Science Archives

News & Politics |

June 25, 2019

Moon Rocks, Megabytes and Fruit Flies: Space, By the Numbers

A numerical gathering of space data.

By Christiana Sullivan

News & Politics |

June 25, 2019

A Time Line of Space Exploration

Two and a half millennia of innovation, from Archytas’s wooden pigeon to Neil Armstrong’s giant leap to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Moon.

By Jessica Reyes and Tanya C. Vazquez

News & Politics |

June 25, 2019

She Couldn’t Go to Space Because She Was a Woman. But She Hasn’t Given Up on Her Dream.

Nearly sixty years ago, Funk and twelve other women proved that they could be astronauts too. But they never got to walk on the moon.

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The Presidio High School rocketry club’s team captain, Leonardo Uribe, in Presidio on May 31, 2019.

News & Politics |

June 25, 2019

Why Does Presidio Have One of the Best High School Rocketry Clubs in the Country?

The West Texas border town of Presidio is one of the poorest places in the state. So why does it have one of the best high school rocketry clubs in the country?

By Meagan Flynn

Health |

May 16, 2019

Austin, Fort Worth, and Houston Are at Risk of a Measles Outbreak—Thanks to Anti-Vaxxers

The ”don’t trust the government” right and the ”don’t trust the government” left overlap when it comes to vaccines.

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January 14, 2019

Sahana Srinivasan: “There Are So Many Talented People Who Look Like Me That Need to Be Heard”

The 22-year-old star of the Netflix science program ’Brainchild,’ also a UT senior, on representation, science, and life as a young role model.

By Andy Langer

The National Podcast of Texas |

December 10, 2018

Dr. Peter J. Hotez: “A Scary Anti-Science Movement Has Become Very Strong in Texas”

On our latest podcast, the co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development offers a warning about the rise of the anti-vaccine movement and Texas’s risk of a measles outbreak.

By Andy Langer

The National Podcast of Texas |

October 16, 2018

Dr. Livia S. Eberlin: “I Always Thought the Word ‘Genius’ Sounded Funny. How Can You Really Define What’s Genius?”

On our latest podcast, a conversation about chemistry and cancer with the UT-Austin assistant professor recently honored with a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

By Andy Langer

Dr. Jim Allison conducting research at the MD Anderson facility outside Smithville, where he worked from 1977 to 1984.

News & Politics |

October 3, 2018

Jim Allison Can’t Believe He Actually Won the Nobel Prize

It’s the greatest honor the Houston-based cancer immunologist can imagine—even more than playing onstage with Willie Nelson.

By Eric Benson

Health |

July 27, 2018

The High-Stakes Race to Create the World’s First Artificial Heart

In this exclusive excerpt from 'Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart,' world-renowned Houston surgeon Bud Frazier races to help an ailing patient by implanting a revolutionary device that may one day save millions of lives.

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The Saharan dust over Texas, which appears as a brown haze in this image, can be seen as far west as Midland and as far north as Fort Worth. This GOES-16 satellite imagery is created by combining 3 visible channels that simulate what the Earth would look like with human eyes from space.

The Culture |

July 17, 2018

Why Dust From the Sahara Is Covering the Texas Sky

The Saharan dust brings us hotter days, hazy skies, and nicer sunsets.

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Film & TV |

May 4, 2018

Watch a Clip From ‘The Iron Orchard’ Before Its Premiere

The film debuts at the Dallas International Film Festival this weekend.

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Untitled (Plastic Cups), 2006, by Tara Donovan, part of an exhibit at Ballroom Marfa co-curated by Laura Copelin and Timothy Morton.

Art |

April 12, 2018

Timothy Morton Is Houston’s Own Catastrophe Guru

Morton, renowned eco-philosopher and co-curator of a new art exhibit at Ballroom Marfa, sees global warming as a new beginning, not an end.

By Michael Agresta

Business |

January 23, 2018

15 Innovators Reshaping Texas

Today’s wildcatters find rich veins of opportunity in everything from tortillas to interplanetary travel. Meet the dreamers and risk-takers shaping our future.

By Texas Monthly

January 23, 2018

The Astronaut Who Might Actually Get Us to Mars

As an eighteen-year-old immigrant to the U.S., Franklin Chang Díaz dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Now, decades after tying the record for most spaceflights, he might be the best bet to get us to Mars.

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Texas History |

January 23, 2018

A Brief History of Texas Innovators

Ours is a land of resourceful, imaginative, inventive, and self-reliant people. It has always been this way.

By

Energy |

November 30, 2017

A New Study Offers Further Proof That North Texas Earthquakes Are Drilling- and Fracking-Related

The fault lines had been inactive for 300 million years before fracking started.

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News & Politics |

November 22, 2017

Peter Hotez vs. Measles and the Anti-Vaccination Movement

Texas is at risk of a measles outbreak, yet few have blamed the state’s anti-vaccine movement. Enter Peter Hotez, an affable scientist who decided he’d had enough.

By Laura Beil

Energy |

November 20, 2017

Houston Museum of Natural Science Opens High-Tech New Energy Hall

One of the museum’s most popular attractions is back and bigger than ever.

