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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.
Associate Professor Laura Mydlarz in front of corals
With age comes wisdom, the old saying goes. For coral reefs vital to ocean diversity and health, age may also bring resiliency.
UT Arlington biologists Laura Mydlarz and Jorge Pinzón published research in 2014 showing that older coral species are better able to survive various diseases. Their findings are especially important because stressors like pollution, overfishing, and climate change have weakened coral defenses and made some species more susceptible to white plague and other diseases.
Working with colleagues at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguëz, Drs. Mydlarz and Pinzón examined 140 samples of 14 species of Caribbean coral, some of which have been around for 200 million years. They narrowed in on two factors—inhibition of bacterial growth and melanin concentration—that are higher in older coral and likely play an important role in disease resistance.
The research gives scientists a starting point to determine which species may be more susceptible to disease. It could also help predict what the oceans of the future will look like.
“We don’t think coral reefs will go away,” Mydlarz says, “but they will change and that change could affect everything else that depends on the reef ecosystem.”
Faculty research is gaining attention in national and international publications
Study shows teens living with two college-educated parents less likely to drink alcohol
