A large-scale study has for the first time shown a clear link in North America between acid rain and widespread declines across the breeding range of a songbird, the wood thrush. Calcium depletion affecting the birds' food is a possible cause, Cornell ecologists say.
NEW YORK, NY (August 14, 2002)Researchers at Columbia University and the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital suggest that a higher consumption of calories and fat may translate into an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease (AD) for some people.The results of their study, reported in the August issue of Archives of Neurology, suggest that this risk may arise in individuals who have a variant of apolipoprotein E, known as apo E4. Apolipoprotein E (apo E) is a cholesterol-processing protein responsible for transporting cholesterol in and out of cells. There are different variants of apo E, designated by numbers. People inherit one form of apo E from each parent. Studies have shown that those with one copy of the variant apo E4 are at greater risk of developing AD, while those who inherit 2 copies are at even greater risk.
Levels of a pivotal signal processor in the brain are reduced significantly in people with schizophrenia, a study by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College, The Rockefeller University, and University of California at Irvine (UCI) has found.
Forget the flat-topped, rheumy-eyed giant with the zombie shuffle and the rigor-mortis grin. That's kid stuff. This is the real thing: Frankenstein, the book, written by an 18-year-old Englishwoman named Mary Shelley. And Cornell and the entire Ithaca community are in on it. More than 3,500 new students at Cornell, as well as many faculty, staff and continuing students.
Richard Burkhauser, Cornell University professor of policy analysis and management, has been invited to speak at President Bush's Economic Forum at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, next Tuesday, Aug. 13.
Hurrah for hominy. Cooking sweet corn, whether you cream it, steam it or keep it on the cob, unleashes beneficial nutrients that can substantially reduce the chance of heart disease and cancer, according to Cornell University food scientists. Writing in the Aug. 14 issue of Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society, the Cornell researchers say that cooking sweet corn significantly boosts the grain's health-giving antioxidant activity. (August 8, 2002)
Keeping your "good" cholesterol high – with plenty of exercise and a healthy body weight – is not only important for cardiovascular health, but could also benefit lung health, according to a new study at Cornell University.
The eighth Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium will be held on the Cornell University campus, Nov. 7-9. The charter meeting of the Dairy Sheep Association of North (DSANA) will be held concurrently. As demand for sheep milk and cheeses increases, dairy sheep breeds are becoming better established in North America and are improving rural economies. "The Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium is the unique annual event for transmitting information among dairy-sheep farmers and sheep-cheese makers," says Michael Thonney, Cornell professor of animal science. "Because there are many other avenues to learn about general sheep management, we're keeping the focus on information about sheep dairying." (August 5, 2002)
Cornell Theory Center (CTC) has announced an agreement with Dell, Intel and Microsoft that secures $60 million worth of resources to provide a suite of Windows-based, high-performance computing solutions and services to business, government and academic clients. CTC operates the world's largest Windows/Intel/Dell computing complex. CTC is a pioneer in the use of "clusters" of computers operating in parallel to achieve supercomputer speeds. The latest clusters at Cornell consist of Dell PowerEdge 7150 and 2650 servers with Intel Xeon processors and running the Microsoft Windows operating system. The grant will greatly expand CTC's outreach efforts to help the private sector apply this technology to integrate intensive computer simulation and analysis tools into the workplace. (August 5, 2002)
A team of Cornell University researchers has received $1.6 million in grants to develop technology that could lead to computers that are not only smaller and cheaper, but more flexible – literally.
Cornell University potato breeders are donating a disease-resistant potato to Russia in an effort to help combat aggressive strains of potato late blight that are threatening to devastate the nation's essential small farms.
Move over Sir Isaac Newton and make way for quarks and leptons. A theory that has been part of the physics canon for more than 30 years is now making its way into New York state's high school science classrooms.
