News: Research
Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin
To Optimize Guide-Dog Robots, First Listen to the Visually Impaired
Guide-dog users and trainers can provide insight into features that make robotic helpers useful in the real world.

Persistent Strain of Cholera Defends Itself Against Forces of Change, Scientists Find
Unique immune component has kept one strain of cholera on top for more than 60 years.

Department of Computer Science
Transforming Human-Robot Interaction Through Mood-Inducing Music
UT’s Elad Liebman and Peter Stone consider robots that understand not only our commands but also our emotional states.

McDonald Observatory
Astronomers Uncover Methane Emission on a Cold Brown Dwarf
The research team used the James Webb Space Telescope to make a surprising finding about a cold, distant world.

Better Sleep Can Reduce Worry and Rumination in Older Adults
People’s perceptions of their sleep also proves to have stronger associations with their worry and rumination than objective sleep quality monitored with a device.

Study Challenges Popular Concept of Spread of Cultural Innovations
Researchers find that Eurasia’s East-West orientation likely did not aid in cultural domination.

Red Flags: I’m Not the Bug for You!
The matador bug’s vibrant red hind-leg flags are neither a mating display nor a distraction tactic, they’re part of an elaborate defense strategy.

McDonald Observatory
Astronomers Use James Webb Space Telescope to Probe an Extreme Starburst Galaxy
Messier 82, 12 million light-years away, is relatively compact but hosts a frenzy of star formation activity.

UT Researcher Leading Project for New NASA Space Telescope
UT’s new Cosmic Frontier Center and McDonald Observatory will play key roles in aiding research into chemically young galaxies.

UT News
Surviving a Volcanic Supereruption May Have Facilitated Human Dispersal Out of Africa
Graduate students Jessica Valdes and Keenan Riordan were on a team that found humans may have dispersed during arid times along “blue highways.”
