Environmental Sciences News

• Got bird questions? New book has the answers | Cornell Chronicle feature | 11/11/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  Drawing on puzzlers she has fielded over a lifetime of bird study, Cornell Lab science editor Laura Erickson has compiled answers to more than 200 bird questions in "The Bird Watching Answer Book".
• Resonating feathers produce courtship song in rare bird, researchers report | Cornell Chronicle feature | 11/11/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  Researchers have proven that the club-winged manakin's feathers resonate at a particular frequency to create a tone. The adaptation is a striking example of a species modifying an essential body part for the purpose of attracting a mate.
• Cornell releases predator beetle to battle hemlock pest | Cornell Chronicle feature | 11/10/2009 Chronicle Feature
  
  To battle the hemlock-killing Laricobius nigrinus beetles, a team of entomologists has released one of the adelgids' natural predators as a local case study.
• New CALS option teaches biology for the real world | Cornell Chronicle feature | 11/09/2009 Chronicle Feature
  
  CALS students in non-life science majors can partially meet their life sciences distribution requirements without taking a two-semester introductory biology survey course.
• Nitrogen loss threatens desert plant life, study shows | Cornell Chronicle feature | 11/05/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  Professor Jed Sparks and lead author Carmody McCalley, a graduate student, warn that temperature increases and shifting precipitation patterns due to climate change may lead to further nitrogen losses in arid ecosystems.
• Half of U.S. children -- and most black children -- will use food stamps, Cornell study reports | Cornell Chronicle feature | 11/03/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  Food stamps are important indicators of poverty and risk of food insecurity, "two of the most detrimental economic conditions affecting a child's health," says Cornell Professor Thomas A. Hirschl.
• Cornell receives nearly $850,000 to improve specialty crops | Cornell Chronicle feature | 11/02/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  CALS researchers aim to arm farmers with blight-resistant varieties and crop management strategies to beat Phytophthora blight, as well as other issues that affect specialty crops.
• Cornell Plantations breaks ground on its welcome center | Cornell Chronicle feature | 10/27/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  The sustainably designed Cornell Plantations Brian C. Nevin Welcome Center is is built into Comstock Knoll at the Mullestein Winter garden and will be completed in 2010.
• Cornell's VIVO concept will expand to connect researchers nationwide | Cornell Chronicle feature | 10/27/2009 Chronicle feature
  A $12.2 million, two-year grant from the NIH's National Center for Research Resources will support the creation of VIVOweb, a multi-institutional version of Cornell Library's VIVO that will connect biomedical researchers to foster alliances.
• New center to bring CU agricultural innovations to China | Cornell Chronicle feature | 10/27/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  A Sept. 24 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Cornell and the Department of Science and Education of China's Ministry of Agriculture facilitated the creation of the Sino-U.S. Ray Wu Agricultural Technology Innovation Center at Cornell.
• Conference on cooperation, cheating, group decision-making yields insights | Cornell Chronicle feature | 10/21/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  Better understanding of honeybee interactions could have implications for understanding why people act selfishly in a communal system, said Kern Reeve, one of the presenters at the conference "Cooperation: Self Interest and Mutual Interest."
• AguaClara breaks ground on new water plant to serve 2,000 | Cornell Chronicle feature | 10/20/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  AguaClara, a program in civil and environmental engineering in which students design municipal drinking water plants that operate without requiring electricity, has celebrated the groundbreaking of its fifth full-scale facility.
• Why do human populations differ? Fruit fly study aims to provide genetic answers | Cornell Chronicle feature | 10/12/2009 Chronicle feature
  
  Charles Aquadro, Cornell professor of molecular biology and genetics, was recently granted almost $700,000 in federal stimulus funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to continue this 20-year line of research.

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