The National Science Foundation has awarded $6.5 million to Cornell University researchers to sequence the tomato genome, improve genetic manipulation of maize to learn how to make crops more aluminum tolerant and to develop and use innovative computational algorithms for the simulation of turbulent combustion. Specifically, $4.2 million over two years has been awarded to the research consortium directed by Steven D. Tanksley, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Breeding, to sequence all 12 tomato chromosomes. Stephen Pope, the Sibley College Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and his research group have been awarded almost $1.4 million to develop computer algorithms to improve the ability to simulate combustion processes and, thereby, improve the design of combustion devices. In addition, a research group directed by Leon Kochian, an adjunct professor of plant biology and the director of the U.S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory at Cornell, has been awarded $933,000 over five years to generate better molecular and genomic resources to improve aluminum tolerance and crop performance in acid soils. (September 24, 2004)
New York, NY (September 22, 2004) -- For patients with a dangerous enlargement of heart muscle called left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), the drug Losartan beats standard beta-blocker therapy in reducing hearts to a healthier size, according to researchers at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.The study, published in the September 14 issue of Circulation, finds that Losartan's effects on LVH go beyond its ability to lower blood pressure -- suggesting that added mechanisms may be at work.
New York, NY (September 21, 2004) -- As you read this, billions of synapses lying between the cells of your brain are using complex chemical signals to pass information from one neuron to the next.It's a process crucial to healthy brain function as well as drug development, drug addiction and neurological disease, and researchers at Yale University School of Medicine-Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Weill Cornell Medical College believe they now have a better understanding of how synaptic transmission works.
By the time journalists finish the hands-on workshop "Nanoscale Science Under the Microscope," Oct. 3-5, 2004, at Cornell University, they should know what nanotechnology is.
Technology Review magazine has named Alyssa Apsel, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell, one of the world's 100 Top Young Innovators in 2004. Apsel and the other 99 honorees -- known as the TR100 -- were chosen by a panel of judges from a field of 650 final candidates under the age of 35 whose innovative work has transformed the nature of technology and business. (September 20, 2004)
The Cornell University chapter of Acacia fraternity has received five awards from its national fraternal organization, including the prestigious National Award of Merit to an outstanding alumnus. Steven L. Stein, Class of 1973, was presented the award by chapter president Thomas Balcerski, Class of 2005, at the Fall Scholarship Banquet of the Cornell chapter Sept. 12. The Award of Merit is Acacia's highest honor, recognizing individuals who have rendered outstanding service to the fraternity or attained a high position in their community or profession. The award is given only to alumni, and no more than 10 can be given at each biannual national conclave. This year, Stein was one of seven recipients nationally; he is one of only six Cornell Acacians to have received the award. (September 20, 2004)
New York, NY (September 17, 2004) -- Cholesterol-busting statin medications have revolutionized the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD), the leading killer of American men and women.But a recent move by the British government toward approval of low-dose, over-the-counter (OTC) simvastatin (Zocor®) has raised heated debate here in the U.S. Now, in his editorial in the September 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr. Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., Professor of Medicine and the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, says the proven effectiveness and good safety record of statin medications argues for a similar move in the U.S.
On Oct. 13, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments in Roper v. Simmons, a case that could determine the future of the juvenile death penalty in America. Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Cornell University professor of history, human development and gender studies, with expertise on the history of American childhood, says the court must -- once and for all -- halt the practice of executing minors. "America cannot legitimately hold itself up as a beacon of human rights around the world as long as we continue to execute people for crimes committed as juveniles." (September 17, 2004)
Five World Food Prize laureates will address the problem of world hunger in a fall semester seminar series, as part of Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) yearlong centennial celebration. The seminars will be in Room G10 of the Biotechnology Building on campus from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. The first seminar, Sept. 23, "Accomplishments and Aspirations: Linking Agriculture, Nutrition and Health," features World Food Prize laureates Nevin Scrimshaw (1991), Catherine Bertini (2003) and Cornell Professor Per Pinstrup-Andersen (2001). (September 16, 2004)
Cornell developmental psychologist Stephen J. Ceci is the recipient of the 2004-05 American Psychological Society's James McKeen Cattell Award "for a lifetime of outstanding contributions to the area of psychological research whose research addresses a critical problem in society at large."