Developing biofuels in a sustainable way is essential for U.S. economy, note researchers at Cornell symposium: Sponsored and hosted by the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, the symposium sought to address "cost-effective environmentally responsible solutions for meeting energy demands," said Tom Brutnell, associate scientist at BTI and Cornell adjunct professor of plant biology and of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell, one of the eight presenters.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec07/BTI.biofuels.sg.html

Major international study warns global warming is destroying coral reefs and calls for 'drastic actions': "It's vital that the public understands that the lack of sustainability in the world's carbon emissions is causing the rapid loss of coral reefs, the world's most biodiverse marine ecosystem," said Drew Harvell, Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and head of the Coral Disease Research Team, which is part of the international Coral Reef Targeted Research (CRTR) group that wrote the new studypublished in the journal Science on Dec. 13.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec07/climate.kills.coral.sl.html

Research on how plants transport sugars could be of critical importance in era of global warming: Using genetic engineering techniques, Cornell researchers have finally proven a long-standing theory of how many plants ship sugars from their leaves to flowers, roots, fruits and other parts of their structure. The theory of transporting sugar, the polymer trap model, was first proposed in 1991 by Robert Turgeon, Cornell professor of plant biology. He is also the senior author of the latest research published in the Dec. 4 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec07/McCaskillPhloem.kr.html

'Sick' housing market and Iraq war spending add to weakened economy, says CU economist: A weak U.S. dollar, war spending, and falling housing prices are likely to contribute to weakening the 2008 economy, said Steven Kyle, associate professor of applied economics and management, a Cornell economist who shared his predictions for next year at a Dec. 18 agribusiness conference at Cornell. The conference also included two speakers on immigration reform who detailed the effect that millions of illegal workers have on the U.S. economy.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec07/econ.conf.aj.html

CU experts to give tips on keeping wild canines away: To provide tips to livestock producers, hunters, trappers and landowners on how to cope with wild canines, Cornell Cooperative Extension will offer a free video-linked workshop at noon, Jan. 19, from Canton, N.Y., which will be broadcast live at extension offices throughout northern New York. Nathan M. Roberts, a doctoral candidate in Cornell's Department of Natural Resources, and Andrew J. MacDuff, a wildlife biologist with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, will discuss not only how to keep wild canines away but also the history and ecology of coyotes, wolves, and foxes in New York, the current status and legal issues related to wild canines and how human encroachment into wild canine habitat areas has changed the predators' behavior.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/wild.canines.sl.html

Cornell's newly patented purplish 'lily' blooms all summer long: Mauve Majesty is one cool lily look-alike. This new pinkish-purple ornamental flower, just patented by Cornell, can last for two weeks in a vase, but when left in the garden, it blooms all summer long in the cooler, northern states until the first hard freeze in the fall. Developed by Mark Bridgen, Cornell professor of horticulture and director of the Department of Horticulture's Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center, the hybrid is the first ornamental plant patented by Cornell.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/flower.patent.sl.html

Research sheds light on the mechanics of gene transcription: The molecular machinery behind gene transcription -- the intricate transfer of information from a segment of DNA to a corresponding strand of messenger RNA -- isn't stationed in special "transcription factories" within a cell nucleus, according to Cornell researchers. Instead, the enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and other key molecules can assemble at the site of an activated gene, regardless of the gene's position. The findings, published in the Dec. 28, 2007, issue of the journal Molecular Cell, are the result of an ongoing collaboration between the laboratories of John T. Lis, the Barbara McClintock Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Watt W. Webb, professor of applied physics and the S.B. Eckert Professor in Engineering. Jie Yao, the paper's lead author, recently finished his Ph.D. at Cornell under Webb.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/Webb.Lis.html

Cornell to share $5.5 million federal grant with Yale for study of major cereal crops: The researchers will compare two categories of crops -- or grasses  -- known as C3 and C4. Common C3 grasses include wheat, rye and rice. C4 grasses, which evolved from C3s, include such major cereal crops as maize and sorghum as well as the most promising biofuels crops, such as switchgrass. By understanding how these two plant types differ, the researchers will contribute to an effort led by the International Rice Research Institute to introduce C4 characteristics into a C3 species, such as rice, thereby possibly increasing both biomass and grain yields.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/NSFGrant.kr.html

Genetic discovery can boost the provitamin A content of Africa's maize: Up to 250 million children, many in the sub-Saharan Africa region, are at risk each year for health disorders—including 40 million who develop a sight-threatening eye disease—all because they do not get enough vitamin A in their diet. A new discovery, spearheaded by Cornell and University of Illinois plant geneticists and published in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Science, could change all that and lead to at least tripling the provitamin A levels [the precursor to vitamin A] in Africa's maize, said senior author Edward Buckler, a U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Station research geneticist in Cornell's Institute for Genomic Diversity and Cornell adjunct associate professor of plant breeding and genetics.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/maize.vitaminA.sl.html

