With more and more eco-friendly coffee on grocery store shelves in the U.S. and with major outlets like Starbucks and McDonald's getting into the act in recent years, you might think the coffee industry is becoming greener. But think again.
Can we use plants for energy instead of oil? That's the question one group of intrepid students is trying to answer as part of an innovative program that plugs first year students into real-world research projects with top notch faculty and research scientists.
Watch and learn about research being done on the recovery of Bastrop State Park after the devastating fire in the area in 2011. Video by Jeff Mertz.
On June 9, 2014, UT biologists and students helped move about 140 turtles from UT Austin's beloved turtle pond to a temporary home for a long overdue cleaning of the lower pond.
Take a glimpse into two of UT's biggest and brightest (literally!) greenhouses. The BOT greenhouse holds a number of exotic plants for taxonomic study, while the Welch greenhouse hosts a variety of rich and important agricultural projects. As these horticulturalists make clear, no two greenhouses are ever the same!
The proportion of land used to cultivate shade grown coffee, relative to the total land area of coffee cultivation, has fallen by nearly 20 percent globally since 1996, according to a new study by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and five other institutions.
Invasive “crazy ants” are rapidly displacing fire ants in areas across the southeastern U.S. by secreting a compound that neutralizes fire ant venom, according to a University of Texas at Austin study published this week in the journal Science Express. It’s the first known example of an insect with the ability to detoxify another insect’s venom.
For the male African cichlid fish, everyday can be a battle to gain rights to prime real estate and girls. Though the aquariums in Hans Hofmann’s lab in Patterson Hall are not like the fight-to-the-death arena of “The Hunger Games,” they are still the scenes of epic competition and showmanship.
It was a big year for science in the College of Natural Sciences. "Aren't they all?" you might be asking yourself. Point taken. Of course our faculty, postdocs, staff and students are at the forefront of discovery.
Though not all of the amazing work happening in the labs around this campus spread across the Interwebs like crazy ants (ahem), here we present the top six stories of 2013 that did. These are the stories that went particularly viral, catching the eyes and minds of many. Hook 'em!
Read our publication, The Texas Scientist, a digest covering the people and groundbreaking discoveries that make the College of Natural Sciences one of the most amazing and significant places on Earth.
