#TexasScience

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

2 weeks ago

New Study Clarifies What Plastics Become as They Weather in the Ocean - Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin. As many people in South Texas are aware, plastic, like the cushions on outdoor furniture, can dramatically break down when exposed to the sun. The same process is happening to […]

New research from UTMSI shows that sunlight causes ocean plastics to release dissolved chemical compounds—not just smaller plastic particles—reshaping how we understand plastic pollution. 🔬 #UTMSI #TexasScience #Plastic #Ocean #Microplastics #nurdle #MarineDebris

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

1 month ago

Providing hands-on education and experience is what we do every day. #TexasScience #UTMSI

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

1 month ago

Student researchers in the Supra Sensors stream of the Freshman Research Initiative have been using analytical sensing tools to classify complex biological samples & study their chemical composition — including drops of wine.

#HappyFRIday #TexasScience #Enology #Viticulture #WineScience

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

1 month ago

A Break in a Longstanding Mystery about Origin of Complex Life Breathe easy. It appears our microbial ancestors used oxygen, too.

Some of our earliest microbial ancestors, the Asgard archaea, were able to use oxygen, says new study in @nature.com. It may solve a mystery about how complex life first arose.

#AsgardArchaea #MicrobialEcology #Eukaryogenesis #TexasScience @utmsi.bsky.social @archaeal.bsky.social

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

1 month ago

Texas Science Festival Invites Community to Partake in the Joys of Discovery From a talk-show themed night featuring science comedy to a campus-wide day for hands-on STEM exploration to special events spotlighting the latest scientific discoveries, the 2026 Texas Science Festi...

Follow your curiosity to the Texas Science Festival for two full weeks of science-inspired offerings!

#TexasScience #TexasScienceFestival
news.utexas.edu/2026/02/11/t...

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

1 month ago

Microplastics in the Sand: Beach Combing Goes High Tech A UT chemist says it is now time to develop tests for microplastics, similar to tests for other toxic threats.

You know what we DON’T love this Valentine’s Day? 💔 Microplastics on the beach. 🏖️ Fortunately, our colleagues on the main campus, Carlos Baiz and team are working on a solution 💘 Read the story: cns.utexas.edu/news/feature...
#UTMSI #Microplastics #TexasScience #Robotics

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

2 months ago

UT Undergrad Uncovers Country-Specific Factors Linked to Improved Cancer Outcomes UT biochemistry major Milit Patel collaborated with researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on research published in a top cancer journal.

Meet Milit Patel, who got his start in the award-winning Freshman Research Initiative at UT. Now a biochem senior & statistics & data science minor, he is corresponding author on a major paper in the Annals of Oncology.

#TexasScience #CancerResearch #HappyFRIday
cns.utexas.edu/news/feature...

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

3 months ago

5 Questions for Vernita Gordon A 2025 University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award recipient reflects on why certain approaches in the classroom create lasting impact for students.

What approaches in the classroom create lasting impact for students?

Vernita Gordon, a UT Austin physics professor who recently won a UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, has given that a lot of thought.

#STEMEducation #TexasScience #UTAustin

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

3 months ago

Mental Health Intervention Reduces Severe Depression, Anxiety for Vulnerable Groups The study highlights the importance of care tailored to the needs of particular communities, including immigrants and people in minority populations.

Gabriela Livas, chair of UT’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, helped create a community health program that reduces mental health symptoms in 80% of participants, erasing clinical symptoms altogether for many.

#MentalHealthCare #TexasScience

cns.utexas.edu/news/researc...

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

4 months ago

Microbiology and Mentoring: Meet Grad Student Mariangel Correa Orellana Meet a UT PhD student and Gilliam Fellowship recipient.

Meet Ph.D. student Mariangel Correa Orellana. When not researching how Hawaiian shrimp interact with microbes & water temp, she inspires younger students as a mentor & through a UT Turtle Pond research project.

#STEMMentorship #TexasScience @texas-ib.bsky.social
cns.utexas.edu/news/feature...

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

4 months ago

Fast Solutions for an Urgent Problem: Genetic Identification for the Protection of Sharks and Rays A new scientific paper involving a University of Texas marine scientist shows protecting shark and ray populations can begin with DNA analysis.

