Science & Technology

Permafrost in the soil and methane hydrates deep in the ocean are large reservoirs of ancient carbon. But even if methane is released from these large natural stores, new Rochester data shows that the bigger concern is methane released from human activities.

Reducing emissions from human activities like fossil fuel extraction and use will have a greater impact on curbing future global warming than scientists previously thought, a new Rochester study suggests.

In a six-year follow-up study, Medical Center researchers have found that prenatal vitamin D supplementation alone has limited effect on preventing asthma and wheezing in children.

When a patient fails an eye test, it's not just structural defects in the eye that are to blame. New Rochester research show that small eye movements humans aren’t even aware of making play a large role in humans’ ability to see letters, numbers, and objects from a distance.

The University of Rochester research lab that recently used lasers to create unsinkable metal structures has now demonstrated how the same technology could be used to create highly efficient solar power generators.

As NASA retires its Spitzer Space Telescope, the Rochester scientists who were involved in its development, look back on the project.

Simon Narang, a senior from Pittsford Sutherland High School, was recently named a Scholar in the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search, for a research project he carried out at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

Professor John Tarduno has analyzed zircon crystals collected from sites in Australia—the oldest known terrestrial materials—to construct a timeline of Earth's magnetic field, finding that the field was stronger than previously believed.

Amid growing alarm over the plastic that pollutes our environment, biomedical and optics researchers are devising ways to quickly detect microplastics in drinking water to better understand their potential impacts on human health.

Rochester scientists at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics and their colleagues in California and France have directly demonstrated for the first time how laser beams modify the conditions of a plasma.

Rochester’s newly formed cosmology group is at work to create the most detailed 3-D map of the universe ever seen.

Inspired by diving bell spiders and rafts of fire ants, Rochester researchers have created a metallic structure that is so water repellent, it refuses to sink—no matter how often it is forced into water or how much it is damaged.