Author Archives: eaw242

A Cure for the Future

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Before this table talk, I had heard of immunotherapy in passing, but never in enough detail to truly understand what it is. And I can imagine I’m not the only one. In the most basic sense, immunotherapy is exactly what it sounds like. Therapy for the immune system. Why is this so important? Cancer is a mutation of the cells that the body’s immune system doesn’t see as a threat. So, to combat this you can either use outside methods to kill the cells, or have the body’s built in mechanisms take care of the problem. Immunotherapy takes the latter approach to eliminating cancer by having the body learn to defend itself.

During the Talk, two main types of immunotherapy were discussed. One where the natural “stop signals” in the immune system are dampened so that it actually attacks the cancer cells and another where the entire immune system is put through a “re-education”, so that it knows how to handle cancer cells. The latter is much more expensive, since it essentially involves draining a person of all immune cells and teaching those cells via machine, while the former process merely involves a drug that can be purchased at a pharmacy.

If it still seems a little complicated, the most boiled down version is this: imagine being able to treat cancer with a drug that can be bought at the pharmacy. For such a life altering disease, this seems ludicrous, but that may not be the case in a few years time. There are already a number of these drugs in testing for a multitude of cancers. There probably isn’t a single person in America who isn’t affected by cancer in some form. For me personally, I lost my Great Aunt to brain cancer a few years back. While the early form of these drugs may not be able to treat very serious conditions, they’ll do a tremendous amount for a significant portion of the population.

What is right?

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Anyone who has been watching the news since last November will know that one of the more prominent issues in politics is what to do with the current health care bill, Obamacare. There have been multiple attempts to affect it, either by improving it, replacing it, or just getting rid of it with no replacement or back up. Those who want to keep it argue that universal healthcare is a right that everyone should have without being forced to cover bills that they can’t pay, while those that want it repealed believe that an individual should pay for their own way in life, rather than have everyone be responsible for them and pay for their health coverage. The argument seems to come down to what people believe is a “right”. We always hear about the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. And its clear that everyone has a right to see a doctor and be healthy. But does that mean they also have a right to have other’s pay for their visit. To me, if the question is phrased like that, it almost seems like they’re purposely taking advantage of the system. I see it more as having the right to be able to continue living with the same quality of life, before and after being sick. It doesn’t seem right for someone to be so drastically penalized for something they can’t control. An obvious argument brought up by the New Yorker article that we had to read for this Table Talk is that a hard working family should not provide benefit to someone who’s taking advantage of the system. And there will most likely be some people that just laze around, not bothering to put any effort into life and just leeching off the system. However, I believe that those who benefit and deserve to far outweigh those who take advantage. There’s no reason everyone should pay the consequence for a few bad apples. This is clearly an issue that will remain a topic of discussion in politics for many years(and possibly presidents) to come, and hopefully we’ll come to a conclusion that benefits everyone.

For those with interest in this topic, here is the article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/02/is-health-care-a-right

Food of the Future?

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Among the plethora of issues plaguing the world right now is hunger. With the global population continuing to rise, it becomes a bigger challenge every day to make sure everyone is fed. This is made even more difficult when compounded with the fact that global warming may be restricting the amount of food that can be produced compared to years previous. So we as a species are forced to find new and more effective ways to make food. Hydroponics is one of those ways. Put simply, hydroponics is where plants are grown with no soil, just water. There are various ways this is done, but the basic concept is the water contains all the minerals needed for the plant and the roots are allowed to absorb this water. The three main methods discussed in this Café are where the roots are submerged in still water, water is constantly run over the roots, and the water is sprayed on the roots.

Each of these techniques have their own pros and cons, but one thing they all have in common is the lack of a need for soil. Even if we manage to completely optimize all farming on the planet, we are still limited by the amount of land available to use. This is why hydroponics can have such a large impact. Imagine being able to grow vegetable in the middle of a desert city, or an arctic research base all year round. It would greatly impact how much food the world can produce and possibly be a step towards decreasing world hunger.

A Different Perspective

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Ever since I was a kid, I always loved going to museums. From the Natural History Museum to the Metropolitan Museum of Art it was one of my favorite activities to do as a kid who lived near New York City. And when I went, I was focused only of what was being displayed, and nothing else. However, this Café brought an interesting topic to my attention. How and what exactly is displayed in museums. The style that artifacts and cultures are put on display is a very standard and accepted one. With real life models in large glass cases, and various items hung up on walls to be wondered and gawked at. While no one puts much thought into this, the Café brought up an interesting point. The origins of this practice of display has a less-than-innocent place in history. It stems back to the age when countries were clamoring to conquer other, “less civilized” countries, and put their culture on display, as a sort of prize or oddity. While this may not be the connotation in museums today, perhaps we should start to figure out a new way to accurately portray the history and various cultures of the world.

