Environment and Sustainability

Corals can develop new symbiotic relationships with algae from their environments after they've undergone bleaching, the process by which corals whiten as a result of environmental stress, University at Buffalo biologists report in the current issue of Science.

He was an odd-duck Vermont farmer who invented photomicrography and produced thousands of stunning photographs of snow crystals to prove that no two are alike. He made 10,000 glass photomicrographic plates, upon which he captured the images of individual snow crystals, dew and frost. Over the years, the glass plates deteriorated, however, and the work of Wilson Alwyn Bentley might have been lost forever to researchers and the public, had not a group of graduate students from the University at Buffalo stepped in to save it for posterity.

As parts of the Western and Southwestern United States prepare for wildfire season, which experts predict again will be severe, researchers at the University at Buffalo and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are developing a new software tool to use geographic information systems (GIS) to help forest managers optimize efforts to prevent wildfires.

A computing division is teaching students how to put their computers to "sleep." A chemistry department found ways to reduce fume hood use without affecting classes or research. A library department found a way to recycle microfiches and microfilms. These are just a few of the University at Buffalo's environmental efforts being celebrated this Earth Day (April 22) as part of the new Green Partners program, organized by faculty, staff and students of UB's Environmental Task Force.

For years, residents living in the Bellevue section of Cheektowaga have wondered if something in their environment contributes to an increased incidence of disease in their neighborhood. University at Buffalo researchers, working with the New York State Department of Health, hope finally to be able to answer that question by year's end, but first they say they need more residents to fill out and return to them important 10-page surveys.

Investigations into lava lakes on the surface of Io, the intensely volcanic moon that orbits Jupiter, may provide clues to what Earth looked like in its earliest phases, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The harvesting of a Caribbean soft coral off the coast of the Bahamas for use in a popular beauty product is providing a University at Buffalo marine biologist with an extraordinary experimental opportunity to answer fundamental questions about the ability of corals to survive environmental challenges.

Environmental Advocates, the New York State affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, has named the University at Buffalo its "Environmentalist of the Year" for initiating an effort to buy wind energy that has become so successful it has made the university the state's largest purchaser of wind power.

Researchers from the University at Buffalo are developing a handheld sensor that can detect the presence of toxins potentially used as agents in biological warfare.

The tradeoff in fiberglass insulation products has always been between strength and safety: making glass fibers stronger by adding aluminum oxide to them also increases the risk that they will cause lung cancer when inhaled. But biomaterials and biophotonics researchers at the University at Buffalo recently reported on the surprising chemical mechanism behind one type of fiberglass fortified with aluminum oxide that does not persist in the lungs.