Celebrating math, movies and a miracle

Emory biologist nurtures nature in his spare time

Biologist Chris Beck is one of three finalists for the 2016 Cox Conserves Heroes award, for his work with the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve. Emory Photo/Video.

By Kimber Williams
Emory Report

As a professor of pedagogy in Emory’s Department of Biology, Chris Beck is engaged in the scientific study of laboratory teaching, with a particular focus on how inquiry-based learning impacts students' science process skills and their understanding of the nature of science.

This month, however, Beck is being recognized for his work involving a very different laboratory.

Beck has been named as one of three finalists for the 2016 Cox Conserves Heroes award for his volunteer work at the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve (CSNP), a 28-acre wildlife sanctuary located along the floodplain of South Peachtree Creek in Decatur.

For more than a decade, Beck has volunteered at CSNP, coordinating hundreds of volunteers from both Emory and the wider community, leading fundraising efforts and managing capital improvement projects. Each finalist will be awarded $5,000 to be donated to a local environmental nonprofit of their choice. Beck has selected CSNP as his non-profit.

The final winner will be selected through an online public vote and will receive an additional $5,000 donation to their nonprofit. Voting runs through Oct. 26; final results will be announced mid-November.

Emory Report interviewed Beck to learn more about his efforts with the nature preserve.

Why is the preserve important?

From an ecological perspective, the preserve serves several purposes. It’s located on the floodplain of the south fork of Peachtree Creek, so it has a role in controlling storm water overflow and filtering the water that does flood out.

The preserve is also an important green space to a lot of wildlife, including over 150 to 160 species of birds, as well as amphibians, reptiles and a wide array of plants. It provides a great resource to both the local and broader Atlanta communities, in terms of offering a place to go and see wildlife and walk the trails.

It’s provided educational opportunities as well. Over the years, I’ve brought students from my ecology lab classes there and I know Georgia State University and Oglethorpe University use it, too. Emory has sent hundreds of volunteers there over the years. It’s provided a great way to engage the community.

Read the full interview with Beck in Emory Report.

Templeton World Charity to fund 'Spirit of Ramanujan' fellows

Detail from a poster for "The Man Who Knew Infinity," starring Dev Patel as Srinivasa Ramanujan and Jeremy Irons as the British mathematician G.H. Hardy who mentored him. "The Spirit of Ramanujan Math Talent Initiative" aims to spark similar collaborations, to drive progress in math and education.

By Carol Clark

The Templeton World Charity Foundation awarded $100,000 to Emory mathematician Ken Ono to support a program called "The Spirit of Ramanujan Math Talent Initiative,” which aims to find undiscovered mathematicians around the world and match them with advancement opportunities in the field.

Ono recently launched the initiative in conjunction with the Templeton World Charity Foundation; Expii.com – an open, personalized learning platform; and IFC Films and Pressman Film, producers of the motion picture “The Man Who Knew Infinity.”

The Spirit of Ramanujan initiative invites people to join in solving a series of mathematical puzzles at expii.com/ramanujan. “These puzzles are challenging but fun,” Ono says. “Expii is an instrument for people of all ages and walks of life, from all over the world, to become more engaged in math. Anyone with a computer or a smart phone can access the site and participate.”

The Templeton grant will support further enrichment for participants in the initiative who show great mathematical promise, including tailored educational opportunities for as many as 30 students and up to 10 Templeton-Ramanujan Summer Fellowships.

The initiative is inspired by the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the subject of the film “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” starring Dev Patel as Ramanujan and Jeremy Irons as British mathematician G.H. Hardy. In 1913, Ramanujan, a poor Hindu college dropout who was self-taught in mathematics, reached out to Hardy, who was so impressed by Ramanujan’s theories that he invited him to Cambridge to study and collaborate. Hardy’s mentorship burnished Ramanujan’s brilliant insights and brought them to a world stage, changing math and science forever.

