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Perfectly mixed up

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2013Cultureamerica, american philanthropists, andrea davis, aspirational environment, austin, cowboy boots, devon county council, drama, emma payne, exeter, fiona macbeth, ian stewart watson, ma drama students, perfectly mixed up, shannon price, stetsons, texas, transition service, united states, university of exeter, young people

Drama has become a regular activity for Exeter’s young people in care who have joined forces with students from the University of Exeter to stage a play in Austin, Texas. Stetsons and cowboy boots are at the ready as Exeter’s creative gang of performers head to the United States.

This life changing experience will be the first time that the theatre company ‘Perfectly Mixed Up’ travel and perform outside of Devon. Throughout the week long stay the company will perform their show, More than the Sum, and run two workshops with young people in care in Austin, Texas. ‘Perfectly Mixed Up’ are guests of the University of Texas at Austin who have an exchange programme with the Drama department at University of Exeter. (more…)

Texans Not Eager to Change Gun Laws, UT/Texas Tribune Poll Shows

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2013Politicsammunition, austin, background checks, carry guns, criminal, daron shaw, gun control laws, gun control measures, gun in household, gun laws, gun purchases, hunting, james henson, k 12 teachers, mental health, national rifle association, nra, nra members, private sales, requirements, support, texans, texas, tribune poll, types of weapons, united states, university of texas

AUSTIN, Texas — Although a large majority of Texans support background checks for all gun purchases, they are not eager to change existing gun laws in Texas, according to a University of Texas at Austin/Texas Tribune poll.

Seventy-eight percent of Texans support requiring criminal and mental health background checks on all gun purchases in the United States, including at gun shows and for private sales. However, 52 percent think that gun control laws should either be left as they are now (36 percent) or made less strict (16 percent). Forty-four percent said gun control laws should be stricter. (more…)

Virus Caught in the Act of Infecting a Cell

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2013Health, Scienceaustin, bacterium, bo hu, cryo electron tomography, ct scan, e coli, experimental evidence, feelers, fibers, genetic, genetic material, head, human hair, ian molineux, image, infect, infect a cell, infected cell membrane, infection, infection process, jun liu, protein, protein path, robot like process, structure, t7, texas, thickness, university, ut health, viral dna, virus, visualize, william margolin

About the video: watch an animation showing the changes in the structure of a T7 virus as it infects an E. coli bacterium.

AUSTIN, Texas — The detailed changes in the structure of a virus as it infects an E. coli bacterium have been observed for the first time, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT Health) Medical School this week in Science Express. (more…)

Bumblebees do Best Where There is Less Pavement and More Floral Diversity

By Guest PostDecember 28, 2012Environment, Natureaustin, Berkeley, bet hedging strategy, bombus vosnesenskii, bumblebees, california bumblebee, claire kremen, colony, crop yields, floral diversity, global pollinator, honey bees, landscape, native pollinators, natural habitat, pollinator crisis, rapidly urbanizing planet, shalene jha, suburban, texas, university, university of california, urban gardens, wild bees

AUSTIN, Texas — Landscapes with large amounts of paved roads and impervious construction have lower numbers of ground-nesting bumblebees, which are important native pollinators, a study from The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Berkeley shows.

The study suggests that management strategies that reduce the local use of pavement and increase natural habitat within the landscape could improve nesting opportunities for wild bees and help protect food supplies around the word. (more…)

IBM Expands the Power of Social Business with New Cloud, Mobile Advances

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Technologyalistair rennie, ann gates, cashi, cloud, cloud based office, data, el paso, email, emo curriculum, European Union, forrester research, ibm, ibm email, ibm smartcloud, marie l kenerson, mobile device, mobile workforce, North America, power, safe harbor, social business software, Social networking, switzerland, texas, university, utep, version control

University of Texas at El Paso taps cloud-based, business-grade social networking to help academics collaborate

ARMONK, N.Y. – 06 Dec 2012: IBM today announced new social business software to help enterprise clients collaborate easily and securely in the cloud using the broadest range of mobile devices. The new IBM SmartCloud services include new social networking features and the release of IBM SmartCloud Docs, a cloud-based office productivity suite, which allows users to simultaneously collaborate on word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents to improve productivity.

