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Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.
Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.
Model systems like pigeons can help illuminate our own evolutionary and genomic history.
UT Arlington's tiny windmills are bringing renewable energy to a whole new scale.
The stability of our highways, pipelines, and even manholes is reaching a breaking point.
Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.
UT Arlington researchers unlock clues to the human body’s most mysterious and complex organ.
UT Arlington researchers probe the hidden world of microbes in search of renewable energy sources.
Wounded soldiers are benefiting from Robert Gatchel’s program that combines physical rehabilitation with treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Tiny sensors implanted in the body show promise in combating acid reflux disease, pain and other health problems.
Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.
Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.
W. Ashley Griffith
The August 2014 earthquake in Napa Valley caused an estimated $300 million in damages to homes and businesses. Minimizing such destruction is one goal of geophysicist W. Ashley Griffith’s latest research.
The earth and environmental sciences assistant professor received about $400,000 from the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program to study how rock structures react to events such as earthquakes, meteor impacts, and explosions.
“Our goal is to look at how a rock behaves in response to fast-loading rates and relate that behavior to its mineral composition and microscopic structure,” Dr. Griffith says. “We believe the characteristics are linked. If that proves true, this work could lead to a better understanding of the physics of past earthquake and impact events, increasing our predictability of hazards associated with future such events. It could also allow engineers to design more effective structures.”
Griffith is also using the grant to partner with Teach for America-Dallas/Fort Worth to create Teach for America Rockcorps. (Griffith is a former Teach for America member.) The Rockcorps program will involve secondary school teachers in research and provide them with a geophysics-based curriculum for their classrooms.
“Dr. Griffith’s research in geophysics is helping add a new dimension to what is known about the Earth’s movements,” says James Grover, interim dean of the College of Science.
By studying the genomes of such diverse creatures as pigeons, pythons, and beetles, UT Arlington biologists are uncovering insights about what makes us human.
Does an overlooked class of stars have the potential to host life? How can we prevent solar weather from wreaking havoc on Earth? Do exomoons really exist? These are just a few of the questions UTA physicists are asking as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the universe.
