Luck, it has been said, favors the well prepared. That explains, perhaps, the fortune of the plucky Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity -- and their creators, including Cornell Professor Steve Squyres.
Eating healthfully to prevent obesity doesn't have to cost a bundle, say experts at Cornell University, the land-grant institution of New York state. With a little know-how, which Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) offers free or at low cost across the state, New Yorkers can plan and prepare nutritious but thrifty meals and snacks and stretch their food dollars.
Simon A. Levin, a Cornell University professor of ecology and systematics from 1965 to 1992 and now an adjunct professor at Cornell, is the winner of the 2005 Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, a prestigious award of international recognition. Levin is also now the George M. Moffett Professor of Biology and director of the Center for Biocomplexity at Princeton University. The prize, sponsored by the Inamori Foundation, is awarded annually to "individuals and groups worldwide who have contributed significantly to mankind's betterment."
NEW YORK -- The symbiosis between Cornell's Ithaca and New York City campuses is never more apparent than in June. As quiet settles over the Ithaca campus and driving on East Avenue no longer is a white-knuckle affair, the "CU-NYC campus" is bursting at the seams with Cornell students participating in internships and cooperatives.
Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) has announced its newest service for the campus community: Time Away Responder. If you've been waiting for this service, it's here. Time Away Responder (TAR) tells people who e-mail you that you are away (perhaps on business, vacation, or medical leave) and that you'll respond to them once you return.
When Bill Vanneman '31 heard that the Class of 2000 was having trouble meeting expenses for its first reunion, he did not hesitate to lend a hand -- and a buck.
Speaking to Cornell alumni visiting their alma mater, Cornell President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes talked about a reunion with the terra mater, mother Earth. Presenting the annual Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Lecture June 10 during Reunion Weekend, he urged responsible social policies for the planet.
James Joyce was a "bizarre, often infuriating, but irresistibly engaging genius" who today is one of the most highly regarded 20th-century writers in English, Professor M.H. Abrams told a gathering of alumni and friends.
A supermarket checkout computer can identify thousands of different items by scanning the tiny barcode printed on the package. New technology developed at Cornell could make it just as easy to identify genes, pathogens, illegal drugs and other chemicals of interest by tagging them with color-coded probes made out of synthetic tree-shaped DNA. A research group headed by Dan Luo, Cornell assistant professor of biological engineering, has created "nanobarcodes" that fluoresce under ultraviolet light in a combination of colors that can be read by a computer scanner or observed with a fluorescent light microscope.
The walls are up, the roof is on and the summer crew of Cornell's Solar Decathlon Team is working hard to finish its fully functional, self-sufficient, solar-powered house. Scheduled for completion by the end of June, the only solar-powered house from an Ivy League school to enter the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) international Solar Decathlon competition will be moved to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in time for the Oct. 7 to 16 competition.
More U.S. consumers are demanding that their brand-name sports sneakers, jeans and other apparel are manufactured in countries where workers are afforded basic rights. Concerned manufacturers have adopted social responsibility programs and codes of conduct for their overseas suppliers that can include the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions -- often called "freedom of association" (FOA). But how well are those codes working?
A study of five agricultural communities in New York state finds that Mexican immigrants comprise 95 percent of the fruits-and-vegetables agricultural workforce and that workers increasingly are choosing to settle with their families in these rural communities. In the recently published report, two Cornell researchers observe that while this newly forming population is a potential boon to areas struggling with economic downturn, their ability to integrate into their new communities is key to their long-term success.
