News

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

Research

Study Shows Common Molecular Tool Kit Organisms Share Across Tree of Life

Researchers at UT Austin discovered the assembly instructions for nearly 1,000 protein complexes shared by most kinds of animals.

Researchers created the world’s largest protein map, identifying nearly 1,000 protein complexes that are shared across the tree of life. This image shows a small portion of that map.

Podcast

Cocktail Party Effect

Your brain has to do all sorts of tricks to focus on just one voice floating in a sea of noise, including localization

Illustration of a see-through brain with bright orange spots scattered in the interior

Research

Froggy Went a Courtin'

A graduate student and her advisor in the Department of Integrative Biology at UT Austin have discovered that female frogs are also prone to the...

Two frogs sitting on moist ground

Research

Computer Scientists Find Mass Extinctions Can Accelerate Evolution

Robots evolve more quickly and efficiently after a virtual mass extinction modeled after real-life disasters such as the one that killed off the dinosaurs.

At the start of the simulation, a biped robot controlled by a computationally evolved brain stands upright on a 16 meter by 16 meter surface.

Accolades

Two Natural Sciences Faculty Receive 2015 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards

The awards program is one of the nation’s largest monetary teaching recognition programs in higher education, honoring outstanding performance in the classroom and dedication to...

Regents Award

Podcast

Fun With Chemistry

Kate Biberdorf combines the energy of a kickboxer with a passion for chemistry and a love of sharing science with the public

A woman in blue lab coat blows a puff of fire out of her mouth

UT News

Corals Are Already Adapting to Global Warming, Scientists Say

Some coral populations already have genetic variants necessary to tolerate warm ocean waters, and humans can help to spread these genes, a team of scientists...

A view of a coral reef underwater

UT News

Military Children Will Receive More Support for Learning Math Under Dana Center Contract

The Charles A. Dana Center at UT Austin has been awarded a $12.7 million contract by the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity to advance...

A burnt orange icon that resembles a rhombille grid "tessellation of the plain in identical rhombi"

Features

2015 Summer Blockbusters: Meet Our Science Truth Detector

With summer movie season in full swing, cinema-goers are leaving theaters with one big question in mind: “Wait, could that really happen?”

Cartoon characters representing different feelings stand around a control console

UT News

Freshman Researchers Receive Grand Challenges Explorations Grant for Groundbreaking Mosquito Diagnostic Plan

Undergraduate researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are creating diagnostics to test mosquitos for blood-borne pathogens such as malaria, dengue fever and chikungunya...

A student researcher and instructor compare notes in front of a pair of test tubes as one of them holds a cell phone