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It is clear that Congress and the major American political parties are more ideologically polarized than they were a generation ago, but are Americans themselves more deeply polarized? This and other questions about America's political identity will be discussed in "America Divided: The Polarization of American Politics,"a symposium to be held April 17 from 5:30-7 p.m. in Room 250 of Baird Hall on the University at Buffalo's North (Amherst) Campus.

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The legal profession, its associations, firms and law schools have spent years and considerable money encouraging lawyers to do more pro bono work. A new study by University at Buffalo sociologist Robert Granfield, Ph.D., finds, however, that mandatory law school programs, bar association campaigns and good will are not the principle spurs provoking lawyers to work for the public good.

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"Later is better" when it comes to voter registration in national elections, according a new study of voter participation in the presidential elections. People who register to vote closer to registration deadlines are much more likely to vote on Election Day than are people who register earlier in an election year, according to the study conducted by political scientists from the University at Buffalo, University of Maryland and University of Texas.

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Scientists in the University at Buffalo's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and Roswell Park Cancer Institute have developed an innovative drug delivery system, which consists of the drug itself.

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New digital technologies and broadband Internet access have increased digital piracy of music, movies and other creative products. But the threat of widespread digital piracy also has produced "copyright panic," spawning an illogical expansion of copyright protections in recent years, contends an intellectual property expert at the University at Buffalo Law School.

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Three new studies by a University at Buffalo psychologist offer the first known evidence that some people anxiously expect that they will be rejected by others because of their physical appearance, and that this sensitivity, if not mitigated, has serious implications for their mental and physical health.

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What really happens after you place an order for a Big Mac or a Whopper with Cheese? Jerry M. Newman, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the University at Buffalo School of Management, knows because he worked undercover in seven fast food restaurants across the country, observing operations from the top down -- from the biggest management whoppers to the smallest fries at the fry station.

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How severe will global warming get? Jason P. Briner is looking for an answer buried deep in mud dozens of feet below the surface of lakes in the frigid Canadian Arctic. His group is gathering the first quantitative temperature data over the last millennium from these areas.

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The freeze dates for small- and intermediate-sized lakes in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest will come later than usual this year, reflecting both continuing global warming, and a stronger-than-expected El Nino phenomenon, says a University at Buffalo limnologist, a scientist who studies inland bodies of water.

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The world's largest seismic test on a wooden structure, conducted at the University at Buffalo on November 14, resulted in damage so severe that had this been a real earthquake, the house would have been rendered uninhabitable and in need of major repairs, according to the researchers who conducted the test.

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Boys and girls who have better motor abilities are more physically active and less likely to be sedentary than children with poorer coordination, research conducted with children between the ages of 8 and 10. While the finding may appear intuitive, few studies have used a valid assessment of motor proficiency in children and compared the outcomes with an objective measure of physical activity.

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New research shows that unbelted backseat passengers risk injury or death to themselves and the driver seated in front of them in the event of a head-on crash.

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A study by psychologists at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Irvine, has found that people's gender and ethnicity predicted their immediate response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and their general state of health over the next two years.

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A University at Buffalo theoretical physicist who published research in 2001 demonstrating that it someday may be possible to build buildings and other structures that are nearly blast-proof, now has published results showing how a shock-absorption system might be constructed to accomplish that goal.

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The University at Buffalo team that developed the world's first transgenic butterfly now has developed an innovative tool that will allow scientists studying "non-model" organisms to test directly the function of certain genes, even in the absence of genome sequencing information.

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It may not look like your typical classroom but the 6,300 square feet of photovoltaic panels just installed on top of Norton Hall at the University at Buffalo have a mission to educate, as well as generate power for the classrooms and offices below.

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Engineers with UB's Energy Systems Institute, one of the nation's few academic research centers that studies the fundamentals of electric power, have for the past year been considering how nanoelectronics could dramatically shorten, or in some cases eliminate, crippling power outages.

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Igor Zutic, a University at Buffalo theoretical physicist and the recipient of a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award, is finding ways to introduce spintronic properties and a phenomenon called spin injection into silicon.

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University at Buffalo researchers have been awarded a National Science Foundation grant, under the NSF Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT) initiative, to develop semiconductor-based terahertz detectors that can be integrated seamlessly with conventional electronics.

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Research at the University at Buffalo is launching a new generation of medical imaging with nanoparticle-based multi-probe systems in which two or more medical imaging techniques are combined to provide complementary information.

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The Democratic Party is likely to net 10-16 seats in the House of Representatives as a result of the 2006 midterm elections, according to a forecast by University at Buffalo political scientist James E. Campbell.

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An expert on serial-killer celebrities is available to discuss the auctioning of the Unabomber's things.

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At the University at Buffalo's multidisciplinary Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors, (CUBS) researchers from several academic departments have proposed development of a biometric sensor that could detect traces of chemicals on the fingers of airline passengers.

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The visualization capabilities of the Center for Computational Research at the University at Buffalo is providing city residents with a multi-faceted, interactive, real-time visualization of what activity on Main Street in downtown Buffalo would be like if vehicular traffic returns after an absence of more than 20 years.

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An innovative University at Buffalo air sterilization technology that the U.S. Department of Defense is funding to protect troops on the battlefield soon may protect hospital patients from deadly infections, thanks to recent funding from the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR).

