Cornell University News Service Releases

July 1999

Index to all months

For the full text of any story, click on the filename at the end of the description. These stories are also available via anonymous FTP at cunews.cornell.edu. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.

Breast cancer risk program reaches out to rural women with interactive display
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Is there anything I can do to reduce my risk of breast cancer? Will changes in diet and lifestyle help? How can I help members of my family make healthful choices? These are some of the frequently expressed concerns that are addressed by a computer-based interactive display from the Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors (BCERF) at Cornell University. The display makes its premiere appearance Aug. 11 at Empire Farm Days in Seneca Falls. BC_display.hrs.html (July 30, 1999)

NSF launches Nanobiotechnology Center
ITHACA, N.Y. -- An agreement by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund a Cornell University-based consortium of institutions will help to establish the new Nanobiotechnology Center (NBTC) here. NSF funding over a five-year period could reach $19 million. The authorization of the award to Cornell, Princeton and Oregon Health Sciences universities and to the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health will be coupled with support from the State of New York, industry, private foundations and Cornell University. nanobiotech.hrs.html (July 30, 1999)

Simulating protein folding from physical laws
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Researchers at Cornell University have had their best success yet in simulating the folding of a protein solely from the physical laws that govern the behavior of its atoms. A group led by Harold Scheraga, the Todd Professor of Chemistry emeritus, simulated the folding of the protein HDEA from the bacterium E. coli on Cornell's IBM supercomputer and predicted a structure consisting of a bundle of five spiral coils that matched 80 percent of the structure found by X-ray crystallography. It was the best match of several computer-generated structures for the protein submitted to the Third Community Wide Experiment on the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP-3), which took place over the second half of 1998. CASP.ws.html (July 29, 1999)

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will visit Cornell July 31
ITHACA, N.Y. -- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will visit the campus of Cornell University on July 31 as part of her upstate New York swing to explore running for the U.S. Senate. The visit, hosted by Cornell's New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will be a "listen-in" discussion on farming and agriculture issues. HillaryVisit.bpf.html (July 29, 1999)

Asteroid joins the Ivy League: 'Cornell'
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Far above Cayuga's waters -- really far above -- a once-obscure asteroid discovered nearly two decades ago has a new name: Cornell. "I have a distinct and unique gift to offer to Cornell University which will increase the size of its campus. It's a piece of celestial real estate," the asteroid's discoverer, astronomer Ted Bowell, told celebrants Sunday at the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Asteroids, Comets and Meteors (ACM) being hosted at the university. "I suppose that once a minor planet has been given to Cornell, in reality Cornell can now go to it, and stick a flag a on it." PlanetCornell.bpf.html (July 28, 1999)

Computer scientists, librarians collaborate
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University's computer scientists and librarians will form an unusual partnership to develop better ways to manage and ensure the integrity of documents and other data in the digital library of the future. The group has received a $2.2 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and other agencies to develop a working prototype digital library system with built-in mechanisms to preserve documents, protect intellectual property rights and permit interconnections with other digital library systems worldwide. While several studies have been done to determine the future needs of digital library systems, this may be the first effort to build a working system that can enforce a wide range of security and preservation policies to protect valuable resources in a globally distributed digital library environment. The project will build on research done over the past several years by the Digital Library Research Group in the Cornell Department of Computer Science. Principal investigators are Carl Lagoze, digital library scientist in the computer science department, Sarah Thomas, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian at Cornell, and computer science professors Ken Birman, an expert on distributed systems, and Fred Schneider, a specialist in computer security. PRISM.ws.html (July 28, 1999)

Judicial administrator and of director of Office of Equal Opportunity appointed
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University officials have announced two key staff appointments: Lynette Chappell-Williams has been named director of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), and Mary Beth Grant has been named judicial administrator (JA). Both appointments are effective Aug. 2. Appointments.jkp.html (July 27, 1999)

First Internet course on canine genetics
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Science educators at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences hope dog-lovers can sit-and-stay by their computers for six weeks. That's how long it takes to complete a new home-study course on canine genetics via the Internet. Most students in the first online class of canine-genetics are dog breeders on three continents, and more veterinarians are expected to take the course for continuing education when the curriculum is accredited by their professional organizations. But the distance-learning course is open to anyone with an interest in the vast array of canine traits -- from size, shape and coat color to temperament and predisposition to disease -- that are determined by genetic inheritance. canine_genetics.hrs.html (July 27, 1999)