“My character in the film, G.H. Hardy, states very directly that Ramanujan’s genius was not discovered because of his teachers, but because of Ramanujan’s own imagination and intuition,” Irons says. “I’m delighted that ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ has shared the story of this miraculous figure, inspiring this initiative. Hopefully we will be able to discover new minds, that in turn, will lead to continued progress in the world of mathematics.”

Ono served as the mathematical advisor and an associate producer of the film. Ono’s research as a number theorist and his personal life are also deeply interwoven with the story of Ramanujan. He recently published a memoir entitled “My Search for Ramanujan: How I Learned to Count,” which he co-wrote with the late Amir Aczel.

“Everything about traditional education is fairly inelastic,” Ono says, “which is contrary to the story of what made Ramanujan successful. The Spirit of Ramanujan initiative aims to break the mold and find brilliant outliers who may not be thriving in the system so we can match them up with the resources they need. It may take 30 to 40 years to measure the success of this initiative. It can take humanity a long time to catch up with the ideas of outliers.”

The Spirit of Ramanujan Math Talent Initiative is headed by Ono with an advisory board of other mathematicians, including Manjul Bhargava (Princeton), Olga Holtz (Berkeley), Po-Shen Loh (Carenegie Mellon) and Sujatha Ramdorai (University of British Columbia).

Related:
Celebrating math, miracles and a movie
Math shines with the stars in 'The Man Who Knew Infinity'

Atlanta Science Festival fosters 'small steps, big ideas'

Emory faculty and students are set to dazzle children with science demonstrations at "Physics Live!" The event will take place on Friday, March 25 from 3:30 to 7 pm in Emory's Math and Science Building. 

By Carol Clark

"Small steps, big ideas," is the theme of the third annual Atlanta Science Festival, which encourages all ages to step into a world of wonder and exploration through more than 100 events and hands-on activities in metro-Atlanta from March 19 to March 26. In fact, the party has already started via ongoing online activities, such as a chance to vote for Atlanta's favorite scientist and compose original "sci-ku" — or science-themed haiku.

About 50,000 people are expected to turn out during the eight-day festival for talks, lab tours, film screenings, participatory activities and science demonstrations. The events are set at more than 80 different venues, including the Emory campus.

"We've got a lot of fun and irreverent events, like 'The Science of Circus," and others that are more on the serious side, like a discussion on climate change," says Jordan Rose, who is executive co-director of the festival along with Meisa Salaita. "There is something for everyone, from little kids to teens, college students and adults."

A new event this year, "Sci-Cycle: A Competitive Scavenger Hunt on Two Wheels," will start things rolling on the opening day of the festival, Saturday, March 19. The Emory Spokes Council and the Emory Graduate Sustainability Group are organizing the bike adventure, to take place on the Atlanta Beltline. Participants will learn about materials science, urban foraging and sustainable practices through pedaling to various locations and performing tasks such as using a bicycle-powered blender to make a smoothie.

Also new this year is a "Science Parade," set for the final day of the festival, on Saturday, March 26, starting at the Centennial Academy in downtown Atlanta. "Everyone is welcome to join the parade," Rose says. "We're encouraging people to come dressed as their favorite scientist, or element or other science-themed character."

The half-mile parade, led by the Seed and Feed Marching Abominable band, will end at Centennial Olympic Park for the launch of the Exploration Expo, the culminating event of the Atlanta Science Festival. The free Expo includes stage performances and hands-on science activities at 100-plus exhibitor booths, including more than a dozen run by Emory faculty and students.

Highlights of this year's Expo will include a giant LEGO build of the city of Atlanta, which will be 40-feet wide upon completion. "Everyone can help assemble a bit of it throughout the Expo," Rose says.

A range of Atlanta Science Festival events will take place on the Emory and Oxford campuses, as well as the Carter Center.

"The Atlanta Science Festival is a great way to feature some of the research and discoveries that are coming out of Emory for the local community," Rose says. "It's also a great platform for Emory students and faculty to practice their communication skills for a general audience, and to engage the public in their science."

Click here for a full listing of Emory events, and details about how to join them.