The free public lecture at Stony Brook University by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Astrophysicist and Visiting Academic at Oxford University, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 5 p.m. has been rescheduled for the same time tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 14 due to the weather.
Burnell, who discovered radio pulsars in 1967 and who received a $3 million Breakthrough Prize, which she donated to help advance women and minorities in science, will give a talk on pulsars, or pulsating radio stars, at the Della Pietra Family Auditorium, Room 103, at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics on Stony Brook University’s West Campus. The university is providing a reception at 4:15 pm.
Burnell received a Royal Medal, a Copley Medal and the 2010 Faraday Prize. She was also the first female president of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is a member of seven Academies worldwide.
Stony Brook is providing a livestream of the lecture, which is available at scgp.stonybrook.edu.live.
In anticipation of a nor’easter on Tuesday, Feb, 13 that has triggered a National Weather Service Winter Storm Warning, Stony Brook University announced that it was canceling classes and events scheduled for Tuesday.
The canceled classes and events apply to the Stony Brook main campus, SB Southampton and SB Manhattan campuses and includes the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Health Professions, School of Social Welfare, and the Dental School.
In a note from Jason Casale, Director of Emergency Management, Stony Brook urged students with clinical obligations to make every effort to attend rotations and contact their clinical coordinators with questions or concerns.
During emergencies, non-essential employees can request supervisory approval to charge their accruals when offices are open, according to the campus e-mail blast. Essential employees have to report to work according to their scheduled hours.
University Hospital and the Long Island State Veterans Home employees are considered “essential” and are expected to work according to their regular schedule.
Brookhaven National Laboratory is also closed to everyone but essential personnel from 6 a.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, meanwhile, announced it is closing on Tuesday until 5 pm.
As of Monday evening, the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning, predicting Suffolk County could receive snow accumulations of 5 inches to 10 inches and wind gusts of 40 miles per hour.
Katie Engel submitted a video of her spinning on the ice to demonstrate the work of Emmy Noether.
*This article was updated Feb. 13 to reflect a change in the Jocelyn Bell Burnell lecture from Feb. 13 to Feb. 14 due to the weather.
By Daniel Dunaief
And the winner is … women in science!
While Stony Brook University’s Institute for Advanced Computational Science (IACS) announced the winners of its inaugural challenge to celebrate the scientific and engineering achievement of women on Feb. 7, the organizers and participants feel like they’ve already come out ahead.
The inaugural competition, which 195 students kindergarten through 12th grade in schools on Long Island entered by submitting a one-minute video, included prizes for the 13 finalists. The winner received $1,000 prize, the runner up got $750 and the third-place finisher collected $500.
Marivi Fernández-Serra
“The goal of it was to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, while simultaneously promoting the important role that women had in science in the last century,” explained Marivi Fernández-Serra, Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department and at the Institute for Advanced Computational Science.
In their videos, the students selected one of nine scientists that included experiments showcasing the work of these researchers by using computers or household products to demonstrate the search for dark matter, explore the laws of conservation, create homemade telescopes, simulate a volcano with lava and many more.
Fernández-Serra, who had helped with a similar effort at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Madrid, Spain, brought the idea for the competition to Mónica Bugallo, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and affiliated member of the IACSFaculty Director of the Women in Science and Engineering Honors Program, who immediately supported it.
Fernández-Serra thought the competition might attract 10 entrants in its inaugural year while Bugallo, who reached out to Long Island schools to showcase the competition, was confident local students would embrace the opportunity.
“Wait for a tsunami of participants,” Bugallo said she told Fernández-Serra, with whom she’s been a colleague and friend for years. “I was not surprised” by the contributions from the 103 teams, which included entrants from individual students and groups of as many as three students.
Bugallo, who recommended computer scientists Grace Hopper and mathematician and writer Ada Lovelace as important scientists for the competition, was impressed with the student effort.
“It was extremely tough to come up with the finalists,” said Bugallo.
Stony Brook plans to share the videos from the finalists after naming the winners.
Figure skating and conservation
One of the finalists, Katie Engel, a senior at Cold Spring Harbor High School, chose to demonstrate the work of Emmy Noether.
A German mathematician, Noether contributed to theoretical physics and abstract algebra. A theorem named after her, the Noether Theorem, explains that any continuous symmetry in a system has an associated conservation law. That helps explain how the speed of someone spinning in a chair changes depending on how far their arms re-extended.
