Prompted by students from KyotoNOW!, Cornell University is in the process of studying the possibility of producing wind-generated electricity for its campus in Ithaca and has opened discussions with its neighbors. "Our investigation into using renewable wind energy is still in the study phase, and there still are a lot of issues to explore," said Harold Craft, Cornell vice president for administration and CFO, "but, so far, the possibility looks promising."
Nobel laureate Hans Bethe, the last of the giants of the golden age of 20th-century physics and the birth of modern atomic theory, and one of science's most universally admired figures, died at his home in Ithaca, N.Y.
The Cornell University Board of Trustees will meet in Ithaca, March 9-11. The full board will meet from 9 to 11:45 a.m. and from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 11, in the Beck Center of Statler Hall on the Cornell campus.
John Hsu, one of Cornell University's most beloved professors and musicians -- and 50-year faculty member -- will conduct a "farewell concert," Saturday, March 12. Hsu, Cornell's Old Dominion Foundation Professor of Music, will mark the occasion of his retirement by conducting a gala performance of The Creation by Joseph Haydn at Ithaca College's Ford Hall, within the James J. Whalen Center for Music.
Randy Cohen, Emmy-Award winner and writer of "The Ethicist" column in The New York Times Magazine, is the featured speaker at this year's Cornell Commitment Convocation, Friday, March 11, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall at Cornell University.
Cornell Hillel's Board of Trustees has announced that Barbara Friedman '59 will be the first recipient of the Tanner Prize for her significant contributions to the Jewish people and to Cornell University. The prize will be given to Friedman at an honorary luncheon April 21 at the Cornell Club in New York City.
A Cornell University-led team operating the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS), the largest of the three main instruments on NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, has discovered a mysterious population of distant and enormously powerful galaxies radiating in the infrared spectrum with many hundreds of times more power than our Milky Way galaxy. Their distance from Earth is about 11 billion light years, or 80 percent of the way back to the Big Bang.
As the demographic tsunami known as the baby-boom generation approaches age 65, long-delayed and painful changes in Social Security and Medicare policies must be made to ensure the long-term financial stability of these vital social programs.
An apple a day can help keep breast cancer away, according to a study in rats by food scientists at Cornell. "We found that tumor incidence was reduced by 17, 39 and 44 percent in rats fed the human equivalent of one, three or six apples a day, respectively, over 24 weeks," said Rui Hai Liu, Cornell associate professor of food science and lead author of the study.
NEW YORK (Feb. 28, 2005) -- The Patient Self-Determination Act, passed by Congress in 1990, upholds the rights of patients to grant power-of-attorney or "proxy" status to a loved one when it comes to tough decisions on end-of-life care.In most cases, patients leave explicit instructions as to their wishes, should they become incapable of making these decisions themselves. But how tightly do patients really expect proxies to adhere to these instructions, given changes in prognosis? A new study from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center researchers suggests the pact between patient and proxy is much deeper and more flexible than previously thought.
NEW YORK (Feb. 25, 2005) -- Physician-scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have made the surprising finding that a protein called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which is usually considered important only for cells in the nervous system, actually plays a critical role in the growth and maintenance of blood vessels.
A group of Cornell students, led by College of Human Ecology senior Ed Pettitt, is addressing this problem by conducting multi-part workshops on intergenerational communication and HIV/AIDS awareness in Ithaca and Tompkins County.
