Cornell biology majors are required to fulfill many requirements outside of standard biology, from organic chemistry to physics. However, according to Prof. Randy Wayne, plant biology, that is not enough. Students of many majors do not understand the underlying processes that tie these subjects together, Wayne said.

That is why his book Plant Cell Biology — From Astronomy to Zoology aims to combine aspects of biology, chemistry and physics to the study without defining boundaries. His book is for, as he says, “People who want to understand who they are and their relationship to the world, and how to learn techniques to discover that without making divisions.”

To the Editor:

Re: “Bio Major Removes Intro Course; Two Electives to Take Its Place,” News, Nov. 2

This article states: “The instructors of the introductory courses, however, did not play a major role during the deliberation process” and that “the members of the committee were unavailable for comment.”

I believe these two statements to be true.

Prof. Andrew Clark, molecular biology and genetics, studies the molecular basis of deadly diseases by creating models of certain organ systems. Due to the promising nature of his research, the University named Clark the first Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences.

Last May, Nancy ’62 and Peter Meinig ’61 donated $25 million to Cornell University in support of innovative and productive research in the Life Sciences.

At a dinner last May, Peter Meinig said “We want this gift to set an example for all who are, or soon, will think about their own contributions to Cornell at this very important moment in our history.”

Biologists know death is part of life. Howard Robert Horvitz knows that, for cells, so is suicide.

Horvitz, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine along with research partners Sydney Brenner and John Sulston in 2002, delivered the sixteenth Annual Ef Racker Lecture on Thursday to a packed Call Auditorium. The lecture, “Cell Suicide: Programmed Cell Death in Development and Disease,” outlined the history of modern biology’s understanding of cellular death.

Next Tuesday, America will elect the next president of the United States and new members of the 111th Congress. Perhaps more than ever scientific issues are at the forefront of the political battleground. The interaction of science and politics exists at all levels from the elementary classroom, to the university laboratory, to the halls of congress, to the oval office.

Cornell and its faculty have long made significant contributions to not only science but scientific policy as well. They have also seen their research affected by policy, and thus have a lot to say about this relationship — its past and present circumstances, and what the future may bring.

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In a single day’s work, Prof. W. B. Currie, animal science had chartered an airplane, battled a flood, and stood knee-deep in thousands of sheep placentas. With a grin, Currie recalls an Australian experiment synchronizing 10,000 sheep pregnancies at once.

Using a syringe full of semen, the sheep were all impregnated on the same day so they would all give birth around the same time using a syringe full of semen. The researchers Currie worked with then waited five months for nature to take its course. The scientists then gave the sheep a hormone injection that induces pregnancy in 24 hours.