Hands across Asia: Cornell students join Indian and Thai counterparts on international agriculture field trip: Some are learning about integrated pest management and marker-assisted plant breeding, others about goat and cattle herds. Yet others are learning the basics of growing sweet sorghum for biofuel, while others have plunged into microcredit, risk and self-help groups. On New Year's Day, 29 Cornell students and eight faculty members left Ithaca for Hyderabad in central India as part of Cornell's International Agriculture in the Developing Nations II (IARD 602) class.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/Ag.Asia.trip.lm.html

New biography by CU professor details George Warren—Warren Hall's namesake and key FDR adviser: The new biography, "George F. Warren: Farm Economist" (Cornell University) by Bernard "Bud" F. Stanton '49, Cornell professor emeritus of agricultural economics, details Warren's life and legacy. Stanton served on the Cornell faculty for 39 years before retiring in 1992. He writes that Warren not only was a revered teacher in the new field of agricultural economics, but that his work influenced state policy on conservation, land use, local government structures, highway improvement, building regional markets and improving rural schools and national economic policy under FDR.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/book.George.Warren.sl.html

Website hosts gardeners' ratings on thousands of veggie varieties: Now is the perfect time to curl up with seed catalogs and pick vegetable varieties for summer gardens. To see how various varieties have worked out for thousands of other gardeners, check out Cornell's Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners Web site. "It's like an Amazon.com for vegetable varieties, only we don't sell the seeds," says Lori Bushway, the senior extension associate in Cornell's Department of Horticulture who coordinates the Web site.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/vegetable.gardens.sl.html

Promoting local foods is paying off, CU research shows: In northern New York, more food is going directly from farm to consumer, cutting out the middleman and saving thousands of miles in food shipments. "There is tremendous room to grow the local share of the total food bill for New York's North Country region," says Duncan Hilchey of Cornell's Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI).
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/eco.impact.localfood.kd.html

A story about a wasp, a caterpillar, and a fungus ends with more dominating female wasps: The study, recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, focused on the fungus (Podosphaera plantaginis), the plant (Plantago lanceolata), the checkerspot caterpillar (Melitaea cinxia), and the parasitoid wasp (Cotesia melitaearum) that share habitat in Ŭand, Finland. "The fungus affects the wasp through two intermediary species, a plant and a caterpillar," said Saskya van Nouhuys, a Cornell visiting assistant professor for the last decade in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a researcher at the University of Helsinki's Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. "It's exciting because the plant's pathogen affects the population dynamics of the wasps through its effect on the sex ratio of the baby wasps rather than the number of baby wasps."
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/WaspVN.kr.html

Grapes of gnash: Pomace, the residue of red winemaking, may help prevent tooth decay: A study published online in November in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests that specific polyphenols—chemicals present in large amounts in fermented seeds and skins that are cast away after grapes are pressed—interfere with the ability of bacteria to contribute to tooth decay. "Overall, the phenolic extracts disrupt essential virulence traits for a widespread, destructive oral pathogen, but without killing it," said Olga I. Padilla-Zakour, associate professor of food processing at the experiment station. That pathogen is Streptococcus mutans, a bacterium that produces the substances most responsible for tooth decay.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/grapes.toothdecay.jo.html

Seminal fluid can impact female fruit fly's fertility, offering clues into human reproduction: A new Cornell study identifies six so-called accessory-gland proteins in the seminal fluid of fruit flies that affect reproduction by changing the female's post-mating behavior and physiology. The study, published last month in PloS Genetics, found that one of those proteins is required to fully stimulate egg production in the Drosophila female on the first day after mating. The other five proteins sustain changes in the female caused by mating, such as her increased egg production and her reduced likelihood to mate again. Until now, the ability in insects to maintain these responses had been associated with only a single insect-specific accessory gland protein. The paper's lead author is K. Ravi Ram, a research associate in the lab of Mariana Wolfner, a Cornell professor of molecular biology and genetics and the paper's senior author.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/Wolffner.kr.html

What goes down the drain, from ibuprofen to soaps, gets turned out to pasture via toxic sludge, researchers warn: Significant amounts of toxic chemicals from households persist in the environment because they end up in sewage sludge. Though pathogens are removed in wastewater treatment plants, no treatment is required to address some of the most abundant chemical contaminants that originate in the home. So sludge and sludge-rich composts, often containing toxic chemicals, are commonly applied to farmland, parks, forests and yards.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/sludge.toxic.sl.html

CU donates a record 82 tons of produce to area food banks: Last year, Cornell's Homer C. Thompson Research Farm in Freeville donated a record 178,000 pounds -- or about 82 tons -- of fresh produce, more than double what the research farm gave away in 2004, to three local food banks. The bounty included bushels of fresh potatoes, corn, green beans, beets, melons and a large crop of collard greens.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/CU.food.donations.lc.html

