It was great to hear, as part of Rose Café, the presentation by our Rose House Graduate Resident Fellow, Shiv Shah. Shiv presented his PhD research on Biomedical Engineering. His research focuses on “Organoids”, which are mini organs used to test drugs and predict how they will work on the human body. Organoids are used to mimic human organs in order to test new drugs, design new therapies and find new cures to challenging diseases that affect humans. Shiv is working for his PhD research on how to create immune organoid models to study antibody production for therapeutic purposes, such as ways to design innovative cancer treatments and new approaches for personalized medicine. It does sound like science fiction made reality, doesn’t it? Yet, if it works, the use of an artificially grown mass of cells or tissue that resembles an organ or a miniaturized and simplified version of an organ produced in vitro in three dimensions that shows realistic micro-anatomy, can help to develop new cures to important diseases. After all, Biomedical researchers push daily the frontiers of knowledge with innovative science to generate novel treatments and hopefully cures that will impact positively ours and future generations. Cool, isn’t it?
Author Archives: mff55
Learning how to Curl
It’s all about bending low and sweeping … Have you ever played curling? I played for the first time last Saturday at the ice rink in Lansing. What an experience! The purpose of curling is to score points by delivering more stones, which are made of granite from Scotland, to the house center – a circular target on the ice – of the marked sheet of ice than the other team, each team of four players carrying eight rocks; the winner is the team with the highest score after all ends have been completed. The game reminded me of pétanque, a form of boules played on a flattened crushed stone ground area, which I often played in France. In curling, the technique in bending your back very low, extending your arm and non-demoniant leg (without falling) and releasing the stone in the direction that your Skip (teammate) indicated. Sweeping of the ice is done with a brush to reduce friction underneath the stone and increase the amount of curl. It’s a lot of fun and was surprisingly easy to learn, though not master. I enjoyed very much my first attempt at curling and made new friends among sweepers and skippers!
Arrival
This science fiction movie with Amy Adams, as Dr. Louise Banks, is about a Linguistic Professor that is recruited by the US Army to try to communicate with extraterrestrials that landed in 12 countries on earth. The movie challenges the order of time, as it starts when we learn that Dr. Banks’s husband left her when he found out that their daughter will die of cancer. Dr. Banks reminiscences about her daughter’s childhood and dead. When the oval-shaped vessels land, Colonel Weber, played by Forest Whitaker, asks Dr. Banks to join him to attempt to communicate with the beings that landed. Dr. Banks agrees and is joined by a physicist, Ian Donnelly (played by Jeremy Renner) in the mission. The different countries involved with dealing with the vessels are so diverse that the lack of trust makes Colonel Weber fear that a war leading to destruction of earth may be launched if the extraterrestrials are challenged. Communication becomes the only way to overcome the challenge but Professor Banks soon realizes that it will take time as she has to rethink entirely simple ways for how to introduce herself to the extraterrestrials, and also how to make sure she communicates to ask them questions such as: what is their purpose on earth, where do they come from, what do they want and how did they get here. The extraterrestrials are heptapods (with long elongated heads and seven feet resembling huge squid) and use their ink to generate circular symbols, which are more of a nonlinear orthography compared to the way we communicate. Professor Banks realizes that the extraterrestrials came to help humanity and she will teach others their language, and that Ian Donnelly will become her husband. It is an odd fiction but makes you think if you could see your life from start to finish would you change something?
Interested on Pursuing Graduate School?
Graduates with a College degree earn 1 million more than those that did not attend College. Since automation has reduced the number of jobs that require only a High School degree, there will be a shortage of highly educated and highly qualified job applicants in the US. Therefore, there is an increasing need to pursue Graduate School to gain more specialized training to advance in many fields. Because of my own interest to pursue Graduate School, I attended a session that guided us on the process of Graduate School application. It is not too early to think about Graduate School once you are a sophomore, as there are many requirements you need to complete during your junior year. First of all, you need to research for Graduate Schools and visit, if possible some of your leading choices, contact Professors in your area of interest as some schools will pay the visit if they are interested in your qualifications, take the GRE (general and subject if required). Graduate School will allow you to get advanced training to be able to work at the top of your field of interest and contribute to move the frontiers of knowledge. Graduate School is definitively an investment in your future career options as the jobs of the future will require highly advanced training.
