Cornell physicist Yuri Orlov has been named the recipient of the first Andrei Sakharov Prize from the American Physical Society for his extensive work promoting human rights. (November 14, 2005)
By watching a distant star as it passed behind Saturn's outer rings, Cornell astronomers involved with NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn have found the most direct evidence to date of thin, parallel striations within the planet's outer rings. The evidence gives scientists clues about how thick Saturn's rings are and how their constituent bodies interact. (November 09, 2005)
Steven Strogatz, professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at Cornell University, describes the Millennium Bridge's notorious opening-day oscillations in the Nov. 3 issue of Nature. (November 2, 2005)
Cornell University has been ranked fourth in the nation in the Washington Monthly College Guide, and No. 1 in engineering physics by U.S. News and World Report. (August 31, 2005)
One of the dreams of both science fiction writers and practical robot builders has been realized, at least on a simple level: Cornell University researchers have created a machine that can build copies of itself.
Move over, quantum dots. Make way for the new kids on the block -- brightly glowing nanoparticles dubbed "Cornell dots." By surrounding fluorescent dyes with a protective silica shell, researchers have created fluorescent nanoparticles with possible applications in displays, biological imaging, optical computing, sensors and microarrays such as DNA chips. (May 19, 2005)
Some people are never satisfied. First, nanotechnology researchers at Cornell built a device so sensitive it could detect the mass of a single bacterium - about 665 femtograms. Then they built one that could sense the presence of a single virus - about 1.5 femtograms. Now, with a refined technique, they have detected a single DNA molecule, weighing in at 995,000 Daltons - a shade more than 1 attogram - and can even count the number of DNA molecules attached to a single receptor by noting the difference in mass. (May 18, 2005)
Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, researchers have for the first time detected light from confirmed planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. (March 23, 2005)
The National Science Foundation has awarded Cornell University $18 million to begin development of a new, advanced synchrotron radiation x-ray source, called an Energy Recovery Linac (ERL).