Nutrition education program celebrates 30 years of improving lives for one million New Yorkers
ITHACA, N.Y. -- When Charlie Rockhill, a single father of two young teen-agers, lost his job after a back injury, his income plummeted to $148 a week, which he supplemented with $86 a month in food stamps. "After buying a few TV dinners and a few meals at a fast food restaurant, we had nothing left for food within four or five days," says Rockhill of Lansing, N.Y. "I felt almost suicidal at times, having no idea how I was going to feed the kids for the rest of the month." But Rockhill found a way by joining the free Expanded Food and Nutrition Program (EFNEP), a 30-year-old Cornell Cooperative Extension program. After about 16 weeks of classes and one-on-one training on how to make food dollars stretch and how to plan and prepare nutritious meals, shop wisely, prepare a budget and improve family communication through food preparation, Rockhill says his life changed drastically. To commemorate success stories like this, as well as EFNEP's 30th anniversary, 300 nutrition educators from throughout New York state convened for a celebration and two-day conference at Cornell University, June 15-16. EFNEP, which is the nation's oldest nutrition education program, currently serves 41 counties and the four boroughs of New York City. efnep.success.ssl.html (July 27, 1999)

Historic Ithaca and Cornell develop plan for moving the Moore house
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Historic Ithaca and Cornell University have agreed on a plan to donate a 180-year-old house on Pleasant Grove Road to Historic Ithaca, which will move the structure to a university-owned site. At least two sites are under consideration, including one in Forest Home and another north of the current location. In addition to providing the house and land, Cornell will donate up to $40,000 for costs associated with moving the house. This agreement maintains the Moore house for single-family use and allows Cornell to proceed with planning for its North Campus residential program for first-year undergraduates. Historic Ithaca will work with a new owner to restore the house in its new location. The earliest possible date for moving the house is this fall. Moore.House.agreement.ds.html (July 27, 1999)

Poisonous fireflies killing exotic lizards
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Just one firefly, with its poisonous lucibufagin chemicals, is enough to kill a lizard, a lesson that American zookeepers and pet owners are learning the hard way. Some of the most popular lizards in zoos and private collections are from parts of the world without poisonous fireflies -- and without the innate distaste most animals in North America seem to have for the little beetle with the trademark glow. But a summer rash of reptile and amphibian deaths has prompted Cornell University biologists to go public, in advance of their scheduled publication in a scholarly journal, with the warning: Don't let your lizards eat fireflies. firefly_lizard.hrs.html (July 26, 1999)

New details on the stuff of asteroids
ITHACA, N.Y. -- New information on the materials that make up the structure of asteroid families will be presented by Shelte Bus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at a press conference Tuesday, the second day of the International Asteroids, Comets and Meteors Conference (ACM) at Cornell University. Bus will present observational results for objects in different regions of the solar system at one of the daily press conferences (Tuesday, July 27, 12:30 p.m., 109 Ives Hall). He will moderate a discussion of new results from a spectroscopic survey of asteroids in the main belt (located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter), where it is found that collisions between the asteroids have played a major role in their evolution. He also will discuss the outermost observable part of the solar system, extending to the recently discovered Kuiper Belt, and objects called Centaurs, thought to be leftover fossils from the early formation of the solar system. ACM.missions.deb.html (July 26, 1999)

At age 92 Fred Whipple joins NASA comet team
ITHACA, N.Y. -- At 92 years of age, Fred Whipple, the noted Harvard astronomer who fathered the phrase "dirty snowball" to describe comets, has been named to serve on a NASA space mission team. He is joining the agency's Comet Nucleus Tour (Contour), scheduled for launch in 2002. Whipple is the oldest researcher ever to accept an active role in a NASA space science mission. Previously, the oldest researcher known to actively work on a NASA mission was James Van Allen, the physicist who discovered the Van Allen belts, who worked on the Galileo Mission to Jupiter at the age of 83. Whipple.bpf.html (July 26, 1999)

Seniors need group housing, not homes
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Up to half of older Americans could postpone going into nursing homes if more group housing options were available, say two Cornell University researchers. Although group living offers seniors lower-cost housing, independence, social interaction and a wide range of household and health services, fewer than 1 percent of the elderly live in such housing. That's according to a new study by Peter Chi, professor of policy analysis and management, and Joseph Laquatra, associate professor of design and environmental analysis. group.housing.ssl.html (July 23, 1999)

Cornell and Ithaca community apply for HUD funds to revitalize city's neighborhoods
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A Cornell University-city of Ithaca partnership hopes to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in revitalizing neighborhoods in the city of Ithaca and to help enhance the quality of life in the city. The proposed partnership includes Cornell and city of Ithaca community-based organizations and churches, residents and government agencies. hud.community.ssl.html (July 22, 1999)