Before Night Falls
This film is based on the autobiographical novel Before Night Fall written by Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. Reinaldo was born in Oriente, Cuba, in 1943, he grew up in extreme poverty being raised by his single mother and grandparents. As a child his school teacher noticed already his talent as a poet, but when she told his mother and grandparents, the grandfather rejected strongly the idea and moved the family to Holguín. Reinaldo left his family very early on as an adolescent to join the communist revels lead by Fidel Castro. However, when the rebels took over the government of Batista, Castro imposed an extremely oppressive communist regime. The communists persecuted many innocent people including artists, among them, Reinaldo since he was a novelist and a poet and the regime was scared that he would expose their numerous abuses. Moreover, the communists also persecuted homosexuals, and Reinaldo was openly one. When Reinaldo was living in Havana, he won an honorary mention for his first written work and one of the jurors offered him the option to publish it as his first novel. Reinaldo was arrested shortly after, being falsely accused to have molested some minors. When he was imprisoned he continued writing from prison and was able to continue publishing his novels by sending them abroad with friends or acquaints. He tried escaping from prison but was recaptured, until he finally escaped from Cuba with his friend Lázaro in 1980. The two friends settled in New York city where Reinaldo continued writing while his friend worked as a bell man. Reinaldo died in 1990 from aids, dying with the assistance of Lázaro who had promised him not to let him die at a hospital. Three years later in 1993, Rodolfo’s novel Before Night Fall was published. His autobiographical novel describes his infancy in rural Cuba, how he first embraced as an adolescent the revolution, but like many others felt betrayed by the extreme repression of the communist regime and tried desperately to escape their many abuses until his exile to the US where he continued writing until his death. Arena’s novel addresses the author’s tireless search for freedom when he is unfairly suppressed as a writer by the communist regime. Sadly, this type of persecution is still common to this day in many authoritarian regimes around the world.
What happened to Monday?
This science fiction film reveals a dysfunctional authoritarian society that was established to limit overpopulation and avoid famine, by demanding citizens to have only one child. The year is 2073, and the one child policy was so inflexible that there was a police that constantly checked identities and when siblings were found, they were captured and “frozen” until a day when the earth will have more resources. However, when a grandfather Terrence (Willem Dafoe) refused to give up on the identical septuplets (all played by Noomi Rapace), he teaches them to hide and names them each with a day of the week. He also teaches them to go out only one the day of the week, the day corresponding to their name to avoid rising suspicion. They all comply and watch what each other does during the day. All sisters use the same name and identity, Karen Settman, the name of their deceased mother. It is unthinkable, when their grandfather is forced to cut one of the finger tips each one of the girls, when Monday goes out to skateboard and falls and loses a phalange. Years later, one day Monday disappears and does not return home. The sisters then decide to send Tuesday to try to find out what happened. Tuesday is captured by the repressive policy Bureau, who takes out one her eyes, which is used to break in into the family’s apartment. The Bureau, directed by the fierce Nicolette Cayman (Glenn Close) apparently was aware of the seven sisters. The sisters continue to make difficult decisions to try to survive, but at the end, only Thursday survives with the help of Adrien who is looking for Monday. Sadly, Thursday realizes that Monday has made a deal with Cayman and turned on all the sisters in an effort to survive alone when she realizes she is pregnant. Cayman is hiding that the children are incinerated instead of being frozen and Adrien and Thursday reveal her diabolic nature. The government has mislead everyone to believe that the society was saving those children when in reality it was killing them. The movie is very disturbing but it brings awareness of the risk of autocracy in societies that do not have balances within their governments.
La Bohème
This weekend, we had an incredible opportunity to see a live broadcast, in high definition, of the world’s most popular opera La Bohème. It was transmitted from the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan to selected theaters nationwide including the Regal Cinema in the Ithaca Mall. La Bohème was composed by Giacomo Puccini who is regarded as one of the most important opera composers of all times. It is one of the most interpreted operas around the world, and is based on the novel Scènes de la Vie de Bohème by Henri Murger. La Bohème pictures the life of young bohemians living in Paris in the famous “Cartier Latin” in the 1830’s.