Mónica Bugallo
An ice skater since she was six who is also interested in studying computer science or engineering, Engel had never heard of Noether but was intrigued with the physics and with the person who helped discover ways to characterize it.
In her entry, Engel explained the mathematical principals on a white board and then recorded a video of herself spinning on ice. When she learned about Noether’s life, Engel discovered that Noether was an important contributor to her field, despite some resistance to her work from men. “Reading about her stories is really inspiring,” said Engel.
Engel is stunned at the conclusions Noether reached with the tools at her disposal.
Currently working as an intern for Peter Koo at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Engel suggested she is committed to pursuing her interest in science, technology, engineering and math fields during and after college.
Engel was also a member of the robotics team at Cold Spring Harbor High School that won the regional conference and went to the World Championships in Houston last year. In robotics, Engel said the number of girls on the team declined from 10th through 12th grades.
She is, however, heartened to learn that 180 boys and 200 girls attended a recent research fair at her school.
New teaching tools
Fernández-Serra and Bugallo are hoping that teachers at all levels can use the videos to inspire students and help them connect with scientists whose contributions continue to resonate with current researchers. The purpose of activities like the competition is to “spark interest, so students want to investigate more,” said Bugallo.
Stony Brook plans to build on this experience in future years through either similar efforts or ongoing programs or initiatives. “Our intent was to have these challenges year after year if this was successful, and it obviously was,” said Bugallo.
In the immediate future, Fernández-Serra encourages students in the area to attend the upcoming talks given by University of Oxford astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered the pulsar, as a part of the Della Pietra lecture series at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics on Stony Brook University’s West Campus from February 13 through Feb. 15.
Bell Burnell is giving a general public lecture on Feb. 14 at 5 p.m., with a reception at 4:15 p.m. in the Simons Center Lobby. The lecture will also be livestreamed at scgp.stonybrook.edu/live.
Bell Burnell will also offer a special talk for high school students titled You Are Made of Star Stuff! on Feb. 15 at 11 a.m. that examines how and where elements in the human body were created in the cosmos. Both lectures will be held in the Della Pietra Family Auditorium (room 103).
A curiosity outside the classroom
For scientists, what they learn and study often stays with them long after they finish an assignment or submit or publish a paper.
Fernández-Serra, who studies the fundamental properties of liquid water using quantum mechanical simulations, thinks about how amazing water atoms are that are holding her when she swims.
As for Engel, thoughts of Noether will stay with her when she figure skates. “I probably can’t do a spin without thinking about her,” she said.
Heroes with staying power
For Fernández-Serra, Mildred Dresselhaus, one of the celebrated scientists of the past who was a part of the contest, was a “number one hero” in condensed matter physics.
Called the “Queen of Carbon,” Dresselhaus earned numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science and Engineering.
“She was a positive and brilliant scientist who never lost her enthusiasm and curiosity,” Fernández-Serra explained.
Stony Brook’s IACS team hopes this competition, the Bell Burnell lecture, and other efforts ignite such enthusiasm in the next generation of STEM students.
My wife and I recently, chocolate, went out to celebrate our anniversary. We got married near Valentine’s Day, so we try to pick a date that’s, chocolate, a week or so before or after our anniversary, to avoid competing for a table.
We picked one of the more romantic restaurants in the area, read the, chocolate, online menu, got dressed up for a romantic evening, and headed out. My digestion prefers an earlier dinner, especially when it’s a, chocolate, bigger meal, and my, chocolate, wife accommodated me, getting an early reservation for our celebratory dinner.
We chose a restaurant that’s further away than our usual search for, chocolate, food, while leaving the customary, chocolate, amount of time. Slightly concerned that the restaurant might give away our, chocolate, table if we were too late, we arrived at a nearby parking garage only about 10 minutes late.
Once on the street, we hurried down the block and entered the, chocolate, restaurant, where the hostess Jordan introduced herself and, in a silky smooth, soft voice that could also easily qualify her to work at a soothing spa, escorted us to a magnificent, chocolate, table filled with beautiful china, napkins held together in a fancy holder, and plush seats.
When she scanned the menu, my wife recognized that the fish dish we had picked when we checked out the, chocolate, restaurant wasn’t there.
“What are you going to eat?” she asked. Close to a quarter of a century of marriage together makes such, chocolate, shorthand possible.
