January 21, 2013
Is Lubbock the Friendliest City in America?
Lubbockites say "good morning" on Twitter more than anyone else in the country, according to a study from some Ukrainian software engineers who monitored American tweets.
Science
Reporting and analysis about scientific research and innovation in Texas
The Culture
January 21, 2013
Houston’s “Pulseless” Artificial Heart Revisited
Heart Stops Beating, the Sundance-featured short film about the Texas Heart Institute's unprecedented "continuous flow device," is reworked into a longer and more detailed version, now called Flatline.
January 21, 2013
RIP, Sally Ride
What people are saying about NASA's first woman in space, who died of pancreatic cancer Monday at the age of 61.
Health
January 21, 2013
Why Celltex Might Be in Trouble
A preliminary report from the FDA contains telling observations about Celltex, the company that Rick Perry worked with last year for his experimental back surgery.
January 21, 2013
UT’s Gay Parenting Study Sparks Debate
A new UT study says that children of gay parents fare worse than their straight-parented counterparts, igniting a firestorm of backlash.
January 21, 2013
Your Commute is Making You Fat
A new study tracking the habits and health of Texas drivers found that those with longer commute times have bigger waistlines.
January 21, 2013
Face Transplant Patient Can Now Feel Daughter’s Kisses
Dallas Wiens, the Fort Worth man who received the nation's first full face transplant exactly one year ago, says the surgery has exceeded his expectations.
The Culture
January 21, 2013
Cormac McCarthy Rewrites Science
The formerly reclusive author moonlights as a copy editor, taking his red pen to Quantum Man, a biography of a physicist.
Health
January 21, 2013
Houston Hospital Tweets an Open-heart Surgery
Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital tweeted videos and photos as medical director of cardiovascular surgery, Dr. Michael Macris, performed a double coronary artery bypass.
January 21, 2013
Houston is “America’s Fattest City”
Houston returns to the top of a Men's Fitness survey that also includes El Paso, Arlington, and Dallas.
Science
January 21, 2013
The Last Blast
Few things are as majestic as the launch of the space shuttle. But after nearly thirty years, NASA is sending up its final orbiters. Here's the view from up close.
Politics & Policy
January 21, 2013
Lost in Space
Ten years after the Challenger disaster, there are still dark clouds on the horizon for NASA’s space shuttle program.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
Weird Science
As the peculiar case of a Fort Bend sheriff’s deputy and his bloodhounds makes clear, the techniques of crime-scene investigation are not as infallible as the TV shows would have us believe. How a misplaced faith in some forensic experts is putting innocent people behind bars.
Energy
January 20, 2013
The Old Man and the Secret
Thirty years ago, people couldnt believe it: The old man’s elixir boosted crops, ate up sewage, and made the desert bloom. Today half a dozen Texas companies claim the elixir does all that and a whole lot more.
Jan Reid
January 20, 2013
Cold Case
One year ago tejano star Emilio Navaira was nearly killed in a tour bus accident outside Houston. What are we still learning about the experimental medical procedure that may have saved his life?
True Crime
January 20, 2013
Lust in Space
The lovesick antics of diapered astronaut Lisa Nowak are some combination of funny and sad but seemingly not revealing of anything larger, until you realize that her tragic, tabloidy breakdown says everything you need to know about NASA’s many troubles.
Health
August 20, 2012
Getting Closer to Developing a Birth Control Pill For Men
Baylor College of Medicine's Martin M. Matzuk and his collaborators may have discovered the key to a male birth control pill: cripple the sperm's capacity to swim.
July 25, 2012
Meet Five Texans Preparing For the Apocalypse
With December 21, 2012 rapidly approaching (only 148 days away!), so-called doomsday "preppers" are on the rise in Texas.
July 6, 2012
Could the “God” Particle Have Been Discovered in Texas?
At least two news outlets found Texas angles for the Higgs boson discovery at CERN.
June 20, 2012
How Some Dino Bones Brought Mongolia and Texas Together
A seventy-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton finds itself at the center of a legal battle involving a Dallas auction house, a Houston lawyer, and the president of Mongolia.
May 14, 2012
The Moon Rock Hunter from Houston
Joe Gutheinz has helped recover 79 moon rocks that the government lost track of in the past four decades.
Web Exclusive
April 30, 2012
Texas Gets Prehistoric With Two New Fossil Halls
After years of exporting prized dinosaur fossils to some of the world’s best museums, the state will be getting two huge exhibit halls, in Dallas and Houston.
April 6, 2012
Special Goat’s Milk Could Vaccinate Against Malaria?
Texas researchers are doing their part to fight malaria by monitoring the spread of a drug-resistant strain of the parasite and breeding a genetically modified goat with malaria-vaccine in her milk.
April 2, 2012
Could Spinach Save the Citrus Industry?
A Texas researcher is working to fight citrus greening by using bacteria-fighting genes found in spinach.
March 8, 2012
Revolutionary Corpse Research at Texas State Body Farm
A study conducted by Texas State University researchers involving vultures and human remains could have big implications for homicide investigators.
