Science and Technology

The possibility that climate change might simply be a natural variation like others that have occurred throughout geologic time is dimming, according to evidence in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published today . The research reveals that sediments retrieved by University at Buffalo geologists from a remote Arctic lake are unlike those seen during previous warming episodes.

Dead zones in critical waterways, accelerated loss of arable land and massive famines. They're all caused by the 24 billion tons of soil that are lost every year to erosion, a phenomenon that costs the world as much as $40 billion annually. But predicting where erosion occurs, and thus how to prevent it, is a serious challenge. That's why University at Buffalo geographer Sean Bennett has constructed various systems to model it.

UBMD, the University at Buffalo's 450-member physician practice plan, has received a $7 million grant from the New York State Department of Health HEAL NY initiative to implement a novel electronic records system to track and manage treatment of chronic kidney disease in real time, with the goal of reducing the number of patients in Western New York who develop end stage kidney disease (ESRD).

The University at Buffalo introduced today iSciWNY, a comprehensive life-sciences workforce development program dedicated to preparing all Western New Yorkers, not just scientists, for new positions in Buffalo Niagara's growing life sciences industry.

The University at Buffalo has earned full accreditation from the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), a highly prestigious, national organization that assures the ethics of research on human subjects.

President Barack Obama announced yesterday that Esther S. Takeuchi, Ph.D., Greatbatch Professor in Power Sources Research in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor awarded in the U.S. for technological achievement.

Against the backdrop of last week's Congressional hearing into the future of forensic science, researchers from the University at Buffalo's Laboratory for Forensic Odontology Research in the School of Dental Medicine, have published a landmark paper on the controversial topic of bitemark analysis.

"Toward the Sentient City" is an exhibition two years in the making that originated among University at Buffalo architects and will give you a whiff of the future, with its smart dust, text messages to fish and devices that provide electricity then sort of "eat" the carbon dioxide it produces.

J. David Smith, Ph.D., a comparative psychologist at the University at Buffalo who has conducted extensive studies in animal cognition, says there is growing evidence that animals share functional parallels with human conscious metacognition -- that is, they may share humans' ability to reflect upon, monitor or regulate their states of mind.

Driver education classes should be teaching young drivers that all kinds of mobile phones, both conventional and hands-free, are a dangerous distraction, says a University at Buffalo researcher, who studies driving behaviors.