News: Research

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

McDonald Observatory

A Sea of Light: HETDEX Astronomers Reveal Hidden Structures in the Young Universe

Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment researchers have made a record-setting 3D map of the early universe.

A computer-simulation shows pixels labeled with stars and an inset. The overall map is labeled 100 million light years. The inset showing swirling gases is labeled 10 M light eyars.

Research

A Step Towards Needed Treatments for Hantaviruses in New Molecular Map

An innovative imaging technique enabled dramatically higher resolution structures than previous efforts.

Two views of a mushroom-shaped protein complex with individual proteins colored in vibrant red, green, blue and yellow

Research

Physicists Discover Long-Predicted ‘Clock Magnetism’ in an Atomically Thin Crystal

Observation of BKT and six-state clock phases reveals how magnetism behaves in two dimensions and may inspire ultracompact technologies.

A grid of dots represents atoms arranged in a thin sheet. Within this grid are two swirling features, one blue and the other orange.

Research

A Break in a Longstanding Mystery about Origin of Complex Life

Breathe easy. It appears our microbial ancestors used oxygen, too.

A large video monitor shows a robotic arm reaching down to the seafloor with a clear plastic tube to collect a sample of sediment

Research

New 3D Printing Method Makes Affordable, Realistic Replicas as Structurally Complex as a Human Hand

The CRAFT method uses widely available materials and inexpensive commercial 3D printers.

Four panels show a 3D printed model of a human hand. One panel shows a grayscale image used for the printing, two show the printed hand and the final panel shows cross sections of the wrist, highlighting hard and soft regions.

Research

Superfluids are Supposed to Flow Indefinitely. Physicists Just Watched One Stop Moving.

Researchers may have glimpsed a supersolid, an enigmatic quantum version of a classical solid.

An artist's illustration shows two thin layers of material stacked one on top of the other, each with an array of atoms represented by dots. The top layer's dots are blue, the bottom layer's dots are read.

Oden Institute

Study Reveals Hidden Topological Structure in Polarons

UT physicists found an unexpected layer of structure in one of solid-state physics’ most common quasiparticles.

A graphical representation of a sphere-like structure of various colored arrows floats above a similar structure, floppily rectangular, floating above a surface

UT News

Cytomegalovirus Breakthrough Could Lead to New Treatments

A new antibody design blocks cytomegalovirus from hiding from the immune system and could lead to safer, more effective treatments for vulnerable patients.

A woman in a lab coat and goggles connects a plastic tube to a piece of laboratory equipment laden with wires.

Research

Mental Health Intervention Reduces Severe Depression, Anxiety for Vulnerable Groups

The study highlights the importance of tailoring care to the needs of communities with service-access barriers.

A collage of multi-colored silhouettes of different people

Research

AI Tips Off Scientists to New Drug Target to Fight Monkeypox Virus

The breakthrough could be used in a new vaccine or antibody therapy to fight mpox, the disease caused by the monkeypox virus.

Structure of a surface protein on the monkeypox virus