The Cost of Living

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Ask any student here what they think of the rents in College Town, and almost everyone will agree that they are overpriced. While it’s true that the apartments are right next to an Ivy League University, there is not much else to warrant the high prices charged by so many rentals, some of which rival the rent of a New York studio or apartment. This Cafe provided a very interesting point of view on the subject, which is rather personal for all students at Cornell. One interesting fact I found out was that the recent explosion of real estate in college town was approved in order to lower rents, but has so far had the opposite effect. But, when one takes a closer look at the situation, it makes sense. Since a majority of the real estate is owned by a small amount of owners, the normal rules of competition do not apply.  Hopefully sometime in the near future there will be a solution to this problem that’ll benefit both students and landowners.

In addition, Cornell is also part to blame for the exorbitant prices of living in College Town. The first reason being how expense its own living costs are. While this cost does cover both lodging and food, it is still rather steep. Due to this, landlords know that they only need to charge a tiny bit less than Cornell does, and they’ll be able to sell to students looking for somewhere bigger than a single room. The second problem lies with how much taxes Cornell pays. None. Yet it’s still being serviced by the surrounding area, so the rest of the county needs to make up for the revenue lost from the University. If Cornell could somehow find a reasonable solution to these problems, perhaps students trying to live in college town will have an easier time finding an affordable home.

Another You

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Before entering college, my entire online presence consisted of my (rather empty) Facebook profile. I didn’t really see any reason to be an active online citizen, since I preferred in-person or more private means of communication. Even since coming to Cornell, I just barely created a LinkedIn profile. However, after attending this seminar, its clear how important an online personality is. For perspective employers, this is often their first point of contact with you. While it may seem unfair when you can’t talk to these people yourself, there is actually an advantage. That is, you have complete control over your online personality. Aside from keeping everything true, you control the tone and attitude you project online. Therefore, it is extremely important to develop a strong and consistent online personality across multiple platforms, and I plan to do so moving forward.

The King’s Message

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I first saw The King’s Speech when I was 13 on a plane ride home. At the time, I knew that it was a good movie and I thought I completely understood it, but only after watching it all these years later do I see the true value of this film. What I see now that I didn’t see then was the message of overcoming that the film held. Even someone as great as a king, who many might assume is flawless, has his own personal challenges to overcome. And in addition, it’s about acknowledging one’s problems and be willing to fix it. While King George IV knew that he had a speech problem, it was his own attitude that kept him from truly overcoming this issue. It wasn’t until this was dealt with that he was able to start fixing his speech impediment.

At first glance this is simply a historical piece about a king’s speech impediment. But in reality the movie’s core messages are ones that everyone should learn from. While knowing you have a issue is important, perhaps what’s more important than this is being able to face the issue head on, even if this means facing parts of yourself you may not want to.

The Other Side of Law and Order

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The first thing that stuck out to me about Judge Miller was how comfortable and funny he was. While he was clearly in a profession that required discipline, he didn’t let this stereotypical characteristic define him. And this became more and more clear as the night went on. One of the most poignant questions that was asked was how  he managed to stay optimistic after seeing the true depravity of the human condition through his years in court. His response, one that I hope I’ll never forget, was that he realized that no person is defined by the worst thing they’ve done in their life. Save for perhaps a few exceptions, no one is truly good or bad, and its essentially just a lot of gray that sometimes get darker or brighter. This is a lesson I hope to keep in mind as I continue to make my way through life and need to make judgments about the people I meet.

Link to Another World

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Living in the U.S. it can be easy to forget how convenient many aspects of life are here when compared to another country. Even with its current multitude of issues, there are basic rights and opportunities everyone in the U.S. has that isn’t as accessible elsewhere in the world, especially when concerning early education. That’s why Dr. Kutela’s talk was so insightful and intriguing.  Even through various news outlets and social media, it’s very hard to accurately portray the exact nature and cause of a large issue. However, having someone who has lived through, and studies, the current problems of the African economy makes it clear that this is a large cause of the lack of education in Africa. Even if parents want to send their kids to school, that not only means having to pay for school and everything that goes along with that, but also losing extra money in lost labor. Add in the factor that a bad season could be fatal, it makes much more sense why getting an education can be so hard and the inherent frustration in the problem.