News

A new model for assessing real-time risk of a Zika virus epidemic in the United States is described in research published in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases. The computer simulation, based on data from Texas including population dynamics, historical infection rates, socioeconomics, and mosquito density, is designed to help policymakers gauge the underlying epidemic threat as cases first appear in US cities.

Professor of integrative biology Lauren Meyers recently accepted the Center for Excellence in Education's (CEE) Joseph I. Lieberman Award for Excellence in Science and Technology.

About 80 million years ago, a group of bees began exhibiting social behavior, which includes raising young together, sharing food resources and defending their colony. Today, their descendants—honey bees, stingless bees and bumble bees—carry stowaways from their ancient ancestors: five species of gut bacteria that have evolved along with the host bees.

Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found that honeybees treated with a common antibiotic were half as likely to survive the week after treatment compared with a group of untreated bees, a finding that may have health implications for bees and people alike.

Biologist Mike Ryan, a professor in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has been chosen to receive the 2017 Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award from the Animal Behavior Society. Considered the Society´s most prestigious award, it "recognizes an outstanding career in animal behavior."

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) announced this week that a University of Texas at Austin professor of integrative biology is one of 27 people in its new class of Fellows. 

An evolutionary biologist is one of two faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin who will receive Edith and Peter O'Donnell Awards from The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas (TAMEST) at its annual conference on Jan. 11.

Five University of Texas at Austin faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society, including four from the College of Natural Sciences.

An assistant professor reflects on a life's work inspired by pollinators and plants. 

The latest issue of the Nautilus takes an in-depth look at decades of work by David Crews, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, who has been studying species of whiptail lizards that are entirely female.