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ITHACA, N.Y. -- The forecast: Sunny with a chance of fungus. Such a forecast would be welcome news to farmers when used with conventional weather reports, as fruit, vegetable and crop growers in the Northeast try to get a jump on crop pests that could decimate their stock. "We're right in the middle of apple scab season," said Curt Petzoldt, Ph.D., Cornell senior extension associate in the Integrated Pest Managment (IPM) Program at Cornell University's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y. "Soon, we'll start to worry about onions, tomatoes, potatoes and grapes, but for now we're watching the apples." Whether it's fungus, bacteria, insects or other farming pests that agriculturists are worried about, they now have a new resource: Cornell IPM specialists and growers throughout the Northeast now provide growers daily, proprietary pest forecasts, as part of the Northeast Weather Association (NEWA). PestWeather.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Detailed radar images of the north and south poles of the moon show no evidence of ice in areas of permanent shadow that are observable with earth-based radars, researchers said today (June 6). The data appear to contradict the conclusions of scientists, based on data from the Clementine spacecraft and reported in the journal Science (29 November 1996), that there may be ice deposits at the South Pole of the moon. Moon.lb.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- "Many teenage pregnancies aren't accidental but intentional because of girls who see no life goals other than being a mother as realistically within their reach," says Andrea Parrot, Ph.D., a Cornell University women's health and human sexuality expert. That's a major reason why most current sex and pregnancy prevention education efforts "are ineffective at preventing teenage pregnancy and the U.S. has an outrageous teen pregnancy rate -- the highest in the industrialized world," said Parrot, associate professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. teenpregnancy.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- An antibiotic-resistant bacterium, isolated from sewer sludge by Cornell University scientists, is pointing the way to better water-pollution cleanup strategies. The bacterium, coccoid Strain 195, perfectly reduces the toxic pollutants tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene (also known as PCE, or perc, and TCE, respectively) to nontoxic ethene gas, the Cornell researchers report in the June 6 issue of Science. But the talented bug alone may not be magic bullet against the second-most-common ground water pollutant in North America. Strain195.hrs.html

ARECIBO, Puerto Rico -- A five-year, $27 million upgrade to the world's most sensitive radio/radar telescope at Arecibo Observatory will be dedicated on Saturday, June 14, with Neal Lane, directorof the National Science Foundation, Pedro Rossell—, governor of Puerto Rico, Carlos Romero Barcel—, resident commissioner to Puerto Rico in the U.S. Congress, and Hunter Rawlings, Cornell University president, helping inaugurate a new era of radio astronomy. The telescope, the world's largest single antenna radio telescope (305 meter, or 1,000 foot) and the world's most powerful radar, is poised for scientists to get detailed information about exotic objects in the distant universe, detailed surveys of comets and objects within the solar system and new information about Earth's upper atmosphere. arecibo.lb.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Lana Preszler's beetle created quite a buzz. The Sacramento, Calif., area first-grader collected all the usual insects California kids can find in their backyards, but no other 7-year-old at Natoma Station Elementary School in Folsom, Calif., had Rosalia funebris. "This is the most pristine banded alder beetle I've seen," said E. Richard Hoebeke, assistant curator of Cornell University's insect collection. "It was fresh, newly emerged, not worn. It was a real nice specimen." Hoebeke knows insects. With more than 200,000 species and 5 million specimens, the Cornell insect collection is among the world's top repositories. And thanks to Lana's keen eye, the collection just got better. This beetle is not commonly encountered, but when it arrives, it appears in numbers. SacramentoBeetle.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Slow childhood growth rates in poor countries aren't necessarily due to a "poor man's diet" devoid of meats and other foods of animal origin, as many scientists and policy makers have long assumed, reported a Cornell University nutritionist who is the director of a huge diet and disease study by Cornell in China. In fact, despite a diet very low in animal-based foods (only 3 to 6 percent of calories) and fat (10 to 20 percent of calories), childhood growth rates and adult stature in China steadily increased from 1950 to 1980, observed T. Colin Campbell, professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell and principal investigator of a comprehensive survey of diet, lifestyle and disease characteristics in 130 villages in rural China, undertaken in collaboration with Junshi Chen, M.D. of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine and Richard Peto, professor at Oxford University in England. chinagrowth.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Poor rural women who don't always have enough food in their homes exhibit binge eating patterns and are only about half as likely as other women to consume daily the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables. Therefore, these women are less likely to consume adequate vitamin C, potassium and fiber, according to a new Cornell University study. In one of the first studies to look at how food insecurity affects food intake in women, the Cornell researchers said that women in food-insecure households eat particularly less fruit, salads, carrots and other vegetables than other women while consuming a similar number of calories. In addition, the researchers report that the more food insecure a woman's household, the higher she tended to rank on an eating disorder scale. consequences.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The phrase for spring 1997: Way cool! Mt. Washington, N.H., had its old monthly snowfall record crushed for May by a whopping 43.6 inches, beating the old record of 52.2 inches 30 years ago. The new record is 95.8 inches. The Northeast's cool weather continued through May, as the average temperature for the 12-state region was 4.4 degrees cooler than normal. For the Northeast, this was the fourth coolest May in the last 103 years, according to Keith Eggleston, a climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. NRCC.May97.