New York, NY (February 11, 2004) -- Capsule endoscopy, the "camera pill" device already shown to be effective in diagnosing conditions of the small intestine, may now be an effective non-invasive alternative for diagnosing conditions of the esophagus such as Barrett's esophagus, a common result of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The paper, authored by Dr. Felice Schnoll-Sussman, a gastroenterologist at the Jay Monahan center for Gastrointestinal Health at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, was recently presented at the meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
SEATTLE -- Most agronomists look to their laboratories, greenhouses or research farms for innovative new cropping techniques. But Jane Mt. Pleasant, professor of horticulture and director of the American Indian Program at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., has taken a different path, mining her Iroquois heritage for planting and cultivation methods that work for today's farmers. Mt. Pleasant studies what traditionally are known as the "three sisters": beans, corn and squash. These staples of Iroquois cropping are traditionally grown together on a single plot, mimicking natural systems in what agronomists call a polyculture. Though the Iroquois technique was not developed scientifically, Mt. Pleasant notes that it is "agronomically sound." The three sisters cropping system embodies all the things needed to make crops grow in the Northeast, she says. (February 11, 2004)
SEATTLE -- A Cornell University researcher is developing techniques for making photonic microchips -- in which streams of electrons are replaced by beams of light -- including ways to guide and bend light in air or a vacuum, to switch a beam of light on and off and to connect nanophotonic chips to optical fiber. Michal Lipson, an assistant professor at Cornell, in Ithaca, N.Y., described recent research by the Nanophotonics Group in Cornell's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle on Sunday, Feb. 15. Her talk was part of a symposium on "21st Century Photonics." (February 11, 2004)
Madzuu is a village in Kenya's western highlands and Lake Victoria basin where the rainfall is abundant, and there is some access to urban markets. And yet about 61 percent of the village population earned less than 50 cents a day.
SEATTLE-- Oxygen was discovered more than 230 years ago, seized center stage in the 18th century chemical revolution and is still catching fire today. Oxygen has been the subject of space missions, environmental and biological sciences and of drama. It was also the subject of an unusual symposium, "It's All About Oxygen," today (Feb. 14) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle. Participants approached the subject from historical, theatrical and strictly scientific perspectives, including a presentation on the recent remarkable discovery of the presence of ozone in living cells, its production catalyzed by antibodies. (Ozone is a form of oxygen in which the molecule contains three atoms instead of the normal two.) (February 11, 2004)
If today's global statistics of more than 3 billion malnourished people are worrisome, try projecting 50 years into the future, when Earth's population could exceed 12 billion and there could be even less water and land, per capita, to grow food.
On the evening of Feb. 21, internationally renowned musician Yair Dalal will return to Ithaca for a performance of his unique style of Middle Eastern music.
Two professors in the Cornell University College of Engineering have received prestigious $50,000 awards from the 2004 Lockheed Martin University Research Grants Program. The two recipients are Alyssa B. Apsel, the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mark Campbell, assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. (February 11, 2004)
Tickets for the Newport Jazz Festival at Ithaca's State Theater, $17. Admission to the Valentine's Day Dance on the Cornell University campus, $5. Seeing the Martian landscape in stereo, priceless. The "3-D" glasses are free, while the supply lasts. Cornell Provost Biddy Martin has purchased 1,000 red-blue filtered, stereo glasses from American Paper Optics, Bartlett, Tenn., for distribution to Cornell students to view online images of Mars. The glasses are available at the information desk at Cornell's student union, Willard Straight Hall, says Dave Cameron, the provost's special projects assistant who organized the distribution. (February 10, 2004)
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- One issue that provokes opposing views in this year's election battles is how to improve U.S. public schools. On Feb. 12, Harold O. Levy, former New York City schools chancellor, will tackle the controversial subjects of testing, performance and school attendance in "Helping our Children Learn: Critical Issues in Public Education", a talk in New York City. Levy, who holds undergraduate and law degrees from Cornell University (B.S '74, J.D. '79), headlines the first of four Cornell lectures in the city. Sponsored by the university's School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS), the Workplace Colloquium series takes place at the Cornell Club, 6 E. 44th Street (between Madison and Fifth avenues). (February 10, 2004)