I told her I’d find something. When we told the maître d’ about our food preference, she came back with alternatives that worked, but weren’t my, chocolate, preference.
“Let’s go,” my wife said, shrugging. “We can try somewhere else tomorrow night.”
My wife had put considerable effort into making this reservation and was excited about dinner in a quiet, romantic spot that didn’t have a single television blaring a sporting event and that had thick, lush drapes on the windows and picturesque framed, chocolate, scenery hanging on the wall.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
She told me we’d be fine. When we returned to the, chocolate, car, we ordered take out from a Thai restaurant and drove to the parking lot exit.
I pulled incredibly close to the machine to make it easier to insert the credit card. When I put the card in, the, chocolate, machine rejected it. I tried another one, with the same result.
I reinserted the first card and, when I took it out, it came flying out of my hand, landing under the car. I could barely squeeze out the door to search for the card. At this point, the car behind us drove to another exit. Continuing her string of practical advice in an evening of curve balls, my, chocolate, wife suggested I try to get through the gate and walk back to retrieve the card.
I pushed the help button and put another card in. At this point, the gate lifted. I parked by the, chocolate, curb and grabbed my phone to use the light to find the card. The car beeped incessantly, annoyed that I took the keys while the engine was running.
Fortunately, no other cars were exiting and I found the, chocolate, card quickly.
I walked back to the car where my wife awaited with a quirky, half smile.
“Can you imagine if this was our first date?” she laughed.
We picked up our Thai food and returned home to our pets, who seemed surprised to see us so soon. Usually, when we wear our nice, chocolate, shoes, we disappear for several hours.
The next night, we had a much more successful dinner at a local, chocolate, Italian restaurant. As a reward for my wife’s support of her food-limited husband, one of the main dishes included four ingredients she loves, covered in her favorite sauce.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about all the chocolate references? About a week ago, I stopped eating chocolate because the caffeine was keeping me awake at night and increased my, chocolate, heart rate.
So far, chocolate, I’ve resisted and I barely, chocolate, think about it anymore. Well, maybe I haven’t conquered the cocoa bean yet, but I’m getting there.
The new species named, Booralana nickorum, may play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem. Photo courtesy of OceanX
By Daniel Dunaief
Oliver Shipley recently shared one of the mysteries of the heavily photographed but lightly explored deep sea areas near the Bahamas’ Exuma Sound.
Oliver Shipley
A Research Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University, Shipley and his colleagues published a paper in the journal Zootaxa describing a new species of isopod they named Booralana nickorum.
A few inches long, this isopod, which was found at a depth of about 1,600 feet, sheds light on some of the mysteries in these waters, offering a glimpse into areas mostly too deep for sunlight to penetrate.
“The level of knowledge on deep sea biodiversity anywhere in the Caribbean is very poor,” said Shipley. The scientists were specifically studying the biomass housed areas around The Exuma Sound.
In the Bahamas, the researchers are interested in preserving species biodiversity and identifying links between the shallow and deep-sea ecosystems, which can inform management of marine resources and help conserve biodiversity.
Shipley suggested it was “exciting” and, perhaps, promising that this area has already produced two isopods that are new species, both of which he described with low-cost technologies deployed off small boats.
“We haven’t even genetically sequenced 95 percent of the creatures that we’ve captured” which includes fish and sharks, Shipley said.
Brendan Talwar, a co-author on the paper describing the isopod and a Postdoctoral Scholar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, added that “this discovery is representative of the lack of knowledge” in this area. “You can swim from one environment, where almost every species is known or has been studied, to a place where almost nothing is known and almost nothing is studied.”
Finding new species could have numerous benefits, including in the world of drug discovery. To be sure, such findings require “many years of work and analysis” he said.
Still, such a possibility for future benefits exist, particularly as researchers catalog and study these creatures.
In the meantime, understanding individual species and the ecosystems in which they live can reveal information about how, depending on the biomass of various species, different places affect the cycling of gases such as carbon dioxide.
“When you find high biomass of a new species, it could have potentially huge implications for mitigating climate change,” said Shipley. “We have a primitive understanding of the Caribbean deep sea ecosystem. We don’t know the full effects or benefits and services of organisms that live in the deep ocean environment.”
In addition to finding organisms that might provide various benefits, scientists are also hoping to understand the “food web dynamics of the eastern Bahamas,” said Talwar.