Closeup radar images of asteroids
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Dramatic new close-up radar images of asteroids obtained by the Arecibo 305-meter radio/radar telescope in Puerto Rico will be shown by Steven Ostro of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the seventh International Asteroids, Comets and Meteors Conference (ACM) at Cornell University July 26-30. Ostro also will report on an asteroid, the size of a baseball diamond, that is the smallest solar system object ever studied in detail. Ostro will describe the increasingly important use of radar for imaging when he moderates one of the daily press conferences (Monday, July 26, 10 a.m., 305 Ives Hall) during the ACM. Ostro will describe how radar is being used to construct geologically detailed three-dimensional models of distant bodies, including 37 main-belt asteroids and 50 near-Earth asteroids. ACM.radar.deb.html (July 21, 1999)

Modifying plant genes without foreign DNA
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Scientists may soon be able to quickly produce genetically modified crops without transferring genes across species, providing a novel approach to modifying plant characteristics to generate new traits. The new technique could be applied to improving the nutritional value and productivity of foods without the involvement of foreign DNA. The technique, described by researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for Plant Research Inc., located on the campus of Cornell University, and researchers from Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., appears in today's (July 20) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). BTI-Gene.bpf.html (July 21, 1999)

Cornell garners 15 national awards for publications, alumni relations and development
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Top honors in university fund raising, alumni relations and magazine writing were among 15 national awards won by development and communications professionals at Cornell University from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) this year. Cornell was among five private research institutions to win a 1999 Circle of Excellence in Educational Fund-Raising Award, which honors "superior fund-raising programs across the country," according to CASE, and is awarded to programs that show "solid program growth, breadth in the base of support and other indications of a mature program that is well maintained." CASE.awards.1999.html (July 20, 1999)

Nuclear pioneer and former engineering professor John Perry Howe dies at 88 in La Jolla, Calif.
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Nuclear reactor pioneer John Perry Howe, a former engineering professor at Cornell University and director of the university's Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 1962 to 1965, died in La Jolla, Calif., June 13. He was 88. In 1942, while an assistant professor of physical chemistry at Brown University, Howe was recruited to study nuclear energy under physicist and Nobel laureate Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago. Under the code name "Metallurgical Laboratory," the project created the world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. howe.obit.deb.html (July 20, 1999)

Tom Gold recalls role in moon landing
ITHACA, N.Y. -- On July 20, 1969, at 4:17 p.m. EDT, humans made their first landing on the moon. And at 10:56 that evening, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the lunar surface. In all that has happened since Apollo 11 it's easy to forget, that Cornell University researchers played some critical roles in that event just three decades ago today (July 20). One of the commanding lunar researchers of the era was Tom Gold, now professor emeritus of astronomy, who was then a Cornell assistant vice president for research and director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. Looking back, Gold recalls that although the moon landing was indeed a momentous event, only "a little of scientific value came out of it and not as much as had been expected." moon.gold.deb.html (July 20, 1999)

Olpadwala named dean of Architecture, Art and Planning
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Porus Olpadwala, a city planning professor at Cornell University, has accepted the deanship of Cornell's College of Architecture, Art and Planning. He had been interim dean of the college since July 1998. His new appointment was approved by the executive committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees on June 24 and became effective July 1. Olpadwala succeeds art historian Anthony Vidler and architect William McMinn as the 11th dean of the 128-year-old college, which houses programs in architecture, fine arts and city and regional planning. Olpadwala.AAP.dean2.html (July 20, 1999)

Johnson School students learn by helping the community prosper, says dean
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Master of Business Administration (MBA) students at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management are making things happen economically in Ithaca, according to Dean Robert Swieringa. Addressing about 115 members of the Ithaca Rotary Club at a luncheon at the Holiday Inn July 7, Swieringa cataloged ways that the school's MBA students are sharing their expertise with the community and enhancing its social and economic well-being. "We want our students to internalize the notion that community service is an essential part of the role of an outstanding business leader," said Swieringa. Swieringa.Rotary.final.html (July 20, 1999)

