Author Archives: MelodiousConquest

Hydroponic Systems

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Last week I got to try Cornell hydroponically grown lettuce at the dining hall, then go to a presentation and discussion by Ph.D. student Erica Hernandez and undergraduate Christopher Levine on hydroponics, primarily related to growing lettuce. Going into the talk, I had only a very rudimentary understanding of hydroponics. When I thought of hydroponics, I basically thought of  plants growing directly in water with no soil. This is true to some extent, but as I learned from the talk, there are actually multiple hydroponic systems with varying degrees of complexity. The simplest of these which we learned about was Deep Water Culture. This system was the most similar to what I thought of when I considered hydroponics, as the plant roots sit directly in the water. The most complex system was aeroponics, in which the plants actually hang in the air!

I found it interesting that all of these systems had positives and negatives. What is constant among all of these systems, however, is that three main things must be supplied: oxygen, nutrients, and water. For instance, deep water culture requires a large amount of water and hence a vast amount of space. A pump system supplies the nutrients and oxygen. Aeroponics requires less ground space, and the plant roots are already in the air, hence obtaining a large amount of oxygen. The misting in this case supplies the water and nutrients. One more thing I found particularly interesting was that if a plant is hydroponically grown, that does not mean it is organic. This is due to the fact that the nutrients generally come from mined minerals, which then go through a process to be purified into just the essential nutrients the plants need, and nothing more.

What Will Be Primitive in the Future?

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Last week, I went to a talk given by GRF Sam about the modern and the primitive. The modern and primitive are basically aspects of life from different time periods and how they are perceived. For instance, Sam showed us a short clip of a dance by the Tiller Girls from the movie Half Shot at Sunrise from the year 1930. The female dancers were dressed in masculine clothing and performed a dance in the style of a military march. This juxtaposition of female and masculine characteristics makes this clip modern, since it brought something new to the normal concepts of the previous time periods. We also saw this idea of the modern and primitive coming together in another example he showed us of Josephine Baker’s famous Banana Dance. Baker used the tribal stereotype, which could be considered primitive, and mixed it with modern culture.

One question that struck me after this talk was: What aspects of today’s society will be considered good examples of the primitive in the future, and how soon? It is hard for us to think of something from a future time period which would make ours seem primitive. For instance, it would have been impossible for those using primitive tools centuries ago to predict or imagine the computers we have today. Culturally as well, if we grow up with certain norms, it can be hard to break from those. But, maybe this is something that we should always consider if we want to make a difference in the world. This is the basis of a visionary.

A Vision

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Last week, I got to attend a Rose Cafe with Chef Hans Butler, the chef for Rose House. It was very interesting to hear some of his background and what happens behind the scenes in preparation for our dining hall food. At first, Chef Hans worked at the Risley dining hall. Eventually, he was able to pass this on to one of his students and encouraged this new chef’s vision. The concept of a “vision” is something I really appreciated from the talk. When Chef Hans saw how food was prepared previously at Risley, for instance, he was disturbed by how much was taken straight from packages. Instead of using cleaning fresh broccoli, for instance, it came straight out of a bag. He had a different vision, and he slowly worked to achieve this. However, as is important to realize for achieving any big vision, progress generally has to be gradual. Chef Hans recognized this, and gradually introduced new ways to produce the food. Through this approach and also letting cooks have a say in what food was prepared, he was eventually able to foster some excitement in his chefs for caring about the food they were creating.

This last point stood out to me as well. Chef Hans pointed out that if the chefs don’t enjoy preparing a particular food item, then it won’t come out well. I believe this extends to anything in life. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, it won’t be exceptional. If instead, however, you are excited by what you are doing and really enjoy it, that’s when magic happens.

Glorious Apples

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Last weekend we first listened to a short NPR podcast about apple marketing and research, then walked to the Apple Harvest Festival! I enjoyed hearing about two apples which Cornell produced, RubyFrost and SnapDragon! It was interesting to hear about some of the ideas leading to these names. RubyFrost, for instance, received its name due to its Ruby colored exterior, white interior, and the fact that its harvested later than most apples.

As someone who personally doesn’t eat apples very often, I was very impressed with all that was at the festival based around apples! There was fresh apple cider, caramel apples, tons of varieties of apples, apple donuts, apple fritters, apple mac and cheese, you name it! I had my first caramel apple, and it was very good. I will definitely try to go again next year.

Genetic Engineering: Is it right?

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Last week at the table talk, we discussed genetic engineering and some of its various uses. When thinking about genetic engineering, the most controversial aspect is a moral one. Just how far will this science proceed? With new techniques being developed such as CRISPR, what more will we learn to be able to control? Genetic engineering definitely has some beneficial aspects, such as the now much more viable option of growing human organs in pigs (albeit not beneficial for pigs!), or helping to fight certain diseases. However, what are the drawbacks?

From the talk, it seems that there have been some government restrictions set on genetic engineering, but its development is most likely going to be unrestricted in the long run. This is due to certain countries being much more lenient on these restrictions, which in turn causes other countries to fear falling behind.  Hence, it seems that the question really is: What is the limit on what we can control via genetic engineering? With the rise of designer babies, the direct impact on human life by genetic engineering is growing more and more apparent. However, it seems there may be limitations on genetic engineering when it comes to the human genome. A world where uniform, perfect and/or superhuman copies of each other dominate the globe may be mere fiction due to the highly complex nature of gene mutations related to traits such as athletic ability or intelligence: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/science/gene-editing-embryos-designer-babies.html?mcubz=0 . Hence, it may be that the advance of genetic engineering will be beneficial for our society without leading to some sort of dystopia. Otherwise, it could be like the myth of Icarus where we fly too close to the sun and get burned. I guess only time will tell.

Blind Defense

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Last week, I went to hear Judge Scott Miller give a talk about his experiences in law. Before he became a judge, he served as a defense attorney. It was interesting to hear about everything that goes into being a successful at these professions. The biggest thing that stood out was overcoming bias, whether from other members of the jury or even himself as the attorney. For instance, he discussed a bizarre case in which he actually thought the defendant was guilty even though he was supposed to be defending him. He did his best to defend his client, and as the story unfolded, it turned out the defendant was actually acquitted of the crime and may have really not been guilty! This interesting example shows how important it is for the defense attorney to do his or her best to defend the client, regardless of how they feel emotionally about the case.

Dorm Dissatisfaction

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This event ended up quite different than I expected. It mostly came down to the extreme dissatisfaction with the gothic residence halls. It made me think about the housing master plan I worked on with the Meinig Scholars program freshman year. My subgroup was focused on North Campus at the time, and during our work on the proposal to the Cornell housing committee, we found a surprising amount of disparity between dorms in terms of not just the buildings, but also maintenance. During the Rose Cafe, it made me wonder how much of this kind of disparity exists on West Campus. The main buildings are more modern and nicer than the gothics, but maintenance should be the same between all of the buildings. However, based on the complaints I heard from students, it sounds like that may not be the case. Of course, if one bathroom is used more than another, the first needs more attention than the second. Perhaps, then, the system needs a little revamping.