Essay
July 24, 2017
Seeing the Body
"When I returned to Port Aransas during my last year of medical school, I began to look at my hometown through an entirely different lens."
Science
Reporting and analysis about scientific research and innovation in Texas
Politics & Policy
March 28, 2017
Mars Exploration is a Flower in a Wasteland of Science Funding
Basic research needs major money as well.
The Daily Post
March 16, 2017
How Universities Can Be More Like Startups
The UT Austin president and the director of innovation have a clear desire for a startup focused campus, but implementation is complicated.
Health
November 23, 2016
Out of Africa
Winning the MacArthur “genius grant” was a career highlight for Rice professor Rebecca Richards-Kortum. But it was a visit to Malawi that changed her life.
Lead
November 23, 2016
Murky Waters
What is killing the Gulf of Mexico’s majestic coral reefs?
Health
October 19, 2016
The Iconoclast
Jim Allison has always gone his own way—as a small-town-Texas kid who preferred books to football, and as a young scientist who believed the immune system could treat tumors when few others did. And that irreverence led him to find a potential cure for cancer.
Travel & Outdoors
September 21, 2016
A Love Unearthed
My grandfather’s work as a paleontologist took him to West Texas over and over again. Fifty years later, I found myself retracing his steps.
The Daily Post
September 7, 2016
Researchers At Rice Might Have Discovered How The Basic Building Block Of Life Ended Up On Earth
Carbon wasn’t always abundant on Earth, and the building block’s extraterrestrial arrival may have been spectacularly violent.
Science
August 24, 2016
When the Dust Settles
After Texas Tech researchers discovered that windstorms may be spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria from local feedlots, public health experts stood up and took notice. So did the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
Energy
July 20, 2016
The Hole Picture
A look at the state of the West Texas sinkholes.
Health
July 6, 2016
A Better Pill to Swallow
The dean of Dell Medical School wants to reinvent health care for the twenty-first century.
Science
April 15, 2016
Unfriendly Climate
Katharine Hayhoe has made it her life’s mission to proclaim the truth about climate change. Can she get the skeptics to listen?
The Daily Post
April 13, 2016
Look At These Amazing Photos Of SpaceX’s Rocket Cargo Ship Returning Safely To Earth
The space exploration company achieved a big milestone—and took the pictures to prove it.
Law
March 28, 2016
The Effects Of The Undercover Planned Parenthood Videos Reach The U.S. House
The long tail of the Planned Parenthood videos continues to get longer as a House subcommittee prepares to subpoena Parkinson's researchers.
Health
March 1, 2016
Uterus Transplants Are Coming To Baylor, But Ethical Considerations Also Loom
Baylor University Medical Center will be one of the first hospitals in the U.S. to begin this groundbreaking clinical trial.
Health
February 26, 2016
Texas A&M And The Gates Foundation May Have Created A Supercondom
It fights AIDS even when it breaks, helps a fella out, and claims to feel better than not using a condom at all.
News & Politics
February 24, 2016
Gender Bender
Colt Keo-Meier is Texas’s preeminent researcher on transgender issues. But for him, it’s not just about the science. It’s personal.
Health
January 27, 2016
Put to the Test
For children with debilitating epilepsy, an unprecedented medical trial in Fort Worth offers a glimmer of hope. But if it works, is the state ready to embrace medical marijuana?
True Crime
December 23, 2015
False Impressions
How the once troubled Texas Forensic Science Commission put the state at the forefront of the criminal justice reform movement.
Lead
December 23, 2015
Chronic Wasting Unease
Texas wildlife officials say they’re just trying to stop the spread of a deadly infection. Deer breeders see another agenda at work.
The Daily Post
October 21, 2015
Ahmed Mohamed Is Moving To Qatar
The boy whose clock made him an international celebrity has found a new school far away from Irving.
The Daily Post
October 14, 2015
Is David Eagleman Neuroscience’s Carl Sagan?
The Houstonian's new PBS television series "The Brain" could do for neuroscience what "Cosmos" did for space.
The Daily Post
April 8, 2015
A Five-Year-Old Boy Discovered a 100-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Behind a Mansfield Supermarket
Good work, li’l guy.
Business
January 16, 2015
Elon Musk Wants to Build His Hyperloop Test Track in Texas
It may be his most ambitious invention yet.
The Daily Post
November 10, 2014
What Was That Bright Green Thing in the Sky on Saturday Night?
Most likely a meteor, but if, 30 years from now, a mysterious alien superhero in red and blue tights and a cape starts flying around, you can say "I remember when..."
The Daily Post
May 29, 2014
Mad Scientist Wants to Build a 100-Mile-Long, 1,000-Foot-Tall Tornado Wall in Texas
We don't see what could possibly go wrong.
