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How Used Coffee Grounds May Fend Off Parkinson’sMahesh Narayan, a biophysicist and professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, envisions a day when a truck from a lab might back into a parking spot behind the local Starbucks in service of treating Parkinson’s disease. Recent studies have demonstrated a correlation between drinking coffee and improved neurological function, but the chemical engineers in Narayan’s hypothetical scenario aren’t looking for a cup of coffee—they want the used grounds.In a recent study published in the journal Environmental Research, graduate students in Narayan’s lab at UTEP demonstrated that tiny particles called caffeic acid–based carbon quantum dots (CACQD)—which can be derived from spent coffee grounds—may have attributes useful in fending off neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. These conditions affect millions of Americans, and…

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An order of tacos at Sazzon Baja Mex Culinary.Adriana and Roberto Equihua never imagined they’d open a restaurant in the Big Bend. The Tijuana natives and San Diego residents had spent time in the Texas border regions as lawyers—Adriana as an immigration attorney and Roberto as a maritime attorney who had family in Alpine. One cousin in that far West Texas town had opened a restaurant, El Patio, and Roberto was a frequent visitor. In early 2020, Roberto’s cousin offered him and Adriana the restaurant, as well as a review of the finances. “I am really good at numbers,” Roberto says. “So I looked over the statements and sales. It was great.” Roberto convinced his wife the investment was worth their money and time, so they decided to accept the offer. Yet they didn’t…

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Texas skincareBetween sweltering heat domes in the summer and frigid Arctic blasts in the winter, Texas weather can wreak havoc on your skin. Perhaps that’s why über-successful brands such as Drunk Elephant, Sunday Riley, and Supergoop are headquartered here: to help us out. But a new crop of small Texas beauty businesses are on the rise, fueled by skin-care neophytes who went looking in their own backyards for an antidote to their skin woes. Sure, basil, wine grapes, and beef fat are tasty in food recipes, but these entrepreneurial women have whipped up another purpose for them. Ahead, three skin-care companies that live off the land, so to speak, with formulas made from homegrown Texas ingredients.Bohemian Shepherdess (Cumby)When Mindy Myers started homesteading on her one-acre plot,…

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2024 Border Biennial at El Paso Museum of ArtThe first Border Biennial, a joint exhibition hosted by the El Paso Museum of Art and the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez, was held in 2008, and until its fifth iteration in 2016 it didn’t carry any particular theme. Border artists were free to follow their fancies in representing the region and its residents, culture, and environment. But since Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, which at its inception placed the U.S.-Mexico border at the center of American politics, the biennial’s curators have encouraged artists—all of whom reside in the border region or hail from it—to submit work that considers the political questions and anxieties that the border provokes. That ongoing project was interrupted by the pandemic, which led to the twenty-month closure of the…

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Greg Abbott’s Voucher Push and Ken Paxton’s Revenge Tour Fall Flat in the First Lege PrimaryAin’t democracy grand? On Tuesday night, 13,549 folks in North Texas elected a state representative. The campaign to win those votes has been going on for about nine months, has consumed the time and attention of some of the most prominent Republicans in Texas, and has given some of the richest men and women in the state an excuse to set fire to pile after pile of money. The result: Jill Dutton, backed by House leadership and friends, beat Brent Money, backed by Greg Abbott and folks who hate House leadership, by 111 votes. It’s a temporary victory: Dutton will hold the seat, vacated by disgraced representative Bryan Slaton, only for the duration of his term, which ends in January. The election to decide who will…

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Kelly Evers has experienced the highs and lows of barbecue in nine years as a business owner. In 2015, he and his wife, Melody, opened Creekside Cookers, a Saturday-only barbecue truck in Wimberley named after their competition barbecue team. Evers would fire up the smokers every Friday evening after a week of teaching sixth graders so he could serve it up the next day. It was an exhausting routine, so he went full time into barbecue the following year, giving up his long teaching career and role as a golf coach.Creekside Cookers outgrew the trailer. Evers sold it in late 2019 when he partnered with an investor to open inside a century-old building in downtown Wimberley. With impressive brisket and pork ribs, the restaurant made…

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Ninepin Bowling in San AntonioKathleen Hoffmann could have been a ghost.As the 87-year-old toed the foul line of her team’s lane at Solms Bowling Club, there wasn’t much around her to separate this moment, in 2023,­ from 1983, when Hoffmann was a fairly new member at Solms; or from 1933, shortly after the club moved to this spot from its original location across the street; or even from 1903, when the club was only five years old. Bowlers still scrawled their scores on chalkboards, teens still scrambled to set up pins at the back of the lanes, and club members still watched the action from wooden benches—the same ones where their grandparents once sat. Small advances had been made over the decades: there were eight lanes now, instead of…

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Willie Nelson, Megan Mullally and Nick OffermanNick Offerman is a distinctly unique figure in contemporary popular culture. In and of itself, the fact that he wears a lot of hats—screen actor, touring comedian, author, activist, outdoorsman, philosophizer—does not set him apart. But the way he achieved that status, and what he does with it now, is singular. His breakthrough role was playing the solitary, anti-government, America Firster Ron Swanson on the old sitcom Parks and Recreation, which may be the single most beloved series of the peak TV era. But in his various works since the show’s close, in 2015, he’s made his way by somehow both leaning into and knocking down Swanson’s often cartoonish sense of patriotism, in the process revealing what he, Offerman, believes is truly great about America.…

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Topaz Hunting at the End of the WorldAt a glance, it’s impossible to distinguish a Texas blue topaz from one found in Brazil or Sri Lanka. Until recently, there were two ways to know for sure: if it came with a certificate of authenticity, or if you pulled it out of the ground yourself in Mason County in the Hill Country. This semiprecious stone is also found in places such as Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, but the Llano Uplift at the edge of Mason is the only geological region in Texas known to bear topaz. You can also find agate, fluorite, mica, and quartz, but topaz, specifically the rare sky-blue topaz, is the crown jewel. For decades, a few working cattle ranches in the area allowed rock hounds and tourists to explore their…

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Get Ready for the UIL High School Sports Reclassification Frenzy!If the University Interscholastic League has dotted all its i‘s, crossed all its t‘s, and gotten the math right, the organization’s biennial announcement of Texas public high schools’ athletic reclassification and realignment will occur Thursday, February 1, at precisely at 9 a.m. This is the moment when schools across the state will learn what classification and what district they’ll be competing in, depending on changes in enrollment over the previous two years.Experience tells deputy director Jamey Harrison, who oversees the endeavor, his cellphone will ring with the first complaint and/or request for a change at 9:07, taking that long only because of the time required to sift through the considerable volume of the statewide release.Followed soon after by “some colorful emails from members of the…

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