Science and Technology

When UB hosts "Digital Frontiers: The Buffalo Summit 2001," on Nov. 2 and 3, one of the projects to be exhibited in connection with the event is a little honey called "EVL: Alive on the Grid" -- a peculiar virtual experience involving avatars, simultaneous occupation of virtual space, lots of music and dancing "ghosts."

A "universal bathroom" developed by an architectural team from the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning has won the Bronze Award in the 2001 American Society on Aging (ASA) competition for new products for mature markets.

Could structures be built with shock-absorption systems so powerful that jet planes would literally bounce off them? A system modeled in a paper authored by theoretical physicists at the University at Buffalo and published in the current issue of Physica A demonstrates that it may one day be possible to protect bridges, ships, skyscrapers, highway structures and even automobile bumpers from extremely powerful impacts.

The School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo has developed a Web site that offers online information and resources for those who are having personal difficulty coping with the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and its aftermath.

Have we developed the collective wisdom and conscience to deal with a world in which ubiquitous technological interactions are so intertwined that they cannot be untangled? Let's hope so, because that's what our future holds. "Digital Frontier: Buffalo Summit 2001," a major international conference to be held Nov. 2 and 3 at the University at Buffalo, will present observations and research on what digital technology has wrought by some of the most brilliant, pioneering thinkers in art, social science, applied science and engineering, medicine, philosophy and education.

Rush Limbaugh's loss of sensory inner-ear hair cells, a condition that likely contributed to his hearing loss, could lead to changes in his brain that would allow him optimize use of his remaining hearing, research being done at the University at Buffalo indicates.

Making sure that cell-phone calls go through, particularly in times of disaster, as well as at times of heaviest use, is the goal of new architecture for next-generation wireless systems for cellular telephones being proposed by researchers at the University at Buffalo.

The University at Buffalo has received a $7.3 million, three-year grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to plan and conduct a pilot study for a clinical trial of the impact of periodontal disease treatment on prevention of second heart attacks.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers are grappling with a question that a month ago would have been completely unthinkable: Can buildings be designed to withstand catastrophic blasts inflicted by terrorists? Ten days after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research headquartered at UB traveled to ground zero as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation.

University at Buffalo biophysicists studying the motility of cells have shown that simple cells react in less than a millisecond to changes in membrane voltage, a property scientists have thought was confined to highly specialized cells such as the cochlear outer hair cells responsible for hearing.