Furman chemists publish new findings on molecule that may be involved in cloud formation

How much heat will get trapped in our planet’s atmosphere over the next several decades, and what role will that play in climate and temperature? For Furman University scientists, the answers to these questions are floating in the sky.

The chemists are studying how the earliest stages of cloud formation contribute to a cloud’s future ability to regulate energy between the atmosphere and Earth’s surface. Every cloud is made up of water and a unique blend of organic molecules.

They recently teamed up with chemists at Stony Brook University to study glycine, an amino acid known as a building block for protein in the body that has also been detected in the atmosphere. Together, the team used experimental and computational approaches to determine that glycine competes with ammonia to stabilize sulfuric acid, making it potentially a strong force in the particle formation that drives cloud development. The findings were published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry.

Conor Bready ’24. Photo by Jeremy Fleming.

“Learning that glycine could have a significant impact on growing these cloud condensation nuclei informs us that we need to start including it in other simulations,” said Conor Bready, a 2024 Furman University graduate and co-author. “Additionally, it is useful to know how impactful each of these molecules are for the purpose of understanding climate in the long run. If we estimate that the concentration of some molecule is going to increase over time, due to whatever its source might be, we can better predict what changes it’ll have on the climate if we truly understand what its role is in the atmosphere.”

It is not known for sure how organic molecules such as glycine end up in the atmosphere, but scientists are working to chase down hypotheses, according to George Shields, professor of chemistry at Furman, co-author, and Bready’s mentor. Some molecules, such as sulfuric acid, have been widely studied and therefore it is known that they are important drivers in the process. However, other molecules, such as glycine, haven’t been studied as much, primarily because of the vast number of molecules present in the atmosphere.

“There are clearly amino acids in aerosols, but how they get there is not known,” said Shields. “When waves break t

George C. Shields, Department of Chemistry. File photo.

he surface of the ocean they spew all sorts of organic matter into the atmosphere. These are larger aerosols that can drift higher in the atmosphere, with the organic matter like amino acids encased within a large water droplet.  As the bubble rises in the atmosphere the water can evaporate, which is one way that amino acids could enter the atmosphere.”

Bready, who graduated in May with a degree in applied mathematics and chemistry, conducted research with Shields throughout most of his undergraduate career. In 2022, he was named a Beckman Scholar and a Goldwater Scholar. This Fall, he will pursue graduate studies in theoretical chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley with a U.S. Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship in tow.

At Furman, “I feel as though I’ve been able to learn what it truly means to be both a scientist and a researcher, something that can’t ever be taught in the classroom,” said Bready. “Classes can teach one the overall processes to perform good research, but it can’t teach you how to overcome the problems along the way.”