Long road to identification
Shipley first saw an individual of this isopod species in 2013. Over time, he has since identified numerous other individuals.
Dorsal views of the newly described Booralana nickorum on left and previously known Booralana tricarinata highlight distinguishing characteristics between the two species. Image courtesy of Oliver Shipley
The region in which Shipley identified this isopod has several potential food or energy sources. The deep sea area is in close proximity to shallower sea grass beds, which are closer to the surface and use light to generate food and energy through photosynthesis.
The tides and currents wash that sea grass into the deeper territory, sending food towards the deeper, darker ocean.
Energy also likely comes from coral reef productivity as reefs line the edge of the drop off.
Additionally, animals that traverse the shallower and deeper areas, whose poop and bodies sink, can provide food sources to the ecosystem below.
“There may be multiple sources of productivity which combines to promote a high level of biodiversity” in the ecosystem below, said Shipley.
The isopod Shipley and his collaborators identified lives in a pressure that is about 52 times the usual atmospheric pressure, which would be extremely problematic for organisms like humans. Isopods, however, have managed to live in most major ecosystems around the planet, including on mountains, in caves and in the deep sea.
“There’s something about that lineage that has supported their ability to adapt to a variety of environments,” said Shipley.
To bring the creatures back to the surface for study, researchers have used deep sea traps, including crustacean and eel traps, that are attached to a line. People working on boats then retrieve those traps, which can take one to two hours to pull to the surface.
When they are brought to the surface, many animals suffer high mortality, which is a known sensitivity of deep-sea fisheries.
“We must gain as much knowledge as possible from each specimen,” Shipley explained
Scratching the surface,at depth
Talwar and Shipley have each ventured deep into the depths of The Exuma aboard a submersible.
The journey, which Talwar described as remarkably peaceful and calm and akin to an immersive aquarium experience, is “like a scavenger hunt,” he said.
When scientists or the sub pilot see a new species of sea cucumber, the pilot can move the sub closer to the organism and deploy the manipulator arm to store it in a collection box. Shipley and others hope to explore deep sea creatures under conditions akin to the ones in which they live in high pressure tanks on land.
Talwar described Shipley as “an extremely productive scientist” who works “incredibly hard.” Talwar also appreciates how Shipley will put collaborative projects at the top of his list, which is “fairly unique in a field where people are so busy with their own stuff.”
Shipley, who lives in Austin, Texas with his girlfriend Alyssa Ebinger, explained that researchers are pushing to support scientific leadership by Bahamians to conserve marine resources threatened by climate change.
Looking under rocks
As a child, Shipley, who grew up in York, England, spent about three years in Scotland, where they spent time at a beach called Trune.
“I remember looking in rock pools, picking up stuff and inspecting it,” he said. He was naturally inquisitive as a child.
While Shipley enjoys scuba diving and is a committed soccer fan — his favorite team is Leeds United — he appreciates the opportunity to build on his childhood enthusiasm to catalog the unknowns of the sea. He’s so inspired by the work and exploration that it “doesn’t feel like a job,” he said. He’s thrilled that he gets paid “to do all this exciting stuff.”
Iwatch Jeopardy! and it’s a much more intellectual and challenging show than Family Feud, but, truth be told, I have watched several episodes of the Feud these days.
Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the show that entertains me or the fact that there just doesn’t seem to be much at stake. Sometimes, the questions seem ridiculous and, somewhere among the answers, is something about someone’s private parts, poop, or people’s mothers, almost as if I’m watching a game show version of an Adam Sandler movie.
Anyway, watching the show late at night, I have started imagining a farce, skit or just a show gone awry that I would enjoy watching, particularly when I’m in that time between mental focus and drifting off into an imaginary world where I am on skis and can jump over a mountain, land in a nearby ocean, communicate with dolphins and have dinner with a coed group of mermaids who particularly enjoy conversations about science, conservation and baseball.
In my imaginary episode, Steve Harvey starts with an apology, admitting that the word “theyself” isn’t a word. Then, as he meets the families, the first person in the family introduces their relatives.
“Hi Steve, I’m Joe and this is my wife whose favorite word late at night seems to be ‘no’ and who still hasn’t figured out how to bake chicken without burning it.”
Steve widens his eyes, takes a few steps back and lowers his jaw.
