PASADENA, Calif. -- Facelifts can sag. Botox is temporary. But modern science has a new way to return youth to weathered faces: the rock abrasion tool (RAT). If your dermatologist hasn't heard of it, ask your local Mars scientist. Billions of years of exposure to the sun, atmosphere and extremely fine Martian dust has given Mars rocks a weathered "rind," or exterior layer. The RAT, part of the science-instrument package carried by the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, uses a diamond-tipped robotic grinding tool to scrape away this weathered exterior, revealing a fresh surface. (December 19, 2003)
A team led by Cornell professor Grace Xing has created gallium nitride power diodes capable of serving as building blocks for GaN switches, with many possible power and electronics applications.
If you're opening a restaurant or renovating an existing one, a new study from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration could help you increase revenues simply by purchasing and arranging the right tables. The study, by Professor Gary Thompson, reveals, surprisingly, that midsize (about 200-seat) restaurants, particularly those affiliated with chains that serve large parties of walk-in customers, produce the most revenues with dedicated tables. Such tables are built for a variety of specific party sizes rather than made up of flexible two-seaters pushed together to form larger tables. (March 17, 2003)
Adults who amuse infants with sleight-of-hand foolery – a rolling ball that disappears, then reappears, for example – should enjoy a childhood learning moment while it lasts.
Positive bias in online consumer reviews has become almost standard industry practice, but plagiarizing user reviews and passing them off as authentic is another animal altogether, says a new Cornell study that has been tracking that other animal. (December 12, 2005)
Last summer, Weill Cornell graduate students offered a six-week, hands-on course to students from the Manhattan Day and Night High School who plan to pursue careers in science.
Historian and activist Angela Davis' 2003 book 'Are Prisons Obsolete?' is the inaugural title of an annual reading project at Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center.