News: Research
Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin
McDonald Observatory
Some Young Suns Align with Their Planet-forming Disks, Others Are Born Tilted
Lauren Biddle, a UT postdoc, finds about one-third of young Sun-like stars are born with misaligned protoplanetary disks.

UT News
Meet the Universe’s Earliest Confirmed Black Hole: A Monster at the Dawn of Time
A team of astronomers from UT’s Cosmic Frontier Center have identified the most distant black hole ever confirmed.

New AI Tool Accelerates mRNA-Based Treatments for Viruses, Cancers, Genetic Disorders
UT Austin and Sanofi partner to build tool that predicts translation efficiency of mRNA sequences.

New DNA Evidence Reveals Origins of Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian Languages
The study identifies an ancestral population in Central Siberia linked to the origin of Uralic languages.

Digital platform supports personalized diet goals in primary care for diabetes
A new study evaluates Nutri, a clinical decision support tool for brief diet counseling in safety-net clinics, created by UT researchers.

3D Printing Breakthrough Paves Way for Next-Gen Medical Devices and Stretchable Electronics
New methods for printing objects lead to materials with the flexibility, strength and complexity that nature offers.

Study Finds Early Signs of Widespread Coastal Marsh Decline
The early warning could help the ecosystems that are key to preventing flooding, UT marine science researchers say.

Department of Marine Science
Deep Microbial Life Beneath Lavey-les-Bains Reveals Surprising Resilience
Microbes beneath Switzerland’s Lavey-les-Bains Thermal Spa stay stable year-round, revealing the resilience of subsurface life and its role in Earth’s carbon cycle.

McDonald Observatory
COSMOS-Web Releases Deepest Yet View Into the Universe
Over 250 hours of observations from the world’s most powerful telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, are freely available to the public.

Idea of Coral Reefs as Oases in Marine Deserts May Be Mistaken
New research from Simon Brandl at UT’s Marine Science Institute challenges a long-held belief about coral reefs.
