UB in the News

An article in CSP Magazine about a public hearing on banning menthol cigarettes reports a ban could create a black market for the product and quotes Gary Giovino, professor and chair of community health and health behavior. "Mentholated cigarettes are at least as dangerous as their non-mentholated varieties, and there is concern about menthol sweetening the poison," he said.

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus section looks at the new mobile app Serendipitor, created by Mark Shepard, assistant professor of architecture and media studies, which, rather than providing the shortest distance between two points, generates a circuitous trip plan that actually encourages users to get lost along the way.

An article in the Wheeling Intelligencer about a conference held at the University of Pittsburgh titled "Health Effects of Shale Gas Extraction" quotes Tracy Banks, assistant professor of geology, who told the group that uranium is being mobilized by the fracking process. "Concentrations are fairly low," she said of uranium's presence in the water used to frack a well, "but they are high enough that it should not be treated like your drinking water.

An article in The New York Times about a study that showed that high levels of fearlessness in 3- and 4-year-old children is strongly associated with aggression and a lack of empathy quotes Jamie Ostrov, assistant professor of psychology. He says that children at the extreme end of the fearless spectrum "may be charming, but they're also highly manipulative and deceptive and skilled at getting their way – even at ages 3 or 4."

An article in the Youngstown Business Journal about protests over plans to drill for oil and natural gas in an affluent Ohio neighborhood reports the group's website features resources about the environmental hazards of fracking, including a UB study that found the process could unearth uranium naturally trapped inside the shale.

An article on England's Multiple Sclerosis Trust on the recent meeting of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, the largest annual international conference devoted to basic and clinical research in MS, reports Robert Zivadinov, professor of neurology, presented research that showed a higher prevalence of CCSVI among people with secondary progressive MS, but "Our findings point against CCSVI having a primary causative role in the development of MS."

An article in Crain's New York Business calls New York City the No. 1 destination in the nation for international students, and reports that UB is among three New York universities ranked in the Top 20 of U.S. institutions that host the most international students.

An article in The Wall Street Journal about the questions that remain over how Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo will deal with many key issues, including the state's rapidly growing deficit, reports that as a candidate he was supportive of the stalled effort to expand UB, but was vague on whether he favored a broader regulatory overhaul of public higher education that would give state colleges more authority to raise tuition and set budgets on their own.

An article titled "How to build a better student" in the Toronto Globe and Mail reports Ming Ming Chiu, professor of learning and instruction, recommends chatting with your kids about political and social events, especially when there's math involved.

An article in Financial Times about China's cultural collision between its authoritarian politics and the freedom of the Internet quotes Junhao Hong, professor of communication and an expert on Chinese free speech on the web.