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University at Buffalo researchers say their "Fingertip Digitizer," which users wear on the tip of the index finger, can transfer to the virtual world the meaning and intent of common hand gestures, such as pointing, wagging the finger, tapping in the air or other movements that can be used to direct the actions of an electronic device, much like a mouse directs the actions of a personal computer, but with greater precision.

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In partnership with industry, University at Buffalo researchers are conducting one of the first scientific air-quality tests of "allergy-friendly" hotel rooms. The project is expected to provide data applicable to other environments where indoor air quality is critical, such as in health-care facilities and aboard airplanes.

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A technology first used during the Cold War to isolate ballistic missile silos from vibrations will undergo its first test in a full-scale, wood-frame townhouse at the University at Buffalo on July 6 to determine if it can help minimize quake damage to woodframe homes.

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A nanoparticle-based drug delivery concept in which an applied magnetic field directs the accumulation in tumor cells of custom-designed, drug-filled nanocarriers has been demonstrated by University at Buffalo researchers.

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Fears of 666, long believed to be the dreaded mark of Satan, are based on a "widespread misinterpretation" of the chapter in Revelation -- appropriately, chapter 13 -- in which the number is discussed, according to a University at Buffalo expert on the origins, nature and meaning of cults, superstitions and cultural identities.

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One of the nation's newest and most innovative biotechnology centers, the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, will open in June with a full schedule of scientific and community events, including a science and industry symposium featuring world renowned researchers in the fields of genomics, neuroscience and biomedical informatics.

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UB engineers are launching unprecedented seismic tests on a full-scale, three-bedroom, wood-frame townhouse, the largest wooden structure to be tested in the U.S. In November, the house will undergo the most violent shaking possible in a laboratory, mimicking an earthquake that occurs only once every 2,500 years.

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An expert on the immigrant job market is available to comment on the debate over illegal immigrants and immigration reform in the U.S.

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The growing prevalence of detention as a policy within the U.S. immigration system is strikingly similar to policies of criminal sanctions and mass incarceration used to fight the "war on drugs" in the 1980s, according to University at Buffalo Law School. Professor Teresa A. Miller, who studies the U.S. prison system and teaches immigration law.

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What's up with the mist? In 2004, the Niagara Parks Commission hired consultants to find out if high-rise hotels near Niagara Falls were contributing to the creation of more mist, obscuring the spectacular views. Wind tunnel experiments seemed to confirm the suspicion, a report that circulated in Canadian media. Now University at Buffalo geologists say that the hotels are probably not to blame.

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A new method for putting a price tag on the cost of "managerial neglect" has been developed by two industrial engineers in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering Applied Sciences. The method, and how it would be applied to a two-stage supply chain, is described in "The Engineering Economist."

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Chemists have for the first time identified at wastewater treatment plants the metabolites of two antibiotics and a medical imaging agent. The data will allow wastewater treatment plants to begin monitoring for these byproducts.

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BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York and the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions today announced a five-year research and treatment program for the severely obese that will study the effects of weight-loss alternatives to gastric bypass surgery.

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Recently discovered geological and archaeological evidence is shedding light on a catastrophic eruption at Mt. Vesuvius during the Bronze Age that wrought broader destruction to surrounding areas than the famous Pompeii eruption of AD 79, according to a paper.

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From investigations into Lee Harvey Oswald's troubled adolescence to courtroom debates over Mike Tyson's violent tantrums, the 20 most psychologically intriguing legal cases of the past 50 years are chronicled in the new book,"Minds on Trial: Great Cases in Law and Psychology."

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Mudflows initiated by natural processes at old, inactive volcanoes, some of the most lethal geologic phenomena, contributed to last week's tragic mudslide in Guinsaugon, Philippines, according to a UB scientist whose team has developed advanced computer models of mudflows.

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UB research addresses a key problem that has emerged in the quest for fingerprint access to electronic devices and Web sites: quantifying how much security is possible with fingerprinting, given that most commercial sensors tend to capture only partial fingerprints.

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University at Buffalo engineers are working to solve two significant roadblocks -- electromigration and thermomigration -- impeding the creation of smaller, faster and more powerful electronic devices.

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University at Buffalo researchers are developing a rugged, inexpensive Breathalyzer-type device that, like the nose of a human or other mammal, will contain thousands of chemical sensors "trained" to recognize complex chemical patterns, some of which are biomarkers for certain diseases.

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An earthquake engineer at the University at Buffalo has developed a new "multi-hazard" design for bridges that will make them more resistant to terrorist attacks and earthquakes.

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From automatic jar openers to remote controls for washer and dryers, a new program is helping major corporations produce next-generation consumer products that are "more usable and accessible to all," including persons with disabilities and the elderly.

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Male water fleas that scientists have never seen have made their debut in a University at Buffalo laboratory. The work sheds light on the diversity of water fleas and reveals that pesticides that mimic the hormone used to produce the males may have much broader effects than initially believed.

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A leading U.S. ADHD researcher is consulting with mental-health experts and physicians in Japan who are developing the first programs for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in that country, where treatment of ADHD in children has become a national health-care priority.

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Rooms black with mold. Boats in trees, miles from shore. Enough debris to fill 11 World Trade Towers. These are some of the pictures University at Buffalo drew last week at a presentation on their reconnaissance visits to New Orleans, Alabama and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

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Unintentional collisions and falling into the boards cause more injuries in young hockey players than the practice of body checking, researchers at the University at Buffalo have found.