science wire

Tapping into maple success through sanitation
The secret to success for maple syrup producers may lie in the science of sanitation. Simply changing taps and tubing or using special spouts could double the amount of sap seeping from New York's maple trees, according to Cornell experts who have spent six years researching the topic.

Portable device will quickly detect pathogens in developing countries
Two Cornell professors will combine their inventions to develop a handheld pathogen detector that will give health care workers in the developing world speedy results to identify in the field such pathogens as tuberculosis, chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV. Using synthetic DNA, Dan Luo, professor of biological and environmental engineering, has devised a method of "amplifying" very small samples of pathogen DNA, RNA or proteins.

Volunteers sought for simulated Mars mission and study of ’menu fatigue’
Astronauts on a mission to Mars will need much more than freeze-dried ice cream to sustain them, and researchers at Cornell are working to determine the best way to keep them well nourished during their three-year journeys and four-month stays on the Red Planet.

New model shows how often to review material for flashcard programs
A challenge for students and teachers - and today, for designers of educational software: How often should material be reviewed for best learning? Wait too long to review and it fades away; review too soon and the effort is wasted.

Among disadvantaged, college reduces odds for marriage
For those with few social advantages, college is a prime pathway to financial stability, but it also unexpectedly lowers their odds of ever marrying, according to an analysis by Cornell sociologist Kelly Musick in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family (74:1).

Researchers provide new insight into how metals fail
The eventual failure of metals, such as the aluminum in ships and airplanes, can often be blamed on breaks, or voids, in the material's atomic lattice. They're at first invisible, only microns in size, but once enough of them link up, the metal eventually splits apart. Cornell engineers, trying to better understand this process, have discovered that nanoscale voids behave differently than the larger ones that are hundreds of thousands of atoms in scale, studied through traditional physics.

Sustainable seaweed: Researchers explore algae-based animal feed
The pigs and poultry in Professor Xingen Lei's lab have been consuming feed one wouldn't expect in Ithaca: marine algae.

Guilt, gender play major roles in human-animal relations
Until recently, most archaeologists viewed human-animal relationships primarily in terms of their dietary role.

Researchers put the squeeze on citrus disease by developing trees that taste bad to bugs
With Florida's $9 billion citrus industry threatened by a deadly bacterial disease, Rick Kress '73 asked scientists at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva for help.

Sound effects: Book examines impact of sound on culture
In "The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies" (Oxford University Press), co-editor Trevor Pinch, professor of sociology and of science and technology studies, takes a look at how sound is experienced in machine shops, design studios, private homes and dance clubs.

Herriot, a luscious new strawberry, beats out other varieties
Strawberry lovers will soon have Herriot - a sweet treat featuring a flavor reminiscent of historic varieties and a slight pineapple overtone - to look forward to, thanks to a new variety of large, heart-shaped fruit developed by Cornell.

On the New York veggie forefront: Tatsoi, shiso, maxixe and other ethnic delectables
Komatsuna. Shiso. Winged beans. Maxixe. They're not your garden-variety vegetables. But while they may be relatively unknown outside of their home countries, a project by Cornell Cooperative Extension is trying to give these crops their time in the sun.

Center for Advanced Computing receives national award for hepatitis research
The Cornell Center for Advanced Computing (CAC) has received a High-Performance Computing Innovation Excellence Award from the International Data Corp.

Large and in charge: Powerful people overestimate their own height
The psychological experience of power makes people feel taller than they are, according to research by ILR School associate professor of organizational behavior Jack Goncalo and a Washington University colleague. "Although a great deal of research has shown that physically imposing individuals are more likely to acquire power, this work is the first to show that the powerful may actually feel taller than they are," Goncalo and Michelle Duguid write in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science.

Strep-resistant fire blight found in New York orchards
Cornell plant pathologists have issued a warning to New York apple and pear growers after discovering a strain of fire blight that is resistant to such traditional treatments as the antibiotic streptomycin.

Revolutionary tool will methodically track fish populations in the ocean
Oceanographer Chuck Greene envisions a day when he will be able to observe the ocean the way a meteorologist observes the weather - with continuous streams of data that allow him to see changes as they happen and predict future impacts on marine animal populations and ecosystems. That day may be coming soon, thanks to a revolutionary ocean-observing tool he is helping to optimize, one capable of collecting and transmitting ecosystem data to his desktop in real time.