“And, next to her, is my sister-in-law Erica, who always knows better about everything and clearly thought my wife could do better when we got married. I have news for you, sis. Maybe she could have, but she chose me anyway, so get over yourself and show the world how smart you are.”
A little less shocked, Steve nods, looking past the mortified sister in law.
“Oh, that’s my brother-in-law Eric. If you were named Eric, would you date a woman named Erica? Eric and I share a beer once in a while, but he frequently has bad breath, so I wouldn’t get too close to him.”
Steve turns his head and makes a mental note.
“And, down at the end, that’s a neighbor of ours, Jessica, whom we’re passing off as a member of the family because no one else in our family could stand to be with us and because they didn’t believe we’d actually be on the Feud. So, hey, to the rest of the family, suck it!”
After an introduction from the other family, the two leaders come to the front of the podium for the obligatory hand shake. Joe refuses to shake hands and suggests that he has OCD and that he’ll tap feet instead.
Looking at the card, Steve shakes his head and says the top six answers are on the board.
“Name a time when you wish you were somewhere else,” he says.
Alex buzzes in first and Joe starts screaming that he’s sure he beat Alex and demands a replay review.
“We don’t do that here,” Steve says, frowning at Joe. “Have you ever watched the show?”
“But they do it in sports. Why not? It’s unfair. Don’t I get at least one challenge? I brought my own red flag,” Joe protests.
“I don’t care what you brought,” Steve says, forcing a smile on his bewildered face. “You don’t get a challenge. Let Alex answer.”
Steve turns to Alex.
“I was going to say ‘at the dentist’ but I’m changing my answer to ‘now.’”
Steve doubles over with laughter, holding the podium and shaking his head.
“Why is that funny?” Joe demands. “Besides, I have a better answer.”
“Let’s see where ‘now’ lands on the list,” Steve says, pointing to the board. It’s the third-most popular answer, which means Joe gets to speak. Steve turns to him, waiting for a reply.
“7:57 am on most mornings,” Joe says, smiling.
Steve doesn’t dare ask, repeating Joe’s answer, which gets the familiar red X.
“But it was a great answer,” Joe demands. “Can I challenge that?”
“No, you want to play or pass?” Steve asks, turning to Alex.
After Alex’s family clears all but one answer, Steve returns to Joe.
“Okay,” Steve says, treading carefully. “Name a time when you wish you were somewhere else?”
“When we first auditioned for the show?” Joe replies.
Steve laughs, pats him on the back and wishes him well.
Stony Brook University admissions office where about 10,000 students applied through the school’s first early action program. Photo courtesy Stony Brook University
By Daniel Dunaief
For Stony Brook University, 2024 will be the year of more, as in more college counselors, more classes, more study abroad opportunities, more artificial intelligence and more faculty.
The downstate flagship university, which is a member of the Association of American Universities and has been climbing the rankings of colleges from US News and World Reports, plans to address several growing needs.
“We have invested heavily in new advisors,” said Carl Lejuez, executive vice president and provost at Stony Brook, in a wide ranging interview. These advisors will be coming on board throughout the semester.
With additional support from the state and a clear focus on providing constructive guidance, the university is working to reduce the number of students each advisor has, enabling counselors to “focus on the students they are serving,” Lejuez said.
Advisors will help students work towards graduation and will hand off those students to an engaged career center.
At the same time, Stony Brook is expanding its global footprint. Lejuez said study abroad options were already “strong” in Europe, while the university is developing additional opportunities in Asia and Africa.
The university prioritizes making study abroad as affordable as possible, offering several scholarships from the office of global affairs and through individual departments.
Students aren’t always aware that “they can study abroad in any SBU-sponsored program for a semester and keep all of their existing federal aid and scholarships and in many cases the full cost of that semester abroad is comparable and sometimes even less expensive” than what the student would spend on Long Island, Lejuez explained in an email.
Stony Brook University Executive Vice President and Provost Carl Lejuez. Photo courtesy Conor Harrigan
As for artificial intelligence, Stony Brook plans to expand on existing work in the realm of teaching, mentoring, research and community outreach.
In efforts sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Learning and the Library, the university is holding multiple training sessions for faculty to discuss how they approach AI in their classrooms.
The library opened an AI Lab that will enable students to experiment, innovate and work on AI projects, Lejuez said. The library plans to hire several new librarians with expertise in AI, machine learning and innovation.
