Some people are never satisfied. First, nanotechnology researchers at Cornell built a device so sensitive it could detect the mass of a single bacterium - about 665 femtograms. Then they built one that could sense the presence of a single virus - about 1.5 femtograms. Now, with a refined technique, they have detected a single DNA molecule, weighing in at 995,000 Daltons - a shade more than 1 attogram - and can even count the number of DNA molecules attached to a single receptor by noting the difference in mass. (May 18, 2005)
Robots that walk like human beings are common in science fiction but not so easy to make in real life. The most famous current example, the Honda Asimo, moves smoothly but on large, flat feet. And compared with a person, it consumes much more energy.
On Dec. 12, officials from Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Nature Conservancy and other agencies held a press conference at a hunting lodge outside of Brinkley, Ark., to announce that a new search for the Ivory-billed woodpecker was now in full swing. (December 13, 2005)
What started as a casual screening of raspberry varieties in the greenhouse grew into a graduate student class project and may soon blossom into a large-scale, full-fledged agricultural industry for New York: fresh, sweet raspberries in winter.
One of the most bizarre and baffling cat behaviors, fabric-eating, is the subject of a new study at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, where nearby cats are sought for medical trials.
If Cornell University researchers and their colleagues have their way, cheetahs, lions, elephants, camels and other large wild animals may soon roam parts of North America. (Aug. 17, 2005)
Two fact sheets about salmonellosis. What is salmonellosis? How is it spread? Conditions under which salmonella survive in the environment? What are the symptoms of salmonella infection in humans?
Japanese shore crabs, a square-shaped crustacean that poses a direct threat to soft-shell (steamer) clams, mussels and lobsters, were discovered July 13 by Cornell University marine biologists in Owl's Head, Maine, on the shores of Penobscot Bay. The detection of this crab, which has the potential to hurt Maine's seafood industry.
H. Alex Brown, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology and newly named Kimmel Foundation Scholar in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell, is assembling a research team to study the function of phospholipase D, a natural enzyme that is believed to be a crucial biochemical link in the cell-signaling cascade that permits the spread of many kinds of cancer cells.