by Jackie Swift
“Malnutrition, both over- and undernutrition, is the leading risk factor for morbidity and mortality globally,” says Saurabh Mehta, Nutritional Sciences. “At the same time, nutritional status may be more amenable than other risk factors to modification at both the individual and the population level.”
by Jackie Swift
The biological mechanisms behind hunger, appetite, and satiety are mysterious. What processes cause us to feel hunger and then tell us when to stop eating? Why are we attracted to particular foods more than others? What are the biological roots of eating disorders like binge eating and anorexia?
For Nilay Yapici, Neurobiology and Behavior, the answers lie in our brains. “I’ve always been fascinated by how our brains control our behaviors,” she says. “I want to understand how genes regulate our brain functions, which then control our behaviors, especially our daily life decisions like eating.”
Identifying Food Intake Neurons
Yapici explores…
by Jackie Swift
How should models of pandemic illnesses be constructed? What are the racial disparities in clinical outcomes for patients with COVID-19? How are emergency room physicians coping with the stress of an overwhelmed hospital system? These are just some of the questions explored by panelists who took part in a session on social sciences and modeling during the Cornell COVID-19 Summit, held virtually November 4–5.
The session took place on the second day of the summit and featured researchers from Cornell’s Ithaca campus and from Weill Cornell Medicine. …
by Jackie Swift
Shortly before the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm, two teenagers from the Netherlands hacked into the United States Department of Defense’s (DOD) new logistics system and gained control over it, according to Rebecca M. Slayton, Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. “They might have stopped or diverted shipments of weapons or other critical supplies, and that might have had a devastating effect on military operation,” she says.
United States–led coalition forces achieved their military objectives in the Gulf War in a matter of weeks. But Slayton points out that things could…
by Jackie Swift
Nature is full of biological materials with the ability to change properties as needed. The trunks of many trees, for example, stand firm and strong yet can bend in a wind without breaking. Octopuses can change the color and texture of their skin as well as the shape of their bodies. Pine cones can open and shut their scales to time the release of seeds. Natural phenomena like these have inspired Meredith N. Silberstein, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, to think outside the box in her quest to create synthetic polymers with targeted functionality.
“A lot of what…
by Jackie Swift
Stop and think for a moment: What gives your life purpose? You may find this difficult to answer. You may even think at first that you have no purpose, but as you reflect on the question, your answer and the sense of balance it brings may surprise you.
A sense of purpose is integral to the human experience, says Anthony L. Burrow, department of Human Development at Cornell University. “Purpose is a forward-looking directionality, an intention to do something in the world,” he says. “It’s different than a goal, which can be accomplished. Wanting to be a…
by J. Edward Anthony
Bacteria that churn out a COVID-19 vaccine like mini pharmaceutical factories. An antibody test that not only indicates whether you’ve been exposed but also measures the strength and progress of your immune response. A friendly giant of a molecule, harmless to humans, that once injected into the bloodstream will bind like Velcro to the outside of SARS-CoV-2, keeping it from doing harm by holding the virus in a relentless molecular bear hug.
To people anxious for practical help, these ideas might sound far-fetched, but to Cornell researchers working at the forefront of their fields, these outside-the-box…
by Jackie Swift
Ivan V. Bazarov, Physics, doesn’t just like to solve problems; he likes to create them, too, and accelerator physics gives him a chance to do both. “When you work with accelerators and you find solutions for problems, they translate into real-life applications or enable other scientists to do research they otherwise couldn’t do, which is cool,” he says. “But along with solving problems, we also like to create them — to take more of a risk. …
by Jackie Swift
Johannes Lehmann, School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University, Soil and Crop Sciences, is leading a revolution. Over the past two decades, he has been instrumental in overturning a long-held scientific belief regarding the fundamental nature of soil, while at the same time exploring innovative ways to mitigate climate change.
“There is much more carbon in the soil than in the atmosphere and in all the plants together on the globe,” he says. “It’s a conundrum why there is so much. If you give a leaf to microorganisms to eat, they very quickly eat it all…
by J. Edward Anthony
“In a complete stranger’s house, I could probably find a toothbrush pretty easily,” says Astrid Van Oyen, Classics. “The spatial specificity in our houses tends to be echoed by the material objects we store in that space.” Dishes go in a kitchen cabinet, pajamas in a bedroom dresser. “In Roman houses, in the time of the Roman Empire, that wasn’t the case,” she explains. “It would be a nightmare for any modern-day organizer.”
Van Oyen is a classical archaeologist who asks questions like an anthropologist. The two disciplines are more closely linked in her native Belgium…
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