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News

From the College of Natural Sciences
Natural Selection May Not Produce the Best Organisms

Natural Selection May Not Produce the Best Organisms

AUSTIN, Texas—Natural selection may favor the fittest organisms around, but it doesn’t always lead to the evolution of the most optimal organisms, says a team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. Drs. Matthew Cowperthwaite and Lauren Ancel Meyers led a team that developed a new theory suggesting that traits that are easy to evolve ...
Global Warming Experts Recommend Drastic Measures to Save Species

Global Warming Experts Recommend Drastic Measures to Save Species

AUSTIN, Texas—An international team of conservation scientists from Australia, the United Kingdom and United States, including University of Texas at Austin Professor Camille Parmesan, calls for new conservation tactics, such as assisted migration, in the face of the growing threat of climate change. They report their policy ideas in a paper publi...
Into the Field

Into the Field

Ulrich Mueller, recent recipient of the E.O. Wilson award, crouches above a leafcutter ant mound at the Brackenridge Field Lab in Austin. He's been monitoring ants at the lab for a decade in concert with his work in Central and South America. Photo: Marsha Miller. In his acceptance speech for the E.O. Wilson Award at this year’s annual meeting o...Ulrich Mueller at Brackenridge Field Lab
Giant Cane and the Little Wasp That Could

Giant Cane and the Little Wasp That Could

AUSTIN, Texas—Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin will work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) to investigate biological control for an invasive cane grass that is choking waterways across North America. The introduced European cane, Arundo donax, grows in dense stands in wetlands and rip...
Smart Materials Get Smarter

Smart Materials Get Smarter

AUSTIN, Texas—A dynamic way to alter the shape and size of microscopic three-dimensional structures built out of proteins has been developed by biological chemist Jason Shear and his former graduate student Bryan Kaehr at The University of Texas at Austin. Shear and Kaehr fabricated a variety of detailed three-dimensional microstructures, known as...Dr. Jason Shear
Chemists Receive NIH Grant for Cancer Research

Chemists Receive NIH Grant for Cancer Research

AUSTIN, Texas--Chemistry researchers at two Central Texas universities have received a four-year, $1,113,615 grant from the National Institutes of Health to evaluate a new technique that could rapidly predict the anti-cancer activity of new compounds. Lynn Guziec, assistant professor of chemistry at Southwestern University, will collaborate on the...
Invisible Waves Shape Continental Slope

Invisible Waves Shape Continental Slope

AUSTIN, Texas—A class of powerful, invisible waves hidden beneath the surface of the ocean can shape the underwater edges of continents and contribute to ocean mixing and climate, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found. The scientists simulated ocean conditions in a laboratory aquarium and found that “internal waves” generat...
MSI Gets Funds for New Building

MSI Gets Funds for New Building

PORT ARANSAS, Texas—The University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) will receive $3.5 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for construction of a new headquarters building for its Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve. The grant brings the total amount of NOAA funding for the project to $7.7 ...
Open House Opens Oceans

Open House Opens Oceans

Standing in front of a crowd of about 50 visitors from across the state at The University of Texas Marine Science Institute’s summer Open House, oceanographer and turtle-rescuer Tony Amos' cell phone rang. He answered the call. After a brief conversation, Amos relayed to the expectant crowd that two green sea turtles had been found on the Padre Isl...
Microbiologist Receives Support for Studying Bacterial Communication and Disease

Microbiologist Receives Support for Studying Bacterial Communication and Disease

Dr. Marvin Whiteley, assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, recently received a 2008 Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for his work to understand the interaction between human hosts and infectious bacteria. Whiteley will use the $500,000 PATH award for researc...