Tag Archive: Section of Integrative Biology 
Look back at some of the stories that showed the university’s impact in 2010
Look back at some of the stories that showed the university’s impact in 2010.
Explore Texas biodiversity past, present and future at campus natural science center
A Q&A with Dr. Ed Theriot, professor, diatom wrangler and director of the Texas Natural Science Center. You must have JavaScript enabled and the Flash 8 plugin installed to view this content. Consult your browser’s help file for instructions to enable JavaScript. Why should people visit the Texas Memorial Museum? Whether they like dinosaurs and… » Continue Reading
Scientists depend on advanced computing to better understand evolution, drug discovery and genetics
Today’s medical technology can recognize tumors smaller than a fingernail, decode your DNA to predict future illness and even read a person’s mind by identifying electronic patterns in the brain. “Medical advances seem like wizardry,” said Harold Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “But pull back the curtain, and sitting at… » Continue Reading
Biologist searches for the genetic building blocks of social behavior across species
For Hans Hofmann, the quest for the genetic building blocks of human behavior begins with a small fish. Consider this scene: A subordinate male cichlid fish decides he’s ready to challenge a dominant male for territory and for the favor of fertile females. They fight. The subordinate male wins. And just like that, they switch.… » Continue Reading
Some species threatened by climate change could be moved to new ecosystems, says biologist
Camille Parmesan’s new, big idea in conservation biology–the “assisted colonization” of species threatened by climate change–is a product, in roughly equal parts, of cynicism, experience and hope. Parmesan, an associate professor of integrative biology, wasn’t cynical at all when she first got involved, in the mid-1990s, with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change… » Continue Reading
Mathematicians’ computer models on vaccine distribution, human behavior help decision-makers fight H1N1 flu
The new H1N1 flu is spreading like a wildfire across the globe. It’s the first flu pandemic the world has seen since 1968, and many people are holding their breath. Whether or not swine flu will leave a massive amount of destruction in its wake or smolder along like a typical seasonal flu is a… » Continue Reading
Scientists map the evolutionary relationships for all life on the planet
In the beginning Ed Theriot’s contributions to the Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) project—“the story of life on Earth, in a nutshell”—often begin pretty humbly. “Sometimes we go down to Waller Creek, right on campus, with a turkey baster and a toothbrush, and we suck up algae from the water and scrub it off… » Continue Reading