New e-book written by @ingridbunholi.bsky.social and colleagues. Fast, practical techniques for species ID 🦈 using DNA/eDNA. “From Sample to Rapid DNA and eDNA Identification – An Easy Step-by-Step Guide”

Download here: pt.scribd.com/document/952...
#MarineScience #DNA #TexasScience #UTMSI

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

5 months ago

Vernita Gordon Receives 2025 Regents Outstanding Teaching Award Vernita Gordon Receives 2025 Regents Outstanding Teaching Award

Kudos to Vernita Gordon of UT Physics on winning a 2025 Regents Outstanding Teaching Award!

#TexasScience @utphysics.bsky.social

physics.utexas.edu/news/accolad...

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

5 months ago

UT Faculty Awarded TRC4 Grants to Advance Groundbreaking Trauma Research The Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative (TRC4) has awarded grants to four UT researchers to dramatically improve the chances of survival from trauma and its after effects — in the b...

UT Neuroscience Chair Robert Messing is 1 of 4 faculty to receive TRC4 grants for groundbreaking trauma research — for working on a way to treat chronic pain from nerve damage with a new, non-opioid medication strategy.

#TexasScience #TraumaResearch
research.utexas.edu/news/ut-facu...

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

6 months ago

Virus Slayer Awarded ‘Genius Grant’ by MacArthur Foundation The award recognizes Jason McLellan’s work to investigate how viruses infect our cells and to develop new treatments for infectious disease.

UT Austin has a new “genius grant” recipient!

Texas Science professor Jason McLellan has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship — aka the “genius grant” — by The MacArthur Foundation.

#TexasScience @mclellanlab.bsky.social #MacArthurGenius @utaustin.bsky.social
cns.utexas.edu/news/accolad...

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

6 months ago

Fast Solutions for an Urgent Problem - Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin. Genetic Identification for the Protection of Sharks and Rays Rapid genetic testing is emerging as a powerful ally in monitoring and protecting shark and ray populations from the black-market wildlife…

🦈 Fast Solutions for an Urgent Problem - PhD student Ingrid Bunholi's new paper on the use of rapid genetic testing in shark & ray conservation. An e-book is coming soon 👉 utmsi.utexas.edu/fast-solutio...
📷 Erika Beux #Shark #TexasScience #eDNA #UTMSI #Genetics #CaseyLab

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

6 months ago

So What Should We Call This – a Grue Jay? The rare hybrid offspring of a blue jay and a green jay is likely a result of weather-related shifts in the range of two species.

Biologists at UT Austin found a bird that’s the natural result of a green jay & a blue jay’s mating — it may be among the first examples of a hybrid that exists because of recent changing patterns in the climate.
#TexasScience #GrueJay #BlueJay #GreenJay #ClimateChange
cns.utexas.edu/news/researc...

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

7 months ago

Congrats to Stella Offner on earning a Cottrell Scholar Singular Exceptional Endeavors of Discovery (SEED) Award for 2025!

#CottrellScholars #TexasScience @utaustin.bsky.social @texasastronomy.bsky.social @mcdonaldobs.bsky.social

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

7 months ago

Three College of Natural Sciences Faculty Win NSF CAREER Awards 3 UT faculty in computer science and physics won an NSF award recognizing their potential to serve as academic role models.

Kudos to Edoardo Baldini, William Gilpin & Daehyeok Kim on earning Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Awards from the National Science Foundation!

#NSF #CAREERAwards #EarlyCareerDevelopment #TexasScience @wgilpin.bsky.social @utphysics.bsky.social
cns.utexas.edu/news/accolad...

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

7 months ago

Helping Others Shown To Slow Cognitive Decline Regular volunteering or helping others outside the home can reduce the rate of cognitive aging by 15-20%.

“Everyday acts of support — whether organized or personal — can have lasting cognitive impact.”
— Sae Hwang Han, study lead & UT Austin asst. prof. of human development & family sciences

#HelpingOthers #CognitiveDecline #CognitiveAging #TexasScience @umassboston.bsky.social @utaustin.bsky.social

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

7 months ago

🎓 Big congrats to our newest Master's grad, Kody Barone!

His research explored how mangrove dieback from the 2021 freeze impacts blue carbon storage in South Texas marshes—highlighting the resilience of soil carbon in coastal wetlands.

