While relentless drought and dwindling water supplies take a toll on West Texas crops, Texas Tech University professors have been fastidiously toiling away behind the scenes to find urgent solutions. Since gaining a foothold in fall 2021, drought has decimated Texas cotton crops. The Associated Press reported that 2022 losses could exceed $1 billion, and the economic fallout goes well beyond Lubbock-area producers’ pocketbooks. Cotton-related businesses such as cotton gins, downstream suppliers and untold consumers bank on healthy yields. “One thing is for sure, water conservation is a top priority. Moving forward, there is no other alternative for us,” said Professor Krishna Jagadish, Thornton Distinguished Chair of Plant & Soil Science at TTU and coordinator of the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC).

The awarding of a $3.58 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant will span across several states and perhaps offer a glimpse into plants’ survival in a world undergoing unprecedented global change. Dr. Nick Smith, assistant professor, biological sciences, is a co-principal of the five-year study about invasive plant species. Texas Tech University will receive $1.25 million of the grant, with the rest going to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK). The actual plant experiments—under lead principal investigator Susan Kalisz’s oversight—will leverage past and ongoing research at the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) station at Trillium Trail near Pittsburgh, he said. Co-PI Stephanie Kivlin is a fungi expert at UTK, a perfect balance to Smith’s plant expertise.

The fallout from sleep apnea was severely affecting Jim Elliott’s life, but 10 years on a bulky CPAP breathing device wasn’t the answer. A simple plastic dental appliance has changed his life. Elliott was one of 56 individuals diagnosed with moderate to severe sleep apnea who opted to participate in a Texas A&M College of Dentistry Sleep Research Program study, “Randomized Trial of 2 Self-Titrated Oral Appliances for Airway Management.” The investigation compared two widely used oral appliance

Anderson recalls that the time spent at her mother's memory care residence in Arizona was a wake-up call like no other. "Alzheimer's is a very painful hell," says Anderson, who slept on the floor at her mom's side in her final days. "To see what their struggles were and their fears and faces and to look at this and think, 'Oh, my Lord. I do not want to end up like this.' I literally got scared straight." Not only has Anderson changed to a Paleo diet, but she has upped her exercise routine. "I

Has "Grandma" gone the way of Ethel, Wilma and Eunice? It seems the likes of Mimi, Honey and Oma are nudging out the once warm-and-fuzzy moniker. A sampling of area preschool classes is a telling sign. At the Goddard School for Early Childhood Development in Frisco, 15 4-year-olds shared that Papa, Cici, GiGi and LaLa are the new normal grandparents' names. And in the 12-student class of 4-year-olds at Primrose School of Richardson, Baba, Gaga, Papi, Pami, Nana and Papa easily outnumber any va

"Wow, what a small world," he says. "Most of us can trace our heritage back to the 1500s when Hernán Cortés first arrived in Mexico. We have a saying in our group, 'We are cousins. We are all related,'" says Jo Ann Valentin, 74, vice president of Dallas-based HOGAR. For nearly 20 years, HOGAR members have bonded over their passion to discover their roots. Valentin, along with sister Cantu, freely gives her time and genealogy expertise to the group's nearly 100 members. Ramirez is grateful for

That dream home once filled with kids and activity looks less appealing as empty nesters ponder their next move. Accumulating a houseful of stuff didn’t happen overnight, so downsizing must be carefully considered. It requires organization, planning and letting go, said Tonia Tomlin, owner of Sorted Out, a professional organizing firm in Plano. “It’s very emotionally draining for people to downsize,” she said. “You have to get mentally ready.” Jan Thompson of Plano knows firsthand how overwhe