Further Findings

Edward Marcotte

John Wallingford

Research conducted by University of Texas at Austin professors Edward Marcotte and John Wallingford is featured in this week’s edition (April 27, 2010) of Science Times in the New York Times.

Marcotte, in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Wallingford, in the Section of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, found genes in the genomes of organisms as diverse as plants, worms and yeast that are responsible for causing human diseases such as cancer and deafness.

In yeast, for example, they
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Risto Miikklulainen

Part of The University of Texas at Austin’s role in a $25 million “evolution in action” project called BEACON involves a computer game.

This game was developed to research artificial intelligence and it shows evolution in action. The game is NERO, which stands for Neuro-Evolving Robotic Operatives. In the game, the characters evolve to improve their performance of tasks.

It’s based on the neural network research in the laboratory of Risto Miikkulainen, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and a
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Why women have sex. Why some ants don’t. Is your online personality the real you? What do bats sing about to each other? Who’s that new meat-eater shaking up the dinosaur family tree? Do toddlers make their own grammar?

These are among the questions that University of Texas at Austin researchers answered in the fall 2009 semester.

Here’s a look back at what they found.

Women and sex: Let me count the whys
Challenging the idea that women’s sexual motivations are tied exclusively to
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