Slaves or not, Babylonians were much like us, says book
They got married, had children, made beer. Although they lived 3,500 years ago in Nippur, Babylonia, in many ways they seem like us.

’Smart’ bird feeders can track who eats when
To study bird feeding and breeding behavior, ornithologists used to tag birds with colored bands and then painstakingly track the birds' activity.

Now you see it, now you didn’t: Cloaking a moment in time
In movie magic, people and objects can appear or disappear or move from place to place in an instant. Just stop the camera, move things around and start it again. Now, Cornell researchers have demonstrated a similar "temporal cloak" - albeit on a very small scale - in the transport of information by a beam of light.

Compound that controls Listeria
In a year when cantaloupe tainted with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes killed 30 people, the discovery of a compound that controls this deadly bacteria - and possibly others - is great news. Cornell researchers have identified a compound called fluoro-phenyl-styrene-sulfonamide (FPSS) that is safe for mammals but stops Listeria in its tracks.

Classicist is uncovering lives of ancient artists
In a corner of Verity Platt's Goldwin Smith Hall office sits a large plaster reproduction of a famous classical sculpture fragment, the Belvedere Torso.

Worm compost can suppress plant disease, regulate nutrients, research finds
Organic growers could soon have another weapon in their arsenal, courtesy of the humble worm. Cornell researchers have found that vermicompost - the product if composting using various species of worms - is not only an excellent fertilizer, but could also help prevent a pathogen that has been a scourge to greenhouse growers.

Divorce fears widespread among young cohabiting couples
With the share of married adults at an all-time low in the United States, new research by demographers at Cornell and the University of Central Oklahoma offers clues about what's preventing young adults from tying the knot. Through qualitative s with 122 cohabiting men and women, ages 18-36, researchers found widespread apprehension about divorce - even in those with no personal experience of divorce.

New book on teen brains can help improve reasoning, decision making
Teenage brains undergo big changes, and they won't look or function like adult brains until well into one's 20s.

Teens more likely to eat breakfast if visited by virtual ’pets’
A fake Fido can motivate your child to eat breakfast, reports a new study. In a Cornell experiment, researchers found that teens who received feedback from virtual pets on a smartphone about their morning food choices were twice as likely to eat breakfast. The study - one of the first to test efficacy of mobile technologies to motivate adolescents to make healthy nutritional choices - was published Nov.

After years of ’fracking,’ Pennsylvanians remain mixed about gas drilling
Despite having an eight-year head start on Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction, Pennsylvania residents are just as uncertain about the effects of horizontal hydraulic drilling as New Yorkers, researchers at Cornell and Penn State have found.

Report: Online coupons help consumers and restaurants
Daily online deals, or so-called "social coupons," help restaurants and consumers, according to a new report from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CHR).

Figurines reveal cross-pollination of religions in ancient Greece
The sectarian wars raging around the globe attest to the rigidity of many religious outlooks today. But in the second century BCE, residents on the Greek island of Delos saw nothing wrong with using others' gods in their prayers.

As Earth warms, plants and bees keep pace, study reports
As the warm temperatures of spring start a little earlier each year due to climate change, bees and plants are keeping pace, according to a new study published online Dec. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An analysis of bee collection data over the past 130 years shows that spring arrives about 10 days earlier than in the 1880s, and bees and flowering plants have kept pace by arriving earlier in lock-step.

Artificial intestine could treat children’s bowel condition
A tiny 3-D collagen "scaffold" developed in a Cornell lab could prove a lifesaver for those who have lost parts of their intestine.

Research on sand dunes wins award
A Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q)/Cornell research project to better understand microbes in sand dunes and engineer microbiological methods to prevent mobile sand dunes from encroaching onto infrastructure won the "Best Environment Research Program of the Year" at the Annual Research Forum of the Qatar Foundation in Doha, Nov.