By Michael Hardy

The Daily Post |

November 15, 2017

Storms as Severe as Harvey Will Become Much More Likely, According to Study

By the end of the 21st century, a 100-year storm like Harvey could become a five-and-a-half-year storm in Texas.

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Energy |

October 23, 2017

UT Geologists Extract Potential Natural Gas Source From the Ocean Floor

Methane hydrate, the compound recovered by the scientists, could provide power to future generations.

By Elizabeth Hlavinka

Politics & Policy |

September 28, 2017

Did Houston Authorities Hide Harvey Predictions From the Public?

Houston politicians may have lied to the city's residents about the ferocity of the storm. If they did lie, they did the right thing.

By John Nova Lomax

Illustration of road closure signs, floods, and rain around skyscrapers.

September 21, 2017

Why Hurricane Harvey Will Happen Again

Don’t blame Samuel Brody, the professor who’s been warning for years that Houston was at risk for a Harvey-style flood, if he’s feeling a tinge of vindication. Now, will anyone listen to his suggestions for what to do next?

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Health |

September 4, 2017

Houston Braces for a Mosquito Swarm

Are mosquito-borne illnesses Hurricane Harvey's next threat?

By Joe Hanson

The Daily Post |

August 30, 2017

Hurricane Harvey By the Numbers

Eight million Texans—almost the population of New York City—live in areas affected by the storm.

By Charley Locke

Sports |

August 23, 2017

Munro Cullum’s Concussion Count

A chat with the Dallas doctor in charge of the country’s most ambitious study of traumatic brain injuries among student athletes.

By

Essay |

July 24, 2017

Seeing the Body

"When I returned to Port Aransas during my last year of medical school, I began to look at my hometown through an entirely different lens."

By Rachel Pearson

Politics & Policy |

March 28, 2017

Mars Exploration is a Flower in a Wasteland of Science Funding

Basic research needs major money as well.

By J. Craig Wheeler

The Daily Post |

March 16, 2017

How Universities Can Be More Like Startups

The UT Austin president and the director of innovation have a clear desire for a startup focused campus, but implementation is complicated.

By

Health |

November 23, 2016

Out of Africa

Winning the MacArthur “genius grant” was a career highlight for Rice professor Rebecca Richards-Kortum. But it was a visit to Malawi that changed her life.

By

Lead |

November 23, 2016

Murky Waters

What is killing the Gulf of Mexico’s majestic coral reefs?

By Patrick Beach

Health |

October 19, 2016

The Iconoclast

Jim Allison has always gone his own way—as a small-town-Texas kid who preferred books to football, and as a young scientist who believed the immune system could treat tumors when few others did. And that irreverence led him to find a potential cure for cancer.

By Eric Benson

john wilson paleontology sarah wilson photography

The Culture |

September 21, 2016

A Love Unearthed

For many years, my grandfather’s work as a paleontologist was remote and obscure to me. Then I discovered our shared awe of West Texas.

By Sarah Wilson

The Daily Post |

September 7, 2016

Researchers At Rice Might Have Discovered How The Basic Building Block Of Life Ended Up On Earth

Carbon wasn’t always abundant on Earth, and the building block’s extraterrestrial arrival may have been spectacularly violent.

By Leif Reigstad

Science |

August 24, 2016

When the Dust Settles

After Texas Tech researchers discovered that windstorms may be spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria from local feedlots, public health experts stood up and took notice. So did the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.

By Eva Hershaw

Energy |

July 20, 2016

The Hole Picture

A look at the state of the West Texas sinkholes.

By Darla Cameron

Health |

July 6, 2016

A Better Pill to Swallow

The dean of Dell Medical School wants to reinvent health care for the twenty-first century.

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Katharine Hayhoe, photographed in Lubbock on March 31, 2016.

Science |

April 15, 2016

Unfriendly Climate

Katharine Hayhoe has made it her life’s mission to proclaim the truth about climate change. Can she get the skeptics to listen?

By Sonia Smith

The Daily Post |

April 13, 2016

Look At These Amazing Photos Of SpaceX’s Rocket Cargo Ship Returning Safely To Earth

The space exploration company achieved a big milestone—and took the pictures to prove it.

By

Law |

March 28, 2016

The Effects Of The Undercover Planned Parenthood Videos Reach The U.S. House

The long tail of the Planned Parenthood videos continues to get longer as a House subcommittee prepares to subpoena Parkinson's researchers.

By

Health |

March 1, 2016

Uterus Transplants Are Coming To Baylor, But Ethical Considerations Also Loom

Baylor University Medical Center will be one of the first hospitals in the U.S. to begin this groundbreaking clinical trial.

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Health |

February 26, 2016

Texas A&M And The Gates Foundation May Have Created A Supercondom

It fights AIDS even when it breaks, helps a fella out, and claims to feel better than not using a condom at all.

By

Feature |

February 24, 2016

Gender Bender

Colt Keo-Meier is Texas’s preeminent researcher on transgender issues. But for him, it’s not just about the science. It’s personal.

By Francesca Mari

Health |

January 27, 2016

Put to the Test

For children with debilitating epilepsy, an unprecedented medical trial in Fort Worth offers a glimmer of hope. But if it works, is the state ready to embrace medical marijuana?

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