The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), though, has established limitations on where, when, and how these machines can be used.

One significant FAA limitation on drone use is in and around campus sporting events. Therefore, a temporary flight restriction is in place around all football games at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Beginning one hour before the scheduled time of the event and going until an hour after the event ends, all aircraft operations — including drone use — within three nautical miles of the venue are prohibited. This restriction applies to any stadium with a seating capacity of 30,000 or more that is hosting an NCAA Division I football game. (Other sporting events are included in the temporary flight restriction as well, including MLB and NFL games.)

The FAA restriction applies to Tech’s remaining home games, which will take place on Saturday, Oct. 3; Saturday, Oct. 17, Saturday, Oct. 24; Thursday, Nov. 12; and Saturday, Nov. 28. Kickoff for the Oct. 3 game is at 3:30 p.m. Drone use around Bobby Dodd Stadium is prohibited around these events, and operators will be cited and may be disciplined by the Institute.

Whether or not it's a gameday, all non-recreational use of unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) on campus should be coordinated with the Georgia Tech Police Department (GTPD). All students, faculty, and staff are asked to coordinate non-recreational use with Jeff Hunnicutt, physical security specialist.

“As rules and regulations for UAV usage continue to be developed on state and federal levels, our goal is to make sure that safety remains a top priority when operating personally owned UAVs,” said Rob Connolly, chief of GTPD.

Drone owners and enthusiasts can explore www.knowbeforeyoufly.org to learn more about the rules and regulations that apply to flying UAVs. Operators can also use www.airmap.io as a tool for seeing where UAV use is restricted in the Atlanta area.

“If you were to take a craft festival and mix it with your favorite science museum, that’s really what this is all about,” said David MacNair, executive director of Maker Faire Atlanta and lecturer in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

MacNair said the maker community is comprised of those who do everything from sidewalk chalk, to art, to jewelry, to engineering.

“We’ve got things for kids and adults,” he said. “It’s really meant for anyone who enjoys building anything.”

Maker Faire is hands-on, with all of the makers interacting with guests — either by giving demonstrations or helping the guests make something.

This is the fifth annual Maker Faire in Atlanta. The first one was held in a Georgia Tech parking lot and was primarily organized by the Institute. The Faire was held at Tech until last year when it grew so large that it had to be moved to a bigger venue in Decatur. Last year’s event drew 35,000 people; MacNair anticipates this year’s event will attract even more.

Georgia Tech will have a significant presence at the Faire, including more than a dozen makers exhibiting in the Georgia Tech Maker Village. Tech’s Invention Studio will also be present. Tech’s Lew Lefton, senior academic professional and assistant dean of the College of Sciences was one of the Maker Faire Atlanta founders and is still part of the leadership team. MacNair volunteers to coordinate Georgia Tech groups participating in the Faire.

Anyone interested in volunteering to help should sign up at: www.makerfaireatl.com/call-for-volunteers.

Although admission is free, attendees are encouraged to get tickets online at www.makerfaireatl.com to be eligible to enjoy special benefits, such as a Skype session with Andy Weir, author of The Martian.

That's the challenge the hummingbird-sized hawkmoth must overcome while feeding on the nectar of its favorite flowers.

Using high-speed infrared cameras and 3-D-printed robotic flowers, scientists have now learned how this insect juggles these complex sensing and control challenges — all while adjusting to changing light conditions. 

What the researchers have discovered could help the next generation of small flying robots operate efficiently under a broad range of lighting conditions. 

Read more about this fascinating study in the Research Horizons story, Multitasking Moths.

National Recovery Month events will take place all week, beginning Monday at 5 p.m. with an open house for the Collegiate Recovery Program in Room 319 of the Student Center. For Tech students who are in recovery from alcohol and drug addictions, the Collegiate Recovery Program offers a safe and welcoming community. Students are invited to meet for a weekly recovery seminar, participate in service projects and sober social activities, and attend on-campus AA meetings at the Catholic Center. 

"The Recovery Program has helped me feel that the Tech campus is truly my home,” said one program participant. “Every time we meet, the stress from my day melts away and I am surrounded by friends and staff who have become my closest confidants. Georgia Tech had always been a great experience for me, but the recovery program has made it even better."

The open house will include food, T-shirts, hula hooping, and an opportunity to learn more about the program and connect with other students in recovery.

On Wednesday there will be a film screening and discussion of The Anonymous People at 5:30 p.m. in the Student Center Theater. In the days following the screening, the film will be shown on the Georgia Tech Cable Network.

Thursday is Go Purple Day, in which students, faculty, and staff are invited to wear purple to show support for the recovery movement. There will be a group photo taken at the Campanile at noon, and everyone can use #GoPurpleGT on social media to show their support. Free purple bracelets and ribbons can be picked up during the week at the Counseling Center and Health Promotion.

National Recovery Month has been around in some form since 1989. In 2013, Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson signed a proclamation declaring the month of September “National Recovery Month” on campus.

