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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

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