Cornell University News Service Releases

August, 2004

Index to all months

For the full text of any story, click on the headline. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.

Cornell Plantations' Wednesday lecture series begins Sept. 8 with talk on life of poet A.R. Ammons
Topics ranging from contemplative gardens to urban jungles fill the Fall 2004 Cornell Plantations Lecture Series at Cornell University, which is open free of charge to the public. The long-running series moves to a new location in the renovated Alice Statler Auditorium of Statler Hall for the Wednesday evening sessions -- except for the first two: (August 31, 2004)

Ithaca breaks record with 49 days of rain June to August
Nice weather -- if you're The Swamp Thing. Ithaca-area residents absorbed a record-breaking total of 49 days of rain for the months of June, July and August -- and that was with a relatively dry June. The previous record of 46 days of rain in the three months was set in 1947. (August 31, 2004)

Okko Behrends, expert in classical Roman law, to speak Sept. 3
Ancient Roman laws and legal procedures have had a profound influence on the development of the modern legal system. Okko Behrends, one of Europe's foremost experts in classical Roman law and a Cornell University A.D. White Professor-at-Large, will explore the origins of the Roman legal influence during a public talk titled "The Author of the Classical Roman Law," Friday, Sept. 3, at 4:30 p.m. in Kaufmann Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall. Behrends holds the chair of Roman Law, Civil Law and the History of Modern Private Law at the University of Göttingen, Germany. His areas of expertise ranges from the origins of Roman law in the early Roman Republic to the current German constitution, and his work also deals with Greek -- especially Hellenistic -- philosophy, says Hunter Rawlings, Cornell president emeritus and professor of classics. (August 31, 2004)

AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka is pre-Labor Day speaker Sept. 2
Richard Trumka, a third-generation coal miner from Pennsylvania who rose to become a leader of the AFL-CIO, the most powerful union the United States, will be this year's pre-Labor Day speaker at Cornell University. Trumka's public lecture, "What's at Stake: the Future for Working Families," on labor, the economy and the 2004 election, will take place Thursday, Sept. 2, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. in 105 Ives Hall. The talk, which is sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), is free and open to the public. (August 30, 2004)

Mind's eye-boggling optical illusions revealed during Sept. 14 lecture
The tricks eyes play on the mind will be revealed and explained in a Sept. 14 lecture by master illusionist Al Seckel at 7:30 p.m. in Cornell University's Call Alumni Auditorium. Titled "Your Mind's Eye: The World's Most Powerful Illusions" and sponsored by the Cornell Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, the lecture is open to the public, free of charge. Advance tickets are available from the Willard Straight Hall ticket office or the neurobiology department office, W363 Mudd Hall, (607) 254-4340. (August 30, 2004)

Herd-health study helps more dairy farms go organic
The fastest-growing segment of the natural food market, organic dairy products, is getting a boost from a Cornell University-U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program that studies experiences of upstate New York milk producers as they make the transition from conventional to organic farming. "The Transitioning Dairy: Identifying and Addressing Challenges and Opportunities in Milk Quality and Safety" is a new, three-year study conducted by the Quality Milk Production Services program in Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine, in cooperation with Ruth Zadoks in the Department of Food Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance and upstate farms, such as Twin Oaks Dairy in Truxton, N.Y. Some $518,306 of the study's funding comes from the USDA Integrated Organic Program, while Cornell provides matching funds of $580,668, and the biosciences firm Alltech Inc. provides $9,000. (August 30, 2004)

For the first time, a New York state dairy earns perfect score in 2004 milk-quality judging
For the first time since New York state began judging milk quality and flavor, a dairy has won a perfect 100 score to earn the 2004 Gold Medal. The dairy, Niagara Milk Cooperative (Wendt's Dairy) of Niagara, N.Y., will receive the award this morning (Aug. 30) in the Empire Room at the New York State Fair Dairy Day awards breakfast at 8:30 a.m. "Before this, no dairy has ever earned a perfect score," said Kathryn Boor, Cornell University professor of food science, who administers the milk judging. "Wendt's did everything right. They were perfect in all categories. Wendt's had exceptional hygiene, the processing equipment worked perfectly, and they brought in good milk to process. This shows they have done everything just right." (August 30, 2004)

