The white blood cell TH17 helps the immune system fight infection by promoting inflammation. But it can be too much of a good thing: Excessive inflammation from TH17 overload has been tied to autoimmune disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and arthritis.
Arthur Ashkin, Ph.D. ’52, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2018 for pioneering “optical tweezers” that use laser light to capture and manipulate microscopic particles, died Sept. 21 at his home in Rumson, N.J. He was 98.
The superfluid helium-3 has many notable qualities. With its low mass and small atomic size, it remains in a liquid state – and when it transforms to the superfluid state, flowing without resistance – down to absolute zero, or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a pure system, without any disorder. And it is full of surprises.
As with actors and opera singers, when measuring magnetic fields it helps to have range. Cornell researchers used an ultrathin graphene “sandwich” to create a tiny magnetic field sensor that can operate over a greater temperature range than previous sensors, while also detecting miniscule changes in magnetic fields that might otherwise get lost within a larger magnetic background.
Peter McMahon, assistant professor of applied and engineering physics in the College of Engineering, and Brad Ramshaw, the Dick & Dale Reis Johnson Assistant Professor of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, have been named CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars.
Harold A. Scheraga, the George W. and Grace L. Todd Professor Emeritus of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, who had a profound impact shaping the understanding of protein structure, died Aug. 1 in Ithaca. He was 98.
Unlike many stories about technological revolutions and industry disrupters, this one begins in a mall. Originally from Guyana, South America, Andrea Madho had a successful career as a stockbroker on Wall Street before transitioning to tech-sector public relations and business development. On this particular shopping trip in 2015, she just wanted to buy clothing that fit.
Like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, critical spin fluctuations in a magnetic system haven’t been captured on film. Unlike the fabled creatures, these fluctuations – which are highly correlated electron spin patterns – do actually exist, but they are too random and turbulent to be seen in real time.
As a first-generation college student whose family – refugees from Indonesia – arrived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when he was only a year old, Malikul Muhamad ’20 credits his teachers and professors with helping him chart a successful course through uncertainty and new experiences.
Cancer cells not only ravage the body – they also compete with each other.Cornell mathematicians are using game theory to model how this competition could be leveraged, so cancer treatment – which also takes a toll on the patient’s body – might be administered more sparingly, with maximized effect.
Theologians once pondered how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Not to be outdone, Cornell researchers who build nanoscale electronics have developed microsensors so tiny, they can fit 30,000 on one side of a penny.
Electroplating – the process of using electricity to deposit one metal onto another – originated in the 19th century and can be found in everything from pennies to gold-topped cathedrals.
Cornell is leading a $77 million effort, beginning April 1, to upgrade the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
Cornell structural biologists took a new approach to using a classic method of X-ray analysis to capture something the conventional method had never accounted for: the collective motion of proteins. And they did so by creating software to painstakingly stitch together the scraps of data that are usually disregarded in the process.
New Cornell research shows that traditional physics labs, which strive to reinforce the concepts students learn in lecture courses, can actually have a negative impact on students. At the same time, nontraditional, inquiry-based labs that encourage experimentation can improve student performance and engagement without lowering exam scores.
Construction is complete and the first major test was a success, so a celebration was in order to mark these accomplishments of the Cornell-Brookhaven ERL Test Accelerator facility, known as CBETA. In time, it is expected to become the most energy-efficient, high-performance accelerator ever built.
Five Cornell faculty members have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society.
There’s a structural avalanche waiting inside that box of Rice Krispies on the supermarket shelf. Cornell researchers are now closer to understanding how those structures behave – and in some cases, behave unusually.
Cornell researchers have put a new spin on measuring and controlling spins in nickel oxide, with an eye toward improving electronic devices’ speed and memory capacity.
New Cornell-led research is pointing the way toward an elusive goal of physicists – high-temperature superfluidity – by exploring excitons in atomically thin semiconductors.
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded an interdisciplinary team of Cornell researchers $2 million to study the combination of inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles and bacterial cells for more efficient bioenergy conversion.
As an environmental activist and lobbyist, Rafe Pomerance ’68 played an early, pivotal role in raising awareness about the threat of climate change in the late 1970s. He connected scientists with government policymakers and the media, efforts that led to congressional hearings.
New York apple farmers, wastewater treatment facilities, new energy technologies, rural-urban systems and leopards in Nepal all stand to get a sustainability boost from the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future’s 2019 Academic Venture Fund (AVF) awards.
For four decades, environmental photographer James Balog has traveled the world capturing the connections between humans and nature in vivid detail.The Cornell community will have the opportunity to explore these connections, too, when Cornell Cinema hosts a free screening of “The Human Element” on Earth Day, April 22, at 7 p.m.
Rhinoceroses are instantly recognizable by their rumpled gray skin, immense snouts and iconic horns, but not so much their voices.That could change thanks to the efforts of Montana Stone ’19, who is working to document the vocalizations of Javan rhinos through a collaboration with the Lab of Ornithology’s Bioacoustics Research Program and Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National Park.
In the early 1980s, Peter Gabriel sang “Shock the Monkey.” But about 15 years ago, the English musician became more interested in jamming with apes instead.Bonobos, specifically.“I had always been fascinated to see how we might interact musically,” said Gabriel. “I was blown away at the obvious intelligence of the beings that I was sharing the space with.”
Sustainability science is getting a big boost from the humanities. And the social sciences. And the arts.Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future has named seven social sciences, humanities and arts (SSHA) fellows for the 2018-19 academic year. The annual fellowships are awarded to faculty from across the university whose work broadens and deepens sustainability research.
The Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future’s Academic Venture Fund (AVF) supports collaborations that cut across disciplines to address today’s greatest sustainability challenges. In 2018, the fund awarded $1.5 million to a range of projects that will provide sustainable solutions around the world, from the Finger Lakes to the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia.
Since the 1970s, the Greek island of Santorini has enjoyed a thriving tourism industry. While the nearly 2 million people who annually visit the island pump money into the local economy, they also put a tremendous strain on the island’s infrastructure, particularly the usage of water. This problem is compounded by a lack of rainfall during the dry summer months when the tourist season is at its peak.
