New York, NY (January 25, 2002) - One of the challenges posed by the tubercle bacillus, which causes tuberculosis (TB), is to understand how the bacillus, once it infects tissue, persists for a person's entire lifetime despite the attack of the body's immune system. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) persists despite prolonged oxidative and nitrosative stress-forces that the immune system uses to kill many other invading pathogens. Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College, led by Dr. Carl Nathan, have now found that Mtb defends itself against oxidative stress by using a "bucket brigade" of proteins - including two proteins that have been widely known as being involved in essential metabolism.
Harry Potter fans and bird enthusiasts from all walks of life are invited to help track "Harry Potter's owl" and other birds Feb. 15-18, in the fifth annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). A project of Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology with sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited, the GBBC asks everyone with an interest in birds -- families, individuals, classrooms, community groups -- to count the numbers and kinds of birds they see during any or all of the four count days. They can count in their backyards, schoolyards, local parks, nature centers, even at the office. (January 28, 2002)
Peter C. Meinig, a 1962 graduate of Cornell University and chairman and chief executive officer of HM International Inc. of Tulsa, Okla., was unanimously elected chairman of the Cornell Board of Trustees at its first meeting of 2002 in New York City, Jan. 25. Meinig's one-year term begins July 1. He will succeed Harold Tanner, a 1952 Cornell graduate who has served as chairman since 1997. (January 28, 2002)
New York, NY -- Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., and Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York City, together have nine researchers who are among the world's most often-cited authors, according to a new World Wide Web service, ISIHighlyCited.com, a unit of Thomson Corp. The free, online service, which brings together the publication and career records of preeminent researchers worldwide, culled the Cornell names from Thomson's authoritative ISI Citation Database. (January 27, 2002)
Reporter Beth (Jackendoff) Harpaz, a 1981 graduate of Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences and author of the new book, The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary (St. Martin's Press), will visit the Cornell campus Feb. 4.
Fingerprint identification, which recently was ruled by a Philadelphia federal judge to be scientifically flawed as evidence, is unlikely to be replaced by DNA profiling in the courts, says a Cornell researcher.
A vigorous advocate for healthful and environmentally "green" workplaces, Edward Cohen-Rosenthal died Jan. 19 at Gilchrist Hospice Center in Baltimore, Md., after a six-year struggle with cancer.
Congratulations! You have just been elected to the village council. Unfortunately, you are not yet an expert in land-use policy, economic development, agricultural development or roads and corridor issues. What are you going to do? "You need to get a fast education on community development," suggests Timothy Cullenen of Cornell University's Community and Rural Development (CaRDI) program. Learning quickly online is now possible at , a new Web site developed by faculty and researchers at CaRDI and Pennsylvania State University's Cooperative Extension division. The education site went online this month. (January 23, 2002)
Cornell University Library has received an $830,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to digitize the remaining records in its card catalog and add them to its online catalog.
GENEVA, N.Y. -- Writing in the medical journal, The Lancet, scientists from Cornell University and Seoul National University offer a more precise explanation for vitamin C's anti-cancer activity. And they suggest that a natural chemical from apples works even better than vitamin C. Their report appears in the Jan. 12, 2002, issue of The Lancet, (Vol. 359, No. 9301), the weekly journal for physicians published in London. (January 22, 2002)