Congress passed the $409.6 billion omnibus appropriations bill last night, approving a number of earmarked spending projects that will be attached to next year’s fiscal budget. The bill — which President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law today, according to Politico — allocates a number of earmarks for Cornell research.

Among them, Cornell hopes receive $2.2 million to begin construction on a Grape Genetics Research Center in Geneva. As of last night, however, the electronic system that charts which projects are included in the bill had not been updated, according to Stephen Johnson, Cornell’s vice president for government and community relations.

“We’re hopeful that [the projects] are in there, but reluctant to say until we can verify,” he said.

Last week, lawmakers gathered in Albany to meet with New York Gov. David Patterson in response to his new budget that failed to include funding for research programs that were funded last year. One noticeable absence was $450,000 in funding towards Cornell’s Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors. According to Newsday, without these same funds that the program received last year, the researchers would be forced to discontinue their work. The proposal also did not include the $300,000 for a hotline for breast cancer patients and their families based out of Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y.

Although Cornell’s extensive review of its budget includes cuts in all academic colleges, the leaders of Cornell’s research programs feel confident that the research programs will continue to expand, and in the long-run, maintain Cornell’s position as one of the top research institutions in the world.

In the last decade, Cornell has worked to improve its research programs. Today, the University sponsors over 100 interdisciplinary institutes located in Ithaca, New York State, and abroad. However, with the University’s proposed budget cuts, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, which runs most of these institutes and programs, will be tested to maintain the high quality of research at Cornell.

About $6 billion is spent yearly by the U.S. government to subsidize corn ethanol. Around 1700 gallons of water are consumed for every gallon of corn ethanol produced. Corn is the number one cause of soil erosion in the United States and its overdependence on nitrogenous fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides is the prime reason of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, corn ethanol produces only 1.3 percent of nation’s total oil consumption, which, according to Prof. David Pimentel, entomology, defeats the purpose of energy sustainability.

Have you ever wandered through the aisles of a grocery store and noticed the variety of peppers available — everything from sweet bell peppers to spicy hot jalapeño peppers? Until recently, much of that variety has been exaggerated and poorly understood. But this is due to change, as Prof. Steven Tanksley, plant breeding and genetics, and his collaborators at DNA LandMarks publish the first completed pepper genome sequence online.

Tanksley and DNA LandMarks — a genomics unit of the Plant Science division of the BASF Group — started their collaboration five years ago when DNA LandMarks provided Tanksley with its private library of pepper genetic markers.

When the weather drops and the lights go up, it’s a sign that Christmas is around the corner. But those engaging in the holiday light tradition should worry about more than just watching where they step while scaling the roof to hang the season emblems. According to one Cornell researcher, many light sets contain high levels of lead.

Prof. Joseph Laquatra, design and environmental analysis, headed the study, which found that some lead levels in Christmas light sets exceed limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development on floors and windowsills.

All that time you spent on Facebook when you should have been studying may not be a waste after all. In a recent study, Prof. Jeff Hancock, communication, found that use of information on Facebook can be harnessed to gain influence and popularity amongst peers.

Hancock’s study paired participants who had not met each other over instant messenger. Some were asked to look at the opposite person’s Facebook profile before the conversation.

Those who looked at their partner’s Facebook beforehand were able to use the information obtained to ask questions and make themselves seem more similar to their partners. Hancock found that the more people used the information found out beforehand through Facebook, the higher likelihood that their partner would like them.

No, the Gulf Steam is not coming to a stop, but major changes are taking place in the world’s oceans, according to the author of a recent Cornell study. Prof. Charles Greene, earth and atmospheric sciences, was the leading author of an oceanography study recently published in the journal Ecology.

The study examined trends in global climate and the major oceans surrounding North America.

Polar ice is part of a positive feedback loop that exacerbates climate changes. As temperature increases, ice melts. Since ice is white, Arctic melting decreases the reflectivity of the Earth. As a result, more solar radiation gets absorbed, further increasing temperatures and perpetuating the cycle. The opposite is true for temperature decreases.

SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) — Archaeologists have discovered a new pyramid under the sands of Saqqara, an ancient burial site that has yielded a string of unearthed pyramids in recent years but remains largely unexplored.

The 4,300-year-old monument most likely belonged to the queen mother of the founder of Egypt's 6th Dynasty, and was built several hundred years after the famed Great Pyramids of Giza, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told reporters in announcing the find Tuesday.

The discovery is part of the sprawling necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis, the capital of Egypt's Old Kingdom, about 12 miles south of Giza.

All that remains of the pyramid is a 16-foot-tall structure that had been buried under 65 feet of sand.