On Nov. 4, Roots and Shoots – a student group that centered on environmental education – hosted a lecture on the interconnections between climate change, women’s rights and political issues as part of their Environmental Justice and Film Speaker Series. 

Did you spot a huge blow-up canvas duck on Ho Plaza this Tuesday? It was the Society for Natural Resource Conservation (SNRC) raising awareness about the beginning of their PVC-free campaign. 

This is a follow-up to a sun article that ran on Sept. 8, entitled, “The Mysterious Collapse of the American Honeybee.” It’s based on a story reported in the NY Times.

Each year for the past four years, 20 to 40 percent of US honeybee colonies simply disappeared – a phenomenon that became known as colony collapse disorder (CCD). In a major breakthrough, Army scientists in Maryland and bee entomologists in Montana jointly discovered a perfect correlation between diseased colonies and the presence of a virus and the fungus, Nosema ceranae.

Cannibalistic, predatory and voracious: three words about spiders are enough to make anyone suffer from arachnophobia.  Cornell’s resident “spider lady”, Prof. Linda Rayor, entomology, actually finds them quite lovable.  She considers herself an “arachnophile” - or spider lover.

Prof. Juan Hinestroza, fiber science and apparel design, hatched the idea of textile nanotechnology while reading about the 50-year cycles of technological advancements: textiles, railroads, cars, computers, and most recently, nanotechnology. The prospect of merging two revolutions separated by 200 years intrigued him, and he works to generate "revolutionary" fabrics.

The world's reserve of fossil fuels will eventually be exhausted, and the use of oil from the Middle East will not be able to support the world. According to Prof. Frank DiSalvo, chemistry, sun is perhaps one of the best sources of energy that humans can depend on in the future.

Months prior, upon scrambling to design a “restful-but-productive-and-recharging” summer, I decided I wanted to work on a farm.  Many phone calls and emails later (typically exchanged during the procrastinating periods before prelim season), I arranged to spend my July in Warner, New Hampshire as a farmhand on a small organic family farm. With only a few paragraphs and pictures on their website, I knew not what to expect. And so, on a morning in late June, I boarded a train to Boston, where after a quick meal I transferred onto a bus headed to Concord, New Hampshire. 

Dr. Molly Jahn Ph.D '88 is a Cornell Alumnus and the current United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary of Research, Education and Economics.  She answers seven science questions about the future of agriculture, the current Farm Bill and the USDA's top priorites.

Prof. Thomas Overton, animal science, works to improve dairy cattle performance by identifying relevant health risks in real-world settings. His outreach to farmers improves dairy facilities and management strategies. 

At his Apr. 21 lecture, Prof. Cin-Ty Lee, earth sciences, Rice University, shared his finding on the origins of the continental crust, or lithosphere.  His research provides new insight into the formation of the planet.