About 1 percent of Cornell's Fungi of China Collection, as interpreted through the lens of Department of Plant Pathology photographer Kent Loeffler, is on display at Mann Library through Aug. 31.
The inside of a U.S. jail cell is what he has been looking at for the past 13 months, waiting for his asylum appeal to be ruled on. If he is deported to the Dominican Republic, he could be killed. He believes this because he has been threatened in jail, and thugs have made menacing remarks to his wife. For that reason, too, his name and location are not mentioned in this story. Two second-year law students, Ralph Mamiya and Kristin McNamara, have taken on his case through a Cornell University Law School course -- the Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic.
Cornell University will celebrate its 137th Commencement on Sunday, May 29, with approximately 4,500 graduates receiving degrees at a ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. in Schoellkopf Stadium.
The Cornell Law School recognized its graduating students during convocation ceremonies Sunday afternoon, May 15, in Bartels Hall on campus. The actual degrees will be conferred during the university Commencement on May 29.
Chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor, and even today 99 percent of the two species' DNA is identical. But since the paths of man and chimp diverged 5 million years ago, that one percent of genetic difference appears to have changed humans in an unexpected way: It could have made people more prone to cancer. A comparative genetic study led by Cornell researchers suggest that some mutations in human sperm cells might allow them to avoid early death and reproduce, creating an advantage that ensures more sperm cells carry this trait. But this same positive selection could also have made it easier for human cancer cells to survive.
Cornell Junior Bryan J. Lowrance, a Presidential Research Scholar and College Scholar majoring in English and classics, has been named one of 18 Beinecke Scholarship winners nationwide for 2005.
Scientists have discovered compounds nearly ubiquitous in fire that have amazingly eluded detection in spite of 150 years of research on how flames burn. According to a paper in the journal Science on its Science Express Web site (May 12), co-authored by a Cornell professor, enols, technically in the family of alcohols, are part of the chemical pathway that occurs when a wide variety of fires burn.
Rudyard Kipling, who famously wrote, "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet," obviously never met Lisa Nishii. Negotiating cultural differences is something she has had to do from birth. Now an assistant professor of human resource (HR) studies and international and comparative labor at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), Nishii has a most unusual heritage: Her Japanese father is descended from Buddhist monks, while her mother traces her ancestry back to the original Mayflower settlers.
A public enemy has infiltrated the nation's borders. Taken captive in Fulton, N.Y., and identified by a Cornell expert, the adult female alien is the only one of its kind ever discovered in eastern United States.
Counselors at Cornell University are offering special services to groups and individual students following confirmation of the death of Cornell freshman student Daniel A. Pirfo, Thursday, May 12. "We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Dan Pirfo," said Susan H. Murphy, Cornell vice president for student and academic services. "Our thoughts and prayers go to his family and his many friends. During this time, the university is offering support and counsel to all who have been touched by this tragic event." A candlelight memorial will be held Saturday, May 14, at 10 p.m. on Rawlings Green.
Until recently, the ivory-billed woodpecker was like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster -- a famed creature that for years eyewitnesses claimed to see but that science could not substantiate. This impression runs through "The Grail Bird" (Houghton Mifflin, 2005), a new book by Tim Gallagher, an editor at the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell who played a primary role in the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, once considered extinct.
Cornell's third annual Dump & Run collection began this week on May 9. Students moving out after a hectic finals week can dump items they no longer want or cannot fit into their cars or suitcases into Dump & Run collection boxes located all over campus. Staff, faculty and community members are also encouraged to donate. Dump & Run accepts almost all donations: non-perishable food, clothing, shoes, books, electronics, kitchenware, toiletries, decorations, school supplies and more. Items not accepted are trash, foam mattress pads, underwear and socks.