Research Notes

Ultra-Intense Laser Blast Creates True ‘Black Metal’
Rochester scientists have created a way to change the properties of almost any metal to render it black. Developed by Chunlei Guo, an assistant professor of optics, the process uses an incredibly intense burst of laser light and holds the promise of making everything from fuel cells to a space telescope’s detectors more efficient.

How Parents Engage in Conflict Affects Kids in Unexpected Ways
Different types of marital conflict between mothers and fathers may have different implications in the way they carry out their parenting duties, say researchers from the University and colleagues at Notre Dame. In a paper led by Melissa Sturge-Apple ’92, a researcher at the Mt. Hope Family Center, and published in the journal Child Development, the team found that parents who were openly hostile toward one another during marital disputes or who tried to withdraw from the discussion experienced difficulties in their parenting role. In turn, those actions affected their child’s adjustment over time.

New Treatment Finds Success Treating Tiniest Lung Tumors
Patients with metastatic cancer tumors in their lungs are much more likely to live disease-free if they have an experimental treatment involving shaped-beam radiosurgery rather that conventional treatment, according to a Medical Center study. The research, presented at the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology conference, offers a new option for the tens of thousands of patients annually who must cope with cancer that has spread to their lungs. The technology was originally designed for destroying brain tumors, but Rochester oncologists are expanding its use to other parts of the body, studying whether it can be used to destroy other soft-tissue tumors that were previously considered untreatable.

Children’s Belly Fat Increases More Than 65 Percent Since 1990s
A Rochester-led study on the growing girth of American children is painting a bleak picture when it comes to future risks of heart disease, adult-onset diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. In the first nationally representative study to document the increase in children’s belly fat, the study published in Pediatrics indicates that abdominal obesity increased more than 65 percent among boys and almost 70 percent among girls between 1988 and 2004. The good news, says study author Stephen Cook, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong, is that for children and adolescents, the health effects are often reversible through improved lifestyle for weight loss.

Evolutionary First: Parasite Plays Havoc with Others’ Sex Lives
Rochester scientists have provided the first evidence that a prolific parasite is helping shape the destiny of a species it does not even infect. The complex relationship between the parasite, its host, and the unconnected species is the first known example of evolutionary pressure from such a remote source. In work published in the Public Library of Science: Biology, John Jaenike, a professor of biology, reports that the females of a species of fruit flies that are uninfected with the bacterial parasite, Wolbachia, refused to mate with any but their own kind. The females were so picky about their mates that they shunned some males of their own species.