Students see firsthand how Asia is developing its first genetically engineered food crop: Cornell researchers in plant breeding, entomology and molecular biology are working closely with Sathguru Management Consultants of India to develop several new lines of genetically enhanced eggplant that express a natural insecticide derived from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which make the plant more resistant to attack from the fruit and shoot borer, an insect that destroys about 40 percent of the eggplant harvest in Asia each year.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/Bt.eggplant.tour.lm.html

Pioneering program to take issues of hunger and poverty to their global grassroots: Cornell professor and 2001 World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen has posted 63 case studies <http://cip.cornell.edu/gfs> from around the world about real-world policy issues experienced and written by 56 experts. Next he plans to teach 75 educators from Africa and Asia in workshops to be held in Uganda, Bangladesh and China how to use the materials, together with a new textbook he is writing with Fuzhi Cheng, a former postdoctoral fellow. The educators will learn how to engage students in tackling an issue from various points of view, hashing out policy and developing sustainable approaches that address the challenge, be it coping with famine in Ethiopia, allocating irrigation water in Egypt, countering the growing obesity problem in China or assessing genetically modified food aid in Zambia.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/worldfood.course.sl.html

A fruit a day may keep Alzheimer's at bay, suggests new Cornell study: When Chang Y. "Cy" Lee, Cornell professor and chair of food science and technology at the university's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., and South Korean colleagues exposed neurons (nerve cells) to apple, banana and orange extracts, they found that the fruits' antioxidants, specifically the so-called phenolic phytochemicals, prevented oxidative stress-induced toxicity in the neurons.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/fruit.Alzheimers.sl.html

Konstantin Frank wine cellars donates historic book collection to Cornell: The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station's Frank A. Lee Library has newfound wealth: a collection of 132 books donated by Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars and the Frank family. The collection comprises 19th and 20th century titles on topics including horticulture, plant science, viticulture, enology, chemistry, nature, history and literature, with the largest single subject category being wine- and grape-related material. When Frank emigrated from Europe to the United States in 1951 at the age of 54, he sacrificed all other luggage to bring along his precious collection of books.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/wine.books.jo.html

Photographs of tiny fungi tower in exhibit 'Miniature Landscapes': Science, art, new technology and rigorous fieldwork have culminated in a Mann Library exhibition of "bug's-eye-view" photographs of tiny fungi. Photographer Kent Loeffler of Cornell's Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology tramped through woods and crawled on many a forest floor to find and capture the infinitesimal mushrooms and slime molds featured in "Miniature Landscapes: Photographic Adventures with a Borescope," on display in the Mann gallery through Feb. 27.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/Mann.Landscapes.da.html

Why the French don't get fat: They know when to stop eating, finds CU's Wansink: It's the French paradox redux: Why don't the French get as fat as Americans, considering all the baguettes, wine, cheese, pate and pastries they eat? Because they use internal cues—such as no longer feeling hungry—to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study. Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues—such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/WhenToStopEating.html

N.Y. forest owners' vital role recognized with Cooperative Extension's woodlands management initiative: Whether anyone can hear it or not, when a tree falls in a New York forest, it generally happens on private property. New York is almost two-thirds forested, and 85 percent of those woods are owned by private citizens. To ensure that these forests remain healthy, productive and sustainable, Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) is launching the Regional Forestry Initiative in 13 New York counties to help more forest owners better manage their arboreal holdings.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/forest.initiative.sl.html

Cornell scientists find how a protein binds to genes and regulates them across the human genome: "This finding was unexpected—especially since it entails a broad distribution of PARP-1 across the human genome and a strong correlation of the protein binding with genes being turned on," said co-author W. Lee Kraus, a Cornell associate professor of molecular biology who has a dual appointment at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. The research is published in the Feb. 8 issue of the journal Science.
By knowing where the PARP-1 protein is located in the genome, scientists can better understand the effects of synthetic chemical inhibitors of PARP-1 activity. Such chemicals are being explored for the treatment of stroke, heart disease, cancer and other human diseases. Thus, conceivably, if a patient has a stroke, researchers may one day use PARP-1 inhibitors as part of the therapy, or use PARP-1 to target cancer, said Kraus.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/Parp1.bpf.html

Ancient 'Out of Africa' migration left stamp on European genetic diversity, Cornell-led study finds: "What we may be seeing is a 'population genetic echo' of the founding of Europe," said Carlos Bustamante, assistant professor of biological statistics and computational biology at Cornell and senior co-author with Andrew Clark, a professor of molecular biology and genetics.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/BustamanteAA.kr.html

