The Essentials

The ovaries of your average fruit fly are many things. Functional, for example. Complex. Very small. And vital for species survival.

But beautiful?

Well, judge for yourself. Graduate student Heather Flores’ photos of fruit fly ovaries were selected as winners in the NYSTEM Stem Cell Awareness Day Image Contest announced by Gov. David Paterson on Stem Cell Awareness Day, Sept 23.

The images will be included in a 2010 calendar that demonstrates the visual beauty of stem cell science. The complete calendar is available for downloading in PDF format.

“I always enjoy taking images of ovaries because they are very aesthetically pleasing to me,” said Flores. “I often find myself taking extra pictures just because they look nice and not necessarily because they will aid in my data collection.”

Left picture: A picture of an ovary from the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, with a mutation in the bag of marbles gene, which is required for germline stem cells to differentiate. Since these flies lack this gene, their stem cells cannot differentiate and accumulate, leading to a tumorous ovary. Each of the green cells with a red dot in them is a single stem cell. Typically, there should only be two to three stem cells.

Right picture: In this picture, the researchers artificially introduced a copy of a fully functional bag of marbles gene into the ovary of a D. melanogaster fly with a mutated bag of marbles gene. The functional gene rescued the mutation, allowing the germline stem cells to differentiate and undergo mitotic divisions.

- Krishna Ramanujan

Vladimir Fortov, Russian physicist and president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was in Ithaca June 26 for a ceremony honoring Cornell physicists David Lee and Neil Ashcroft, both foreign members of the academy.

Ashcroft, a leader in the study of theoretical condensed matter physics and Cornell’s Horace White Professor of Physics Emeritus, was elected to the academy in June 2008.

Lee, the J.G. White Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences Emeritus and 1996 Nobel laureate in physics (with Douglas Osheroff and Robert C. Richardson), was elected to the academy in 2003.

The Russian Academy of Sciences was established by Emperor Peter I in 1724 to further knowledge of the natural, social and human development principles that promote technological, economic, social and cultural development in Russia. Prominent foreign scientists are elected foreign members by the academy’s General Assembly.

From 2006 to 2008, Tanner, the seeing-eye-puppy-in-training, spent nearly every afternoon with the Chronicle staff at 312 College Ave. We called her silly names and gave her tummy rubs. But now, the yellow labrador retriever we knew as “Tannerbananer” and “Pupperking” has a new navigation job and a big city life in the Big Apple.  The Cassville, N.Y.-based Freedom Guide Dogs, which trains service dogs for the blind or visually impaired, sent us this picture of Tanner with her new master on the streets of Manhattan. (And to think, we knew here when she was afraid of the stairs.)

Sign. We miss you, Pupperking!

In this rare photo of the 1915 Cornell football team, mascot Touchdown I is shown in front of the Haddon Hall Hotel in Atlantic City, where the Big Red prepared for its final game of the season against Penn. The squad was Cornell’s first undefeated team and remains immortalized the record books as the national champs.

Cornell’s Veterinary Bikers team (15 faculty, residents and students) participated in the Sept. 13 Ride for Life fundraiser, pedaling 87 miles around Cayuga Lake. They raised $8,000 to support central New York AIDS research and treatment programs. Read a firsthand account of the trip by Drew Noden, professor of anatomy and animal development, online.

A bygone era of grass and gravel roads traversing campus is recalled in this 1911 postcard of Barnes Hall.

Following its April 5 regatta against Georgetown, Cornell’s crew team and a large crowd of spectators celebrated the christening of a new four-seat scull, the “Michael J. Lacasse ’98.”

Lacasse became ill in 1998 after graduating with a B.S. in landscape architecture. He died in 2000 after a two-year battle with lymphoma, shortly before his 24th birthday. The scull was purchased and presented to crew coach Dan Roock by 11 of Lacasse’s crewmates from the classes of 1997 and 1998.

The dedication ceremony featured comments by Roock and Jim Stratton ’98, who led the effort to commemorate his friend; and Mike’s parents, Kathy and Ken Lacasse, who christened the hull with water scooped from the finish line in Cayuga Inlet in the first trophy cup won by the Cornell crew team in 1874.

Left to right: Tom Kowal ’97, Matt Ridgway ’97, Ed Connolly ’97, Bruno Tapia ’98, Jeff Upton ’98, Kathy Lacasse, Dan Roock, Ken Lacasse, Geoff Hoffman ’97, Dana Hooper ’97, Sean Magenis ’99, Jim Stratton ’98, Nick Anderson ’97 and Matt Hutchinson ’98.

At the Cornell University Police’s commissioning and swearing-in ceremony April 23, a canine member of the force retired and a new K-9 recruit was introduced. Sabre (above left), an 8-year-old Labrador Retriever who had served on Cornell’s Canine Explosive Detection Team since 2001 and was the first K-9 on the Cornell force, will retire to the home of his partner in crime fighting, Sgt. Jeffery Montesano. Sabre looked on as fellow lab Reggie, who will work with Officer Kevin Noterfonzo (at right), received a collar reading POLICE from Deputy Chief Kathy Zoner. “Sabre’s retirement was harder than I anticipated it being,” said Montesano. “He was a true partner. It sounds weird, but for the last seven years he and I went to work every day depending on one another. It is still hard for Sabre because every day when I leave for work he is waiting in the same spot, ready to leave. However, Sabre has a new friend at home to play with while I am working. My family adopted a 6-month-old beagle puppy named Rudy, who keeps Sabre very busy.”

The smell of shampoo hung heavy in the air at the College of Veterinary Medicine dog wash April 26. The semi-annual scrub down was hosted by the student chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association and Omega Tau Sigma, a veterinary fraternity. More than 30 student volunteers bathed, fluffed and scored the body conditions of 99 dogs during the afternoon. Proceeds from the dog wash will assist animal-related nonprofit organizations. The dog wash will next be held in the fall.