Our faculty, staff, and students from across the College of Science are solving or mitigating some of the planet’s boundless challenges
There are no shortage of issues facing the planet we call home. Climate change. Plastic pollution. Potential earthquakes. Continental rifts so vast, they’re tearing a continent in two. Pollution in streams and water ways from nano- and microplastic particles. Land subsidence. But there are vast treasures, too. Even right in our own backyard. Mountain tops ready to be explored and studied to learn about Earth’s rich history. In Stadium Woods, mere yards from Lane Stadium lie small creatures that could one day help solve another vexing problem altogether: opioid addiction
Faculty and student researchers from across the College of Science are problem solvers. They want to help. To be of service. In the next few pages, we look at just a handful of some of the amazing projects underway by Virginia Tech scientists.
Our lead story covers a years-long project that just won funding to the tune of $15 million over 5 years from the National Science Foundation (quite literally, as we were going to press with this issue): Tina Dura is spearheading a multi-university effort based in Oregon to study the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Using long tubes to collect sentiment core, Dura and her team will study past earthquakes that occurred in the Northwest U.S. from hundreds and thousands of years ago to help local residents to prepare for future quakes, those that can cause tsunami and mass flooding.
Sarah Stamps uses GPS to study the root cause of the continental rift that is tearing Africa into two. Closer to home, Ryan Pollyea is installing seismic sensors in portions of Hampton Road that is part of a larger aquifer project. And even closer to home, on campus, Austin Gray of biological sciences is studying the impact of microparticles that find their way into Stroubles Creek, tiny particles shredded off automobile tires.
Guoliang "Greg" Liu is working to mitigate one of our most modern vexing problems: The undeniable fact that most of the plastic used by consumers and industry alike are in reality unrecyclable. Liu may have found a way to change that by ‘upcycling’: Turning everything from milk cartons to plastic bags into, and this is remarkable, soap.
One of our most recent surprising possibilities can be found in Stadium Woods. A sanctuary of peace and quiet, and also troves of millipedes that may offer solution to a most human challenge – addiction to opioids. How so? Read on.
Whatever the challenge, whatever the scale, Virginia Tech scientists are here to offer hope, work, solutions, and most importantly, answers.
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