Across the globe, plant breeders seek genetically modified plants to increase crop yield, build up disease resistance and delay crop ripening. Meanwhile, national governments and activist groups question the safety of these crops.

Greenpeace, an environmental activist group, has led numerous protests calling for a ban on G.M. corn. France and Greece have ignored possible sanctions from the E.U. by actively speaking against the cultivation of G.M. corn, papaya and eggplant.

Genetic modification involves transferring a gene of interest from one species into another. In some cases, plant breeders insert these genes into a naturally occurring bacterium and then into the target plant. The final G.M. product contains only the transported gene and not the bacterium as a whole.

To the Editor:

Re: “Professors: Concept of ‘Race’ Biologically Moot,” Science, Feb. 18

In yesterday’s Sun, Erin Sulzman describes a panel of biologists and other scientist discussing race and the fact that race is no longer a viable scientific category, despite the fact that it remains a social category. The piece is informative, but one statement leaps out to me, a graduate student in anthropology, as inaccurate: “While race is standard fare in anthropology classes, it has become an uncommon word in science.”

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.”

While scientists around the world sweat the steady growth of climate change, Professor Johannes Lehmann, crop and soil sciences, and his researchers have turned up the heat to produce biochar – a fine-grained residue that may simultaneously improve soil health and curb harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Biochar is the organic matter left over after pyrolysis—a slow-burn conducted in the absence of oxygen. This process confines much of the carbon that might otherwise contribute to the formation of carbon dioxide, a prevalent GHG.

President Barack Obama announced the appointment of four members to his science and technology team, a group charged with crafting science policy regarding the life sciences, the environment, health and technology.

“It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient,” Obama stated on his website. The newly elected president emphasized that government officials must provide necessary resources to scientists and work hand-in-hand with them to design effective legislation.

Cornell’s Chem-E Car Team competed this Sunday in the national Chem-E Car competition, taking first place with their shoebox-sized hydrogen fuel cell car. The competition was held at the American Institute of Chemical Engineer’s Centennial annual meeting in Philadelphia.

The cars were designed to transport anywhere between zero and 500 mL of water anywhere between 50 and 100 feet in under two minutes. Right before the competition commenced, an announcement was made that this year’s competitors would need to transport 250 mL exactly 60 feet.

The Cornell team’s vehicle stopped zero inches from the 60-foot marker — the first time a car has ever demonstrated that level of accuracy.

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.