The main characters are the artist Marcello and the poet Rodolfo, roomates with Colline and Schaunard. Rodolfo stays home on Christmas eve to write while his roommates go out to celebrate, when he meets Mimi, his neighbor and falls in love with her. Marcelo broke up with his girlfriend Musetta, but is jealous to see her with a wealthy man Alcindoro, as both, Musetta and Marcello, are still in love with each other. As time goes by, Rodolfo decides to leave Mimi because he fears she is getting sick due to the poverty of the entourage where they live. Marcello and Rodolfo are devastated and lonesome as they miss their loved ones. When Musseta and Mimi come back, it is too late as Mimi’s health has continued to deteriorate and she dies leaving Rodolfo broken hearted.
La Bohème’s brilliant combination of speech and melody make this opera a masterpiece. The characters’ monologs are full of radiance, inflections, and are dramatically vivid. It is the work of a genius for the form and clarity in the integration of voice, orchestra and chorus. No doubt, it is remarkable that the Metropolitan Opera opened up such incredible opportunity to a broader audience through a live broadcast to allow us to appreciate Franco Zeffirelli’s production of this famous opera masterpiece!!!
The 23th Olympic Winter Games
At the opening of the 23th Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, nearly 3,000 athletes from more than 90 countries marched at the Parade of Nations with their delegations. One of the most inspirational messages from the Olympic athletes is their hard work and persistence to follow their dreams and pursue their passion. The US with 242 athletes had the largest delegation from any country and any prior winter Olympic games. The US flag bearer was Erin Hamlin, who will compete for her fourth Olympics in Luge and won Bronze in Sochi; she is from Remsen, Up State NY, about 2 hours from lake Placid. As the athletes from around the world compete over the next three weeks, they bring a global message of peace, of what the world could be if we could “imagine all the people living life in peace”. Appropriately, John Lennon’s song Imagine was interpreted during the inauguration ceremony, including a human representation of the White Dove a symbol of peace. Moreover, it was remarkable to see the North and South Korean athletes marching together under one flag. The delegations from North Korea (22 athletes) and South Korea (121 athletes) parade together under one Unification flag marching to an old folk tune instead of their national anthems, and will compete with one team in the women’s hockey. A powerful message to the world of what we could really achieve if we could contribute to construct true peace for future generations! The Korean war between North and South Korea from 1950 to 1953, started with North Korea’s invasion of South Korea. Earlier in the day Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, arrived in South Korea, she is the first member of the North Korean ruling family to do so since the 1950s, when Kim’s grandfather destroyed Seoul. Yet, the Olympic spirit makes us wonder if it may be possible to imagine the two countries having bilateral talks that could eventually lead to peace and a better future for their people as both countries have a lot at stake.
Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid?
We had a very interesting discussion on a quote below from Toni Morrison’s book The Origin of Others, on themes that dominate to this day our nation: race, fear, borders, mass movement of people, and the desire of belonging. Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid? Why we cannot celebrate rather diversity, multi-culturalism, and learn from others rather than fear them? Morrison’s book is based on her 2016 lectures at Harvard on “the literature of belonging”. Below is a quote from the book that illustrates the largely obscured humanity of slaves and the power manipulation strategy used by slave owners to justify economic exploitation:
“The necessity of rendering the slave a foreign species appears to be a desperate attempt to confirm one’s own self as normal to conform to society’s norms. The urgency of distinguishing between those who belong to the human race and those who are decidedly non-human is so powerful the spotlight turns away and shines not on the object of degradation but on the creator. Even assuming exaggeration by the slaves, the sensibility of slave owners is gothic. It’s as though they are shouting, “I am not a beast! I’m not a beast! I torture the helpless to prove I am not weak.”. The danger of sympathizing with the stranger is the possibility of becoming a stranger. To lose one’s racial-ized rank is to lose one’s own valued and enshrined difference”.
The need to confirm one’s humanity while committing inhumane acts is key, according to Morrison. By convincing oneself that there is some sort of natural delineation between the individual and the Other (someone less than human), one attempts to justify their “torture” against the “helpless”; a contradiction that illustrates the need for the “spotlight” to shine on the “creator” so that they can understand their actions.
Morrison’s book is inspirational as it demonstrates that racial prejudice is an unnatural and a learned phenomenon, and that we should all remember that there is after all only one human race!