Imagine you are watching an NBA basketball game, and you are asked to bet on the outcome of the game. Are you likely to put your money on the team with the player who appears to be unstoppable- the one who just made his last three shots and is just about to shoot again? What if that same player goes for the shot and misses, but the referee mistakenly calls a foul when there was none and allows…
"While other historical works on the revolution tend to skip over the year 1774," says Mary Beth Norton, "noboday has ever paused to look seriously at the events of the year 1774, to see how the American population, which previously has been quite united in opposition to Britain, divides over various issues."
Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History, is profiled in this…
Matthew Church, a PhD student in chemistry and chemical biology, confesses in this Cornell Research story that he came to Cornell because he fell in love with the Finger Lakes region. Church also came to Cornell hoping to work in the Ananth Group, a theoretical chemistry lab led by Nandini Ananth, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology. The Ananth Group studies…
In the middle of the periodic table of elements, on the block that bridges the two jutting sides, is a series of elements known as transition metals. The electronic composition of transition metals makes them great catalysts for some of earth’s most life-enabling reactions. They mediate key reactions, for example, in photosynthesis and help convert nitrogen in the atmosphere so it can be used as…
*/Imagine a new neighbor has moved in next door. He drives a Prius, and you’ve seen him at the local Starbucks sipping a latte. Last night you heard jazz music drifting from his house. Given what you know so far, do you think he’s politically a liberal or a conservative? Now imagine he owns a Harley Davidson motorcycle, drinks Maxwell House coffee and listens to country music. Did you change your…
*/In Pliny the Elder’s encyclopedic Natural History, written in the first century AD, he recounts the story of a painter, Protogenes. Attempting to capture the foam around a dog’s mouth, Protogenes became so frustrated that he threw a sponge at the canvas. The resulting impression created just the look he had wanted.“For Pliny,” says Verity J. Platt, associate professor of classics, “it becomes…
As a math major with a concentration in computer science, one might assume that on paper, Beatrice Jin ’18, would be more inclined to pursue purely technical fields rather than the humanities. Jin, however, who hails from the suburbs of Chicago, has had a consistent passion for art and visual design in addition to math and science.
“I’ve always been a reluctant math major. I’ve found that the…
Like human social behavior, the behavior of electrons in relation to each other is difficult to predict. In strongly correlated systems, each electron impacts how those around it act, their orientation and movement, and this leads to diverse behavior in the whole. This Cornell Research story explores this behavior. The unpredictability and diversity, says Eun-Ah Kim, associate professor of…
Allen Tyrone Porterie hopes to cast more light on the theater stage. The issue in question is homophobia as it pertains to gay black men in the theater. “This research relates closely to me, and it is also a very important issue,” says Porterie in this Cornell Research story.Porterie is pursuing a major in English and a minor in theater. “I really came to Cornell because I was interested in the…
How will healthcare policy change in the United States, or immigration policy? How robust are America’s institutional checks on executive power? These are largely questions about Congress, says David A. Bateman, assistant professor of government. Bateman's work is explored in this Cornell Research story.“Once I started studying Congress, I increasingly came to believe that it’s the key U.S…
In 1989, W.E. Moerner—a Cornell University graduate and current professor at Stanford University—discovered a method that allowed researchers to see single molecules for the first time. It was a breakthrough that opened doors for the development of an entirely new technique that would impact scientific research across disciplines, and one that earned Moerner, as well as fellow Cornell alumnus…
For all the medical advances in recent years, neurological and psychiatric disorders— Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, autism, and schizophrenia—remain largely a mystery. One reason is the incredibly complex structure of the brain. To encourage exploration of this unknown territory, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Cornell University $9 million over five years to establish a…
This Cornell Research story focuses on Kim Weeden, the Jan Rock Zubrow ’77 Professor of the Social Sciences and director of the Center for the Study of Inequality, whose work focuses on inequality and opportunity in the United States and other industrialized countries.“I’ve always been interested in occupations and work, which are fundamental to our lives, not only in terms of income but also to…
Arts & Sciences student and English major Molly Karr '18 writes about her study abroad experience with a London acting troupe in this Cornell Research piece."My classrooms lacked desks. I traded my graphing calculator for dance shoes, scripts, and corsets. Many of my professors had been or were in shows on the West End, which is like the Broadway of London," Karr writes. "Classes I had never…
We don’t realize it, but forms are all around us—ordering our lives—says Caroline E. Levine, the David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of Humanities in the Department of English, whose work is profiled in this Cornell Resarch story.“My shift in literary studies was to think of literary and artistic forms as having certain affordances,” she says in the story. “A poetic rhythm can think certain…
Through his writing, archaeology, and outreach, Kurt Jordan, associate professor of anthropology, works alongside Native partners to better understand the indigenous history of the Finger Lakes region. His work is highlighted in this Cornell Research story.“The biggest misconception members of the general public have is that Native people are gone,” Jordan says in the story. “There are…
The research of Francesca Molinari, professor of economics, is explored in this recent Cornell Research story.The story says that Molinari’s work seeks to understand, “What is the mechanism that determines what people decide when there are uncertain outcomes? How can we model these choices and estimate the parameters behind these models?”The story says Molinari and her colleague and husband Levon…
The research of Jesse H. Goldberg, assistant professor and Robert R. Capranica Fellow in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, is explored in this recent Cornell Research story.