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- In the ongoing bout with plant pests, scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research Inc., located at Cornell University, have found a one-two punch. The researchers have discovered and cloned a protein that, when delivered into an insect's gut by way of a "trojan horse," attacks the pest's intestines, rendering the pest helpless against a companion virus. "No one has really studied the biochemistry and molecular biology of an insect's peritrophic matrix before," said Robert R. Granados, the Charles E. Palm Distinguished Scientist and virologist at Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and Cornell adjunct professor of entomology. "In our opinion, the peritrophic matrix (PM -- the interior lining of the insect's intestine,) is an important component in the insect's immune system against biological control agents. We've finally defined the site of the action of enhancin on the peritrophic matrix." Enhancin binds to a major mucinous protein of peritrophic matrix, destroying the matrix structure, thus allowing the baculovirus to pass through this relatively impermeable matrix unimpeded where it can kill the host, Granados explained. EnhancinGranados.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- To assess one measure of safety on the nation's college campuses, a team of researchers from Cornell University and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale reviewed student responses to a national survey that asked how often during the past 30 days they carried weapons. The result was mixed: seven percent of all students, including 11 percent of males and 4 percent of females, responded positively to the question, translating to some 980,000 students nationwide who say they are carrying weapons. weapons_and_students.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- An "information superhighway" inside plant cells allows chloroplasts -- the minuscule green bodies that carry out photosynthesis inside cells -- to communicate directly with each other, Cornell University scientists have found. That means chloroplasts are not independent green globules that float around unattached inside the cells, but they may communicate by exchanging proteins or other material to facilitate coordination of cellular activities. plantcells.lb.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Motorists on the Cornell University campus should expect some delays when traveling on Campus Road between Stewart and Central avenues due to road construction from June 9 to July 14. James Finnigan of the Department of Planning, Design and Construction said Campus Road will be milled and resurfaced during that time. The street is expected to be closed one lane at a time. Traffic will be regulated by flagmen. campusrddelays.lgk.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University has received a $310,815 grant from the Exxon Education Foundation, which donates $3 for every $1 Exxon employees, retirees and surviving spouses contribute to colleges and universities. The matching-gift contribution was presented to Cornell President Hunter Rawlings by K.C. Williams, vice president of production of Exxon Company International, on May 2. Williams' son Chad just completed his junior year at Cornell and his daughter Leigh-Ann will enter Cornell this fall. exxon.djg.html

E-mail: jkg3@cornell.edu Cornell University will host major linguistics institute June 23--Aug. 1 linguistics.jkg.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) at Cornell University has awarded 17 grants to help advance the careers of women in academia through support of the completion of dissertations and research leading to tenure and promotion. The new grants bring the total number of research studies and projects supported by PCCW to 96 since the award program was established in 1992, and a total of $165,000 in awards. The alumni group is building an endowment to ensure the funding of future grants and projects for women. pccw97grants.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A portion of Cornell's Tower Road -- from Judd Falls Road to Campus Road in the vicinity of Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and the College of Veterinary Medicine -- is scheduled to be rebuilt beginning the week of June 9. While the road will be closed to through traffic until Aug. 20, emergency access will be maintained to all facilities on the east end of campus for the duration of the project. Work will include complete reconstruction of the road base and pavement with a new drainage system, granite curbing, new bus pull-offs and landscaping. The road width will be increased, where necessary, to incorporate new bicycle lanes. In addition, a sanitary-sewer main will be replaced and the Veterinary Research Tower parking lot will be improved. Tower.Road.ds.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings has named the 1997 Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellows, honoring effective, inspiring and distinguished teaching of undergraduate students. The honorees, announced at a May 24 dinner on campus, are Joan Jacobs Brumberg, professor of human development and family studies and of women's studies; Debra Ann Castillo, professor of Romance studies and of comparative literature; David Feldshuh, professor of theater, film and dance; and Clifford Pollock, the Ilda and Charles Lee Professor of Engineering. weissfellows1997.sm.html

ITHACA, NY -- Restoration of land and a slope area on Cornell University property along Cascadilla Creek in the Town of Ithaca will get under way in late June. Regrading of the 4-acre area will stabilize the soil and create a more appealing landscape, according to project manager Scott Whitham. As part of the project, which is expected to continue into late August, a stormwater-control basin, including a wetland, will be developed with assistance from experts in Cornell's Department of Natural Resources. Development of the constructed wetland will be videotaped as a demonstration project for controlling stormwater run off into creeks and creating a wildlife habitat. An area adjacent to the wetland was used for refuse disposal until the early 1970s, when it was covered with soil, but the steep slope was never stabilized. cascadilla.project.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Theodore L. Hullar, the biochemist who served as chancellor of the University of California at Davis and at Riverside in the 1980s and '90s, as well as director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station in the 1980s, will return to Ithaca as director of the Cornell Center for the Environment (CfE). Hullar's appointment, which is effective Sept. 15, is subject to approval of the Cornell University Board of Trustees. CfEdirector.hrs.