A Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) researcher at Cornell has received a grant to help assemble a unique database of DNA mutations in maize (corn). The project not only will allow researchers to study the effects of knocking out the function of single genes, one at a time, but also will create seeds for each mutation, or disrupted gene. The seeds will be made widely available to researchers.
Cornell's DSpace, an online digital archive administered by Cornell University Library to make university scholarship freely available, is offering new options for the university's scientists and scholars with the creation of "communities" for every department on campus. Faculty are invited to a half-day workshop to learn how the DSpace repositories will work and to discuss possible uses, May 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Philip Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.
Cornell University doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology Karen Deen Laughlin will travel to Capitol Hill May 10 and 11 to speak to members of Congress about science policy. She will do so as a 2005 Emerging Public Policy Leader, an award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), a Washington-based nonprofit scientific association.
CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, has awarded Cornell News Service a silver medal for excellence in news writing in the category of research, medicine and science news. Each year CASE singles out universities for awards in several areas of communications, alumni relations and fund-raising. In 1998 Cornell News Service won the CASE grand gold medal for writing in research, medicine and science.
In a fitting tribute to the late Mario St. George Boiardi, a selfless contributor to the Cornell University and Tompkins County communities, the first annual "21 Run" will take place Saturday, May 7. The 5-kilometer run and memorial walk was founded to honor Boiardi, a former captain of the Cornell men's lacrosse team who died during a game March 17, 2004. The 21 Run will raise funds for youth literacy programs.
An important and far-ranging discussion on the humanities will take place on the Cornell campus May 9. Provost Biddy Martin is convening a group of faculty and academic administrators for a round-table discussion on the state of the humanities at Cornell and on a national level.
Slope Day's organizers say that this year's May 6 event should be better -- and safer -- than ever. "First of all, the level of the performers is greater than in past years," says Steve Blake '05, a government major from San Francisco who serves as president of the Slope Day Programming Board and co-chair of the Slope Day Steering Committee.
Three Cornell University faculty members are among the 213 new fellows elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in honor of their distinguished contributions to their professions. The three Cornell honorees to be inducted in October are Gregory Lawler, professor of mathematics; Mars rover scientist Steven Squyres, Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy; and novelist Alison Lurie, F.J. Whiton Professor of American Literature Emerita.
Cornell researchers have revealed a process that has stumped scientists for many years: exactly how an acid derived from vitamin A enters a cell's nucleus, where it has strong anti-carcinogenic effects.
How do social, economic and manmade environments influence diet and physical activity throughout life? Why might vulnerable populations be affected more seriously by these environmental impacts? These questions are the focus of the conference "Ecology of Obesity: Linking Science and Action," slated for June 6-7 at Cornell. The conference, sponsored by the College of Human Ecology, is intended for practitioners and researchers who are interested in implementing an ecological perspective in obesity research and prevention.
Coyotes tend to avoid human contact. But recently, coyotes have been getting increasingly aggressive in the eastern United States, including southeastern New York state, attacking neighborhood pets.
Francine Blau, the Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Labor Economics, and five Cornell students were honored by the American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) as new fellows for 2005 on April 10. The AAPSS designates new fellows each year "to recognize and honor individual social scientists for their distinguished scholarship in the social sciences, sustained efforts to communicate that scholarship to audiences beyond their own discipline and professional activities that promise to continue to promote the progress of the social sciences."
