A NASA-funded research team at Georgia Tech that includes Regents' Professor Thomas Orlando and Senior Research Scientist Brant Jones has developed a method for extracting water from the Moon to generate the hydrogen and oxygen needed for propulsion fuels for solar system exploration. They describe their experimental work in Thermal extraction of H2O(s) from lunar regolith simulant with concentrated solar irradiation: Experimental analysis, published at Acta Astronautica.

The researchers propose an interesting way to extract water from the potentially water-rich icy regions at the Moon’s pole. These regions are of interest to space agencies because the presence of water, which can be extracted or retrieved, is required for human exploration.

Climate change is altering the conditions that lead to hurricane development. That’s made some meteorologists reconsider how we measure those storms.

Experts have used the Saffir-Simpson scale since 1969 to classify hurricanes by their wind speeds, ranging from Category 1 to Category 5.

Zachary Handlos, the director of Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies at Georgia Tech which is examining how forecasters currently classify and communicate storm threats, says each storm is different and could result in a range of consequences.

"There's storm surge […] there's inland flooding from the significant rainfall — that was the big thing with Helene last year in our area," he said, noting that previously, Hurricane Irma only brought sustained winds to the region.

"You can also get tornadoes within hurricanes too, so not only are you dealing with flooding, storm surge, you also have to deal with tornadoes in the area at the same time," Handlos said.

He said any new scale should be complementary to the Saffir-Simpson scale, not replace it, as researchers still rely on it for historical study and communication with the public.

James T. Stroud, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, coauthored an article published in The Conversation detailing research which documents exceptional cases of lizards — survivors of limb damage or loss — that defy expectations about how natural selection works.