March 7, 2012
Did the Moon Sink the Titanic?
Two physics professors at Texas State University believe that a rare lunar event may have flung the icebergs in the ship's path.
February 27, 2012
Shocker: “Active” Video Games Not a Substitute for Actual Exercise
A new study from the Baylor College of Medicine finds “active” video games like Wii Sports and Dance Dance Revolution don't lead to an increase in physical activity.
The Culture
February 7, 2012
VIDEO: Living Without a Pulse
Director Jeremiah Zagar's short film, Heart Stop Beating, which premiered at Sundance, documents another visionary heart surgery procedure out of Houston.
February 3, 2012
Texas’s Controversial Science Standards Are “Mediocre to Awful”
A recent report gives the state's science standards a ‘C,’ but the State Board of Education chairwoman, a science teacher, is still “pleased.”
The Culture
January 31, 2012
Goodbye To Y’all That
Is the Texas twang disappearing? Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin's Texas English Project pretty much say: "Yup."
Denton Cooley
January 1, 2012
Two Hearts
Conducting the country’s first successful heart transplant and the world’s first artificial heart transplant made Denton Cooley a household name—and turned one of his closest colleagues against him.
Web Exclusive
October 31, 2011
Narrating the Night Sky
San Antonio's Sandy Wood has been the voice of StarDate for twenty years.
The Culture
October 31, 2011
Anthony Fiorillo, Paleontologist
Fiorillo, whose fossil digs take him everywhere from West Texas to Australia, grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. He moved to Texas in 1995 to be a curator of paleontology at the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, and he is currently at work on a new dinosaur hall
Feature
May 31, 2011
Mind Games
Baylor College of Medicine neuroscientist David Eagleman is out to change the way we think about guilt and innocence (and time and novels and, well, neuroscientists). Can he pull it off?
Feature
March 31, 2011
Tusk!
For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by mammoths, those giant, prehistoric creatures that once roamed Texas. So I decided to go looking for them.
Web Exclusive
September 30, 2010
Bloggers, Babies, and the Benefits of Beer
A roundup of the latest and greatest scientific research from Texas universities.
Web Exclusive
September 30, 2010
Shawn Achor
The Harvard researcher talks about his new book, The Happiness Advantage, and more.
Health
August 31, 2010
Menopause, Moms, and Medical Marijuana
A roundup of the latest and greatest scientific research from Texas universities.
Web Exclusive
April 30, 2010
Goodnight Moon
Forty years ago, the attention to space exploration was constant. And the faces of the exploration gave rise to a group of larger than life individuals—the astronauts.
Letter From Austin
March 31, 2010
Fear Less
Can new research predict which soldiers will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder—and which won’t?
Web Exclusive
October 31, 2009
Warning Shot
Texas parents have the choice to opt their children out of school vaccination requirements based on “reasons of conscience.” But what about the other kids around them?
News & Politics
August 31, 2009
Widespread Panic
Despite its status as a public health emergency, is the swine flu just another flu?
The Culture
August 31, 2009
Why Are Tortilla Chips So Damn Good?
Is it the crispiness? The crunchiness? The saltiness? Thankfully, a small cadre of researchers in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M has spent much of the past thirty years munching on this question.
Web Exclusive
December 1, 2008
Slow to Evolve
The reason so many Texans testified in favor of strong language supporting evolution in the TEKS is because they’re having to play defense and they’re losing.
Web Exclusive
May 31, 2008
Interview with Sam Gosling
A decade of research by this University of Texas at Austin psychology prof has led to new ways of understanding the relationship between individuals and the spaces they inhabit, as he now reveals with Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.Snoop posits that our things open a window onto
Feature
March 31, 2008
The Final Frontier
Karl Gebhardt and Gary Hill, two astronomers from the University of Texas at Austin, are racing to solve one of the greatest mysteries in science: What is dark energy? How does it work? Can it explain the origins of the universe? There’s only one problem. Dark energy may not actually
The Culture
February 1, 2008
Nan Hall Linke, Astrologer
Born and raised in Houston, Linke is a third-generation Texan. She has been a professional astrologer since 1971. She also holds a master’s degree in behavioral science from the University of Houston– Clearlake and did her clinical training in marriage counseling and family therapy.The future represents the unknown, and the
Feature
February 1, 2008
Mark Westhusin
How many Aggies does it take to turn one tabby or tin-can-eater into two? The no-joke answer is perhaps a dozen—the number of researchers, students, and staff working under Westhusin in the Reproductive Sciences Laboratory at Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The Plainville, Kansas, native, who has a degree
Letter From Marfa
September 30, 2007
One Hundred Boxes
Space, time, and Donald Judd reconsidered.
The Culture
June 30, 2006
Eileen Collins
“It’s funny: I’ve never been scared on a shuttle mission. It’s just the nature of the job. You’re busy, you’re focused, you’re well trained, and you go, ‘You know, if I’m going to die, there’s nothing I can do about it.’”