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Pitting Science Against Religion

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This week’s Becker-Rose Café featured Gregory Sloan, a senior research associate working in the Department of Astronomy here at Cornell. He led a casual discussion about the relationship between science and religion, which I found to be surprisingly interesting. Mr. Sloan began by talking about the trial of Galileo in 1633. This particular case is often used as a prime example of science being stifled by religion.

However, Mr. Sloan suggested that science and religion weren’t the only factors at play. Instead, human resilience to change might have had a role in the Galileo trial. The Church likely wanted to keep its power by dissuading people from presenting new and opposing ideas. Galileo’s proposition of a heliocentric model disturbed the existing state of affairs because people had believed that the sun revolved around Earth. During the talk, Mr. Sloan implied that people probably wanted to continue feeling like they were at the center of the universe. As a result of this human tendency, Galileo was silenced for his views.

I enjoyed this talk because it didn’t pit science against religion. Mr. Sloan treated both sides fairly and never tried to sway the audience with his personal views. I left the discussion with a greater appreciation for the importance of both science and religion.

Hungary’s Refugee Crisis

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This week’s Rose-Becker Café was an interesting one. Professor Holly Case, an associate professor in the Department of History here at Cornell, talked about the current refugee crisis in Hungary. Prof. Case began the discussion by talking about the idea of Spaceship Earth. Over the summer, Prof. Case visited Hungary, where she gained firsthand experience in interacting with people who really cared about the refugees passing through the country. There were many volunteers who spent hours passing food and supplies out to refugees. There was a man who came all the way from Switzerland to offer his help. She showed us pictures of some of these workers. One of the pictures – featuring an old man named Tibor – really stood out to me. Prof. Case said that Tibor personally handed out supplies to the refugees and embraced each of them. I could tell that everyone in the room was touched by his compassion for the refugees. I wasn’t expecting Prof. Case to share this collection of photos from her trip, but I’m glad she did – it was heartwarming to know that there are people out there who actually care about other humans and want to help those seeking refuge.

Behind the Scenes of Cornell Dining

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At last week’s Becker-Rose Café, Paul Muscente and Chef Daniel led a great discussion about the inner workings of our dining hall system. I’ve always enjoyed the food here, but I’ve never really considered the amount of labor that goes into providing thousands of meals each day. Prior to this talk, I had already known about a couple of the new health initiatives; for example, many of the Cornell dining halls limit the amount of meat students can take at one time. However, Muscente talked about a lot of new dining initiatives that I had never heard of (such as the Menus of Change program, which aims to get students to eat 10% more fruits and vegetables). That explains the reduced dessert options and the fruit-infused water.

I was personally impressed with how Cornell dining really seems to care about what students are saying. For instance, Chef Daniel said that he personally goes to the dish belt and takes note of the food items that are being thrown away. Near the end of the talk, a student noted that the desserts should be moved away from the fruit so that people who walk over to the fruit station aren’t tempted to take a cookie instead. And they listened! Two days later, I noticed that the desserts and fruit were separated in the Rose dining hall.

Pumpkin Carving!

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This has definitely been my favorite Rose Scholars event so far. I had just finished my first round of prelims, so I decided to go to this self-care workshop to destress and relax a little. They set up a bunch of pumpkins, tools, and decorations on the tables in Rose Library. I had never carved my own pumpkin before, so I was pretty excited.

Before we started carving pumpkins, a special guest (and Rose House Fellow!) came to talk to us about managing our health and well-being at Cornell. Sarah, a CAPS counselor, told us about the support services available to us. Sarah also carved her own pumpkin with us later! Below are some pictures of my pumpkin.

Before:

pumpkin_before

And after:

pumpkin_after

My roommate and I brought our carved pumpkins up to our room, but we unfortunately had to throw them out after ~4 days due to horrifying amounts of mold that aggregated.

Cornell In Indian Country

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Last week’s Becker-Rose Café featured Prof. Eric Cheyfitz, head of the American Indian Program at Cornell. Prof Cheyfitz touched on many topics during the hour-long discussion, such as ethnic cleansing, poverty, and federal Indian law. He began the talk by asking us if we knew that Cornell stands on the land of the Cayuga people. We did not. Personally, I had never even really thought about where the land came from. Prof. Cheyfitz quickly made it clear that this institution couldn’t exist without the Cayuga people, which was probably one of the main takeaways from this café discussion.

For me, the most poignant part of his talk was when he recounted some personal anecdotes of his experiences. For example, he told us that his wife once had a serious infection in her eye while they were visiting tribal territory. She was instantly treated on-site with herbal medicine. “They live closer to the land, so they know a lot more about natural remedies than we do,” said Prof. Cheyfitz.

The rest of the discussion was centered around genocides and cultural oppression. I’ve taken U.S. History before and learned about the long history of atrocities committed against Native Americans, but I never really felt like I had a true understanding of the magnitude of those atrocities. Prof. Cheyfitz’s talk definitely changed that.

 

Everything is Art

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I wasn’t expecting too much from an art show in the Rose dining hall, but I’m really glad I went to this one. I assumed beforehand that the gallery would just be a conglomerate of random works from various artists, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the artist himself (Nicholas Carbonaro, a graduate of Ithaca College) was present. He answered our questions, guided us through his thought process behind every piece, and talked a little about his early life (and how it influenced his artwork).

I learned that he grew up in New York City, which he didn’t seem to particularly enjoy (“all of you people who want to move there after graduation, good luck,” he quipped). Nevertheless, he was influenced by a number of NYC-esque things, such as the colorful graffiti in subway stations.

The pieces are arranged in chronological order, starting with works from the late 90’s and ending with a 2013 painting of the artist’s grandmother. The part of the art show that really made an impression on me was when Nicholas talked about the piece entitled “Welcome to My Home.”

 

Welcome To My Home

Welcome To My Home

 

For “Welcome To My Home,” he painted over an antique screen door that he found in town. I was surprised because it was such a polished piece from a distance that I hadn’t even noticed the old door until he mentioned it. Other surprising media that he’s used in his artwork: chili pepper seeds and makeup (lipsticks/pigments). He ended by saying that he hopes to experiment with more mixed media in the future, so I’m looking forward to what he’ll work with next.