News: Research

The Texas Scientist

Charging Ahead: The Path to a Clean Energy Future

Clean energy research from UT Austin scientists holds disruptive potential. It comes just as new technologies are needed most.

A solar panel illustration indicates power being generated in a landscape with cacti and billowing peaceful clouds in the sky.

Research

When Good RNA Turns Bad

Biophysicist Dave Thirumalai and his team developed a computer model that helps explain how certain kinds of RNA molecules can clump together in a way that is correlated with neurological disorders

Colorful strands of RNA clump up

Texas Scientist

Charging Ahead

Chemists and physicists are making steady progress on developing new materials that may prove key for our future energy needs.

Illustration of a lightning bolt containing cacti and a cloudy sky

UT News

Sodium-based Material Yields Stable Alternative to Lithium-ion Batteries

A new sodium-based battery material is highly stable, capable of recharging as quickly as a lithium-ion battery and might deliver more energy than current battery technologies.

Microscope images of the surface of two materials, one with noodle-like lumps and the other much smoother

Research

New Model Reveals How Chromosomes Get Packed Up

The first theoretical model of condensin, a molecular machine involved in packing and unpacking chromosomes, accurately reproduces all known experiments with just two parameters.

Illustrations of a molecule in two states, open and closed

UT News

Fight Against Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Has a Glowing New Weapon

In the perpetual arms races between bacteria and human-made antibiotics, there is a new tool to give human medicine the edge.

Black background with florescent bacteria glowing a light blue

Research

UT Chemistry Researchers Encode Jane Austen Quote in a Polymer

The technique, which relies on short polymers called oligourethanes, encodes information with greater density than DNA-based approaches

Illustration of a book showing how to translate chemical components of a polymer into English letters

Research

Four Natural Sciences Faculty Receive Sloan Research Fellowships

​Carlos Baiz, Caroline Morley, Andrew Potter and Urbain Weyemi are among the 128 scholars from across the country selected by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to receive the 2021 Sloan Research Fellowships.

Headshots of four scientists

Research

3D Printing with Visible Light Gets a Speed Boost

A team of University of Texas at Austin researchers led by chemistry assistant professor Zachariah Page demonstrated a fast and precise way to 3D print using visible light.

3D printed objects made (from left) with blue, green and red light. Photo courtesy Lynn Stevens.