Here is a sampling of quotations from Cornell University faculty, students and staff that have appeared recently in the national and international news media:
"This is much better than a prank. This is first-rate stuff, the best that I've seen. What a clever accomplishment to get this pumpkin up there."
-- Gould Colman, retired university archivist, commenting on the pumpkin atop McGraw Tower, in The New York Times, Oct. 27.
"This is probably normal curiosity as long as there is not a compulsive quality to it."
-- Jeffrey Haugaard, associate professor of human development, discussing the problem of parents who found ads for bras and girdles stashed in their 7-year-old son's room, San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 22.
"Insects as well as higher animals depend on their sense of taste for selection or rejection of potential foods."
-- J. Alan Renwick, project leader in chemical ecology at Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, who is studying insect taste in order to understand human taste, in Chemical & Engineering News, Sept. 29.
"It's a difficult transition to make. Work is truly a defining identity in the United States."
-- Elaine Wethington, associate professor of human development and sociology, discussing women who leave their jobs to stay at home, in The New York Times, Oct. 12.
"Sled dog racing is as close to flying as you can get without leaving the ground. It's just incredible to be going down a track at over 20 miles an hour and hear nothing but dogs breathing and runners slipping over the snow."
-- Arleigh Reynolds, assistant professor of veterinary medicine, discussing sled dogs in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 12.
"The colors are as brilliant as I've ever seen them. This is one of the best seasons I've ever seen."
-- Peter Davies, professor of plant physiology, explaining why leaves turn colors in the fall and this season's brilliant display, for ABC News/Discovery News, Oct. 17.
"My guess is that they would improve if for no other reason than their vocabulary would get refreshed by reading difficult material and listening to lectures."
-- Stephen Ceci, the H.L. Carr Professor in Human Ecology, discussing whether the IQs of older people would go up if they returned to school, in The Washington Post, Oct. 19.
"It is the ultimate introspection."
-- David Usher, associate professor of chemistry, in a story quoting scientists at the Northeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society who were discussing the latest advances in origin-of-life research, in The Saratogan, June 24.
"We've left out the eye of newt and leg of toad."
-- Stephen Zinder, professor of microbiology, describing the "toxic cocktail" on which the newly discovered bioremediation bacterium -- strain 195 -- will feed, on CNN, Oct. 19.