The viburnum leaf beetle is eating itself out of house and home in central, western and northern New York state and elsewhere, says Cornell entomologist E. Richard Hoebeke. After devastating large swaths of native viburnum as well as ornamental species in its larval stage this spring, the adult beetle.
A laser-based microscopy technique may have settled a long-standing debate among neuroscientists about how brain cells process energy -- while explaining what's really happening in PET (positron emission tomography) imaging and offering a better way to observe the damage that strokes and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, wreak on brain cells.
Saturn's mysterious moon, Phoebe, which has puzzled astronomers for more than a century because of its dark surface and retrograde orbit, has great geological variety, and probably has large areas of exposed water ice, Cornell senior astronomy researcher Peter Thomas told a press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Fiber Society will hold its annual meeting and technical conference, with a symposium on advanced materials and processes for fibers and fibrous structures at Cornell University, Oct. 11-13. This international gathering of professionals dedicated to research in science, technology and engineering of fibers will be hosted by the Department of Textiles and Apparel in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. The Fiber Society is a nonprofit professional and scientific association focused on advancing scientific knowledge pertaining to fibers, fiber-based products and fibrous materials. Keynote speakers at this year's conference will include: Professor Howard Greisler of Loyola University, a leading researcher in the vascular application of fibrous materials; Nobel Laureate Robert C. Richardson, Cornell vice provost of research and the F.R. Newman Professor of Physics; and Nobel Laureate and chemist Roald Hoffmann, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor in Humane Letters at Cornell. (June 21, 2004)
Thomas "Tommy" Gold, a brilliant and controversial figure in 20th century science and professor emeritus of astronomy at Cornell, died June 22 at Cayuga Medical Center, Ithaca, N.Y., after a long battle with heart disease. He was 84 years of age.
The Cornell University group that advocates for people with disabilities in the workplace has more staff, renovated headquarters and a new name -- the Employment and Disability Institute (EDI). The institute's mission remains the same, however: to provide research, training materials, programs and technical assistance that make it easier for people with disabilities to be integrated in the workplace, schools and communities. (June 22, 2004)
Physicians who prescribe the regular use of beta-agonist drugs for asthma could be endangering their patients, two new studies by researchers at Cornell and Stanford universities find. One study compiles previously published clinical trials to conclude that patients could both develop a tolerance for beta-agonists and be at increased risk for asthma attacks, compared with those who do not use the drug at all. The second study shows that beta-agonist use increases cardiac risks, such as heart attacks, by more than two-fold, compared with the use of a placebo. Furthermore, the researchers say that their analyses lead them to suspect a conflict of interest among scientists who are supported by pharmaceutical companies that make beta-agonists, among the world's most widely used drugs. This conflict, they say, could be putting 16 million U.S. asthma sufferers in harm's way. Their statement comes as the American Medical Association is voicing its concerns that drug industry sponsorship of clinical tests is affecting the quality of research. (June 17, 2004)
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded $618,857 to the Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell to preserve local and state agricultural literature on microfilm.
Despite Father's Day and Mother's Day, which give children an opportunity to pay tribute to their parents, it's important to acknowledge that parenting is rarely an entirely positive or negative experience, says a new book co-edited by a Cornell University gerontologist. The book makes its point by examining the ambivalence of parent-child relations in later life. "Parenting is fraught with mixed emotions, thoughts and attitudes. Such ambivalence is apparently universal and a fundamental characteristic of relationships between parents and adult children," says Karl Pillemer, professor of human development at Cornell and co-editor of Intergenerational Ambivalences: New Perspectives on Parent-Child Relations in Later Life (Elsevier Publishers, 2004). (June 16, 2004)
The month of May was rocked by days of thunder, driving rains and above-average temperatures throughout the central New York region and beyond. Syracuse was saturated with a record-breaking 7.86 inches of rain and the Ithaca area was swamped with its eighth wettest May since 1879, according to Keith Eggleston, senior climatologist with Cornell University's Northeast Regional Climate Center. It was the fifth warmest May in Ithaca since 1872, with temperatures at 5.4 degrees above normal. Temperatures were 2.8 degrees above normal across New York, making it the 13th warmest May in the Empire State since 1894, Eggleston said. (June 11, 2004)