Ag Day

Ag Day -- A Celebration of Agriculture will be held Sept. 21, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on the Ag Quad. Free and open to the public.

The student-organized semiannual event brings together local producers, educators, students and agricultural enthusiasts to celebrate and educate, providing such hands-on educational activities as soil testing and plant identification and activities including a hay bale toss contest, cow chip bingo and pumpkin carving.

Past Ag Day participants have included crop and soil sciences and other academic departments, Cornell Plantations, local dairies, orchards, vegetable and fiber farms, and the Master Composter program. Information: pah89@cornell.edu

Plant sale

Cornell Plantations hosts a fall plant sale, Sept. 22, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Plant Production Facility in the F.R. Newman Arboretum.

Take home some of Plantations gardeners' top picks for your garden or landscape. Information: http://www.cornellplantations.org, 607-255-2400

Climate change

New York Times science writer Andrew Revkin will discuss climate change and hydrofracking in "Important Science in an Urgent Age," Sept. 24, 4:30 p.m. in Milstein Auditorium. Free and open to the public.

Revkin is internationally recognized for his expertise on climate change science, energy and related policy issues. A Times reporter from 1995-2009, he writes the "Dot Earth" environmental blog for the Times' Op-Ed section http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/. He also is a senior fellow at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University.

The lecture, presented by the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, will be streamed live at http://www.acsf.cornell.edu.

Microbial partners

Microbiologist and A.D. White Professor-at-Large Margaret McFall-Ngai visits campus Sept. 24-28 for a public lecture and other programs.

McFall-Ngai is a professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Hawaii. Her lecture, "Animals as Complex Communities: Making Peace With Trillions of Microbial Partners," is Sept. 25 at 4 p.m. in G-10 Biotechnology. Free; held in conjunction with a daylong symposium, "Microbial Friends and Foes: Cooperation and Conflict in Interspecific Associations."

She also engages in a public conversation on transparency in the fields of microbiology and architecture with visiting associate professor of architecture Mark Morris, Sept. 26, 4:30 p.m. in the A.D. White House Guerlac Room. The conversation is organized by professors Maria Fernandez, history of art and visual studies, and Simone Pinet, Romance studies, and presented by the A.D. White Professors-at-Large Program in conjunction with the Society for the Humanities and the College of Arts and Sciences. Information: http://adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu/visits2007.html.

Research for the good

Faculty members Elaine Wethington and Rachel Dunifon discuss their new book, "Research for the Public Good: Applying the Methods of Translational Research to Improve Human Health and Well-Being," in a Chats in the Stacks book talk, Sept. 27 at 4 p.m. in Mann Library 160. Free.

Helping to bridge the gaps among research, policy and practice, the book demonstrates how emerging methods of translational research can help us develop programs and policies that improve health and development. This broader, more inclusive approach has been promoted by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, medical centers and university programs. Published by the American Psychological Association, the book is the second of five planned volumes in the Bronfenbrenner Series on the Ecology of Human Development.

Co-editors Wethington, professor of human development, and Dunifon, associate professor of policy analysis and management, are associate directors in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.

Books will be available for purchase and signing. Information: 607-255-5406, http://mannlib.cornell.edu/events-exhibits.

Architecture walk

Cornell architectural historian Roberta Moudry will lead a tour of West Campus, Sept. 27 at 10:15 a.m. Open to the public. Meet at the foot of Libe Slope opposite the War Memorial.

West Campus has for more than a century been the site of student housing including Gothic towers, fraternities, cooperatives and the construction in recent years of architecturally and programmatically innovative residence halls and a community center, comprising the West Campus Residential Initiative.

The walk and talk will cover the early plans and partial construction of the Gothics and the university's first war memorial, the now-demolished University Halls of the 1950s, and the siting and design of the new West Campus houses, including a tour inside Hans Bethe House.

Sponsored by the Cornell Campus Club.

Literary travelogue

Cornell Cinema presents the local premiere of the new documentary "Patience (After Sebald)," Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre, introduced by professor of German studies Peter Gilgen.

Part travelogue, part biography and part character study, Grant Gee's film offers deep insight into writer W.G. Sebald and develops into an essay on art itself and a foray into the mind of the writer. With contributions from major writers, artists and filmmakers, the film is structured around a walk through coastal East Anglia, the same path followed by Sebald in his influential novel "The Rings of Saturn."

Critical potential

The Department of English presents the annual Gottschalk Memorial Lecture with Lynn Enterline, Ph.D. '89, Sept. 27, 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.

Her lecture, "Ethopoeia: On the Critical Potential of Passionate Character in Renaissance England," is free and open to the public.

Enterline is a professor of English at Vanderbilt University and the author of "The Rhetoric of the Body from Ovid to Shakespeare," "The Tears of Narcissus: Melancholia and Masculinity in Early Modern Writing" and "Shakespeare's Schoolroom: Rhetoric, Discipline, Emotion."

Viking talks

Neil Price, professor of archaeology at the University of Aberdeen, will give three Messenger Lectures on campus this week. All lectures are 4:30-6 p.m. in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. Free and open to the public.

The lectures are: "The Children of Ash: Cosmology and the Viking Universe," Sept. 25; "Life and Afterlife: Dealing with the Dead in the Viking Age," Sept. 26; and "The Shape of the Soul: The Viking Mind and the Individual," Sept. 27. Information: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/archaeology/profiles/neil.price/

Afro-Cuban jazz

The Gonzalo Rubalcaba Trio performs in the Cornell Concert Series Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

Rubalcaba is an eight-time Grammy nominee and a versatile pianist who blends Cuban and American traditions into a fresh, modern sound incorporating bop, classical and Afro-Cuban influences. He has recorded and played with jazz stars including Al di Meola, Charlie Haden, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea and Ron Carter.

The trio features Matt Brewer on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums.

Reserved seating tickets are $25-35 general; $17 students. A Cornell discount rate is available online with a valid netID. Visit http://ConcertSeries.Cornell.edu or http://www.baileytickets.com.

Information: 607-255-5144 or srk234@cornell.edu