Striking pay dirt: Cornell soil soars to the space station

News

Morgan Irons is about to help make space-exploration history – and all she needed was a shovel and some dirt. Irons, a doctoral student in soil and crop sciences, will see the soil she scooped from a Cornell farm organic plot launch into space...
  • Global Development Section
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Soil and Crop Sciences Section
  • Global Development
  • Plants
  • Soil
  • Biology
  • Environment
The international space station. Photo by NASA, provided

Grace Tucker '17: Helping coastal communities become more resilient

Field Note

Grace Tucker '17 is a program coordinator for the coastal resilience team at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in Washington, DC. In this role, she conducts science and policy analysis related to coastal resilience, natural infrastructure and...
  • Environment
  • Nature
  • Planet
  • Water
  • Landscape
  • Land
A female sitting at a desk

Artifacts from upstate Indigenous towns digitized, repatriated

News

The recently launched digital collection – Onöndowa'ga:' (Seneca) Haudenosaunee Archaeological Materials, circa 1688-1754 – features two historical locations – White Springs and Townley-Read, both near Geneva, New York – which were inhabited...
  • American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program
A blue bead with white and orange curving lines

Report: Plant science must innovate over next 10 years

News

The Plant Science Research Network (PSRN) has released its Plant Science Decadal Vision 2020-2030, a report that outlines innovative solutions to guide investments and research in plant science over the next 10 years as scientists tackle...
  • Boyce Thompson Institute
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Biology Section
  • Development
  • Plants
  • Biology
  • Environment
Green plants in a white room

Alliance for Science expands mission with $10 million reinvestment

News

The Cornell Alliance for Science is expanding its mission of science communication and advocacy, and broadening its commitment to diversity and inclusion, thanks to $10 million in new funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant...
  • Global Development Section
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Global Development
  • Communication
People hold signs in support of science

Max Wohlgemuth: Aspirations for more resilient and food secure communities

Field Note

Hometown: Columbus, Nebraska College attended and major: University of Nebraska - Lincoln; Bachelor of Journalism with a minor in Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Peace Corps dates: October 2012 - April 2016 What are the big challenges you...
  • Global Development Section
  • Agriculture
  • Global Development
Soccer team in Tanzania

Sage Grasso-Monroe: A journey to alleviate malnutrition through agriculture

Field Note

Hometown: Queensbury, New York College attended and major: University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Bachelor of Science in Public Health Peace Corps dates: January 2018 - March 2020 What are the big challenges you want to tackle in the world? The...
  • Global Development Section
  • Agriculture
  • Global Development
Woman works in field

Cornell to receive ‘on-campus’ accreditation visit via Zoom

News

Cornell has been accredited every decade by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education since 1921, and starting now every 8 years, the university reapplies. This year’s accreditation process falls in the middle of a global pandemic – so...
A student riding a bike in a college quad

E. coli bacteria offer path to improving photosynthesis

News

The method is described in a paper, “ Small subunits can determine enzyme kinetics of tobacco Rubisco expressed in Escherichia coli,” published Sept. 14 in the journal Nature Plants. Scientists have known that crop yields would increase if they...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Biology Section
  • Molecular Biology and Genetics
  • Plants
  • Biology
A man and woman standing next to green plants

$2M USDA grant funds value-added grains project

News

The project focuses on developing infrastructure to establish an organic industry for grains such as bread wheat, naked barley, hulless oats, rye, emmer, spelt and einkorn. “Grains are very nutritious and are a critical part of the human diet,”...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
  • Organic
  • Food
Women working in a bakery kitchen with bread dough

Aimee Schulz: In the field with a phenotyping robot

Field Note

Multimedia

Aimee Schulz is a second-year Ph.D. student working with Edward Buckler, adjunct professor of plant breeding and genetics. Her research in the Buckler Lab for Maize Genetics and Diversity examines the plant’s competitive ability. Shulz said,...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
  • Agriculture
  • Digital Agriculture
  • Food
  • Vegetables
  • Plants
  • Crops
Play

Alireza Abbaspourrad: From gummies to water purification filters

Spotlight

Ensuring food products meet with consumer expectations isn’t easy. Take vitamin C–infused gummies: keeping the vitamin C stable is so tricky that gummy manufacturers regularly add up to 200 percent more vitamin C to the product than they list on...
  • Food Science
  • Food
  • Health + Nutrition
A man in a lab coat holds a slide up to the light.

NSF to fund study on far-reaching algal bloom impacts

News

The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year, $1.5 million grant for Cornell researchers to study the health dangers, changes in the lake food web, and socioeconomic challenges that arise when these algal blooms produce toxins. “With...
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Global Development Section
  • Natural Resources and the Environment Section
  • Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
  • Global Development
  • Health + Nutrition
  • Bacteria
  • Environment
  • Water
  • Natural Resources
Bright green ocean water surrounded by plants

Centers of Innovation announced with goal to develop improved crops worldwide

News

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement announced approximately $4 million in funding to launch four Centers of Innovation (CoI) for Crop Improvement aimed at developing more resilient, nutritious crops in East Africa, West...
  • Global Development Section
  • Agriculture
  • Global Development
  • Crops
Gael Pressoir in field

New mobile app provides lifeline for farmers growing Bt eggplant

News

The new app “Btbegun” provides farmers, extension professionals, field officers, policymakers, seed suppliers and other stakeholders with the most current information about Bt eggplant — a genetically engineered variety resistant to a ravenous...
  • Global Development Section
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
  • Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
  • Food
  • Global Development
  • Plants
  • Genetics
harvested eggplant

Biopesticide startup gets $750K more in NSF funding

News

Cornell-based startup Ascribe Bioscience, which applies the emerging field of metabolomics to the soil microbiome to develop new products for agriculture, has won a $750,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research...
  • Boyce Thompson Institute
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
  • Agriculture
  • Plants
  • Pathology
  • Soil
Brown soil and green plants in a field

‘Cornell Chicken’ is the taste of summer

News

Over the next seven decades the seasonal eatery gained iconic status, serving nearly 1,000 half-chickens (a.k.a. “broilers”) a day for two weeks in late summer. Satisfied customers have included at least one U.S. president: Bill Clinton, who...
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • Food Science
  • Food
Chicken and corn on a grill

Facebook anniversaries inspire reflection, nostalgia

News

And although these anniversaries seem like a signature product of the social media age, they stem from newspapers’ tradition of printing historical events that happened “on this date,” said Lee Humphreys, associate professor of communication in...
  • Department of Communication
  • Behavior
  • Communication
White pins that have Facebook logos on them

Taste buds may play role in fostering obesity in offspring

News

The researchers’ findings were published July 31 in Nature Scientific Reports. Maternal exposure to a high-fat diet during the perinatal period – before the animal gets pregnant – appears to induce physical, detectable changes in the taste buds...
  • Food Science
  • Food
  • Health + Nutrition
Hands holding a donut