Stories

Sarah Hill, psychology professor, explains that while most industries are affected by economic downturns, the cosmetic industry is not one of them. This phenomenon has been named the "lipstick effect." Hill discusses why people spend more money on a class of non-essential goods when they have less disposable income.

Rhiannon Mayne, chair of Meteoritics and Planetary Science and curator for the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery at TCU, in collaboration with Native Earth | Native Sky (NENS), was awarded a grant for her Native Lands (NaLa) program. NENS aims to offer a better understanding of and stimulate interest in STEM programs that incorporate Native American stories and voices by developing holistic curriculum that interweave Native American stories and language with STEM principles.

Co-authored by Elisa Marroquin, assistant professor in TCU’s Department of Nutritional Sciences, a new paper published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology reveals the first systematic review to assess the effect of taking probiotics alongside antibiotics on the diversity and composition of the human gut microbiome. The review evaluates trends across 29 studies published over the past seven years.

TCU's Pre-Health Profession's Institute is partnering with Be The Match to host an on-campus and virtual Donor Registry Drive on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. The goal of the event is to add donors to the Be The Match donor registry. Registrants can be between the ages of 18-40 years old, must meet health guidelines and should be willing to donate to any patient in need.

Veterans in Engineering, Technology, and the Sciences (V.E.T.S.) officially launched in 2020. This program connects veterans, military, and non-traditional students to STEM programs. In addition to initiatives to assist veterans in STEM programs at TCU, V.E.T.S. is focused on academic advising, internships, networking, and peer support.

Carnivorous plants have a wild array of adaptations that help them flourish in nutrient-poor environments, which include strategies to lure prey to their traps. John Horner, TCU biology professor, is an evolutionary ecologist with research interests in plant-insect interactions. Here he answers some in-depth questions about these fascinating plants.

The College of Science and Engineering will launch its Peer Mentoring Program in the spring. For the program, students have been selected from each department major to peer mentor other students. Peer mentors will provide a connection with prospective, first-year, returning, transferring, and underrepresented students in their transition to the TCU community by providing resources to increase their success and engagement with the University.

October was first declared National Substance Abuse Prevention Month in 2011. It’s a time to highlight the important role of substance abuse prevention in both individual and community health, as well as an opportunity to remember those who have lost their lives to substance abuse. CSE's IBR and KPICD are working with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and other county juvenile probation departments on trying to prevent substance abuse in local and national communities.

Biology graduate student, Kimberlee Whitmore, biology alumna, Maddy Hannappel, and Matt Chumchal, biology professor and director of the Pre-Health Professions Institute, worked with a team of high school students and their teacher, Andrew Brinker, from the Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences. They collected dragonflies for the Dragonfly Mercury Project at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge.