The genetic mechanism that through millennia of evolution has created plump and juicy fruits and vegetables could also be involved in the proliferation of human cancer cells. Plant biologists and computer scientists at Cornell University have essentially made a direct genetic connection between the evolutionary processes involved in plant growth and the processes involved in the growth of mammalian tumors.
Surveying aquatic life from the Great Lakes to small ponds, ecologists at Cornell and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies have found that food-chain length — the number of mouths food passes through on the way to the top predators — is determined by the size of an ecosystem, not by the amount of available food energy.
As unpleasant as it is, the nausea and vomiting of "morning sickness" experienced by two-thirds of pregnant women is Mother Nature's way of protecting mothers and fetuses from food-borne illness and also shielding the fetus from chemicals that can deform fetal organs at the most critical time in development.
In this shrink-wrapped, vacuum-packed, pre-cooked world, Cornell University is striving to keep a strong agricultural connection active in the minds of 21st century children. The university's Agriculture in the Classroom program has developed the New York "Kids Growing Foods" school-garden program, and this spring grants are being awarded to 34 elementary schools in the state to establish or maintain these gardens.
New York's other World Series team, the Sapsuckers from the Laboratory of Ornithology, are scanning the skies of the Garden State in hopes that 2000 will be the year they finally take top honors in the World Series of Birding.
Cornell President Hunter Rawlings announced on April 27 that he will submit to the Executive Committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees his nomination of Susan A. Henry, dean of the Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon University, as the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Cornell's New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, visited Cornell Dec. 20, to hear from university researchers and administrators about how the federal government can help improve the process of bringing the fruits of the university's biotechnology research to market.
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, visited Cornell Dec. 20, to hear from university researchers and administrators about how the federal government can help improve the process of bringing the fruits of the university's biotechnology research to market.
Although hard-working gardeners look forward to the end of another growing season, a few precautions during the winter months will make plants healthier in the spring, according to experts at Cornell Plantations.
