Yearly Archives: 2008

Not Your Mama’s Science Class: Back when boomers were driving Pinto hatchbacks to Friday night football games and rocking out to Led Zeppelin on the eight-track, it wasn’t cool to like science and math. If you loved physics and others got wind of it, you could suffer for your passion.

Cool Reads: Faculty and staff choose chill-worthy books to help you beat the heat this summer. You might say the summer of 2008 began heating up early, and not just by the measure of the mercury. A hotly contested presidential election is under way. The Summer Olympics in Beijing have already cooked up a storm of controversy. And Americans have made a sport out of watching the gas prices rise and rise. How will we ever cool off?

Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center sees, treats and studies about 80,000 adult and pediatric patients a year. If you ask a doctor there how most patients handle the battle with cancer, you’ll find that it’s a little like asking how most people handle marriage or getting an MBA.

After 30 years in nursing, Debbie Volker has learned if there’s one thing people want to do on their own terms, it’s die. She tells the story of a weakened, dying woman who just wanted to have her Christmas tree decorated. The woman hung a few ornaments each day, succumbing to cancer a few days before Christmas. But the tree was done. Another patient’s request was to be transported by air from Houston to West Texas so he could see his cattle one last time.

When she lost her job in a company downsizing, Marissa Flores Machado had no idea what was next. She didn’t expect to find herself spending two evenings a week seated around a table discussing Socrates, Shakespeare and Frederick Douglass.

The 125th spring commencement will be celebrated May 17 by about 7,400 graduating students, their families and friends, and members of the university community.

The Sunday morning worship at Red Memorial* progresses like many services in African-American churches. Parishioners sing classic hymns, clapping and swaying along to the music. The pastor, the Rev. Red, greets the congregation the same way she does each week.

We asked 10 faculty from the College of Natural Sciences a big question: “What development in your field is likely to have the greatest impact on the way that we live over the next 25 years? How?” Here are their answers. Select the faculty names below to jump to the expanded answers. J Strother Moore…   » Continue Reading

Human biology major Justin Jefferson snaps on a pair of bright blue rubber gloves as he prepares to give an informal tour to a recent visitor at a University of Texas at Austin animal behavior research laboratory. The 20-year-old sophomore moves with ease from room to room—one minute inspecting small vials of bloodless brain tissue…   » Continue Reading

Edge of the Desert: Around the world, water supplies are threatened. The discovery of drugs in public drinking water is just the latest crisis in the United States. From California to Columbia, a larger problem looms—the ongoing availability of the resource itself. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are at the forefront of scientific efforts to ensure a sustainable global water supply, examining water use for energy, agriculture and population growth.