Science and Technology

An international research team led by the University at Buffalo has shown that large energy fluctuations can rile even a "relaxed" system, raising questions about how energy might travel through structures ranging from the ocean to DNA. The research appeared online Oct. 21 in Physical Review E.

Local company Ladybug Teknologies will host a party on Friday, Oct. 21 to launch the SipSmart Network, a system of breathalyzer kiosks that enables bar patrons to stay safe by checking their level of intoxication before they drive. The firm's U.S. headquarters is in the University at Buffalo Technology Incubator.

The prospect of doing human clinical trials with stem cells to treat diseases like multiple sclerosis may be growing closer, say scientists at the University at Buffalo and the University at Rochester, who have developed a more precise way to isolate stem cells that will make myelin.

A coalition of regional partners has received $9.8 million from the National Science Foundation to expand a promising, teacher-focused initiative that aims to change how science is taught in Buffalo Public Schools. The five-year program, led by the University at Buffalo, Buffalo Public Schools, Buffalo State College and the Buffalo Museum of Science, is called the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership (ISEP).

A tiny piece of a critical receptor that fuels the brain and without which sentient beings cannot live has been discovered by University at Buffalo scientists as a promising new drug target for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. The research on the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor was published online Oct. 11 in Nature Communications.

A University at Buffalo-led research team has established the presence of a dynamic Jahn-Teller effect in defective diamonds, a finding that will help advance the development of diamond-based systems in applications such as quantum information processing.

Researchers from three universities have partnered to create a new, high-tech tool for mapping changing plant patterns at Tuolumne Meadows, a mountain meadow in Yosemite National Park.

Surgeons should add their voices to social media and online discussions, while taking care to fully understand the potential security and medical-legal implications. That's the message from two surgeons -- and avid Twitter fans -- in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, who recently co-authored "Making Social Media Work for Surgeons and Patients," an article published in the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons.

Scientists at the University at Buffalo have received $1.3 million from the National Institute of Mental Health to test how tiny, magnetic particles can be used to remotely control neurons in the brains of mice. If the work is successful, the research team will have given neuroscientists a powerful, new tool: a non-invasive technique for triggering activity deep inside the brain.

Even the smallest of home renovations can change the life of someone with a disability. Widening a doorway or adding grab bars around a toilet can mean the difference between independence and dependence -- between comfort and discomfort in one's own home.