The story says that Goldberg’s research seeks to answer, “what does how baby songbirds learn to sing have to do with human diseases, affecting how people control variability in their thoughts or actions?”
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Alexander G. Hayes, assistant professor of astronomy, first began studying Titan as a graduate student, Hayes' research is described in this Cornell Research story.
“Where else can you say it’s raining right now, other than on Earth?” Hayes says in the story about Saturn’s largest moon. “It has strikingly similar processes acting on its surface, generating landforms including lakes,…
The research of Richard W. Miller, professor of philosophy and director of the Program on Ethics & Public Life, is explored in this recent Cornell Research story.The story says that as a graduate student, Miller became deeply interested in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who attempted to dissolve the question, “Does anything exist except my own experience?”"It was the early 1970s, however…
The work of Peter J. Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies in the government department, is the focus of a new story in Cornell Research.Although the global financial crisis of 2008 wreaked havoc on the economies and governments of countries worldwide, it did not cause many scholars to reassess long-held beliefs concerning finance, economics, and…
The work of Robert R. Morgan, the Kappa Alpha Professor of English, is the focus of this story in Cornell Research.The story says that when Morgan came to Cornell in 1971, “I became very interested in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. I began looking into the history of that region, the Cherokee Nation, the geology and geography, and the experience there during the…
This Cornell Research story profiles the work of Natasha Holmes, assistant professor of physics, who studies the teaching and learning of physics, particularly in lab courses."Science is about experimentation, creativity, even play," the story says. "The greatest breakthroughs have come from those who pushed the known limits to ask why, how, and ultimately what if. If this is how the best science…
Ashley Vincent Ashley Vincent '17 admits that she used to earn average grades in chemistry in high school. “The reason why I chose chemistry as a major is slightly unconventional," she said in this Cornell Research story. "Most students major in their strongest subject areas, but chemistry wasn’t really one of my best subjects in high school. I applied to colleges as a prospective chemistry…
“I write in books, not in individual poems,” says poet Lyrae N. Van Clief-Stefanon, English. “A group of poems that make up a book will have an over-arching through line, all these threads that I’m holding together.”Van Clief-Stefanon is currently working on a new book of poems titled The Coal Tar Colors, following the threads of seemingly disparate subjects and weaving them together in…
Climate change is a game changer: glaciers melt, sea levels rise, weather patterns become unpredictable. Then add the anticipated secondary effects, such as crop failure, the salinization of freshwater, and the flooding of coastal cities. With all of this disruption, massive movements of people across the globe in coming years are sure to happen, as the people affected look for new homes. “More…
Patrick Braga ’17 would have made Ezra Cornell proud. Braga, who is profiled in this Cornell Research Story, is an undergraduate in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning and College of Arts and Sciences, pursuing a triple major in urban and regional studies, music, and economics. Despite his broad interests, he pursues each with a fervor, often to uncharted depths through his independent…
What does it mean to do research in math? According to Tara S. Holm, professor of mathematics, profiled in this Cornell Research story, it’s not as complicated as some might think. “It’s always surprising—the simple things that we still don’t know,” she says.Contrary to popular assumptions, Holm adds in the story, research in mathematics doesn’t take talent or genius so much as hard work and…
The world is full of languages and dialects—more than 7,000. Across these languages, many possible sounds can be combined into words. While there may be similarities in words between closely related languages, for years linguists have believed that the relationship between the sound of a word and its meaning is completely arbitrary. Recently Morten H. Christiansen, Psychology, collaborated with…
In a cemetery just south of Cornell University’s campus, you can find the grave of “Faithful” Daniel Jackson, a man who settled in Ithaca after escaping slavery in the 1840s. After the Civil War, he brought his mother north as well—a happy ending to a heroic, harrowing journey. But according to Edward E. Baptist, professor of history, Jackson and other runaways don’t receive the full credit they…
Roberto Sierra, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Music, talks about his life, composing, teaching, and the creative process in this video. This originally appeared on the Cornell Research website.
