Cornell University's East Asia Program is sponsoring a weekend of events on the Cornell campus called "Korea Peace Day: Voices of Modern Korea," Thursday, Nov. 6, through Saturday, Nov. 8. Events will include films, readings by two of Korea's leading contemporary authors, lectures and even a bit of comedy. All are free and open to the public. The Korean War ended with a cease-fire 50 years ago, more stalemate than peace accord, and recent tensions between the United States and North Korea threaten to reignite hostilities that have been smoldering since 1953. A nationwide coalition of scholars recently proposed Korea Peace Day as a time for open discussion of the current crisis and consideration of peaceful solutions to conflict in the region. Cornell's is among more than 25 college campuses sponsoring teach-ins, workshops, lectures, debates, films and cultural presentations as part of this effort. (October 30, 2003)
Brett de Bary, Cornell University professor of Asian studies and comparative literature, has been appointed director of the Society for the Humanities (SHC). She replaces Dominick Lacapra, Cornell's Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies and professor of history, who has served as SHC director for the past decade. "The distinction of Cornell's Society for the Humanities has become almost synonymous with the distinction of its former director," said de Bary of her predecessor. "Dominick Lacapra's wide-ranging concerns as an intellectual historian, especially with the ethical challenges posed to humanistic inquiry by the Holocaust, led the society to probe profound issues of late 20th century thought and conscience. I hope to maintain this tradition of scholarly intensity and engagement." (October 30, 2003)
For generations the United States welcomed immigrants who were primarily white Europeans. But immigrants from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean over recent decades have been largely nonwhites from developing countries.
Rather than having to travel to Ithaca to examine Eleanor Roosevelt's 1937 inaugural gown or another of the 9,000 pieces in the Cornell University Costume and Textile Collection, fashionistas now can go online.
For years, news stories have warned that the country's long-term care system is in crisis, partly because of an unprecedented shortage of nursing home workers. Cornell University researchers believe they have a remedy.
In West Nile virus-afflicted parts of the country last winter, counts of American crows dropped to a 15-year low. Other species, including chickadees, also were scarce, but some species appeared in record-high numbers.
A symposium, "Rethinking the Criminalization of Youth," will be held Nov. 6-7 at Cornell University, featuring former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.
ARECIBO, P.R. ---- The prominent Norwegian-born astronomer Tor Hagfors will deliver a lecture during next weekend's 40th anniversary celebrations at Arecibo Observatory, home of the world's largest and most-sensitive single-dish radio telescope. Hagfors, who will give the William E. and Elva F. Gordon Distinguished Lecture on Nov. 3, is an internationally known pioneer in studies of the interaction of electromagnetic waves with ionized plasmas and solid surfaces. (October 28, 2003)
William E. Gordon, the father of the world's largest and most sensitive single-dish radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory, will deliver the 40th anniversary keynote address on Nov. 1.
Two Cornell University graduate students and a researcher have won a top prize in the 2003 Collegiate Inventors Competition for building an utlra-small electronic generator. Their award of $25,000 was presented at a ceremony at the New York Public Library, Manhattan, on Oct. 23. The three are applied physics student Keith Aubin, mechanical engineering student Robert Reichenbach and research associate Maxim Zalalutdinov. Their advisers on the project, Harold Craighead, Cornell professor of applied and engineering physics, and Jeevak Parpia, Cornell professor of physics, shared a $5,000 prize. (October 27, 2003)
Sometimes familiarity does not breed contempt: A Cornell University behavioral scientist has found that female wolf spiders prefer mates that are comfortably familiar. However, the researcher has discovered, a male wolf spider unlucky enough to attempt to mate with an unfamiliar female probably is doomed to be killed and eaten by the female. October 24, 2003)
Cornell University microbiologists, looking for bioremediation microbes to "eat" toxic pollutants, report the first field test of a technique called stable isotopic probing (SIP) in a contaminated site. And they announce the discovery and isolation of a bacterium that biodegrades naphthalene in coal tar contamination. Although naphthalene is not the most toxic component in coal tar, the microbiologists say their discovery might eventually help to speed the cleanup of hundreds of 19th and 20th century gasworks throughout the United States where the manufacture of gas from coal for homes and street lighting left a toxic legacy in the ground. (October 24, 2003)