Business
March 3, 2014
Will Elon Musk Bring The Future To Texas?
The eccentric billionaire is considering launching his space program in Cameron County and making his car batteries in-state—which could add thousands of space-age jobs to the Texas economy.
Travel & Outdoors
February 11, 2014
Can You Dig It?
Reading about old bones can be boring. Seeing them with your own eyes is a whole other story.
Travel & Outdoors
January 9, 2014
Afraid of Losing the Dark
The McDonald Observatory, celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary this year, forges ahead with groundbreaking research and crusades to keep the night skies of West Texas pristine and unadulterated.
The Culture
December 11, 2013
Can Random Numbers Tell Us Something about the World’s Psychological State?
In his off hours, one Texas doctor attempts to prove that thought is a measurable thing.
Business
November 25, 2013
How Do We Feel About Space Exploration Companies Buying Up A Bunch Of Cheap Texas Land?
Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin have both bought up a lot of land along the border. Brownsville and Van Horn are not exactly where you'd expect to find the cutting-edge vanguard of private, high-tech space exploration.
Science
October 21, 2013
How Texas Lost the World’s Largest Super Collider
The Higgs boson, a particle that has shaped the theories of modern particle physics, was discovered at a super collider in Geneva. It was a hugely significant moment for Big Science, one that received a Nobel Prize earlier this year—and it should have been discovered in Texas.
Politics & Policy
September 18, 2013
Who’s Who Among the State Board Of Education Hearing
Like any political battle in Texas, the ongoing fight over the evolution in the state's science classes features colorful characters worth getting to know.
Critters
March 26, 2013
Why The Texas Longhorn Has Such Grit
Researchers at the University of Texas mapped the genome of the Texas Longhorn and discovered its heritage is more complicated than previously thought.
The Culture
January 30, 2013
Remembering the Space Shuttle Columbia
Ten years ago, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over East Texas as it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
Energy
January 29, 2013
Texas Tenth in the Nation for Green Building
The Lone Star state constructed over 36 million square feet of energy-efficient space last year.
Critters
January 21, 2013
‘Science’ Proves Bigfoot Is Real
A Texas scientist purports to have sequenced Sasquatch DNA.
Health
January 21, 2013
America’s Flamin’ Cheetos Crisis: Five Things You Need to Know
The Frito-Lay snack has been targeted for banning by some school districts, even in home-packed lunches. Also, it's not just your fingers that the stuff turns red.
January 21, 2013
Kingwood Mother to Receive Nation’s First Double-Arm Transplant
Katy Hayes, who lost both her arms and legs to the flesh-eating virus after the birth of her third child, is awaiting a donor match.
January 21, 2013
Remembering Neil Armstrong
The famous astronaut was notoriously shy about granting interviews to the press, but in 2009 he answered a few questions sent to him by senior editor Katy Vine. Here is her unedited Q&A with Neil Armstrong.
January 21, 2013
Is Lubbock the Friendliest City in America?
Lubbockites say "good morning" on Twitter more than anyone else in the country, according to a study from some Ukrainian software engineers who monitored American tweets.
The Culture
January 21, 2013
Houston’s “Pulseless” Artificial Heart Revisited
Heart Stops Beating, the Sundance-featured short film about the Texas Heart Institute's unprecedented "continuous flow device," is reworked into a longer and more detailed version, now called Flatline.
January 21, 2013
RIP, Sally Ride
What people are saying about NASA's first woman in space, who died of pancreatic cancer Monday at the age of 61.
Health
January 21, 2013
Why Celltex Might Be in Trouble
A preliminary report from the FDA contains telling observations about Celltex, the company that Rick Perry worked with last year for his experimental back surgery.
January 21, 2013
UT’s Gay Parenting Study Sparks Debate
A new UT study says that children of gay parents fare worse than their straight-parented counterparts, igniting a firestorm of backlash.
January 21, 2013
Your Commute is Making You Fat
A new study tracking the habits and health of Texas drivers found that those with longer commute times have bigger waistlines.
January 21, 2013
Face Transplant Patient Can Now Feel Daughter’s Kisses
Dallas Wiens, the Fort Worth man who received the nation's first full face transplant exactly one year ago, says the surgery has exceeded his expectations.
The Culture
January 21, 2013
Cormac McCarthy Rewrites Science
The formerly reclusive author moonlights as a copy editor, taking his red pen to Quantum Man, a biography of a physicist.
Health
January 21, 2013
Houston Hospital Tweets an Open-heart Surgery
Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital tweeted videos and photos as medical director of cardiovascular surgery, Dr. Michael Macris, performed a double coronary artery bypass.
January 21, 2013
Houston is “America’s Fattest City”
Houston returns to the top of a Men's Fitness survey that also includes El Paso, Arlington, and Dallas.