Soundbites

Here is a sampling of quotations from Cornell University faculty, students and staff that have appeared recently in the national and international news media:

"The case is closed, and nobody wanted it to be an ivory-bill more than I did."
--John Fitzpatrick, director of the Laboratory of Ornithology, commenting on the announcement by Zeiss Sports Optics and the lab that a series of loud "raps" recorded during a search in a Louisiana swamp for the ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to be extinct, were analyzed at the lab and determined to be gunshots, not the ivory-bill, in The New York Times, June 10.

"Because of changes in the laws, we won't have many of the pesticides available to use in the future, so we're trying to invent new ways to manage the older golf course."
--Frank Rossi, assistant professor of horticulture, describing how use of an integrated pest management program developed by Cornell scientists and greenskeepers reduced the use of pesticides at a Bethpage State Park golf course, the site of this year's U.S. Open, June 13-16, in a United Press International wire story, June 10.

"This shows the animals can detect degrees of relatedness with a high level of precision."
--Jill M. Mateo, research associate in psychology, discussing a study at Cornell that showed that squirrels were able to distinguish kin from genetically distant strangers by scent, in an article in Discover magazine, July 2002.

"The prime mover here is the increase in wealth."
--Robert Frank, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics in the Johnson Graduate School of Management, commenting in an article that reports skyrocketing demand and prices for the most common plastic surgery procedures, in The Washington Post, June 4.

"You have farmers raising goat to meet the demand of domestic consumers. With ostriches, there was never a consumer market, it was investor driven."
--Robert Melchior, Cornell Cooperative Extension marketing specialist in the Department of Animal Science, comparing sales of goat to previous efforts to market exotic meats by American farmers, who are discovering the rising demand for goat meat among immigrant populations in the United States, in The Wall Street Journal, June 4.

"Some significant portion of kids benefit simply from being taken out of their local environment."
--George Posner, professor of education in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, commenting in an article about the Elan School, a treatment center for troubled youths that was discussed in testimony in the murder trial of Michael Skakel, who was sent there at age 17, in The New York Times, June 2. Experts and former students disagree about the effectiveness and tactics of the school.

"A woman's intention during pregnancy to exercise after delivery, as well as her confidence in her ability to exercise frequently, were the strongest predictors as to whether women would exercise frequently and lose weight after giving birth."
--Christine Olson, professor of nutritional sciences, who conducted a study to see what factors made new mothers more likely to lose weight after giving birth, in the Cincinnati Post and Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.), June 1 and June 4, respectively.

"If there is a resource there waiting for future explorers, that is less that we will have to bring from Earth. It makes the whole process a lot easier."
--James Bell, assistant professor of astronomy, commenting on a report that data from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft reveals there may be vast amounts of water frozen on the surface of Mars, in an Associated Press article, May 28.

"We have significant damage throughout the region on fruit in general. ... I think over all, the losses will be as great, if not greater, than the hail situation. Some individual growers may not have any crop at all."
--Michael J. Fargione, a Cornell Cooperative Extension specialist in Ulster County, describing how New York fruit farmers have been hit hard by this spring's "roller-coaster temperatures," in The New York Times, May 25.

July 11, 2002