Author: Nate DeGraff

Aug 27, 2019

Nuking Hurricanes Out of the Sky ‘Doesn’t Make Sense at All’

Popular Science
Since the dawn of nuclear explosives, citizens and scientists alike have speculated that the government might be able to repurpose weapons of war as weapons of weather. Most recently, President Donald Trump asked why we couldn’t just nuke hurricanes out of the sky. Meteorologists are wincing at the reappearance of this all-too-familiar myth. “It is a spectacularly bad idea,” says Gary Lackmann, a meteorologist and professor at North Carolina State University’s department of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences. 

Aug 23, 2019

Christina Koch, Tar Heel of the Month, Explores From the International Space Station

The News & Observer
The NC State University graduate always has been adventurous, pushing herself to channel her fears into sharp focus to accomplish her goals. And her historic path from growing up in Eastern North Carolina to outer space has been unconventional — with a few stops in the arctic between her NASA jobs. 

Aug 20, 2019

McGahan’s Deanship Extended

NC State Provost Warwick Arden has extended the deanship of College of Sciences Dean Chris McGahan. 

Aug 19, 2019

Audio Recordings Bolster Reef Life Science

Coastal Review Online
In a study summarized in a recent post at North Carolina Sea Grant’s Hook, Line & Science blog, researchers from North Carolina State University explored how fish use cultch reefs, or reefs created by depositing shell and other material in shellfish waters, as habitat. 

Aug 15, 2019

Environment Also Shaped Population Variation in First Americans, NC State Study Finds

WRAL Tech Wire
The first Americans – humans who crossed onto the North American continent and then dispersed throughout Central and South America – all share common ancestry. But as they settled different areas, the populations diverged and became distinct. A new study from North Carolina State University shows that facial differences resulting from this divergence were due to the complex interaction of environment and evolution on these populations and sheds light on how human diversification occurred after settlement of the New World. 

Aug 7, 2019

Scientists Link Europe Heat Wave to Man-Made Global Warming

Chicago Tribune
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2016 studied this new scientific method of climate attribution and pronounced it valid. Kathie Dello, a climate scientist from NC State University in North Carolina, said the study helps to pin the blame for the heat wave on climate change. “If searching for a culprit for the intensity of these recent European heatwaves, climate change is the obvious culprit,” Dello said in an email. 

Aug 2, 2019

Sulfonated Polymer Kills Drug-Resistant Microbes in Minutes

Chemistry World
After recent outbreaks of superbugs like MRSA, antimicrobial coatings have gained increasing attention as a potential way to sterilise surfaces and stop the transmission of pathogens. A team of researchers, led by Richard Spontak and Reza Ghiladi at North Carolina State University, has now discovered that Nexar, a polymer used for water treatment and high performance breathable clothing, could act as an antimicrobial surface. 

Aug 1, 2019

NC State Chemist Earns $1.5 Million Research Grant to Study Next-Generation Quantum Systems

A team led by David Shulz has earned a major grant from the Department of Energy for research that has potential impacts on computing, networking and sensing. 

Aug 1, 2019

Scientists Seek Materials That Defy Friction at the Atomic Level

Science NewsIn the quest to tweak materials to adjust friction, scientists have been making steady progress, but it’s not so easy to draw direct connections between the physics of big and small. In her lab at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, Krim says she can adjust atomic properties of materials and study what happens. But in general, the two worlds are separated by a tough-to-penetrate forest. “There are some foot trails that have connected up,” she says. But “there is still some bushwhacking” to do. 

Jul 31, 2019

Undiscovered Dinosaurs: We Are Entering the Golden Era of Fossil Finds

New Scientist
“The pace of dinosaur discovery is so fast these days, one could label it frantic,” says palaeontologist Lindsay Zanno of North Carolina State University. And it shows no sign of letting up just yet. It seems we are entering the golden era of dinosaur discovery.