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Peru: you'll never see more species! - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell ...
Peru: you'll never see more species! - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell ...
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<strong>Cornell</strong> alumni news<br />
May 1984<br />
Volume 86, Number 9<br />
Cover<br />
A student and his dog enjoy the verdancy and color of the Lua Minns<br />
Garden near the Plant Science Building. Its earlier site is shown on page 32.<br />
Another earlier garden is described in the story on page 16.<br />
2 University<br />
Industry and the state join <strong>Cornell</strong> to develop biotechnology. Enter primary<br />
politics. People. Post-season sports honors and a start on spring. Books.<br />
12 Communications<br />
All hail, Willy Strunk! and other letters to the editor. Footnotes. Etcetera.<br />
16 Daisy's Garden<br />
By Elizabeth Anne Thomson '85. A graduate student hopes to restore<br />
plantings first set out by the vivacious Mrs. Livingston Farrand.<br />
21 History, SI!<br />
By Jeremy Schlosberg. Walter LaFeber produces a book on Central America<br />
that affirms why we study the past.<br />
25 The University-Industrial Complex<br />
By William Steele '54. <strong>Cornell</strong> relies increasingly on private sources to<br />
support research and the institution at large.<br />
28 Patents and Funding<br />
The university shores up its income from patents and the government, too.<br />
29 The Waiting Game<br />
By Louis Mihalyi '43. The Sheldon Court Restaurant introduced one<br />
sopho<strong>more</strong> to the joys of serving table.<br />
33 News of the Classes<br />
Class notes. Alumni deaths.<br />
60 Alumni Activities<br />
By Carol Kuntz '84. How and why former students work hard to recruit new<br />
ones. Eight graduates from one family. Rep. Conable '43 to retire. News of<br />
colleges, graduate and other alumni. A calendar of events.<br />
64 Also<br />
Kiplinger '39 to head trustees. A new provost, and other late news.<br />
CORNELL ALUMNI NEWS<br />
Scientists join<br />
in search for<br />
breakthroughs<br />
in biotechnology<br />
<strong>Cornell</strong> has launched a new<br />
program in biotechnology<br />
that is a collaboration between<br />
the university, private<br />
industry, and state government<br />
to do basic research with some very<br />
immediate practical applications.<br />
Biotechnology is the engineering arm<br />
of biological science. It's far from new—<br />
plant and animal breeding, for example,<br />
are forms of biotechnology. But it is only<br />
since the discovery of the chemical<br />
codes of the genes that control the workings<br />
of living cells, and the methods for<br />
manipulating those genes, that the field<br />
has come into its own.<br />
Biotechnology now promises the ability<br />
to program living cells in culture that<br />
will manufacture enzymes, hormones,<br />
and other complex organic chemicals,<br />
and to modify plants and animals for<br />
faster growth, higher yield, and resistance<br />
to pests and diseases. The payoff,<br />
both in dollars and benefits to society,<br />
can be tremendous.<br />
Engineered cells, for instance, could<br />
manufacture vitamins, flavors, and<br />
sweeteners, convert light to chemical energy,<br />
isolate metals from ores, detoxify<br />
wastes, and turn agricultural leftovers<br />
into fuel or high-protein animal feed.<br />
Many such products can be made by<br />
changing the relatively simple genetic<br />
structure of bacteria. The future holds<br />
the possibility of modifying the genetic<br />
codes of higher plants and domestic animals<br />
to create new characteristics beyond<br />
the range of any breeding program<br />
(<strong>see</strong> ''Green Genes" in the March 1983<br />
News).<br />
The program will have two distinct