Digging at the roots of physics at the Cornell Theory Center

Almost 50 years ago, physicists determined the value of one of the fundamental fixed values of physics, the fine structure constant, using quantum electrodynamics theory -- or did they?

Harvard professor of French civilization to give Cornell lecture Oct. 7

Stanley Hoffmann, the Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France at Harvard University, will give a lecture titled "France and Europe" at Cornell Oct. 7, at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall.

Four Cornell chemists earn ACS recognition

Cornell chemists have garnered three of the American Chemical Society's 10 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards for 1997, and a fourth member of the chemistry faculty, Harold A. Scheraga, has earned the ACS Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research.

Special education expert will give talks at Cornell Sept. 30, Oct. 1

Mark P. Mostert, Ph.D., assistant professor of education at Moorhead State University, Minn., will lecture on "Bandwagons, Band-Aids and Beliefs: Some Thoughts on the Efficacy of Special Education," on Sept. 30, at 4:30 p.m., Room 345, Warren Hall.

Cornell symposium honoring Robin M. Williams Jr. to focus on diversity and consensus Oct. 20-21

A two-day symposium, "American Society: Diversity and Consensus," will be held at Cornell Oct. 20-21, both to honor Robin W. Williams Jr., the Henry Scarborough Professor Emeritus of Social Science at Cornell.

Cornell's Program in French Studies to host conference on Algeria

Ten artists and intellectuals with personal and professional ties to Algeria will visit Cornell next week for a conference on the political and cultural issues facing this violence-racked nation in northern Africa.

Cornell co-sponsors with New York State Consumer Protection Board free workshop on preventing fraud and understanding regulatory processes

Preventing insurance and telephone fraud, learning which state agencies and legislative committees do what in serving consumers and better understanding consumer legislation and regulatory processes and policies in New York will be the focus of a free workshop, Making and Enforcing Consumer Policy, on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 16-17, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany.

Mountain gorilla diet could yield health secrets of impenetrable forest's salad bar Bacteria-fighting fruit is favorite item of Uganda's gorillas, Cornell phytochemist finds

For Cornell biologist John P. Berry, knowing the punch line to the joke, "Where does an 800-pound gorilla eat?" is not enough. Certainly, the mountain gorillas he studies in Uganda's Bwindi impenetrable forest eat wherever they want. Whatever, too.

Cyclosporin mold's 'sexual state' found in New York forest Cornell students' discovery could target additional sources of nature-based pharmaceuticals

Until Cornell undergraduate students on a mycology field trip found mysterious fungal "fruiting bodies" rising from an eviscerated beetle grub, little was known of the mold that produces a life-saving pharmaceutical for organ transplantation -- the immunosuppressant, cyclosporin.