Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, researchers have for the first time detected light from confirmed planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. (March 23, 2005)
Acute gastroenteritis -- commonly known as food poisoning -- is one of the most common household illnesses in the United States, with an estimated 76 million food-related illnesses occurring each year. To learn more about preventing the spread of food-related illness pathogens on the farm, researchers at Cornell University are joining a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded Food Safety Research and Response Network (FSRRN), led by North Carolina State University. FSRRN is a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary team of more than 50 food safety experts from 18 colleges and universities who will investigate several of the most prevalent food-borne pathogens. It is funded by a $5 million grant from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. (March 22, 2005)
NEW YORK (March 22, 2005) -- The discovery by Weill Medical College of Cornell University researchers that a specific type of human fetal stem cell can co-differentiate simultaneously into both muscle and blood vessel cells may unlock the door to therapies that replace damaged tissue in the heart and other organs.Heart attack and other events can destroy cardiac muscle and the surrounding vasculature (blood vessels), so effective heart repair requires concurrent replacement of both these types of tissues.
The death of Sol M. Linowitz, the international lawyer and diplomat who served as President Jimmy Carter's ambassador-at-large, negotiating the Panama Canal treaties and Middle East peace agreements, is being met with sadness on the Cornell University campus. Linowitz died March 18 at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 91.
NEW YORK (March 18, 2005) -- Weill Medical College of Cornell University researchers have made the startling discovery that renin -- a kidney-secreted enzyme crucial to blood pressure regulation -- is also synthesized and secreted by mast cells within the heart.Renin breaks down a precursor, angiotensinogen, to form angiotensin. Because angiotensin is a major culprit in the development of cardiovascular diseases, the discovery that renin is produced outside the kidneys could revolutionize our therapeutic approach to these conditions.
Although most people think of bats as stealthy mammals that flit about in the night sky, at least one species has evolved a terrestrial trot never before seen in bats, according to a recent study.
On March 9, MBA students taking International Political Risk Management, a course taught by Elena Iankova, a lecturer at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, heard Fuad El-Hibri, chairman and CEO of Bioport's parent company, Emergent BioSolutions Inc., discuss the hurdles his firm faces in making and marketing its products abroad.
The so-called "gay adolescent" soon will disappear, predicts a Cornell University expert on teenage sexuality in a new book. These adolescents will still have the same desires, fantasies and attractions, he writes, but they no longer will need or want to identify themselves as gay. "The new gay teenager is in many respects the non-gay teenager," says Ritch Savin-Williams, professor and chair of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology in his new book, The New Gay Teenager (Harvard University Press, 2005). Savin-Williams is an expert on issues concerning gay, lesbian and bisexual youths and is a licensed clinical psychologist who works with gay youths and their families.
Ruling that it could find no rational basis in the record, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in Albany today unanimously upheld Tompkins County Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Mulvey's June 9, 2004, decision ordering the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission to grant the approval sought by Cornell University for a replacement parking lot proposed as part of its West Campus Residential Initiative. This ruling is the latest of three successive judicial rulings in Cornell's favor. "The West Campus Residential Initiative is an exciting part of Cornell's academic program for the future. We hope that now, with this decision, this matter is finally resolved and Cornell and the city can move forward cooperatively," said Cornell Vice President Thomas Bruce, commenting on today's ruling by the appellate court in Albany.
Although most people think of bats as stealthy mammals that flit about in the night sky, at least one species has evolved a terrestrial trot never before seen in bats, according to a recent Cornell University study.
Cornell University will present a student benefit concert, Big Red Relief, to raise money for victims of the December 2004 tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean. The concert, which will include an array of talented student performers from across the Cornell campus, is Sunday, April 3, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in Barton Hall. Everyone is welcome, and doors open at 6 p.m.
George Georgiou, the Joe C. Walter Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, will deliver the 18th annual Julian C. Smith Lectures in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University Monday, April 18, and Tuesday, April 19. Both talks will be given at 4 p.m. in 255 Olin Hall and will be preceded by a 3:15 p.m. reception in the Fred H. Rhodes Lounge in 128 Olin Hall. Both lectures are free and open to the public.