Tech’s Collegiate Recovery Program was created to respond to the growing need for recovery support among college students. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, nearly one in four college students meets the medical criteria for a substance use disorder. By seeking help, people who experience substance use disorders can embark on a new path toward improved health and overall wellness. Data has shown that involvement in a Collegiate Recovery Programs leads to greater success in recovery and academics.

“The Recovery Program continues to grow as a new initiative to provide services and programs for Tech students in recovery,” said Ruperto Perez, director of the Georgia Tech Counseling Center. “The programs that we have planned and scheduled for this year reflect the Center's and the program's efforts to raise awareness of the concerns and issues that students in recovery experience and ways to provide support and affirmation." Funds from the Student Alumni Association's Gift to Tech, which students elected to give to the Counseling Center, are helping to support programs for this year's National Recovery Month.

For more information about the Collegiate Recovery Program and National Recovery Month events, visit the Counseling Center website or contact Erin English, recovery programs coordinator, at erin.english@vpss.gatech.edu.

Given the Southeast’s heat, humidity and variable fresh water supplies, the development of any building aiming for zero net energy and water consumption brings unique challenges. Building a facility that meets Living Building Challenge 3.0 criteria — as The Kendeda Fund and Georgia Tech hope to do — will provide the opportunity to create a living-learning laboratory for hands-on educational and research opportunities that will be a model for the region and similar environments around the world.

According to Georgia Tech, the project will be integrated into the Institute’s Eco-Commons, a series of campus green spaces designed to conserve natural resources, including energy and water, and provide the community with educational and recreational amenities. This endeavor not only supports Georgia Tech’s goal to use its resources as efficiently as possible, but also manages stormwater runoff and helps protect drinking water sources.

“Georgia Tech is honored to partner with The Kendeda Fund on this groundbreaking project. The Living Building Challenge aligns with our longstanding vision for the campus and provides a unique opportunity to physically demonstrate how Georgia Tech practices thoughtful stewardship of all of our resources and how our innovative thinking can transform future generations,” said Steve Swant, executive vice president for Administration and Finance at Georgia Tech. “These are disciplines we have proudly instilled in our campus master planning as well as our academic, research and community outreach efforts.”

The Kendeda Fund has committed to investing $25 million over the next several years to privately fund 100 percent of the design and construction costs of the project as well as an additional $5 million to support programming activities. The Kendeda Fund and Georgia Tech intend for the project to become the first Living Building Challenge 3.0-certified facility of its size and function in the Southeast.

The Living Building Challenge is a program, advocacy tool and philosophy that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability possible in the current built environment. Meeting the challenge requires close adherence to some of the most stringent building performance standards in the world. To be certified under the program, a building must meet all the program requirements over a full 12-month period of continued operations and full occupancy. 

“We could not imagine a better partner than Georgia Tech to join us in pursuing the Living Building Challenge,” said Barry Berlin, a long time advisor to The Kendeda Fund who oversees its investments and Atlanta-area philanthropy. “This project builds on nearly two decades of work by The Kendeda Fund to advance sustainability throughout Atlanta’s built environment. We look forward to helping an entire region learn what’s possible as we embrace the most rigorous building performance standards in the world.”

Pending final approval by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents and reaching defined milestones, the goal is to begin construction in 2017 with occupancy targeted for late 2018 and building certification planned for 2020.

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About The Kendeda Fund

The Kendeda Fund is one of the leading philanthropic investors in civic and environmental programs in the Atlanta area, and is committed to providing solutions to social and ecological challenges at the local and national levels. The Fund accomplishes its mission by advancing green building design, community-design and public interest architecture; championing community wealth building and sustainability strategies; and leveraging innovation of cities to advance equity and sustainability. Previously, The Kendeda Fund provided $300,000 in funding for Georgia Tech’s Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business. Learn more at www.kendedafund.org.

About the Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech, is one of the nation’s leading research universities, providing a focused, technologically based education to more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Georgia Tech has many nationally recognized programs, all top-ranked by peers and publications alike, and is ranked in the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News and World Report. It offers degrees through the Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Sciences, the Scheller College of Business, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech has more than 100 centers focused on interdisciplinary research that consistently contribute vital research and innovation to American government, industry, and business.

Though it can’t think – much less think twice -- about anything, the laboratory worm underwent a surprising mutation that made it prioritize the survival of adults over creating abundant offspring.  Researchers noticed the sweeping change in behavior, and the mutation, after LSJ2 had faced hardship for 50 years.

Such so-called life history trade-offs have been described in many living things from mice to elephants, but now, for the first known time, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have pinned some to a specific mutation.

“This is a great hint at how life history trade-offs could be regulated genetically,” said lead researcher Patrick McGrath, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences.

The researchers confirmed the link in LSJ2, a strain of the C. elegans species, by duplicating the mutation in another strain, which reproduced the mutation’s effects to a very high degree.

The researchers published their results in the journal PLOS Genetics on Thursday, July 28, 2016.  Their work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Ellison Medical Foundation.