Economists: 9 million lost health insurance in recession
The "Great Recession" of 2007-09 - the longest and most severe U.S. recession since 1933 - has cost an estimated 9.3 million American adults their health insurance coverage due to unemployment, reports a working paper published online in November by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Study may lead to drug therapies to prevent atherosclerosis
As inevitable as the wrinkling of skin with age is the hardening of the blood vessels - a condition called atherosclerosis that is often blamed for heart disease. New Cornell research offers a clue into the underlying causes of atherosclerosis in terms of how the cells that line the blood vessels, called endothelial cells, behave as the vessels stiffen with age.

Boyce Thompson joins forces with other plant nonprofits to benefit humanity
Boyce Thompson joins forces with other plant nonprofits to benefit humanity The Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) at Cornell has joined forces with three other U.S. nonprofit plant science research institutions to form the Association of Independent Plant Research Institutes (AIPI) in an effort to target research to meet the profound challenges facing society in a more coordinated and rapid fashion.

Cash for Clunkers was a clunker, says energy economist
The 2009 Cash for Clunkers federal vehicle trade-in program was a clunker, concludes a new study. The program, it says, would have been more effective with higher fuel economy requirements for new vehicles and different vehicle-age thresholds for various types of trade-in vehicles.

Vet College now one of only two schools to offer ’ablation’ to cure dogs’ racing hearts
Taking advantage of a feat that synthesized human and veterinary medical procedures and united cardiologists from two continents and four medical institutions, a 2-year-old Brittany spaniel has a new outlook on life, renewed energy and an insatiable appetite.

$7 million grant to help boost Uganda’s banana production
Pests and diseases that attack the Matoke banana, one of Uganda's primary food staples, is the focus of a $7.07 million grant awarded to Cornell by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

More than just tape: 3M partners with food scientist
When Martin Wiedmann, professor of food science, tests meat samples suspected to be tainted with salmonella, he may be able to do so even faster, thanks to a new high-tech tool recently added to his arsenal.

How unchecked alarms can spark autoimmune disease
One in five Americans suffers from autoimmune disease, in which the immune system goes off-track and attacks the body's own cells.

Physicists: Did neutrinos break the speed of light?
The revolutionary news that an experiment measured particles traveling faster than the speed of light drew varied ages and backgrounds to a standing-room only physics department forum, "Faster Than the Speed of Light'," in Clark Hall Nov. 17. The experiment that triggered the excitement was simple: Scientists at the CERN accelerator in Switzerland fired a beam of neutrinos 730 kilometers through the mountains to the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy and its enormous OPERA neutrino detector.

Structured English brings robots closer to everyday users
Move over, Jetsons. A humanoid robot named Mae is traipsing around Cornell's Autonomous Systems Lab, guided by plain-English instructions and sometimes even appearing to get frustrated. Mae understands and executes English commands, thanks to algorithms and a software toolkit called Linear Temporal Logic Mission Planning (LTLMoP) being developed in the lab of Hadas Kress-Gazit, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Rice workshop attracts international participants
The First International Workshop on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Latin America and the Caribbean was held at Earth University in Costa Rica Oct.

Female athletes with low iron levels face a competitive disadvantage
Female athletes with low levels of iron in their bodies, yet who are not anemic, may be at a disadvantage even before their competitive season starts, according to a new Cornell study. These athletes could benefit from early screening and monitoring for anemia and low iron reserves at the beginning of the training season, the authors found.

Digitizing a best-kept secret: Cornell’s coin collection
Cornell's coin collection is one of the best-kept secrets on campus, but if archaeologist Annetta Alexandridis has her way, the world will soon have access to every one of its 1,500 coins.

Big portions, cheap food and other factors make us fat
To eat or not to eat - that would seem to be the question for people who want to lose weight. But a dieter's decision to eat is often determined by powerful environmental cues that he or she is probably not even aware of.

Gifted 14-year-old scientist conducts research at Cornell
Could your discarded jack-o'-lantern be repurposed... as a water purifier? That's what one young scientist has come to Cornell to find out.

Apples with catchy names may boost revenue for farmers
A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but an apple by another name could fetch a much sweeter price for farmers.

Aerosols make fixing climate change even costlier
Remediating long-term effects of fossil fuel combustion and other human-driven processes filling the atmosphere with invisible particles will be even costlier than previously thought, a Cornell earth scientist is claiming in a new study. Natalie Mahowald, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, reports , Nov.

