Latest University of Houston Stories
Jan-Ã…ke Gustafsson investigates 'wireless connections' in the brainMany diseases of brain function, such as epilepsy and schizophrenia, are caused by problems in how neurons communicate with each other. A University of Houston (UH) researcher and his team are analyzing these commands and connections in an attempt to prevent those diseases.Dr. Jan-Ã…ke Gustafsson, Robert A. Welch Professor in UH's biology and biochemistry department, describes his team's findings in a paper titled...
Scalable devices inspired by nature exhibit customizable optical properties suitable for applications ranging from highly sensitive sensors and detectors to invisibility cloaksImagine creating novel devices with amazing and exotic optical properties not found in Nature"”by simply evaporating a droplet of particles on a surface.By chemically building clusters of nanospheres from a liquid, a team of Harvard researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Rice University, the University of...
HOUSTON, May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Houston Technology Center (HTC), a business accelerator and the largest business incubator in Texas, is unveiling the Goradia Innovation Prize to be awarded to early stage companies that have commercialized, or are close to commercializing, innovative technology within the Gulf Coast region. This major innovation prize will be announced by Walter Ulrich, president and CEO of HTC at their 7th annual gala, which takes place this evening at the Omni Hotel....
Fingertip monitor holds promise for more easily measuring riskTwo University of Houston professors are working to help keep your heart beating stronger and longer simply by monitoring the temperature of your fingertip.VENDYS, a device mechanical engineering professors Stanley Kleis and Ralph Metcalfe helped develop, is allowing doctors to monitor how changes in blood flow affect finger temperature to measure an individual's risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD).In a paper recently published...
A new form of platinum that could be used to make cheaper, more efficient fuel cells has been created by researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Houston. The process, described in the April 25th issue of Nature Chemistry, could help enable broader use of the devices, which produce emissions-free energy using hydrogen."This is a significant advance," said scientist Anders Nilsson, who conducts research at the Stanford...
New information about Martian meteorites discovered by UH professorThrough the study of a popular Martian meteorite's age, a University of Houston professor and his team have made significant discoveries about the timeline of volcanic activity on Mars.Thomas Lapen, assistant professor of geosciences at UH, describes his team's findings in a paper titled "A Younger Age for ALH84001 and its Geochemical Link to Shergottite Sources in Mars," appearing April 16 in Science, the world's...
Renowned Engineer Brings First and Only NSF-supported Center to UH HOUSTON, April 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Increasing its cadre of laser mapping researchers, the University of Houston will expand its pioneering work in such areas as homeland security, disaster recovery, oil and gas exploration, wind farm site planning and environmental studies. The NSF National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) and the groundbreaking researcher leading it recently moved operations to the...
UH professor captures video of heart before it begins to beatImagine being able to image life as it happens by capturing video of the embryonic heart before it begins beating. A professor at the University of Houston, in collaboration with scientists at Baylor College of Medicine, is doing just that.Kirill Larin, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Cullen College of Engineering at UH, and his colleagues in the Texas Medical Center are documenting the formation of the...
Award-winning materials expert and UH grad returns with SuperPower, IncAlthough the U.S. electric power industry is one of the greatest engineering marvels of the 20th century, aging technology and an increase in demand create problems for the electricity infrastructure that need to be fixed.Venkat Selvamanickam, director of the Applied Research Hub and the M.D. Anderson chair professor of the department of mechanical engineering, University of Houston, is developing a technology with high...
Scientists at UH publish breakthrough research on 163-year-old puzzleThanks to a pair of University of Houston researchers who found a possible new solution to a 163-year-old puzzle, ecological factors can now be added to physiology to explain why animals grow bigger in the cold.Their results were published in the February issue of the American Naturalist, offering new insight to Bergmann's rule that animals grow larger at high, cold latitudes than their counterparts closer to the equator....