Snowball to avalanche

The mutation in the LSJ2 strain amounted to a small deletion in its DNA.  As a result, a large protein changed by a meager 10 of its roughly 3,000 amino acids.

But that triggered a huge behavioral overhaul that boosted lifespan and slowed down reproduction.  The contrast between the minor genetic tweak and its transformative ramifications might compare well with a toddler knocking loose an avalanche with a snowball.

The new discovery also has a tangential connection to human genetics.  The roundworm shares with us the NURF-1 gene, on which the mutation occurred.  And an associated human protein is involved in, among other things, reproduction.

Evolve faster, please

All at once, LSJ2 did a lot of peculiar things, and that got the attention of McGrath and his team. And that’s what the lab roundworms are there for.

Since 1951, generations of scientists have been speeding up the evolution of lab-bound C. elegans by forcing the microscopic species of roundworms to adapt to new, mostly stressful, conditions.  Then, when researchers have noticed changes, they’ve worked to trace them to the animals’ genes.

McGrath points to a thin, glass slide standing vertically under a light with tubules of fluid connected to it.  Inside the slide, is a different lab strain of C. elegans.

“We’re raising those in fluid with gravity pulling them down to see if mutations will give them the ability to swim,” McGrath said.

50 years of bread and water

In the case of LSJ2, researchers came up with a different challenge to accelerate its evolution. They fed it bland food for 50 years.

“It’s a diet of watery soy extract with some beef liver extract,” said Wen Xu, a graduate student who researches with McGrath.  Sounds yucky enough to humans, but to the roundworm, it's worse. It equates to a regimen of bread and water.

Mutations eventually took hold to promote LSJ2’s survival in the scanty broth, and they were head-turning.

Fewer kids, less sleep

“The stark thing that we noticed first was the propensity to no longer enter the state called dauer,” McGrath said.  It’s a kind of hyper-hibernation.  “Dauer is something most C. elegans do to extend their lives, but LSJ2 did not.  And it lived longer in spite of it.”

Then the list of anomalies grew, and grew.

“We found that almost everything was affected – when they started reproducing, how many offspring they made, how long they lived,” McGrath said.  Some even survived exposure to drugs and heavy metals.

“Eventually we realized that the worms were prioritizing individual survival over reproductive rate.”

Mutation sleuthing

In many species, sex dries up when food is scarce, resulting in fewer progeny to compete for it.  In addition, many organisms are well-equipped to manage their energies to survive dearth.

But C. elegans LSJ2 had to mutate into those abilities, and so many mutation-based behavioral changes all at once is uncommon.

“What you usually find is mutations that play narrow, very specific roles,” McGrath said.  “They only affect egg laying, or they only affect life span, or they only affect dauer formation."

McGrath and Xu went sleuthing for DNA alterations by mapping quantitative trait loci, which matches up changes in characteristics to genetic changes.  They dug in for a long investigation, anticipating multiple suspects among LSJ2’s many mutations.

“There were hundreds of genetic differences between roundworm strain LSJ2 and the one we were comparing it to,” McGrath said.

‘Smoking gun’

The comparison laboratory strain is called N2, and it has led a pampered existence with a diet of E. coli -- optimal food for C. elegans.  (Both the E. coli and the roundworms are strains that are not harmful to humans.)

So, N2 hadn’t been pushed to mutate so much. In addition, to avoid confusion in their research results, the researchers reset some of the mutations N2 did happen to undergo.

The comparison led to swift evidence in LSJ2.  “Every single time, it pointed us to the same genetic region on the right arm of chromosome 2,” McGrath said.  C. elegans has six chromosomes.

“There were only five genes that were candidates.  One of the mutations was a smoking gun -- a 60-base-pair deletion just at the end of the NURF-1 gene.”

NURF-1 has the function of remodeling chromatin, which pairs DNA with proteins to wrap them into chromosomes.  The resulting configurations strongly influence which genes are expressed. It appears the tiny mutation in the remodeling gene may have led to a massive change in the expression of other genes.

There are missing pieces needed to understand the pathway from the mutated gene to the massive real-life changes, and the researchers are working to fill them in.

Worm whoopy

To confirm the mutation as the trigger of the changes, Xu deployed a CRISPR Cas9 gene editor into N2 worms to make the deletion that LSJ2 had received via mutation, and the results left little doubt.

“It had a lot of the same effects – longer life, dauer formation,” Xu said.  “The main difference was the reduction of reproduction rates. It was only about half as much in the comparison worm that got the gene editing.”

By the way, as sex goes, C. elegans are mostly hermaphrodites that produce eggs and their own sperm to fertilize them with.  But there are also males that copulate with the hermaphrodites to add new sperm and with it genetic diversity.

Edward E. Large, Yuehui Zhao and Lijiang Long from Georgia Tech; Shannon Brady and Erik Andersen from Northwestern University, and Rebecca Butcher from the University of Florida coauthored the paper.  Research was sponsored by grants from the National Institutes of Health (numbers R21AG050304 and R01GM114170) and by an Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging grant.