#UTMSI #BlueCarbon #Mangroves #TexasScience

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

8 months ago

When Hanging Out Takes Work - Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin. Often, scientific research confirms what scientists already suspected, but other times, science reveals a twist that no one saw coming. That’s the kind of study that recently showed how much […]

Science and the Sea: When Hanging Out Takes Work 🐠

Hovering in place isn’t easy—fish can burn twice the energy staying still midwater vs. resting on the bottom!

utmsi.utexas.edu/science-and-...

📷 Philippe Bourjon, CC BY-SA 4.0

#ScienceAndTheSea #UTMSI #FishFacts #TexasScience

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

8 months ago

🎬 Just days away! Join us Friday, Aug 1 | 2–3:30 PM at the Patton Center for a free screening of Our Texas, Our Future, an @HEB docuseries celebrating Texas’ natural beauty. 🌿

Info: utmsi.utexas.edu/event/h-e-b-...

#OurTexasOurFuture #HEB #UTMSI #TexasScience

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

8 months ago

Three Recent Texas Science Graduates Receive Fulbright U.S. Student Awards Three UT Austin alumni received Fulbright U.S Student Awards for 2025-26.

Congrats to our #TexasScience grads Allie Murphy, Thomas Wynn & Miriam Yampuler on earning Fulbright U.S. Student Awards!

Learn how they’re using those awards in the link below.

#Fulbright @utaustin.bsky.social
cns.utexas.edu/news/accolad...

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

8 months ago

Bad weather or bad clothing? - Port Aransas South Jetty I hold firmly to the Scandinavian belief that (barring extreme weather events) “there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.” I often find myself employing this saying when justifying to…

❄️ Institute Insights: Arctic lagoons through snow, ice & t-shirt weather?

Mathea Kurtz-Shaw shares what it’s like to do fieldwork across 3 extreme Arctic seasons.

Read more: www.portasouthjetty.com/articles/bad...

#InstituteInsights #UTMSI #ArcticResearch #TexasScience

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

8 months ago

This functional knee joint, with flexible ligaments & rigid bones, was 3D-printed via a precise new method seamlessly merging soft & hard properties into a single object by using different colors of light.

Learn more at txsci.net/3DBreakthrough

#TexasScience #UTAustin #3DPrinting

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

8 months ago

Assist Scientists in Understanding More About the Elusive Freckled Guitarfish - Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin. The Freckled Guitarfish (Pseudobatos lentiginosus) is a small, bottom-dwelling ray native to the Gulf and western North Atlantic. Listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, we still know very little about […]

🎣 Caught a Freckled Guitarfish in the Gulf? Help science!
Report your catch & support research on this unique species.
Learn how ➡️ utmsi.utexas.edu/assist-scien...
#FreckledGuitarfish #UTMSI #CommunityScience #TexasScience

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

8 months ago

Check out our latest issue of the Texas Scientist magazine!

Learn about futuristic fuels, AI in STEM education & healthcare and much more.

Read it now at txsci.net/TexasScientist — or grab a print copy at UT’s Texas Science & Natural History Museum on campus.

#TexasScience #TheTexasScientist

Texas Science

@texasscience.bsky.social

8 months ago

New DNA Evidence Reveals Origins of Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian Languages The study identifies an ancestral population in Central Siberia linked to the origin of Uralic languages.

An international team of geneticists & archaeologists — including UT’s Vagheesh Narasimhan — used #AncientDNA to reconstruct the prehistoric origins of two major Eurasian language families: Uralic and Yeniseian.

#TexasScience #Archaeogenetics @utaustin.bsky.social
cns.utexas.edu/news/researc...

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

8 months ago

The latest edition of our newsletter is here! 🤿 Dive into updates, behind-the-scenes stories, research discoveries, and the exciting work happening at the UT Marine Science Institute 🔗 indd.adobe.com/view/33a38a8...
#Newsletter #MarineScience #TexasScience #UTMSI

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

@utmsi.bsky.social

8 months ago

The Not-So-Rare Giant Crustacean - Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin. Sometimes we consider a species rare because it truly is, whether because it’s endangered or simply because it naturally has sparse populations. But other times, a species may only appear […]

Science and the Sea: The Not-So-Rare Giant Crustacean 🦐 At over 13", Alicella gigantea is the largest amphipod on Earth—and possibly not as rare as once thought. utmsi.utexas.edu/science-and-...

📷 Alan Jamieson, CC BY-SA 4.0

#ScienceAndTheSea #UTMSI #AlicellaGigantea #TexasScience #DeepSea