Think of scenes from the movie "Twister." Tornado chasers load up their trucks with ping-pong-ball-sized spheres and head for a twister. The spheres are then released into the storm's vortex, resulting in the transmission of valuable scientific information on tornadoes' actions to the chaser's computers.
Biotechnologists at Cornell have engineered a strain of bacteria with two environment-saving abilities: To soak up heavy-metal pollutants, such as mercury, and then to sequester them for recycling. Now the researchers are ready to begin field trials of a system that should reduce water and soil contamination to the parts-per-trillion level.
A recycling plan devised by Cornell students, with assistance from community members and waste-management experts, would save restaurant scraps from the garbage can and send them to the compost pile. The resulting compost could boost community greenhouse-gardens.
A new Cornell invention can clean up waste water from pesticides and textile processing on-site efficiently, inexpensively and without some of the problems of current technologies, say two Cornell environmental chemists.
A new chemical isolated from spider venom might one day prevent human brain cells from dying after being deprived of oxygen for short periods, a Cornell chemist believes. In a talk today (March 23) at the American Chemical Society national meeting at the Anaheim Hilton.
By mimicking nature, a Cornell University chemist has found a seemingly efficient way to create a new plastic material. It would be either biodegradable or able to react with water to convert into nontoxic materials, and it would have properties such as impact resistance.
Native writers, storytellers and filmmakers from across the country will meet at Cornell University April 2-3 for the third annual Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Conference.
Eberhard Bodenschatz watches 100 million years of geological time pass in an hour. He sees transform faults being created, rift valleys opening and spiral structures called microplates forming.
In real life machines that analyze DNA are about the size of a refrigerator. Cornell researchers are working on a "biochip" -- an "artificial gel" made of silicon -- that might be a step toward the science fiction dream.
From the folks who brought you the world's smallest guitar, now meet the nanoharp, this new "stringed instrument" plays the real music of science, serving as a platform to study the physics of very small vibrating systems.
Researchers at Cornell are testing devices that could form the basis for a potential ultrasmall computer data storage system that could gather up to 100 times as much information in the same space as present-day magnetic data disks.
During Cornell's spring break a group of students will be a part of a project called Alternative Spring Break, sponsored by the Cornell Public Service Center.
