Science and Technology

Starting this month, the same material cat-lovers use to sanitize their pets' litter boxes will be used to remove strontium-90 from groundwater in a pilot project at the West Valley Demonstration Project that is based on successful testing of the technology at the University at Buffalo.

While news reports have focused on the shoddy construction methods that caused thousands of buildings to fail in Tuesday's earthquake in Turkey, a key to the country's recovery from the disaster is the condition of its roads and bridges in the quake's aftermath, according to a University at Buffalo engineer who is part of a reconnaissance team that is in Istanbul to evaluate the earthquake damage.

Building collapses following Tuesday's earthquake in Turkey probably were caused, in part, by inadequate building materials and by problems with establishment and enforcement of proper building codes, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo and the university's Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER).

The University at Buffalo has received a five-year, $2 million federal grant to establish a center for collecting and disseminating information on international research and practices in rehabilitation that underscores the prominence of the programs in the UB School of Health Related Professions.

How long will it be before you can participate in a videoconference or "visit" with an overseas client without leaving your desk? If a recent experiment at the University at Buffalo is any indication, it could be much sooner than many people think.

The enormous potential of both telemedicine and high-grade distance learning may be one giant step closer to being realized if an experimental, three-way demonstration of advanced Internet videoconferencing technology on July 27 involving the University at Buffalo, Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) in Buffalo, Ohio State University, the Jackson Laboratory and others goes off without a hitch.

Three 1999 graduates of the UB School of Architecture and Planning are turning heads in Buffalo City Hall with their resourceful building designs and progressive plans to create a new district in an underutilized area of South Buffalo.

Male and female black-throated blue warblers, a bird species common in the northeast U.S., have a reputation for practicing monogamy and sharing in the raising of their young. However, the mere presence of a fertile female in the nest next door can be enough to cause a male to stray, leaving his female mate unguarded, according to a paper scheduled for publication in the July issue of Auk, the journal of the American Ornithologists' Union, authored by a doctoral candidate at the University at Buffalo and an assistant professor of biological sciences.

Although they won't be making movies, a select group of local high-school students attending a summer program at the University at Buffalo Center for Computational Research will be doing their homework on an SGI, Inc. Origin2000 Server, similar to the one used in the creation of "Toy Story" and "Antz."

The Center for Computational Research at the University at Buffalo and Sun Microsystems have launched a research partnership aimed at developing a network of high-end workstations that will deliver the power of a supercomputer at a fraction of the cost.