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From the College of Natural Sciences
Invasive Plants Are Moving Targets
Left top: Healthy Senecio vulgaris growing in Calif. where it was introduced approximately 100 yrs ago. Left bottom: Dying Senecio vulgaris covered in Puccinia and Albugo pathogens, growing in part of its native range in the UK (from Calif. seed). Center top: Senecio squalidus growing in the UK where it invaded nearly 400 years ago, with some Pucci...
Biology Professor Camille Parmesan Honored for Conservation Leadership
AUSTIN, Texas — The nation's leading conservation education and advocacy group has honored Dr. Camille Parmesan, associate professor of integrative biology at The University of Texas at Austin, with its National Conservation Achievement Award for exemplary leadership in protecting the environment and natural resources. Parmesan was selected for her...
Biologist Parmesan Honored For Conservation Leadership
AUSTIN, Texas—The nation’s leading conservation education and advocacy group is honoring Dr. Camille Parmesan, associate professor of integrative biology at The University of Texas at Austin with its National Conservation Achievement Award for exemplary leadership in protecting the environment and natural resources. Parmesan was selected for her ...
Defiance May Be Part of Healthy Child Development
At very young ages, children’s defiant behavior toward their mothers may not be a bad thing. This defiance may in fact reflect children’s emerging autonomy and a confidence that they can control events that are important to them. Those are the findings of a new study conducted by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University ...Reap What Your Ancestors Sowed
AUSTIN, Texas--Freeloaders can live on the fruits of the cooperation of others, but their selfishness can have long-term consequences, reports an evolutionary biologist from The University of Texas at Austin in a new study. “There is a historical dimension to cooperation,” says Dr. Sam Brown, the Human Frontier Science Foundation Fellow in the Sec...Study Finds High Media Use in Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers
AUSTIN, Texas--Seventy-five percent of infants, toddlers and preschoolers watch television daily for an average of more than one hour, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin in their comprehensive study of media use among children ages zero to six. Dr. Elizabeth Vandewater and her colleagues also found that computers are making ...Boost for Creating Standards for Sustainable Landscapes
AUSTIN, Texas--The Meadows Foundation of Dallas has awarded the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center of The University of Texas at Austin a $262,000 grant to aid its effort to create standards for sustainable landscapes in partnership with the American Society of Landscape Architects and the U.S. Botanic Garden, both of Washington, D.C. At a time w...Common Fungicide Causes Long-term Changes in Mating Behavior
AUSTIN, Texas—Female rats avoid males whose great-grandmothers were exposed to a common fruit crop fungicide, preferring instead males whose ancestors were uncontaminated, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have discovered. Their research shows that environmental contamination could affect the evolution of wildlife through changes ...New Book Shines Light on Successful Anti-Poverty Program
AUSTIN, Texas—New Hope, an experimental program started by community activists and business leaders in Milwaukee to boost employment among the working poor and improve poor children’s lives, can be a model for national anti-poverty policies, says a new book co-authored by a professor of child development at The University of Texas at Austin. The b...Global Warming Increases Species Extinctions Worldwide, University of Texas at Austin Researcher Finds
AUSTIN, Texas—Global warming has already caused extinctions in the most sensitive habitats and will continue to cause more species to go extinct over the next 50 to 100 years, confirms the most comprehensive study since 2003 on the effects of climate change on wild species worldwide by a University of Texas at Austin biologist. Dr. Camille Parmesa...Study recommends strategies for distributing flu vaccine during shortage
AUSTIN, Texas—When faced with potential vaccine shortages during a flu outbreak, public health officials can turn to a new study by mathematical biologists at The University of Texas at Austin and the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control to learn how to best distribute the vaccine. The scientists used contact network epidemiology to model v...
Fire ant-attacking fly spreading rapidly in Texas
AUSTIN, Texas—Parasitic flies introduced to control red imported fire ants have spread over four million acres in central and southeast Texas since the flies’ introduction in 1999, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered using new flytraps they developed. Researchers at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory (BFL) have released...Twenty years of figuring-out fire ants
Red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) being attacked by a phorid fly in the Texas Fire Ant Lab. When the wave of red imported fire ants rolled into Austin in the early 1980s, Larry Gilbert knew in no time flat. Students who were studying ants at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory found colonies of the invaders on the property in 1981. It had ...
Fire ant lab celebrates 20 years of research
AUSTIN, Texas—The red imported fire ant laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin Brackenridge Field Lab (BFL) is celebrating 20 years of research this month. Dr. Larry Gilbert, director of BFL and professor of integrative biology, first initiated fire ant research at the university in 1986 by bringing to the university two young researchers...Read It Now
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