New book shares life lessons from ’wisest Americans’
For 25 years, Cornell gerontologist Karl Pillemer has researched answers to many facets of aging - coping with Alzheimer's disease, improving nursing home care and supporting family caregivers.

Faculty fellow studies sound art of old recordings
Brian Hanrahan has a special appreciation for the crackle, fuzz and background chatter that characterize old radio broadcasts.

Drinking ’raw’ milk puts farmworkers, babies and others at higher disease risk
Will a fresh glass of "raw" milk nourish or poison you? Pasteurization almost always provides protection from contamination. Unpasteurized "raw" milk, on the other hand, provides a potential breeding ground for disease-causing bacteria such as E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter and Salmonella, all of which have caused outbreaks spread by raw milk in the past year, said Ynte Schukken, professor of epidemiology and herd health at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Graphene to propel mechanical device technology forward
Graphene is sort of a scientific rock star, with countless groups studying its amazing electrical properties and tensile strength and dreaming up applications ranging from flat-panel screens to elevators in space.

Switching light on and off -- with just a few photons
Cornell researchers have demonstrated that the passage of a light beam through an optical fiber can be controlled by just a few photons of another light beam. Such all-optical control is the idea behind photonics, where beams of light replace electric currents in circuits, yielding higher speed and lower power consumption.

To dredge or not to dredge: Class analyzes inlet options
Every fall, students in Restoration Ecology (HORT 4400) take on a real-world project in the local community, working together to gather data, analyze the issues and report their findings.

Scientists hone the power of grass fuel -- with help from New York school district
It takes 70 million years to grow a crop of fossil fuel but just 70 days to grow a crop of grass pellet fuel.

Scientists tackle threat to New York’s garlic industry
Cornell nematologist George S. Abawi, Ph.D. '70, is on a mission to help save one of New York's burgeoning agricultural commodities: garlic.

Microbes and toxins might be making you fat or diabetic
Could persistent pollutants like DDT and PCBs or chemicals found in plastics be making you fat or diabetic? The answer may depend on what sort of bacteria you have churning around in your gut, according to Cornell scientists.

NSF funds graphene project, supports women in nanoscience
Research into new applications for graphene, as well as supporting women who work in the field of nanoelectronics, will result from a new National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to Cornell.

Chemically assembled metamaterials could lead to superlenses and cloaking
Nanomanufacturing technology has enabled scientists to create metamaterials - stuff that never existed in nature - with unusual optical properties.

Obesity: Genes are the loaded gun, ’but environment pulls the trigger’
Universities need to work with industry to develop realistic solutions to harmonize food systems with human health, according to panelists at a Morrison Hall symposium on Oct.

Cybertools and Sinhala archive will improve analysis of world’s 7,000 languages
A new generation of cybertools developed at Cornell will help researchers share and analyze rare Sri Lankan language recordings important for studying language acquisition in children.

USDA funds $2.3M study of organically growing spelt, emmer, einkorn
To enhance the market value of such organically grown grains such as heritage wheat, emmer, spelt and einkorn, Cornell has received $2.3 million over four years from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Researchers get grants to sweeten New York apple crop
An abundance of crisp, sugary fruit has made the 2011 apple harvest an especially sweet one for New York growers, but Cornell researchers hope to make future crops even more valuable by reducing tree and fruit losses and enhancing production efficiency.

Researchers create transistors from natural cotton fibers
Smarter, more functional clothing incorporating electronics may be possible in the near future, according to a study co-authored by Cornell fiber scientist Juan Hinestroza. Hinestroza, associate professor of fiber science, was part of an international team that developed transistors using natural cotton fibers.

Your phone as counselor: monitoring mental health from your pocket
Your smartphone knows where you go and how fast, while its microphone hears your voice. Soon, your phone may use these capabilities to measure the stress in your life and help you deal with it.

Study analyzes only known footage of the largest woodpecker that ever lived
The imperial woodpecker - the largest woodpecker that ever lived - probably went extinct in the late 20th century in the high mountains of Mexico, without anyone ever capturing photos or film of the 2-foot-tall, flamboyantly crested bird.

