When the Earth’s tectonic plates collide and slide, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Professor Zhigang Peng takes data from seismic sensors and creates “earthquake music.” The results can help scientists learn more about what goes on beneath the planet’s crust.

There’s more to meditation than just chanting mantras in your favorite yoga studio. Practitioners claim the benefits include better mental and physical health. Does the data back that up? School of Psychology Professor Paul Verhaeghen researches the science behind meditation.

Glaucoma usually affects older people, but a form of the eye disease can strike younger patients, including children. That keeps School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Raquel Lieberman hard at work studying wayward proteins that may hold the key to new treatments for the second-leading cause of blindness.

One of the top algae scientists in the world, award-winning School of Biological Sciences Professor and Chairman Mark Hay, gives a grim prognosis for the world’s coral reefs. First of a two-part episode.

In Part Two of our podcast with School of Biological Sciences Professor and Chair Mark Hay, the scientists says some coral reefs damaged by climate change could heal themselves – if given the chance.

His incessant curiosity inspires David Hu to search for the physics among water-walking geckos, bridge-building ants..and urinating zoo animals. Hu, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, has a joint appointment with the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. This conversation is an edited excerpt from the Uncommon Engineer podcast. (Our thanks to Steven McLaughlin, Dean of the College of Engineering.)

Kennda Lynch studies ancient lakes on Earth that serve as stand-ins for Mars’ formerly-flooded craters. The School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences postdoctoral researcher helps NASA look for potential landing sites on the planet, while also helping to build Georgia Tech’s astrobiology community.

What is earthquake “music?” Can coral reefs devastated by climate change be saved? Does science support the supposed benefits of meditation? More tales of curiosity and discovery are coming in Season 2 of ScienceMatters, the podcast of the Georgia Tech College of Sciences.

Mostafa El-Sayed, Regents Professor and Julius Brown Chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is working on a promising cancer treatment based on gold nanoparticles. His work is inspired by, and dedicated to, his late wife, who died from the disease.

School of Mathematics Professor Dan Margalit describes the beauty and creativity in his research area, topology, while we reveal its connection to the oldest of math jokes. Margalit also offers ways to help students overcome fear of mathematics.