New York, NY (March 26, 2004) -- For the first time a team of researchers -- led by the University of Minnesota and Weill Cornell Medical College -- has determined the complete genome sequence of Cryptosporidium, a common diarrhea-causing parasite that can lurk in drinking water. The finding has been published in the March 25 issue of the electronic journal Science Express, to be followed by publication in April in the print version of Science."Cryptosporidiosis is a hard-to-treat condition, largely because we lack a basic understanding of the genetic make-up of the organism," said Dr. Mitchell Abrahamsen, principal investigator, faculty of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Genomics Center, where the genome sequencing was carried out.
New York, NY (March 26, 2004) -- Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have shed light on the function of the synapse -- the gap between nerve cells where information is passed from one cell to the next -- and solved a 30-year puzzle on how exactly nerve cells transmit signals.The finding may one day help determine what goes wrong in ailments like Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy, said Dr. Timothy Ryan, Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City.
Students from 11 top-tier U.S. business schools will compete in the second MBA Stock Pitch Challenge next Thursday and Friday, April 1 and 2, at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management. The competition will showcase the stock picking and presentation skills of MBA students who hope to be hired as stock analysts after they graduate. The first-place team will receive a $3,000 award and the second-place team an award of $1,500. (March 26, 2004)
Scholar, activist and author Ekwueme Michael Thelwell will read from his latest book, Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (Scribner, 2003), Thursday, April 1, at 4:30 p.m. in Cornell University's Africana Studies and Research Center, 310 Triphammer Road. The reading, free and open to the public, is part of the Africana center's Black Authors/New Books Series, Spring 2004. A book-signing and reception will follow the event. (March 26, 2004)
Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland-College Park, will deliver the 2004 Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Lecture Friday, April 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall on the Cornell University campus. The title of Telhami's talk, "The Stakes: America in Iraq and the Middle East," is similar to the title of his most-recent book, The Stakes: America in the Middle East (Westview Press, 2003). (March 26, 2004)
Cornell Plantations is offering an information night and season kickoff for new and current volunteers on Wednesday, March 31, at 7 p.m. in the Lewis Education Center classroom at One Plantations Road in Ithaca.
Margaret Washington, professor of history at Cornell University, will deliver the inaugural Gail Gifford Rudin ('56) and Stephen Rudin lecture, titled "'Price to Be Determined at the Close of the War': The Impacts of 'Slave' Trading on the Development of Black Culture in America." The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place Wednesday, March 31, at 3:30 p.m. in Libe Café (first floor, Olin Library) on Cornell's campus and is followed by a reception in the Hirshland Gallery, level 2B of Kroch Library. (March 25, 2004)
Robert S. Hatfield, Class of 1937, died March 14 in Greenwich, Conn., where he had lived for many years and Jansen Noyes Jr., Class of 1939 (mechanical engineering) and 11th chairman of the Cornell Board of Trustees, died March 16.
New York, NY (March 24, 2004) -- Two heart tests are better than one when it comes to predicting the risk of dying of cardiovascular disease or any cause, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center researchers report in the April issue of the journal Hypertension.Those patients with an ECG finding of ST depression -- a possible sign of heart disease -- and an echocardiogram that showed an enlarged left ventricle were more likely to die during the study than those with normal test results. When the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber, enlarges and thickens, it could be a sign the heart is struggling to pump efficiently.
An extra beer or glass of wine during a workday lunch or happy hour may seem harmless. But a new Cornell University study shows that when alcohol consumption in and around the workplace increases, so does the risk of harassment of women by male co-workers. The study, "Harassing Under the Influence: Male Drinking Norms and Behaviors and the Gender Harassment of Female Coworkers," points to the dangers of workplace cultures that tolerate drinking and offers sobering lessons to both workers and employers. The R. Brinkley Smithers Institute for Alcohol-Related Workplace Studies at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations conducted the study, and the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse sponsored it. (March 24, 2004)
Nobel laureate Charles Townes, inventor of the laser and in recent years an astronomical explorer using an array of moveable infrared telescopes, will present the Thomas Gold lectures in Schwartz Auditorium in Rockefeller Hall at Cornell University next week. Townes, who is University Professor of Physics emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley, will present his first lecture, "Characteristics of old stars measured by infrared interferometry" -- aimed at a specialized audience -- on Monday, March 29. His second lecture, "Logic and uncertainties in science and religion" -- for a more general audience -- is on Wednesday, March 31. Both lectures start at 4:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. (March 24, 2004)
