The annual Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) community program to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. will be Monday, Jan. 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The program is free and open to the public. The 11th annual event will include a buffet luncheon, performances by local choirs and a keynote speech by Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman. (January 10, 2005)
"The born-to-dechlorinate bug" is what Cornell researchers called Dehalococcoides ethenogenes Strain 195 when they found the bacterium obligingly detoxifying the pollutant PCE, or perchloroethylene (a chlorinated solvent used for dry cleaning), in sludge from an Ithaca, N.Y., sewage treatment plant.
Philip Liu, Cornell University professor of civil and environmental engineering, will lead a delegation of American scientists from the National Science Foundation's Tsunami Research Group and the U.S. Geological Survey into the tsunami-ravaged areas of Sri Lanka, Jan. 9-16.
NEW YORK (December 29, 2004) -- In any bioterror attack, vaccines that provide a rapid, effective defense against the pathogen will be key to saving lives.However, in the case of anthrax, vaccines available today can take weeks or even months to gain full effect.
James McConkey, Cornell's Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature emeritus, didn't think he had another book in him. But his latest is "The Telescope in the Parlor: Essays on Life and Literature."
From 1980 to 2000, the foreign-born Hispanic, and largely Mexican, population in New York state grew significantly. In a study just released, two Cornell University researchers claim this growing population of immigrants can potentially contribute to community development in upstate New York, where population loss and economic stagnation or decline have been pervasive for decades. "The growing number of Hispanics is related to the changes in the agricultural workforce in New York and nationwide. Increasing numbers of these farm workers and their families settle in upstate New York communities where they work and then face various challenges and opportunities as they seek to become integrated in the social and economic life of the community," noted Max Pfeffer, Cornell professor of development sociology who co-authored the study "Immigrants and the Community" with Pilar A. Parra, a research associate in Cornell's Division of Nutritional Sciences. (December 21, 2004)
The demand for organic food in the United States has increased by approximately 200 percent over the past 10 years, a trend that is expected to accelerate in the coming decade. Organic farmers in New York state will be better able to capitalize on this trend thanks to three new grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture received by researchers in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Four Cornell University space scientists are on five of the eight teams that will begin planning the science program for NASA's next Mars rover mission, the mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), scheduled for launch in 2009. The space agency has chosen the eight proposals to provide instrumentation and associated science investigations for the mission, which is intended to explore a local region as a potential habitat for past or present life. (December 21, 2004)
Trey Graham, theater critic at the Washington City Paper, is the winner of the 2003-04 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. The award, which carries a $10,000 prize, is administered by the Cornell University Department of English and is one of the most generous and distinguished in the American theater. Graham was selected by a committee consisting of the chairs of the English departments of Cornell, Princeton and Yale universities, assisted by experts on the theater from those universities. The Nathan committee citation reads: "For Trey Graham, the play's the thing. In reviewing classical and contemporary work produced in the Greater Washington D.C. area, he brings a fresh eye both to things we think we know and to things newly-minted. He writes with sensitivity and flair about the individual masterworks of the British and American canon, but he's especially adept at linking these and other works from the past with the best the present has to offer." (December 20, 2004)
In a study to determine how much the public fears terrorism, almost half of respondents polled nationally said they believe the U.S. government should -- in some way -- curtail civil liberties for Muslim Americans, according to a new survey released today (Dec. 17) by Cornell University. (December 17, 2004)
Science magazine has chosen the discoveries of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission as Breakthrough of the Year in its Dec. 17 edition, published today. The principal scientific investigator for the mission's twin-rover science program is Steve Squyres, professor of astronomy at Cornell University, assisted by a large team of researchers, 28 of them at Cornell, including 15 students. The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The journal, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says that its annual top honor is awarded for the mission's discovery of evidence for the prolonged presence of potentially life-supporting, salty, acidic water on the planet's surface. (December 16, 2004)