Cornell Police observes National Stop on Red Week 2004 with extra patrols
Cornell University Police will be supporting National Stop on Red Week 2004, Aug. 30-Sept. 6, by employing selective traffic enforcement measures on campus, including extra patrols. National Stop on Red Week is dedicated to educating American motorists about the dangers of running red lights. It is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the American Trauma Society. Its motto is "The light is red for a reason: So stop!" (August 27, 2004)

Cornell President Lehman issues statement about landlord arrest
Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman today (Aug. 26) issued the following statement: "I am deeply troubled and concerned about allegations that a landlord in Ithaca has grossly violated the privacy of his tenants, a number of whom are Cornell students. The safety and wellbeing of our students is of the highest importance to us. (August 26, 2004)

Cornell officials respond to landlord arrest
Cornell University officials and staff are offering support services to students who have been affected by alleged incidents of unlawful surveillance by a landlord for rental housing in Ithaca. Susan Murphy, vice president for student and academic services, has convened a crisis management task force to handle issues of emergency housing, finances and legal issues, as well as to provide psychological support. (August 26, 2004)

'electronic crystal' in high-temperature superconductor
With equipment so sensitive that it can locate clusters of electrons, Cornell University and University of Tokyo physicists have -- sort of -- explained puzzling behavior in a much-studied high-temperature superconductor, perhaps leading to a better understanding of how such superconductors work. It turns out that under certain conditions the electrons in the material pretty much ignore the atoms to which they are supposed to be attached, arranging themselves into a neat pattern that looks like a crystal lattice. The behavior occurs in a phase physicists have called a "pseudogap," but because the newly discovered arrangement looks like a checkerboard in scanning tunneling microscope (STM) images, J.C. Séamus Davis, Cornell professor of physics, calls the phenomenon a "checkerboard phase." (August 26, 2004)

Awakenings author Dr. Oliver Sacks to give free lecture Sept. 2
Dr. Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, will deliver a public lecture titled "Creativity and the Brain," Thursday, Sept. 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Statler Auditorium on the Cornell University campus. The talk is free and open to the public. Tickets are required and will be available starting Aug. 26 at the Willard Straight Hall Ticket Office with a limit of two per person. During his second campus visit as an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell, Sacks also will visit five classes and deliver a presentation based on his BBC program "Poison in Paradise" to undergraduates in the new Alice Cook House on West Campus. (August 25, 2004)

Rock The Vote bus rolls into town to spur voter registration Aug. 28
All aboard: On a 50-city tour to register young voters for the upcoming elections, the "Rock The Vote" bus tour stops in Ithaca on Saturday, Aug. 28. The rockin' bus rolls to its first stop on the Ithaca Commons from noon to 4 p.m. Next, it will park on East Avenue on the Cornell University campus, near Goldwin Smith Hall, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. The last stop of the day will be at the Alice Cook House, the new residence hall on West Campus, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. (August 24, 2004)

Half of American adults will use food stamps, study says
To be worry-free about having enough food is not the norm in the United States, says a Cornell University sociologist. "Rather, the need to use food stamps is a common American experience that at least half of all Americans between the ages of 20 and 65 will face," says Thomas A. Hirschl, professor of development sociology at Cornell who has completed a study of food stamp use. (August 24, 2004)

Theory Center names Johannes Gehrke associate director
Johannes Gehrke, assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University, has been named a faculty associate director of the Cornell Theory Center (CTC). "Johannes is not new to the center," said Thomas Coleman, CTC director and professor of computer science and applied mathematics. "He has already helped in significant ways with many CTC initiatives over the last several years; this appointment is, in part, recognition of a growing and positive relationship. It also recognizes his international research reputation, strong leadership potential and effective collaboration skills. Our team is now deeper and stronger." (August 24, 2004)

New way to make nanoscale circuits is discovered
Time is fast running out for the semiconductor industry as transistors become ever smaller and their insulating layers of silicon dioxide, already only atoms in thickness, reach maximum shrinkage. In addition, the thinner the silicon layer becomes, the greater the amount of chemical dopants that must be used to maintain electrical contact. And the limit here also is close to being reached. But a Cornell University researcher has caused an information industry buzz with the discovery that it is possible to precisely control the electronic properties of a complex oxide material -- a possible replacement for silicon insulators -- at the atomic level. And this can be done without chemicals. Instead, the dopant is precisely nothing. (August 23, 2004)