Study of twins will explore links among genes, gut bacteria
A study of twins may lead to better understanding whether genes play a role in what kind of gut microbes a person has, and if this interplay influences such conditions as Crohn's disease, obesity and diabetes.

New York’s 4-H program to become more research-based
To strengthen its ties to research, oversight of 4-H - New York state's largest youth development program - has moved to Cornell's new Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research from Cornell Cooperative Extension. The move will provide new opportunities for teaching and research and help to improve 4-H programs.

Native bees are better pollinators, more plentiful than honeybees, finds entomologist
The honeybee has hogged the pollination spotlight for centuries, but native bees are now getting their fair share of buzz: They are two to three times better pollinators than honeybees, are more plen

From red planet to deep blue sea: Astronomer Squyres becomes NASA aquanaut
Cornell professor of astronomy Steven Squyres, the lead scientist for NASA's Rover mission to Mars, has just taken the plunge as a NASA aquanaut.

Of mice and women: Ithaca-Weill collaborations boost research and recruiting, say panelists
Of mice and women: Ithaca-Weill collaborations boost research and recruiting, say panelists Collaborations between researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Ithaca campus yield results that might otherwise be impossible, according to an Oct.

Lies, buys and revolutions: Social media -- revered or reviled -- is here to stay, says Hancock
Lies, buys and revolutions: Social media - revered or reviled - is here to stay, says Hancock The explosion of social media is allowing social scientists to extract meaningful "knowledge" from

Researchers watch how ’heavy fermions’ get less heavy
By "tuning" the behavior of "heavy-fermion" materials, we may learn more about how superconductivity works, according to a new Cornell study reported Oct. 17 in the Early Online Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers attack a stinker of a pest; iPhone users can help track the invader
A new hobo pest - the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) - is pigging out on many of North America's most important crops, posing an unprecedented threat to U.S. agriculture, say experts. "There's been nothing like this in several decades," says Peter Jentsch, a researcher at Cornell's Hudson Valley Laboratory and one of 10 Cornell scientists and 70 others, including some as far afield as Oregon and Florida, looking for ways the curb the pest, which caused catastrophic damage in 2010.

Kiln to make rural Kenyan village energy self-sufficiency with agricultural boon
The increasing costs of fuel for transportation are hampering development of rural communities in developing countries, but an interdisciplinary team of Cornell scientists believes they may have found a sustainable solution: biochar.

Study with Dr. Oz: Peer mentors help improve diets in at-risk high schools
A Cornell economist in collaboration with Oz of TV fame finds that using peer mentors in high schools is an effective way to get teens to make better food choices and get more exercise. The study's most striking finding: The mentoring program prompted high school students to cut their consumption of soda pop by 13 percent - 26 percent among girls.

NSF grant funds ILR research to unlock U.S. Census data
The ILR School's Labor Dynamics Institute will receive almost $3 million over five years to establish research networks ("nodes") to solve problems confronting national statistics agencies. The network is intended to foster long-term collaborations between university-based research teams and the statistical agencies.

Worobo discovers compound in a honey that could lead to a new natural preservative
Honey has been used as a topical antibiotic since the Egyptians wrote papyrus prescriptions. Now, a Cornell food scientist has identified an antimicrobial compound in a honey that makes it a promising candidate as a natural preservative to prevent food-borne illness and food spoilage. Randy Worobo, associate professor of food microbiology at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, and his lab members tested more than 2,000 strains of bacteria from eight types of honey from the United States and New Zealand.

Multiphoton endoscope could bring diagnostic imaging into doctors’ offices
From precancerous lesions in the bladder to polyps in the colon, pathologists are constantly examining tissue biopsies for diagnoses.

Nobel laureate explains putting the squeeze on hydrogen
Hydrogen, normally a gas, may act like a metal when squeezed under extreme pressure. In that state, competing chemical and physical effects determine its properties, said Nobel laureate Roald Hoffman

$3.45M for new technologies to study birds, other species
A gift and a grant totaling $3.45 million will help the Cornell Lab of Ornithology develop new computer technologies to better understand the movements and behaviors of birds and other species.