Paul A. Fleming, German Studies/Comparative Literature, recounts an old story that’s been told and retold many times. It comes from Herodotus’ Histories, an account of the Egyptian King Psammetichus’ capture by the Persians. As part of the king’s humiliation, the Persians parade his family in front of him—first his daughter as a slave and then his son on his way to execution. While everyone else…
Robert D. Guber ’15 studied alcoholic liver, diabetes, and obesity. Lipi Gupta ’15 worked on reducing beam emittance in the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), a 768-meter ring that is part of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), to produce brighter s-rays. Sang Min Han ’15 examined toadfish to create a mathematical model for vertebrate vocalization. Swati Sureka ’15 engineered…
Atop a cabinet, leaning against a wall of Dagmawi Woubshet’s office, is an enlarged framed cover of the May 17, 1963, issue of TIME magazine. Its portrait of writer James Baldwin stares into the room. Woubshet, associate professor of English, gestures to it several times as he talks about his research.In that TIME cover story, the magazine heralds Baldwin as a leading voice of the Civil Rights…
Like all researchers, Itai Cohen, associate professor of physics, has a lot of questions. But unlike many, his questions make big, topical leaps. From fruit flies to mosh pits, from origami to cartilage—Cohen dreams of preventing stampedes in Mecca, understanding the complex neuromechanics of fruit fly flight, and making self-folding robots from a single sheet of atoms. How can all this happen in…
Walk by a bakery, and you’ll smell fresh-baked bread. But would you smell it, if you’d never learned what bread was? “Not necessarily,” says Thomas A. Cleland, associate professor of psychology.“The very concept of having odors that you recognize and identify, even being able to pick them out of the messy olfactory world out there, absolutely depends on learning,” says Cleland in a Cornell…
In academic fields from physics to genetics, researchers rely on computers for everything from data analysis to modeling. One area of scholarship that has gone largely untouched is the humanities, where today’s researchers are far more often hunched over stacks of books than scanning graphs and charts on a screen.That, however, is changing thanks to people like David Mimno, assistant professor of…
From our earliest history, humans have contemplated the cosmos. Before we had an inkling of the nature of our own solar system, we wondered at the composition of our sister planets. And long before we knew there were planets orbiting other stars, we wondered if we, earth-bound beings, were alone in the universe.This need to understand the nature of the universe and our place in it continues to…
Kyle Shen, associate professor of physics, creates and investigates artificial and unconventional materials with unusual electronic and magnetic properties. His research into these new materials and their potential applications is explored in this Cornell Resarch story.
This Cornell Research story explores the many avenues that graduate students pursue in their research projects and the multitide of Cornell supports available to them.More than 5,000 graduate students work at Cornell, studying in more than 80 fields.“If you’re a grad student with initiative, there are a lot ways for you to create your own institution of people who have similar interests,” says…
Karen Pinkus, professor of Italian and comparative literature, is deeply concerned about the environment and believes that the humanities can bring a critical research component to solving the problems of climate change.“The Atkinson Center has inspired me to talk to scientists and work with them in a way that I never would have before,” says Pinkus. “It’s opened up all kinds of new ways of…
Despite the distance, Cornell researchers are actively involved in the cutting-edge particle physics experiments taking place at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.This Cornell Research story explores the many projects and discoveries Cornell faculty are undertaking as they pursue answers to some of the universe's greatest mysteries.“The most…
Everywhere we turn in modern Western society, we run into the influence of economics. Our worldview, and our very language, is colored by it. We worry that politicians can be bought and sold. We give credit to those who can afford a comfortable retirement. We debate the price of a free society as police clash with protestors. The language of economics touches our deepest beliefs regarding honor,…
In the short story “How to Win an Unwinnable War,” a seventh-grade boy named Sam enrolls in a summer school class called How to Win a Nuclear War. The story traces Sam’s morbid reflections spurred by the course—“He wonders what the stars will see the day the war begins, the whole planet brightening, then going gray like a dead bulb”—as he simultaneously grapples with the dissolution of his parent…
Peter J. Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International Studies, offers a look into his world of teaching and research in international relations in this video on the Cornell Research site.
Of the approximately 7,000 languages in the world, many are endangered. An endangered language is one that is at risk of losing all of its native speakers. Some estimate that half of the world’s languages may become extinct within the next century. What’s more, many of these languages are vastly different from English and most are understudied. One example is Cheyenne, an Algonquian language…
Courtney A. Roby, classics, has an unusual background. She’s a longtime math lover and a former electrical engineer, who turned to the ancient world.
As an electrical engineering PhD student, Roby was dissatisfied. She had some big context questions about technology and engineering: “Why do we use a particular set of practices in developing new technologies? How do an engineer’s priorities…