Women managers mean better performance
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Want to improve your company's bottom line? Put more women at the top. According to a study by Theresa Welbourne, a professor in Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, the stocks of companies that went public that had more women on their top management teams performed better in both the short and long run than those with few or no women at the top. The first thing Welbourne discovered when she began her studies of initial public offering (IPO) firms was that the presence of women in top management posts, in general, has increased significantly during this decade. In 1988 when she surveyed 136 companies that went public, she found no women in upper-echelon positions. But by 1993 when she surveyed 535 IPO companies, Welbourne found that women were included on 27 percent of the companies' top management teams. And in a later study, she found that women were in key executive positions at a full 41 percent of the companies that went public in 1996. Welbourne.ILR.html (July 20, 1999)

Cornell Plantations' Martha Howell Young Garden is in full bloom
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Martha Howell Young Flower Garden at Cornell Plantations is blossoming into a robust and colorful floral symphony, according to horticulturists who invite the public to inspect their handiwork. "Last season, the garden was in a state of upheaval, with newly laid waterlines and flagstone paths and redesigned beds. So it's particularly exciting to watch the flower display unfolding in the garden this year," says gardener Diane Miske. "Each day surprises me with the flowering of some new variety I haven't seen before." Young.Garden.hrs.html (July 20, 1999)

Earth-asteroid collision potential
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The possibility of the Earth being struck by comets or asteroids is being given more and more attention by researchers, according to Paul Chodas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Chodas will discuss this potential threat to the planet when he moderates one of the daily press conferences that will provide important new insights into the latest space research at the seventh International Asteroids, Comets and Meteors Conference at Cornell University July 26-July 30. A schedule of the press conferences is available on the ACM media web site . The site provides the latest press releases on research to be reported at the conference, as well as a list of researchers from around the world who will be attending the meeting. ACM.asteroid.deb.html (July 15, 1999)

Students overestimate alcohol/drug use
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Many college students regale their friends -- and scare their parents -- with tales of widespread and excessive drinking, smoking and other drug use on campus. But most students "grossly exaggerate" the extent of alcohol and other drug use on their campuses, reveals a study published in the May issue of the Journal of American College Health.. Even on campuses where most students report abstinence or infrequent use of a variety of drugs in anonymous surveys, the same students substantially overestimate what their peers are doing. alcohol.misperceptions.lgk.html (July 9, 1999)

July Northeast high-temp records melted
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Thirty-one high-temperature records for major cities in the Northeast were broken or tied in the first six days of July. The region is on track for the hottest July since 1955. "We're off to a good start, that's for sure," says Keith Eggleston, senior climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. "Right now, it is too early to make a judgment call whether this July is going to be the hottest or not." He cautions that with two-thirds of the month remaining, lower temperatures could moderate the month's sizzling start. NRCC.JulyHeatWave.bpf.html (July 9, 1999)

S.T.Olin Lab at Cornell back in use after fire
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The S.T. Olin Chemistry Research Laboratory at Cornell University returned to use this morning after a second-floor fire in a research lab Thursday evening, July 10. The fire began at approximately 10 p.m. and involved a quantity of flammable liquids. The building was evacuated and the fire was extinguished by the Ithaca Fire Department. olin.fire.deb.html (July 9, 1999)

Tompkins County Trust Co. is new vendor for Cornell's procurement card
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University is bringing some of the money it spends home to Tompkins County, and saving some for itself, by adopting Tompkins County Trust Co. (TCTC) as the vendor for the Visa cards used by campus faculty and staff. The cards, known on campus as procurement cards, are used by campus departments for purchases up to $500 -- everything from taking a visiting professor to lunch to buying office supplies. The card system is a big timesaver for the university because it eliminates the need to process purchase orders or personal reimbursements for those purchases. procurement.TCTC.ws.html (July 9, 1999)

Massive $7 million machine to probe mysteries of matter and anti-matter arrives
ITHACA, N.Y. -- An exotic piece of apparatus that will be the heart of a detector to seek out the primordial secrets of the universe arrived at Cornell University's Wilson Laboratory July 7 after a slow 50-mile journey by refrigerated truck from Syracuse University, where it was partly assembled. The machine consists of two nested cylinders that make up the RICH detector (for ring imaging Cerenkov counter) that will become the center of CLEO III, the $15 million particle detector upgrade housed at Wilson Lab and the primary user of the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). rich.cleo.deb.html (July 9, 1999)

Hepatitis B plant vaccine in first human trials
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research Inc. (BTI), an affiliate of Cornell University, announced that clinical trials will begin today (July 7) at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in Buffalo, N.Y., to test the safety and immunogenicity of the world's first potential oral vaccine against the hepatitis B virus. The vaccine will be delivered simply by eating potatoes genetically designed to contain the vaccine. More than 2 billion people worldwide are affected by the hepatitis B virus, a leading cause of liver cancer and the cause of more than 1 million deaths annually. vaccine.bti.deb.html (July 9, 1999)

