Now that marine scientists know how quickly disease epidemics can spread in the oceans -- up to 10,000 kilometers a year among fish, compared with 1,000 kilometers in diseases carried by flying birds -- they are focusing on dying organisms that can't move: the world's corals.
Cornell University Police were presented with a statewide award for promoting traffic safety Oct. 18 at the New York Highway Safety Conference held in Binghamton, N.Y. Sgt. Chuck Howard, traffic enforcement coordinator, accepted the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee award on behalf of the department from Raymond P. Martinez, commissioner of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, who chairs the committee. (November 4, 2004)
By using a device only six-millionths of a meter long, researchers at Cornell University have been able to detect the presence of as few as a half-dozen viruses -- and they believe the device is sensitive enough to notice just one. The research could lead to simple detectors capable of differentiating between a wide variety of pathogens, including viruses, bacteria and toxic organic chemicals. (November 4, 2004)
Winters are getting warmer and some crops are starting to bloom earlier. Climate change is already upon us, but changes are not uniform across regions or species.
A postage stamp-sized piece of property belonging to Cornell University's Animal Research Facility in Harford, N.Y. is now the site of a national climate station. The Harford site will be part of the U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN), a land-based system of climate stations now being developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce. Every USCRN observing site is equipped with state-of-the instruments including, a standard set of sensors, a data logger and a satellite communications transmitter. The Harford site meets NOAA criteria for its distance from urban areas, long-term stability and reliability as an area representative of the regional climate, among other factors. (November 4, 2004)
Since the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the red planet last January, members of the Cornell University rover team have gone from living and working on Mars time at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., to running their operations from Cornell in Ithaca on a hybrid Earth-Mars time. The planning and operations that must occur twice each day -- between the time when "yester-sol's" data reach Earth until commands for the next sol's activities are sent off to the rovers -- is becoming more efficient. It now takes just six or seven hours on average, compared with the 17 hours it once took. (A sol, a Martian day, is 39 minutes, 35 seconds longer than an Earth day.) (November 04, 2004)
Cornell researchers, who are trying to understand how proteins evolve and function by looking at their structural features, have uncovered the crystal structure of a protein involved in making the building blocks of DNA correctly.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Leon F. Litwack, professor of American History at the University of California-Berkeley, will deliver three Carl Becker lectures on Tuesday, Nov. 9, Wednesday, Nov. 10 and Thursday, Nov. 11. The lecture series, titled "Stormy Monday: Black Southerners in the Twentieth Century," is free and open to the public, and each talk will be delivered at 4:30 p.m. in Room 165 of McGraw Hall on the Cornell University campus. (November 3, 2004)
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno will deliver a public lecture titled "Impact of the Presidential Election on Violence Against Women in the United States," on Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Bache Auditorium of Malott Hall.
Author Lorrie Moore, MFA '82, will give a free public reading on Monday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall on the Cornell University campus. Moore is Cornell's 2004-05 Distinguished Alumni Artist Award recipient, an annual award established in 1997 by the Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA) and the Committee on the Arts of Cornell University Council. (November 2, 2004)
New York, NY (November 2, 2004) -- All life relies on the actions and reactions of single molecules within cells. However, these molecules are so tiny that they have long eluded direct, real-time investigation using conventional light microscopes.A breakthrough technology being developed by Dr. Scott C. Blanchard -- recently recruited to Weill Medical College of Cornell University under the College's Strategic Research Plan -- is finally allowing researchers an unprecedented view into the workings of individual molecules.
Cornell University's annual Agribusiness Economic Outlook Conference will be held Tuesday, Dec. 7, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. On-site registration will begin at 9 a.m. in the foyer of the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. The morning session will begin with a welcome by William Lesser, chair of the Department of Applied Economics and Management (AEM). Steven Kyle, associate professor of AEM, will provide the national perspective on the economy and agriculture. There will then be a discussion of the agriculture innovation center, the New York Farm Viability Institute: The Center for Value-Added Agriculture, established at Cornell last year with a grant of $993,200 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The center is providing extensive consulting to individual producers to help them add value at the farm level. (November 2, 2004)
