Science and Technology

University at Buffalo researchers are creating a new and unusual "app" for the smart phone: tracking air pollution.

Two new, high-powered mass spectrometers worth a total of more than $2 million will enable University at Buffalo scientists to conduct a variety of health and environmental studies without outsourcing lab work to institutions outside of Western New York.

The University at Buffalo is a key partner in a $7.3 million, multi-institution collaboration to explore the origins of all flowers by sequencing the genome of Amborella, a unique species that one researcher has nicknamed the "platypus of flowering plants."

Robert C. Wetherhold, PhD, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University at Buffalo's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have devised two new ways of "stapling" peptide helices to prevent these medically important molecules from losing their shape and degrading in the presence of enzymes.

The national mood rises and falls with the stock market. Business analysts lavish praise on companies that grow, and fret over the prospects of those that don't. The conventional view is that expansion is a sign of health. But is that assumption compatible with the finite resources of a finite planet?

The University at Buffalo's School of Social Work has recorded its 100,000th download to its "Living Proof" podcast series, a milestone the school's dean calls "a sign UB's School of Social Work's entrance into cyberspace is here to stay."

An innovative, educational computing platform developed by University at Buffalo faculty members and hosted by the cloud (remote, high-capacity, scalable servers) is helping UB students understand parts of evolutionary biology on an entirely new level. Soon, high-school and middle-school students will benefit from the same tool as well.

Researchers from Upstate New York institutions, including the University at Buffalo, have documented elevated levels of two industrial pollutants in carp in eastern Lake Erie, adding to the body of scientific work demonstrating the lasting environmental effects of human activity and waste disposal on the Great Lakes.

The success of Buffalo-based Medical Acoustics, a medical device company expecting to turn a profit for the first time in 2011, exemplifies how partnerships with universities like the University at Buffalo can help businesses bring new products to the market.