With NSF and Microsoft support, Cornell team aims to take errors out of cloud computing
Cloud computing, which taps the resources of a network of remote computers, offers tremendous potential for storing and processing vast amounts of data quickly and cheaply.

Dig no more: Just till 2 inches for tulip bulbs, study finds
Just till and fill, and toil no more when planting tulip bulbs. A Cornell study shows that a much easier method of planting tulip bulbs is just as effective as digging the traditional 6 to 8 inch holes for each bulb. Gardeners need only "top plant": Till (loosen the soil) about 2 inches deep, place the bulbs on top of the soil and then cover them with a 2 to 4 inch layer of mulch and water to achieve successful tulips that will thrive year after year.

Different ages need different risk messages, research finds
From emergency evacuation notices to how many vegetables to eat, people need good information to make good choices. Ineffective risk communication, such as the drug warning inserts in tiny type on paper folded over some 12 times, can cost lives, money and reputations. A chapter on risk communication by Valerie Reyna, professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology and co-director of Cornell's Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision Research, in a new book explains how people of different ages have different needs when it comes to understanding risk messages.

96 percent of vertebrates descended from common ancestor with ’sixth sense’
Although humans experience the world through five senses, sharks, paddlefishes and certain other aquatic vertebrates have another sense: They can detect weak electrical fields in the water and use this information to detect prey, communicate and orient themselves. Now, a study in the Oct. 11 issue of Nature that caps more than 25 years of work finds that the vast majority of vertebrates - some 30,000 species of land animals (including humans) and a roughly equal number of ray-finned fishes - descended from a common ancestor that had a well-developed electroreceptive system.

Community workforce agreements expand economic opportunity
Community workforce agreements (CWAs) - increasingly common provisions of project labor agreements that often require developers and municipalities meet social investment and local hiring standards

Experts explore links between risk-taking, brain mechanisms
Most diseases people die from are those borne of bad choices.

Managing nutrient runoff is key to reducing certain toxic aquatic blooms, researchers say
Many scientists believe that an unfortunate perfect storm of climate change and nutrient runoff will synergistically increase toxic cyanobacterial blooms globally in coming years. A synthesis article co-authored by a Cornell researcher in the Perspectives section of the Oct. 6 issue of the journal Science argues that local efforts to control such nutrient runoff as phosphorus and nitrogen from farms, lawns and parking lots into streams, lakes and rivers - and ultimately the oceans - could stave off cyanobacterial blooms around the world, despite a warming climate.

Nearly one-quarter of takeout restaurants surveyed offer online ordering
A new Cornell study finds that about one-quarter of U.S. takeout restaurants surveyed accept online orders.

New Labor Dynamics Institute to shed light on labor market
The new Labor Dynamics Institute at the ILR School will create and make accessible new data on the dynamics of labor markets.

Science and humanities wed to explore origins and consequences of domesticated rice
At Cornell, studying the origins and spread of domesticated rice doesn't just involve plant geneticists; but a new course also includes insights from archaeology, geography, plant genetics, anthropology and linguistics.

Forum links young scientists on sustainability challenges
Researchers in the natural sciences come up with new technologies all the time that have the potential to solve sustainability problems, from energy use to economic development.

Weatherspoon gets $1.35M to fix ’potholes’ in private information superhighways
To avoid the congestion of the public Internet, scientists, the military and the managers of huge "cloud computing" data centers have created private information superhighways - dedicated fiber-optic systems known as lambda networks.

The arXiv at 20: a global resource
As the e-print arXiv of scientific publications celebrates its 20th anniversary, what started as an effort to "level the playing field" for researchers has created a whole new playing field on which the white lines are still not clearly drawn.

Dinosaur detectives on display at Museum of the Earth
Putting itself on display through a clear glass window, the Cornell-affiliated Museum of the Earth's fossil preparation laboratory has opened to visitors, who can now watch paleontologists - including several Cornell students - carve away at hunks of rock to reveal the fossils inside.

NSF-funded project to test cloud computing for smart grid
A Cornell research team has received a four-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a system for computation and information sharing when designing a "smart" electrical grid.

Pinstrup-Andersen co-pens new book on food policy
Despite technological advances in agriculture, nearly a billion people around the world still suffer from hunger and poor nutrition.