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Two of today's most controversial science issues, human cloning and global environmental change, will be debated by Cornell University scientists and scholars in a public forum Saturday, June 21, at 1:30 p.m. in 105 Space Sciences Building. A part of the Annual Josephine L. Hopkins Foundation Workshop for science journalists, the debates are open to the general public at no charge. The overall theme of the twin debates is: "Is Science Dangerous to Society? Or Is Society Dangerous to Science? Policy and Ethical Perspectives." dangerous.hrs.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- In order to expand educational opportunities for students and to explore new program opportunities among campuses, particularly in electronic technology and distance-education capability, six State University of New York (SUNY) campuses signed an affiliation agreement with Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences today (Thursday, June 12). The signing ceremony was held at 10:30 a.m. in the Yale/Princeton Room of the Statler Hotel on Cornell's campus. affiliation_signing_3.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University has received a $310,815 grant from the Exxon Education Foundation, which donates $3 for every $1 Exxon employees, retirees and surviving spouses contribute to colleges and universities. The matching-gift contribution was presented to Cornell President Hunter Rawlings by K.C. Williams, vice president of production of Exxon Company International, on May 2. Williams' son Chad just completed his junior year at Cornell and his daughter Leigh-Ann will enter Cornell this fall. exxon.djg.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Board of Trustees Executive Committee will meet in New York City on Thursday, June 26. The meeting will be held in the Fall Creek Room of the Cornell Club of New York, 6 East 44th St. Trustees.jkp.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- An Indian conference scheduled for June 27-28 on the Cornell University campus has been canceled. It will be rescheduled at a later date. Titled "Indian Economic Futures: Leadership and Problem Solving," the meeting will be restructured at the request of Indian leadership to incorporate newly emerging events and trends related to issues of taxation and native nations. Indian.conference.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Almost 600 high school juniors and seniors will trade in a summer of work or sun-and-surf for the academic demands of Cornell University's Summer College -- the nation's oldest such program, now in its 36th year -- which begins June 28. "The attraction here is to test the waters in an Ivy League institution, to get credit and to practice going to college before beginning freshman year," said Summer College Director Abby Eller. "The six-week program is a real confidence booster for these teen-agers." From June 28 through Aug. 12, high school juniors and seniors will take subjects ranging from anthropology and archaeology to psychology and rural sociology and earn letter grades and credit they can apply to a college degree. They also will participate in career exploration programs and study-skills sessions, where they will learn time-management skills for juggling the homework load, and how to take classroom notes. The life of a Summer College student is more structured than that of the typical undergraduate. Most days are filled with classes, study sessions and organized free-time activities, and students have a curfew of 11 p.m. on weekdays. summer_college_97.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A gathering of Indian leaders from within New York state has been scheduled for June 27 and 28, 1997, at the Triphammer Lodge and Conference Center in Ithaca. Sessions will begin at 9:30 a.m. and last until 5 p.m. Confirmed as speakers will be Michael Schindler, president of the Seneca Nation of Indians; Ray Halbritter, Oneida Nation representative; Harry Wallace, chief, Unkechaug Nation; and Paul Thompson, chief, St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council. Each will be presenting case histories and perspectives on how their particular tribal governments have been dealing with the issues of New York state taxation, trade and commerce regulations, sovereign powers and authorities and Indian leadership issues involving democratic processes of public participation and free expression. Indian.Conference.sfm.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- West Avenue, between Campus Road and University Avenue on the Cornell University campus, will be closed to traffic from Monday, June 30, at 6 a.m. to Sunday, July 6, at 6 p.m., according to Cornell's Department of Utilities. WD parking at the north end of West Avenue will remain open during this period and will be accessible via University Avenue. The bus stops on West Avenue will be relocated to Stewart Avenue, across from and in front of the Noyes Community Center loading dock. Road.closing.sfm.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- More than 90 percent of all businesses in this country are family businesses, which make them an integral part of the American economy. Strengthening these family firms will be the focus of the 1997 Chautauqua Family Business Conference: Growth and Transitioning, Monday, July 14, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Chautauqua Institution, just north of Jamestown, N.Y. Sponsored by Alfred University, Canisius College and Cornell University, the conference will provide information to enrich and enhance family businesses, according to Ramona Heck, director of the Family Business Research Institute at Cornell. familybusiness.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y.-- Donations of leftovers by restaurants to food pantries and other human service agencies are declining markedly as restaurants become better managed, according to a study by Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. In a survey of the nation's 133 food-donation programs, researchers found that 87 percent report seeing "smaller and smaller donations from one year to the next" which, researchers contend, could seriously affect the operations of food-donation programs. food-donation.dg.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Looking to keep your best employees? Pay them what they're worth. A team of Cornell University researchers found that high salary growth proved critical in retaining high-performing employees. Promotions, on the other hand, had no effect on the turnover of similarly paid high performers and did little to reduce their desire to accept other employment offers. jobturnover.html

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