AAAS session debates pitfalls and hidden costs of making online research articles freely available: This was a hot topic for Cornell researchers speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, Feb. 14-18, in Boston. In a symposium, "Sustainability of Open Access: Does Increasing Global Access Come With Hidden Costs?" Bruce Lewenstein, Cornell professor of science communication, and communication Ph.D. student Phil Davis led a panel discussion on the issue.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/AAAS.opensource.mr.html

Cornell student scientists take on role of journalists at AAAS meeting: Five Cornell science students saw this year's American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting from a new perspective: through the eyes of the press. As part of a Science Writing Practicum offered through the Department of Communication, the students attended the meeting as journalists—they participated in press conferences, interviewed presenting scientists and wrote news stories about the meeting's proceedings. Bruce Lewenstein, professor of science communication, led the class trip to last week's meeting, Feb. 14-18, in Boston.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/AAAS.ScienceWriting.mr.html
Digital deity provides museum visitors with data as art http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/artlinks.gl.html

Getting the lard out: The koshering of the Oreo cookie: Imagine never being able to taste something as common as an Oreo. Or being unsure if a marshmallow were kosher. What does "kosher" even mean? Joe Regenstein, professor of food science at Cornell and director of the Cornell Kosher and Halal Food Initiative, discussed these and other food adventures, Feb. 20, in a talk given as part of Cornell's Jewish Faculty Lecture Series.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/kosher.Oreos.jl.html

Cornell students organize fundraiser to help Kenya heal: Wananchi Association, Cornell's Kenyan and East African student association, has organized the Heal Kenya Campaign, which is running through March 28. The student campaign is supported in part by the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD), Cornell's Institute for African Development (IAD) and the Africana Studies and Research Center.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb08/HealKenya.kr.html

Rural preschoolers get short shrift in access to early education programs: "We know from 30 years of research that high-quality pre-K and early child care makes children more prepared to start school and more likely to have school success," says John Sipple, Cornell associate professor of education and first author of the publication. "But we're finding substantial differences in the availability of such programs for children in poor urban and suburban communities, compared with children in poor rural areas. Without these early experiences children may start school unprepared, and so they are less likely to finish school, perpetuating a cycle for kids growing up in poor rural areas."
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/NY.rural.early.ed.sl.html

Applied Economics and Management is No. 4 in BusinessWeek ranking: Rising six spots from 2007, the Department of Applied Economics and Management was cited for its "challenging and practical curriculum," which leaves graduates "well prepared for first jobs." http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/aem.ranking.aj.html

Business as usual not an option for rescuing world food system, says Cornell's Pinstrup-Andersen:When the American Association for the Advancement of Science held its annual meeting in Boston Feb. 14-18, among the speakers was 2001 World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen, the J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship and the H. E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition, and Public Policy at Cornell. The following is a summary of his lecture on "Science and Policy Priorities for the Global Food System." http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/Pinstrup.perspective.html

New courses teach food science and business majors leadership and team-building skills: Walking into Professor Bob Gravani's Leadership and Career Skills in Food Science (FS 102) class Feb. 29, students found ropes and furry objects on the ground. It was clear that this class again would be no ordinary lecture. This newly revised one-credit required course is intended to get students thinking early on about enhancing their leadership and team skills, the importance of diversity and ethics, and their own career development. Like its counterpart, Applied Economics and Management (AEM) 102: Personal Evaluation and Development, a new required course for all first-year undergraduate business majors, it is a hands-on approach to developing teamwork and leadership, vital skills in today's work world. Although the food science and applied economics courses are similar, they were developed independently, said Andrew Novakovic, the E.V. Baker Professor of Agricultural Economics who teaches AEM 102.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/Leadership.class.jm.sl.html

'Dark fiber' will give Geneva serious bandwidth: With a new "dark fiber" pipe, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva will for the first time have a high-bandwidth data connection to the  Ithaca campus, and Cornell will have backup access to nationwide research networks. "This will allow videoconferencing between Geneva and Ithaca and give researchers there access to the Center for Advanced Computing and large databases on the Ithaca campus," Vernon said. "In addition the Geneva facilities can now be leveraged as an emergency staging area for Cornell Ithaca computational resources."
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/darkfiber.ws.html

$6 million research lab will produce ethanol and other biofuels from grasses and biomass: "Biofuels is the emerging program for our department, if not for the whole university," said Mike Walters, chairman of the Department of Biological And Environmental Engineering (BEE) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The new lab will be shared by faculty and students across campus. Faculty members expected to work in the laboratories include Larry Walker, Beth Ahner, Norm Scott, David Wilson, Jim Gossett, Susan Henry and Harold Craighead.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/biofuels.lab.lm.html

Cornell partners with Indian university to offer innovative degree in food science: The world's food supply will be a little safer after students graduate from a dual degree program in food science now offered by Cornell and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) in India. Students at both institutions will study global issues related to food processing, technology, marketing and engineering.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/Foodscience.India.lm.html