According to Forrester Research, cloud computing will grow from a $41 billion business in 2010 to $241 billion in 2020*. At the same time, social networking is on the rise. According to Forrester Research, the market opportunity for social enterprise apps is expected to grow at a rate of 61 percent through 2016, reaching $6.4 billion**. (more…)

Texas Astronomers Measure Most Massive, Most Unusual Black Hole Using Hobby-Eberly Telescope

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2012Scienceastronomer, austin, bosch, constellation perseus, elliptical, Galaxy, galaxy mass, het data, hobby eberly telescope, karl gebhardt, lenticular galaxy, mass, massive black hole, massive galaxy survey, mcdonald observatory, Milky Way, neptune, ngc 1277, oddball galaxy, pennsylvania state university, remco, sun mass, texas, university, van den

FORT DAVIS, Texas — Astronomers have used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory to measure the mass of what may be the most massive black hole yet — 17 billion times our sun’s mass — in galaxy NGC 1277. The unusual black hole makes up 14 percent of its galaxy’s mass, rather than the usual 0.1 percent. This galaxy and several more in the same study could change theories about how black holes and galaxies form and evolve. The work will appear in the journal Nature on Nov. 29.

NGC 1277 lies 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus. The galaxy is only 10 percent the size and mass of our Milky Way. Despite NGC 1277’s diminutive size, the black hole at its heart is more than 11 times as wide as Neptune’s orbit around the sun. (more…)

Degraded Military Lands To Get Ecological Boost From CU-led Effort

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Environmentamerican west, arid ecosystem, arid land, atmospheric dust, bacteria, biocrusts, biological soil crust, boulder, central america, China, colorado, cyanobacteria, degraded, desert environment, dugway proving ground, erosion, extreme environment, ferran garcia pichel, fort bliss, fungi, general george patton, hawaii, inoculation, jayne belnap, lichens, metropolitan area, michael duniway, microbial communities, military activity, military exercises, military installation, military vehicles, modeling, mojave desert, mosses, new mexico, nichole barger, northwest utah, pollutant, polyacrylamide, probability, restore, sasha reed, soil erosion, soil fertility, soil surface, South Africa, south america, survival, texas, university, water retention, word war

Some arid lands in the American West degraded by military exercises that date back to General George Patton’s Word War II maneuvers in the Mojave Desert should get a boost from an innovative research project led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

Headed up by CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Nichole Barger, the research team is focused on developing methods to restore biological soil crusts — microbial communities primarily concentrated on soil surfaces critical to decreasing erosion and increasing water retention and soil fertility. Such biological soil crusts, known as “biocrusts,” can cover up to 70 percent of the ground in some arid ecosystems and are dominated by cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, fungi and bacteria, she said. (more…)

Half of Texans Prefer Faith over Science, According to UT/Texas Tribune Poll

By Guest PostNovember 2, 2012Politicsabortion, academics, austin, birth control, contemporary politics, daron shaw, democratic party, faith, gun control, ideology, james henson, manhattan project, methodology, partisan difference, polarization, political divisions, politicians, poll result, public policy, republican party, scientific evidence, scientists, survey, texas, texas politics project, texas voters, tribune poll, university

AUSTIN, Texas — About half of Texas voters believe faith is a better guide than scientific evidence on most important questions, according to a recent University of Texas at Austin/Texas Tribune poll.

According to the poll, which surveyed Texans on a wide range of attitudes related to science and public policy, a similar proportion of voters said that “instinct and gut reactions” are just as good as the advice of scientists in most cases.

However, 66 percent of voters said politicians, when faced with a difficult decision, should follow the advice of relevant experts, even if it means going against their ideology. (more…)

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