Author Archives: amr352

Space and Race

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In a time of renewed racial tension and cultural divisiveness, “Hidden Figures” is a story that serves to unite and foment pride in our country’s progress. What made the message of the movie so potent was the coupling of racial desegregation with spaceflight: uniting both in the same resplendent light of achievement and onward movement. The positive associations we have for NASA and the initial push to get American astronauts into space were made in conjunction with these character’s fight for equality. Just as we were cheering on NASA we cheered them on so that they may have a just work environment to achieve those incredible missions. Reflecting, our nation has come a long way, technologically and racially, from even just 50 years ago. This movie was a nice reminder of our progress thus far and what work is still yet to be done to have a more equitable and fair world.

 

Culture and Values in “The Nightmare Before Christmas”

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It’s always nice to see an old classic. While I have seen “The Nightmare Before Christmas” a couple times before, like most movies or media, I always seem to find a new reading, analysis, or detail I missed the last time. On this viewing, I reflected on the importance of tradition and history in establishing cultural values and norms in western society. Both holidays of Halloween and Christmas carry with them festivity, celebration, and the importance of being a good person (for fear of getting a trick in the former or a lump of coal in the latter). Yet, what the movie does so well is combine conflicting themes and values of each holiday into one mesh, showing the mess that results. It is interesting to think about the very different messages and origins which both these holidays carry and the importance given to perhaps otherwise arbitrary dates.

 

 

 

A Lovely Chat

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Having the opportunity to chat with VP Lombardi was simply an excellent time. I loved hearing about his own formative experiences and the responsibilities he holds as a high-ranking Cornell administrator — finally meeting the man behind the emails! Frankly, it was so interesting to hear things from the side of the administration, especially which thoughts and considerations that must be put into every decision made. Also, its simply a delight to talk to VP Lombardi; his cheerful manner and care he has for the students is always refreshing and instills a sense of pride in me that I go to an institution that has such care for the individuals it serves.

 

Breaking Barriers

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“God’s Own Country” can be summed up as unexpected; Unexpected in subject matter, unexpected in the complex characterization of the protagonists, and unexpected in the feelings of empathy and understanding on feels for those characters. The movie is truly valuable in that it works, intentionally or unintentionally, to break the negative social connotations associated with homosexuality and characterize those who identify as homosexual as true three-three-dimensional people. This is well executed through the creation of multifaceted natures of both Johnny Saxby and Gheorghe Ionescu with struggles and desires of their own instead of merely treating their characters as simple, one-dimensional portrayals. The intersection of unorthodox social behavior, homophobia, and xenophobia makes this movie an interesting and sobering account of the lives of minority populations.

 

Raptors!

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From a young age, my parents have given me an appreciation of the natural world. I still remember taking road trips to national parks like Sequoia and Yosemite where we’d see thousand year-old redwood trees, black bears crossing the road in front of our car, and taking in the natural beauty around us.

Raptors were no exception. Spotting a glimpse of one soaring high above was exciting enough, but seeing them so close that you could virtually pet one was mesmerizing. I loved learning all about their ecosystems and behaviors up close. I also was enchanted that students took it upon themselves to take care of these birds who would otherwise be unable to survive on their own in the wild, or if they could to nurse back to health so that they could be released.

It was an excellent event.

Letter of Recommendation: Food Packing

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Everything about a Zip-Lock bag is pleasing: its transparency, its non-reactive polyethylene, the feeling of the zip finishing locking, its ability to turn entropic chaos into compartmentalized bliss. Truly, these human-hair-thin baggies are the greatest invention to come out of the last century.

Feed My Starving Children can only best be described as industrial Zip-Locking, industrially revolutionizing the happiness gotten from the process. It was simply a delight working with over a hundred people in tandem to sustain others half a world away. It was just like packing my lunch — simple, methodical, cathartic — except for thousands of people in need.

The satisfying action of packing the food into boxes neatly arranged onto pallets to be air-lifted to the Philippines was only accentuated by the lively social atmosphere generated by the organizers. These experienced millennials were clearly in the know of all the hip pop tunes breezing the airways. Furiously packing dehydrated grains to the sound of Ke$ha was when I most felt alive (never underestimate Ke$sha).

Of course, everyone else felt this way too; it was easy to talk to my copackers, so I had the opportunity to meet some fellow Rose Scholars, Ithacans, and employees from the organization for which we were volunteering. It was simply a delight.

I’d encourage anyone with the opportunity to take the chance and volunteer for this community service in the future.

So, if one thing is to be taken away from this experience, it is to never underestimate the Zip-Lock bag.

 

Engineering Our Health

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As a biologist, this was a simply splendid table talk! While our understanding of the human genome and its corresponding proteome is still the greatest obstacle from fully utilizing the potential that genetic engineering technology represents.

Monogenic traits, such as eye color, genetic bases are relatively easy to understand and manipulate. However, the majority of diseases and other characteristics are far more complexly coded, with polygenic bases, that may included hundreds if not thousands of genes. Heart disease, mental diseases, diabetes, cancers, dementia, etc. fall into this latter category. If our technology to engineer the genome is to have any utility, we have to figure out the genetic basis for these syndromes and diseases.

 

Even the techniques used to modify the genetic code in an efficient and precise manner are relatively brand new. While CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats) seems to have been the talk of the town for ages, its application for genetic m,modification was only first proposed by Jeniffer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier in 2012. This is not to say that our abilities are rudimentary; proposals to cure mitochondrial diseases through “three-parent” fertilization, rid diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other diseases for which we understand their genetic basis, and improve the prospects of future generations so that they won’t face the same terrible ends that exist today is all rather exiting.

It was an exiting chat.