Lower housing prices may cut college enrollment, especially for the poor
Plummeting housing prices could lead to a decline in college enrollment as families cut back on expenses, finds a new Cornell study by economist Michael Lovenheim.

Folate, a B vitamin, may treat inherited myopathies
Mitochondrial depletion syndrome accounts for about 11 percent of the cases of children born with common myopathies and a more mild form of the syndrome affecting adults.

’Plant inventor’ engineers black-and-white cucumbers, pear-flavored melons
By age 4, Michael Mazourek was already fascinated by bell peppers, squash and sugar peas, the vegetables that featured prominently in his first garden.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz: Alka-Seltzer found to help wine industry, with potential for construction industry, too
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz: Alka-Seltzer found to help wine industry, with potential for construction industry, too Alka-Seltzer has been soothing human indigestion and heartburn for years. Now, it's helping out the wine industry. Elemental sulfur is wine's "frenemy" - it effectively keeps the ubiquitous powdery mildew disease in vineyards at bay, but excessive residues carried over into wine can result in a rotten egg aroma.

Size matters: Length of songbirds’ playlists linked to relative size of their brain parts
The term "birdbrain" may take on new meaning as a Cornell study is the first to prove that the capacity for learning in birds is not linked to overall brain size, but to the relative size of their brain parts. The study finds that songbirds whose higher brain areas are larger in relation to lower brain areas have a greater capacity for learning songs.

When opting for happiness or income, many go for the cash
Given the choice, would you take a good-paying job with reasonable demands on your time or a high-paying job with longer work hours, permitting only six hours of sleep? Many people opt for the cash,

Cornell raspberry variety extends harvest into November
Cornell's new raspberry variety, Crimson Giant, is fashionably late.

Cornell library receives gay-related photo collection
In the early 1980s, with the gay community in the terrifying grip of an unidentified new disease, New York City lawyer Harry Weintraub started collecting photographs. "I began this collection in earnest because of the AIDS crisis," he said. "Men were dying all around me. ... I was intent on trying to preserve not only their histories, but the histories of those who came before." Many families were embarrassed by their gay relatives and would throw out their personal effects, Weintraub said, because "they just wanted to get rid of everything.

Book gives the skinny on wide-ranging obesity research
Along with a sharp rise in recent decades in worldwide obesity rates has come a flood of research on the subject - more than 66,000 papers in the past 10 years, according to one estimate.

Promise for controlling destructive alfalfa snout beetle
The destructive alfalfa snout beetle (ASB) is under seige on northern New York farms, thanks to field research led by Cornell scientists.

Largest rice genetics study finds vast differences between Asian rice subpopulations
The largest publicly available genomewide association mapping study in rice to date has found that although the five subpopulations of Asian rice - indica, aus, temperate japonica, aromatic and tropical japonica - all belong to one species ( Oryza sativa ), their genetic structures are so different that, genetically speaking, they are almost like different species.

Discovery could lead to ways to halt spread of herpesvirus
Herpesviruses are thrifty reproducers - they only send off their most infectious progeny to invade new cells. Two Cornell virologists recently have discovered how these viruses determine which progeny to release. The College of Veterinary Medicine researchers report in the Aug. 23 (108:34) issue I of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the mechanisms of this quality-control system, which helps streamline viral reproduction to optimize its spreading.

Optofluidics could change energy field, say engineers
The ability to manipulate light and fluids on a single chip, broadly called "optofluidics," has led to such technologies as liquid-crystal displays and liquid-filled optical fibers for fast data transfer.

NSF renews Cornell Center for Materials Research funding
Characters in science fiction often say things like "I don't know what this is made of.

Endeavour crater provides possible evidence of past water
The Mars rover Opportunity is a senior citizen, but still spry, and as it peers over the rim of the giant impact crater called Endeavour, it's embarking on what could be called a new mission, say its NASA guides. "You're coming along with us to a brand new geologic field site," said Steve Squyres, Cornell's Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy and principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, addressing reporters during a Sept.

