News: Integrative Biology

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

UT News

Holy Bat Memory! Frog-Eating Bats Remember Ringtones Years Later

Frog-eating bats trained to associate a phone ringtone with a tasty treat remembered what they learned for up to four years in the wild.

A bat rests on a cloth

UT News

Legacy of Colonialism Influences Science in the Caribbean

An international collaboration of researchers shows how the legacy of colonialism remains deeply entrenched within scientific practice across the Caribbean.

Map of the Caribbean

UT News

How Electric Fish Were Able to Evolve Electric Organs

How small genetic changes enabled electric fish to evolve electric organs.

A glowing electric fish against a pitch dark background

Features

Living Laboratories: Field Stations Offer Opportunities for Real-World Science

A network of field stations helps scientists understand invasive species, climate change impacts and search for potential green fuels.

A bearded man in a blue shirt stands in a field of tall grass

UT News

Invading Hordes of Crazy Ants May Have Finally Met Their Kryptonite

UT Austin scientists have demonstrated how to use a naturally occurring fungus to crush local populations of invasive tawny crazy ants.

Ants swarm on a larger, dead insect

Research

Some Trees May Play an Outsized Role in the Fight on Global Warming

A new study shows that nitrogen-fixing trees could help forests remove more heat-trapping COS from the atmosphere than previously thought.

Sunlight peeks through the trees

Features

Evolutionary Roots and that Loving Feeling

What can the Animal Kingdom tell us about love?

Two Tungara frogs, each facing a different direction on a muddy jungle floor

Research

Unraveling How One of the Most Important Cell Types Form

Stomata are critical to plant biology and scientists have found a key to how they get there.

Microscopic images of plant stomata

UT News

COVID Forecasting Method Shown to Reliably Guide U.S. Cities Through Pandemic Threats

Using cellphone mobility data and COVID-19 hospital admissions data, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have reliably forecast regional hospital demands for almost...

An illustration of the Austin skyline against a graph line showing peaks and valleys

Podcast

Frog Pandemic

Frogs are also struggling through their own pandemic that has several eerie parallels with COVID-19.

A green frog rests on a tree branch