Women in Manhattan and Ithaca, ages 35 to 54, can earn $20 by volunteering to be measured by Cornell University apparel researchers who are using a state-of-the-art 3-D body scanner to measure more than 300,000 body data points.
New York, NY (March 1, 2002) -- A new clinical trial testing an HIV vaccine together with low daily doses of interleukin 2 (IL2) -- led by Dr. Kendall Smith, Chief of Immunology in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College -- is designed to determine whether it is possible to achieve control of HIV by enhancing the body's immunity to the virus. Dr. Smith's team has previously shown that low daily doses of the T cell growth factor IL2 can result in accelerated improvement of the immune system when given to individuals with chronic HIV infection. Now, the team is testing whether it is possible to generate protective immunity to HIV, so that antiviral drugs will no longer be necessary.Dr. Smith and his research team discovered the IL2 molecule and IL2 receptors over 20 years ago, and since then, the team has pioneered studies that have determined how IL2 functions as a growth factor for T lymphocytes and Natural Killer (NK) cells, the principal cells known to fight viral infections.
ITHACA, N.Y. --Many coastal and large urban areas in the Northeast are facing their worst precipitation deficits (July through February) since official climatological record-keeping began more than a century ago, say experts at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. The severest drought faces those communities experiencing at least a 15-inch precipitation deficit since last July, including most of New Jersey, southeastern New York state, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the climate center says. (March 1, 2002)
Former NASA astronaut Tom Jones will speak at Cornell University March 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall. The talk is free and is open to the public. The subject of the talk, sponsored by NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (Contour) and the New York State Space Grant Consortium, will be "The International Space Station: Stepping Stone or Block?" (March 1, 2002)
A major gift from a Cornell University Law School alumnus and his wife has endowed a center for international and comparative law studies that now has its first director. Approved by Cornell's Board of Trustees last October, the Clarke Center for International and Comparative Legal Studies was created through an endowment gift from Jack Clarke, L.L.B. '52, and his wife, Dorothea, that supports a directorship, several professorships and a range of international and comparative law initiatives at the Law School. (March 1, 2002)
The administration of Cornell has expressed its gratitude to the government of the Dominican Republic for the Feb. 27 rescue of two Cornell research ecologists who were stranded for five days in the Armando Bermudez National Park.
In 1917 three young men graduated from Indiana University with the word "Colored" emblazoned across their academic transcripts. One of them, Elbert Frank Cox, would go on to enter Cornell and become the first black man in history to receive a doctorate in pure mathematics. (Feb. 28, 2002)
After two decades, a fine gold specimen has come home. But instead of forming a Tiffany necklace, it will rest permanently in a special display case in the mineralogical museum in Cornell's Snee Hall.
Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art acquired more than $4 million worth of fine art for its permanent collection this past year through gifts and purchases, says Franklin Robinson, the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the museum. "Our recent acquisitions have been truly extraordinary," said Robinson. "A lot of people don't realize that our collections are growing all the time and that the museum is so dynamic -- in large part thanks to the generosity of alumni donors, other gifts and through the work of our museum advisory council." (February 28, 2002)
A collaborative project between Alan Hedge, a Cornell professor, and New Jersey health and safety researchers Mary Rudakewych and Lisa Valent-Weitz has found that workers who use proper ergonomic products and are trained in their use report an average 40 percent decline in musculoskeletal problems within eight months.
Has a 1991 Supreme Court ruling led to more prejudiced verdicts in capital cases and more defendants on death row? Statements about a victim's virtues have become a common feature of capital trials in the United States since Payne vs. Tennessee, when the nation's highest court ruled that victim impact statements (VIS) in death penalty cases were admissible in court. Scholars have argued about the effects of such statements on jurors' verdicts. Now, that controversial subject will be discussed at length at a day-long symposium at Cornell University Law School March 2. Also addressed will be the supposition that executions bring relief to the families of victims. (February 27, 2002)