Despite food stamps, many rural poor don't have enough to eat
Even when poor rural families receive food stamps from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, many still do not have enough food, according to a new study by nutritionists at Cornell University and their colleagues from several other land-grant universities. The researchers found that about half of the families in their study used food stamps, and half of these families said they did not have enough to eat. (August 19, 2004)

Kafka is big man on campus, and The Trial is talk of the town
Cornell University's fourth annual New Student Reading Project rolls out Sunday, Aug. 22, at 3:30 p.m., when more than 3,600 first-year and transfer students are scheduled to gather in Barton Hall for an interactive faculty presentation on Franz Kafka's The Trial. The event will be broadcast live on Time Warner Cable Channel 16. On Monday, Aug. 23, Cornell students, led by administrators, faculty members, graduate students and staff, will meet in 230 groups across campus to discuss Kafka's prescient work. More than 20,000 Cornell alumni from 23 classes also are involved in the Kafka reading project. For campus and alumni readings and related events, visit Cornell's reading project Web site. (August 17, 2004)

Orientation Week events begin Friday, Aug. 20, for newcomers
More than 4,300 new students are arriving at Cornell University starting this Friday, Aug. 20, when campus residence halls open their doors at 8 a.m. This year Cornell expects to enroll roughly 3,100 freshmen, 564 new undergraduate transfer students and 610 new graduate and professional students. (August 17, 2004)

Freed honored by Journal of Physical Chemistry special issue
The American Chemical Society has paid tribute to the scientific accomplishments of Jack H. Freed, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, by dedicating the July 8 issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry B to the internationally respected scientist. The issue is titled the "Jack H. Freed Festschrift." The German term (literally, "feast writing") is commonly used to celebrate a senior scholar's birthday with a special edition of original papers on topics relevant to the honoree's research. The volume celebrates Freed's 65th birthday and relates to his groundbreaking contributions to electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, a state-of-the-art technology for studying the molecular properties of fluids and of biological materials, including the structure and complex dynamics of membranes and proteins. (August 17, 2004)

Agriculture college and ILR school to hold open house Oct. 2
On Saturday, Oct. 2, Cornell University will host an open house on campus for prospective freshman students at two of its state-supported colleges -- the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). Students interested in learning about admission to those colleges are encouraged to attend. The open house provides high school juniors, seniors and their parents the opportunity to visit CALS and the ILR School. Visitors will receive an overview of the university and the academic programs in these colleges and meet admissions staff, faculty and current Cornell students. The program will include admissions and financial aid information. (August 16, 2004)

Cornell, Sciencenter and Painted Universe awarded $1.8 million by NSF to design, build nanotechnology exhibit
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $1.8 million to Main Street Science, the education program of Cornell University's Nanobiotechnology Center (NBTC), the Sciencenter in Ithaca and Painted Universe, a design/fabrication firm in Lansing, N.Y., to explain a tiny world to young minds. The funding will enable the group to design and fabricate a 3,500-square-foot exhibition, "Too Small to See," that will take museum visitors on a journey through nanoscale science and engineering. Children and adults will be immersed in experiences, images and models representing the structures and processes of nano dimensions, no more than a millionth of a millimeter. (August 11, 2004)

Cornell ILR Professor Lee Dyer wins prestigious human resources award
Lee Dyer, professor in Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and chair of its Department of Human Resource Studies, received a key award in his field -- the 2004 Michael R. Losey Human Resource Research Award from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The annual award, which includes a $50,000 prize to be used for human resource (HR) research, was presented June 29 in New Orleans during SHRM's annual meeting. In presenting the award, David Hutchins, SHRM board chair, called Dyer "an academic and HR superstar." (August 11, 2004)