The library is training students on the ethical use of AI and will focus on non-STEM disciplines to help students in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Artificial intelligence “has its strengths and weaknesses,” said Lejuez. “We are not shying away from it.”
As for the community, the hope is that Stony Brook will use the semester to develop plans for kindergarten through 12th grade and then launch the expansion later this spring.
Additional classes
Lejuez acknowledged that class capacity created challenges in the past.
Stony Brook is using predictive analysis to make decisions about where to add classes and sections. At this point, the university has invested in the most in-demand classes in fields such as computer science, biology, chemistry, psychology and business.
The school has also added capacity in writing, math and languages.
Stony Brook is focused on experiential opportunities across four domains: study abroad, internships, research and entrepreneurship.
The school is developing plans for additional makerspaces, which are places where people with shared interests can come together to use equipment and exchange ideas and information.
New hires
Stony Brook is in the middle of a hiring cycle and is likely to “bring the largest group of new faculty we’ve had in many years” on board, the provost said. “This is going to have a big impact on the student experience” including research, climate science, artificial intelligence and healthy aging.
The additional hires will create more research experiences for undergraduates, Lejuez said.
Stony Brook recently created a Center for Healthy Aging, CHA, which combines researchers and clinicians who are focused on enhancing the health and wellness of people as they age.
Amid a host of new opportunities, a rise in the US News and World Report rankings and a victory in the city’s Governors Island contest to create a climate solutions center, Stony Brook has seen an increase in applications from the state, the country and other countries.
This year, about 10,000 students applied to Stony Brook’s first early action admissions process, which Lejuez described as a “great success.”
Amid a world in which regional conflicts have had echoes of tension and disagreement in academic institutions around the country and with an election cycle many expect will be especially contentious, Stony Brook’s Humanities Institute has put together several programs.
This includes a talk on “Muslim and Jewish Relations in the Middle Ages” on February 15th, another on “The Electoral Imagination: Literature, Legitimacy, and Other Rigged Systems” on April 17th and, among others, a talk on April 18th titled “The Problem of Time for Democracies.
True to the core values
Amid all the growth, Stony Brook, led by President Maurie McInnis, plans to continue to focus on its core values.
Lejuez said some people have asked, “are we still going to be the university that really provides social mobility opportunities in ways that are just not available in other places? We will always be that. Everything else happens in the context” of that goal.
Decades ago, doctors endorsed cigarette smoking, promoting it in advertisements. That was back in the 1950’s, in the decade after the U.S. government shipped cigarettes to members of the armed forces during World War II.
On Jan. 11, 1964, Surgeon General Luther Terry released a landmark report that showed a nine to 10-fold higher risk of lung cancer for smokers compared with non smokers. At the time, about 40% of the adult population smoked. The report helped dramatically alter the perception of smoking. Indeed, a Gallup Survey from 1958 showed that 44% of Americans believed smoking caused cancer. By 1968, that number surged to 78%, according to a report from the National Institutes of Health.
Pulmonologist Dr. Norman Edelman, a professor of medicine at Stony Brook University and a core member of the program in public health at Stony Brook, celebrated the legacy of that landmark report, even as he urged ongoing efforts to reduce smoking.
Dr. Norman Edelman. Photo courtesy Stony Brook University
“It was a momentous occasion,” said Dr. Edelman, who suggested that the number of deaths in the country would be even higher without this report.
“By the beginning of the 1960’s, the medical literature was pretty clear that smoking causes lung cancer” but the tobacco lobby fought against warnings about the hazards of smoking, Edelman said.
Dr. Gregson Pigott, Suffolk County Health Commissioner, described the report as the “first step towards protecting the American people from the deleterious effects of tobacco use.”
Adult smoking rates have fallen from about 43% in 1965 to about 11.5% in 2011, according to Dr. Pigott.
The report, which was followed by 34 studies from the CDCs Office of Smoking and Health on the health consequences of smoking, validated the concerns of organizations like the American Cancer Society and helped reduce the prevalence of a habit that can have significant and fatal consequences.
“Smoking levels in teenagers are going down,” said Dr. Edelman. “It’s beginning to show up in the health effects” with lung cancer declining in men and plateauing in women.
Lung cancer deaths in men have fallen to 25.5 per 100,000 in 2021 from 65 per 100,000 in 1990, according to Dr. Pigott. More recently, smoking exacerbated the threat from Covid. An analysis of 22,900 people published in BMC Public Health in 2021 showed that 33.5% of people with a history of smoking experienced disease progression, compared with 21.9% of non-smokers.