From paint to toothpaste, researchers capture microscopic origin of thinning and thickening fluids
From paint to toothpaste, researchers capture microscopic origin of thinning and thickening fluids Ever wonder why paint is thick enough to stay on a wall but thin enough to spread evenly with a brush‘ Or, how people can run across a swimming pool filled with a cornstarch-water mixture without sinking' They're both examples of what happens when particles are suspended in fluids.

Cornell planning professor studies costs of the boom-bust cycle in natural gas extraction
New York state may permit shale gas drilling after recently lifting a yearlong moratorium. In addition to environmental concerns over water and air quality, there are significant economic questions to consider, says economic geographer Susan Christopherson.

Robots learn to handle objects, understand new places
Infants spend their first few months learning to find their way around and manipulating objects, and they are very flexible about it: Cups can come in different shapes and sizes, but they all have handles. So do pitchers, so we pick them up the same way. Similarly, your personal robot in the future will need the ability to generalize - for example, to handle your particular set of dishes and put them in your particular dishwasher.

Chatty robots go viral on YouTube
An online chat between two robots set up by Cornell students is entertaining the nation. "It was just an afternoon hack," said Hod Lipson, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Research will speed the tracing of salmonella outbreaks
During such mass food-poisoning outbreaks as the recent contamination of ground turkey, speedy identification of the bacteria involved can save lives and reduce illness. New research co-authored by a Cornell food scientist will accelerate the process of identifying strains of salmonella bacteria behind food poisonings - and reduce the time it takes to track the culprit from farm to fork.

Her closeness to his buddies can trigger male sex problems
An older man whose female partner is chummy with his pals is more likely to suffer from sexual dysfunction than men who keep their confidantes to themselves, reports a new Cornell study. However, this link disappeared among the oldest men in the study. Benjamin Cornwell, assistant professor of sociology, and co-author Edward Laumann of the University of Chicago, analyzed data on 3,005 adults aged 57 to 85 from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project.

U.S. disability system is failing, says professor in new book
Richard V. Burkhauser, the Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Policy Analysis in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, has co-authored a new book, "The Declining Work and Welfare of People with Disabilities: What Went Wrong and a Strategy for Change" (AEI Press).

Small restaurants counter backlash against chains
When large restaurant companies implement sustainability policies, customers are deeply skeptical of the efforts - and their opinion of those companies may actually diminish.

New physics Researchers see uptick in rare particle decay
An incredibly rare sub-atomic particle decay might not be quite as rare as previously predicted, say Cornell researchers. This discovery, culled from a vast data set at the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), is a clue for physicists trying to catch glimpses of how the universe began. The work, which is generating buzz because of its possible implications for the existence of new physics, has been submitted to Physical Review Letters by an international team of scientists, among them Julia Thom-Levy, Cornell assistant professor of physics, and graduate student Walter Hopkins.

Simply eating a lighter lunch can prompt weight loss
Losing weight without dieting, going hungry or using an expensive high-protein liquid diet can be as simple as eating a smaller lunch, reports a new Cornell study that is online and will be published in the journal Appetite in October.

Series explores how to cut poverty but preserve wildlife
In rural areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America, poor farmers supplement their livelihoods by hunting and cutting wood, but such practices seriously threaten biodiversity in the developing world.

Mars rover Opportunity arrives at Endeavour crater
Mars rover Opportunity arrives at Endeavour crater After a journey of almost three years, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the Red Planet's Endeavour crater to study rocks never seen before.

Hotline and wine lab -- with state-of-the-art equipment -- relaunch after 25 years
Marauding bacteria and wayward chemical reactions can drive fermentation awry, but for New York state wineries, help is just a phone call away.

’Endless Forms’ uses the Web to breed 3-D printable objects
Just like generations of plants and animals evolve in nature, Cornell engineers are allowing anyone online to guide the evolution of printable, three-dimensional objects, aiming to revolutionize the design of art, architecture and even artificial intelligence.

Words from the wise: Legacy Project collects senior wisdom
When turning 50, "I began to notice some differences in my perspective on life," says Cornell gerontologist Karl Pillemer.

Cornell expertise helps develop wireless sensors powered by vibration to launch an upstate startup
Cornell expertise helps develop wireless sensors powered by vibration to launch an upstate startup In a few years, MicroGen Systems Inc., a startup incubating in the Cornell Business and Technol