News

Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin

Research

Coal Power Killed Half a Million People in U.S. over Two Decades

Deaths from coal were highest in 1999, but by 2020 decreased by about 95%, as coal plants have installed scrubbers or shut down.

A white plume of exhaust spews from power plant smokestacks

Research

Bacteria Store Memories and Pass Them on for Generations

Bacteria use iron levels to store memories and pass them on to later generations, scientists have found.

Microscopic image of E.coli bacteria

Weinberg Institute

Meet a Graduate Student at the Nexus Point of Gravitational Wave Discovery

A Texas Science video series profiles student researchers, including physics graduate student Snehal Tibrewal.

A young woman in glasses stands beneath the oak trees and a graphic reads: Nexus Point S2 E1

UT News

UT Celebrates the Life of Jim Vick

The University of Texas at Austin is mourning the death of the late vice president for student affairs and legendary mathematics professor emeritus.

A man in a suit flashes the hook 'em horns hand sign next to a desk where the sign reads "James W. Vick Center, School of Undergraduate Studies"

Features

Turtle Pond Offers Research Site for Undergraduates

A new long-running project allows undergraduate students to gain hands-on experience with ecological research in the heart of the UT Austin campus.

Professor Havird and his students take samples from the turtles to learn more about their ecology and health.

Research

Chemist’s Innovation Spurs Drugs that Hang on Through Thick and Thin

The newly launched Hyku Biosciences provides a platform for covalent drug development which may be a better approach for treating diseases like cancer.

Using SuTex, short for sulfur-triazole exchange chemistry, Ken Hsu has created an approach to target sites on proteins that have extra electrons to share. This covalent bond is very stable compared with bonds formed by traditional drugs. Credit: Zhihong Li

Announcements

CNS Welcomes New Faculty for the 23-24 Academic Year

Meet the newest tenured and tenure-track members of the College of Natural Sciences faculty.

Photo of UT seal carved in stone

Research

Researchers Find a New Avenue to Combat Biofilm Threat

A team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and other institutions have unlocked a clue about how bacteria form biofilms.

Electron microscope image of bacterial biofilm

Research

Peering Inside a Quantum Computer Creates New Phases of Information

Physicist Matteo Ippoliti helped explore how measurements can alter information states in an innovation created by Google.

Illustraiton of colored blocks with arrows and clocks evoking a sense of time and information flowing through a system

Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost

Two Members of Natural Sciences Named to UT Austin’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers

Ruth Buskirk and Michael Marder are among the 2023 inductees to The University of Texas at Austin’s prestigious Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

Ruth Buskirk and Michael Marder