A ways to go
While smoking is not as prevalent as it had been in the 1960’s, it is still a killer, accounting for an estimated 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about one in five deaths each year.
“Smoking still kills more people than other preventable causes of death,” said Dr. Edelman.
Dr. Edelman recognized the severity of other problems like the opioid and overdose crisis. In 2023, the CDC estimates that over 112,000 people died from overdoses.
Still, even with a reduction in smoking, the number of people who are smoking is high enough that the public should continue to look for ways to cut back on the harmful habit.
Over 16 million people live with at least one disease caused by smoking and 58 million non smoking Americans are exposed to secondhand smoke, explained Dr. Pigott, citing CDC data. Second hand smoke causes 40,000 to 60,000 deaths per year in the country, while smoking-related illnesses, which combine direct medical expenses, lost productivity and second hand smoke exposure, cost over $300 billion per year.
Increasing the cost of cigarettes has helped serve as a deterrent, Dr. Edelman said.
Suffolk County operates a smoking cessation program, which provides behavior modification and supportive pharmaceuticals to medically eligible participants, Dr. Pigott explained in an email. A nurse practitioner oversees the cessation groups, which the county provides at no cost to participants, who also receive personalized follow-up.Stony Brook has several cessation resources. Students interested in smoking cessation can consult a student health care provider who will help them develop a program.
Prescription medications, which are covered under student’s health insurance, are available at a pharmacy after a consultation with a student’s health care provider.
As for vaping, Dr. Pigott described it as “highly addictive” and explained that its long-term effect is not yet fully understood.
The 2023 Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey found that more than 2.1 million youth currently use e-cigarettes, which represents 7.7% of students in high school and middle school.
“We are especially concerned about the effect of vaping on young people,” Dr. Pigott added.
The number of Advanced Placement courses has expanded dramatically since parents were the age of their high school children.
Whereas we could have taken, say, four or five APs, the modern high school student can graduate with considerably more.
Current students can and sometimes do take as many as eight, nine, 10 or more AP classes, in the hopes of knocking the socks off college admissions counselors, guidance counselors and future prospective employers. All those AP classes can also give students enough college credits to help them graduate in under four years.
I’d like to propose my own list of AP classes for future generations.
— AP Listening. So many people love to talk, to hear their own voices, and to tell others how they’re wrong even before people can share a fully formed opinion. In this class, students would be required to listen to new ideas, to consider them and to react and interact with others. Speaking would be considerably less important than listening carefully.
— AP Conspiracy Theory. We all know that conspiracy theories are as ubiquitous as “Welcome” signs in corner stores. This AP class would look deeply at some of the most detailed conspiracy theories, giving students a chance to question everyone and everything, including those people who create and pass along conspiracies.
— AP Saying No. To borrow from former First Lady Nancy Reagan, saying “no” to drugs, among other things, is a healthy and important part of growing up and making the most of the college experience. The class could provide students with a wide range of situations in which students say “no” without damaging their ego or social status.
— AP Social Media Etiquette, or SME, for short. Some seniors get into colleges well before their colleagues. When they do, they post pictures of themselves on campus, their parents wearing gear from the school that admitted them, and the school emblem or insignia with confetti coming down from the top of the screen. Yes, you got into college, and yes, that’s wonderful, but other members of your class are still applying and don’t need to feel awful because they haven’t gotten in anywhere yet.
— AP It’s Not About Me (or, perhaps, INAM). Yes, this is a bit like a psychology class, but instead of studying theories and psychology legends, these students could explore real-life scenarios in which, say, Sue becomes angry with John. John may not have done anything in particular, but Sue may be reacting to someone else in her life, like her parents forcing her to take AP It’s Not About Me instead of going to soccer practice.
— AP Take Responsibility. When something goes wrong at school, work or in the house, it’s far too easy to point the finger at someone else. In this class, students can learn how to take responsibility, when it’s appropriate, and demonstrate courage, leadership, and initiative in accepting responsibility for their mistakes.
— AP Personal History. Each of us has our own story to tell. Colleges urge prospective students to find their authentic voice. That’s not always easy in a world filled with formulas and scripted and structured writing. In this personal history class, students could take a microscope to their own lives and to the lives of their extended family, understanding and exploring characteristics and life stories. Students might discover family patterns they wish to emulate or to avoid at all costs.
