College of Natural Sciences, UT Austin

08/28/2026

That’s a wrap on the first week back!

We’ve loved seeing students back on campus and captured a few moments to share 🤘

08/28/2026

Five students from the Freshman Research Initiative — Ella Baird, Selina Bakieva, Joanna Du, Brandon Nguyen and Nahomi Vasquez — won the Outstanding Science Award in the 2026 Biodesign Challenge, which focuses on the intersection of biotechnology, art and design.

While enrolled in the Sustainable Fashion Materials FRI research stream, taught by Jessica Ciarla, the team invented an innovative bio-inspired fabric sealant that could be a safer way to make clothing water-resistant, stain-resistant and moisture-wicking. They presented their research at the annual Biodesign Challenge competition in New York, going up against more than 60 other teams from more than 20 countries.

Read more about their research at txsci.net/Biodesign.

Happy FRIday!

08/24/2026

We had a fantastic time welcoming to the Forty Acres yesterday!

The grand carnival kick-off at and was just the beginning of a new chapter of endless possibilities.

We wish you an incredible year filled with fun, growth, discovery and success! 🤘

Photos by Eileen Chong. Find even more photos at txsci.net/GoneToCNS2026.

08/21/2026

Happy Mooov-in Day!

Dean Vandenbout had a grand day out and about helping our newest Longhorns get settled 🤘

We can’t wait to see all the new faces on Sunday for the festivities 🎉

08/19/2026

When nutritional scientists at The University of Texas at Austin examined toddler foods sold in 21 Texas grocery stores they found that more than 80% were ultraprocessed and almost half exceeded recommended sugar, sodium, fat or calories.

University of Texas at Austin nutritional scientists found nearly half of foods for young children exceeded recommended sugar, sodium, fat or calories.

08/18/2026

Although it’s often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there’s been little evidence to back that up until now.

New research by UT Nutritional Sciences doctoral student Emma Rose Brown at The University of Texas at Austin has shown that teens who ate breakfast took in more nutrients and consumed less daily fat and sugar than those who skipped it, especially if those foods were higher in protein.

Teens who ate breakfast took in more nutrients and consumed less daily fat and sugar than those who skipped it, a University of Texas at Austin study found.

08/12/2026

Christina Lildharrie, a Ph.D. student in neuroscience at The University of Texas at Austin, spent her summer in Washington, D.C., learning how science and public policy can work together to create meaningful change. She’s one of 50 students selected from across The University of Texas System for the Graduate Archer Fellowship Program. Read about her experience as an Archer Fellow.

-with The Archer Center ut_neuroscience

A Ph.D. student in neuroscience, she is exploring science, service and public policy in the nation’s capital.

08/11/2026

Microplastics on beaches are potentially dangerous to wildlife and people, yet hard to monitor. Scientists and engineers at The University of Texas at Austin are developing a robot to map microplastics on beaches. Learn more: https://www.texasscientist.cns.utexas.edu/articles/beachcombing-goes-high-tech

Department of Chemistry, Cockrell School of Engineering

07/24/2026

Physicists have revealed the origin of a possible runaway black hole: two supermassive black holes smashed together, spawning gravitational waves that gave the resulting black hole a powerful kick, like the recoil of a fired canon.

Read the paper in Physical Review Letters: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/fm3n-sy3f

The study was led by Tousif Islam, an incoming postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas at Austin's Weinberg Institute, with Jay Wadekar of the Weinberg Institute and Tejaswi Venumadhav of UC Santa Barbara.

Their findings could help physicists interpret expected observations from an upcoming space-based gravitational wave observatory called LISA.

The mysterious object, shown here in an artist’s impression, first got the attention of astronomers when they noticed a strange streak of stars in a Hubble Space Telescope image that was then later captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The runaway black hole was kicked out of its home galaxy and is now racing through space at supersonic speed.

Illustration credit: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI).

07/20/2026

On this day in 1969, humans took their first steps on the Moon. This accomplishment took years of work by a multitude of people, including Texas Science alum Frances “Poppy” Northcutt.

Northcutt (B.A. Mathematics, 1965), a Distinguished Alumni Award winner in our college Hall of Honor, worked as a return-to-earth specialist on the Apollo space program early in her career. With the flight of Apollo 8, she became the first woman in an operational support role to work in NASA’s Mission Control Center. She calculated the trajectories that would bring the crew home on every subsequent Apollo mission, too, including the fateful Apollo 13 flight. Northcutt and the rest of the mission operations team received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the rescue of Apollo 13 and its crew.

The clip featured here is part of a CBC interview with Northcutt on July 16, 1969. Find the rest of the CBC interview at txsci.net/NorthcuttCBC and meet more alumni from The University of Texas at Austin who played a part in the Moon Landing at txsci.net/CNSApollo50th.