Fat and sugar substitutes don't take off weight
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Foods with fat substitutes might have fewer grams of fat, but they don't necessarily have significantly fewer calories, warns a Cornell University nutrition expert. In fact, she asserts, many people consume as many calories overall even when they eat reduced-fat or sugar-free foods, or both. "In many cases, people add these foods to their diets, rather than substitute them for high-fat or high-sugar foods," Christina Stark, a Cornell Cooperative Extension nutrition specialist in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, told nutrition educators recently. "In fact, some people tend to eat larger servings when they know a food is fat-free, perhaps forgetting that fat-free doesn't mean calorie free." fat.sugar.subs.ssl.html (July 7, 1999)

Cornell joins Al Gore's initiative to educate future community builders
ITHACA, N.Y. -- John Eckenrode, professor and chair of human development and co-director of the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University, served as Cornell's representative last month at Vice President Al Gore's forum, Commitments for the Future: Education for Community Building, on the need for education for community development. On June 22, Eckenrode was one of about 20 experts from universities across the nation who met with Gore and his wife, Tipper, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., to discuss how better to support and sustain communities. Gore said he hoped that universities would develop interdisciplinary degrees or courses of study in community building and in families and community. Earlier Eckenrode had participated in a larger conference, Family Re-Union, devoted to examining ways in which communities can support families. whitehouse.communities.ssl.html (July 7, 1999)

Sciencenter exhibit asks: How many jeans does it take to lift a Volvo?
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Sciencenter of Ithaca and Cornell University will answer a "jean-etics" question July 13, 10:30 a.m., at the Sciencenter: How many bluejeans does it take to lift a Volvo? To celebrate the center's newest exhibit, Clothing: Science from Head to Toe, pairs of bluejeans will be attached to a crane and their tensile strength tested by lifting a 3,500-pound Volvo. VolvoJeans.bpf.html (July 6, 1999)

New scholarships honor Michael A. and Esther C. Chordash
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A "Chordash-built home" is synonymous to many Ithacans as a home of quality. Chordash Builders, which constructed and remodeled numerous homes in Ithaca from the 1950s to the early 1970s, was owned by Michael A. Chordash and his wife, Esther, who did much of the planning and the interior design for the company's homes. The marks of distinction and quality of Chordash homes are now destined to last far beyond the late couple's lifetimes. Their son, Richard Chordash, Cornell B.S. '69, and M.S. '72 and Ph.D. '75, both in food science, has established the Michael A. and Esther C. Chordash Scholarship in Architecture and the Esther C. and Michael A. Chordash Scholarship in Interior Design at Cornell to honor his parents' achievements. chordash.scholarships.ssl.html (July 2, 1999)

McCall's book offers insights on two 'outsiders'
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Long before the so-called "lost generation" of 20th-century American writers in Paris unleashed their profound yet homesick talents on the world, two giants of 19th-century American letters had long since charted expatriate territory in body and soul. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James are the subjects of Cornell University professor and author Dan McCall's latest work of literary criticism, Citizens of Somewhere Else (Cornell University Press). The title is taken from Hawthorne's preface to The Scarlet Letter, a book written in the 1840s, in the language of the 1640s, making Hawthorne an "expatriate in time as well as space," McCall says. In the preface, Hawthorne proclaims, "I am a citizen of somewhere else; I dwell in the realm of quiet." McCall.Release.html (July 2, 1999)

Public Service Center recognized in Templeton guide for student character development
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Public Service Center has been selected to be featured in the publication The Templeton Guide: Colleges That Encourage Character Development, which is due out in September. Published by the John Templeton Foundation, the guide identifies and recognizes outstanding college programs that help to foster, among college students, lives of "personal and civic responsibility." The primary purpose of The Templeton Guide, according to the foundation, is to affirm that character development ought to be a customary part of higher education. The expectation is that the highlighted programs will serve as models for other colleges and universities to follow as they develop higher standards for ethical and civic-minded education. About 400 colleges and universities are represented. Templeton.Guide.html (July 2, 1999)

Mann Library staffers garner prestigious USDA Secretary's Honor Award
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman saluted five staff members of Cornell University's Albert R. Mann Library by presenting them with the 1999 Secretary's Honor Award in a ceremony in Washington recently. The award, one of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) highest distinctions, was presented for the Cornell librarians' work in creating and maintaining the much publicized USDA Economics and Statistics web site. USDA-Mann.bpf.html (July 1, 1999)