Where did Spider-Man learn his physics? From Cornell's Richard Liboff
Ten minutes into the blockbuster movie "Spider-Man 2," nerdy physics student Peter Parker (played by Tobey Maguire) -- whose alter ego is the superhero Spider-Man -- trips and spills his armful of books while racing to class at Columbia University. As he bends to pick them up amid an onslaught of passing book bags, the camera zooms in on the maroon cover of the book atop the stack: Introductory Quantum Mechanics, fourth edition by Richard L. Liboff of Cornell University. Then the book gets stepped on. Liboff, an emeritus professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering who still works on physics problems in his Cornell office every day, was delighted when one of his students told him that his book is featured in the science fiction-action thriller. "It's a great advertisement … and now I have people calling me up," he said. The same student tried to "sponge" answers to two homework problems while telling him about the movie, Liboff recalls with a smile. (August 11, 2004)

Why some animals have smaller eyes: Lifestyle matters
If brain size is proportional to body size in virtually all vertebrate animals, Cornell University biologists reasoned, shouldn't eye size and body size scale the same way? While they failed to find a one-size-fits-all rule for eyes, what they learned about the 300 vertebrates they studied helps to explain how animals evolved precisely the orbs they need for everyday life. The biologists reported their findings in the journal Vision Research (August 2004, "The allometry and scaling of the size of vertebrate eyes"). Howard C. Howland, Stacey Merola and Jennifer R. Basarab say they did find a logarithmic relationship between animals' body weight and eye size for all vertebrates, in general: Bigger animals do tend to have bigger eyes, on average. (August 6, 2004)

Molecular biologist David B. Stern named president of Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research
David B. Stern, a molecular biologist who studies photosynthesis and the molecular genetics of intracellular communication in plants, has been named president of the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for Plant Research Inc., the 80-year-old independent laboratory located on the Ithaca campus of Cornell University. Stern, a senior staff scientist and vice president for research of BTI, had been serving in an interim capacity since March 2004 when the institute's seventh president, Daniel F. Klessig, stepped down due to illness. Stern began his appointment Aug. 1, saying he would maintain and enhance BTI's traditional strengths while working to focus the institute's energies in new areas. (August 6, 2004)

Spirit's cameras confirm albedo changes in Martian soil
The eyes aboard the Mars rover Spirit are delivering ground truth. After more than six months of examining the photographic and spectral data from the rover, Mars mission scientists confirm that the albedo -- which is the percentage of sunlight reflected on the red planet's dusty surface -- indicates important variations in mineral and dust composition. (August 02, 2004)

New Cornell students participate in week of community service, Aug. 15-20
Cornell University is announcing its ninth annual Pre-Orientation Service Trips (POST) program for new Cornell students. POST, a program of the Cornell Public Service Center, provides a group of first-year and transfer students with opportunities, before the start of the school year, to perform community service projects for a number of local agencies. Students also get a head start on making friends and become familiar with the Ithaca community, which will be their home during their time at Cornell. Beginning Sunday, Aug. 15, and ending the morning of Friday, Aug. 20, some 65 incoming Cornell students and 16 upper-level students who are team leaders will spend five days and nights serving the Ithaca community through public service projects.

In mouse model, Weill Cornell researchers use gene therapy to correct deadly inherited immune disorder
Previous attempts in mice to correct a rare inherited immune disorder, called Hyper IgM X-linked immunodeficiency, have failed because standard gene therapy raised risks for cancer. Now Weill Cornell Medical College researchers believe they've found a way around that problem. Reporting in the July 25 issue of Nature Medicine, the investigators used a gene therapy strategy called trans-splicing to successfully correct the disease in mice without increasing malignancy risk.

CBORD Group is presented the 2004 Community Service Award from the Cornell Business and Technology Park
The 2004 Community Service Award was presented to The CBORD Group Inc. July 23 at the annual "Party by the Pond" held for tenants and friends of the Cornell Business and Technology Park in the village of Lansing. The annual award is sponsored by the Real Estate Department of Cornell University. It recognizes volunteer and community service efforts made by companies, and employees of companies, located at the Cornell Business and Technology Park. This year's award recognizes CBORD's strong commitment to community service through a variety of direct financial support and in-kind and volunteer support to a broad range of agencies and institutions in Tompkins County, including the Ithaca Montessori School, Family and Children's Services, the Sciencenter and the Hangar Theatre. (August 03, 2004)