— AP Tail Wagging. While the world is filled with problems, students could explore modern and historical moments and ideas that inspire them and that give them reasons to celebrate. This class could blend a combination of historical triumphs with small daily reasons to celebrate or, if you prefer, to wag your tail.
— AP Get to Know Your Parents. High school students who are well ahead of their time emotionally and intellectually may come to the conclusion many others reach before their mid 20’s: that their parents are, big shock here, people! Yeah, we do ridiculous thing like send them in the wrong clothing to school, miss important dances, and embarrass them by kissing them in front of their friends. This course could help accelerate the process of seeing parents for the imperfect creatures who love them unconditionally.
Evan Musterman with lead SRX beamline scientist Andrew Kiss at the SRX beamline. Photo by Kevin Coughlin/Brookhaven National Laboratory
By Daniel Dunaief
When he took over to lead the sub micron resolution X-ray spectroscopy, or SRX, beamline at Brookhaven National Laboratory on January 1, 2020, Andrew Kiss expected to balance between improving the machinery and helping visiting scientists use it. The pandemic, however, altered that balance.
BNL received components for the beamline in December 2019, when the researchers were going to try to take a fraction of the available x-ray time to install and commission it, all while still running experiments. The pandemic, however, kept scientists from visiting the site. That meant Kiss and his colleagues could dedicate more time to technical enhancements.
“Since the pandemic shut down the user program, this gave us an opportunity to focus all of our time on the new equipment” that visiting researchers could tap into when they returned, he explained in an email.
The beamline, which postdoctoral researcher Evan Musterman is enhancing further with diffraction techniques to reveal information about strain (see related story here), is in high demand. During the current cycle, 324 researchers applied for beamline time, while 99 time slots were allocated.
Scientists have a range of ways of discovering which beamline might best suit their research needs, including word of mouth. Kiss has had conversations with researchers who describe how they read something in a research paper and have similar goals.
Scientists “usually have a good idea of what instrument/ facility to use and why it is good for their research so informal conversations at conferences and seminars can be very useful,” Kiss said.
Most of Kiss’s time is dedicated to ensuring the stability and reliability of the beamline, as well as extending its capabilities to scan larger regions with less overhead, he explained.
“All of this is to help the researchers that come to the beamline, but my hope is that with this baseline of reliable and fast data acquisition, I can focus more on scientific topics such as metal additive manufacturing,” Kiss wrote.
With the SRX, Kiss can explore applied questions related to corrosion effects or how a material is modified by exposure to different gases, liquids or other parameters.
Working at the beamline has given Kiss an unusual perspective outside the lab. A few years ago, he received a notification about a recall on baby food he purchased that could have elevated levels of something unhealthy in it. His second thought, after making sure he didn’t give any to the child, was to wonder how much was in the food and if he could measure it. Before he could bring it to the lab, the contaminated food was already taken away with the garbage.
Kiss enjoys his work and suggested that the field attracts a “certain type of person and, once you are there, it is tough to pull yourself away from the instrument and the community of researchers around you,” he explained.
In addition to making basic discoveries in fields such as materials science, Earth science and biological sciences, the SRX beamline has played an important role in studies that have affected public policy.
Indeed, a study in 2022 showed that veterans who worked in Iraq and Afghanistan near burn pits had oxidized particles of iron and titanium in their lungs. “This is not direct evidence it came from a burn pit, but these were not seen in healthy lungs,” Kiss said. Only a few places in the world had the kind of machinery with a bright enough source and high enough resolution to discover these particles.
Kiss and collaborators from other laboratories, universities and medical institutions appreciated the opportunity to have a “positive impact on these soldiers’ lives by providing the measurements to get them help,” he said. The discovery of these elements in the lungs of veterans who lived near burn pits and suffered health consequences, which the study at SRX and other facilities helped demonstrate, led to the Pact Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022 and which provides $280 billion in federal funding for the health effects veterans suffer after exposure to such toxins.
SRX has high spatial resolution and is highly sensitive to trace concentrations for elemental mapping and chemical composition. SRX is an x-ray fluorescence microscope with “high spatial resolution and highly sensitive to trace concentrations for elemental mapping and chemical composition,” Kiss said. “If that can be used to help people’s lives, that is a wonderful thing.”
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