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Daniel Dunaief

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A humpback whale with propeller scars in inshore waters of the New York Bight. A humpback whale surface feeding in inshore waters of the New York Bight. Image taken under NOAA Permit No 26260. Credit: Thorne Lab, Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

Concerns about the connection between offshore wind farms and whales strandings are likely just a lot of hot air.

Pictured from left, Lesley Thorne with lab membersChelsi Napoli, PhD candidate; Nathan Hirtle, PhD candidate; and Josh Meza-Fidalgo, Research Associate.

In a recent study published in the journal Conservation Biology, Lesley Thorne, Associate Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, and David Wiley, Research Coordinator for NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, pointed to vessel strikes as an important driver of the increase in humpback whale strandings.

To address concerns about whether the development of offshore wind farms led to the death of these cetaceans, Thorne and Wiley compared the distribution and timing of humpbacks between 1995 and 2022 relative to anthropogenic factors, such as vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, as well as elements associated with wind farm development.

“We know that there is a narrative out there suggesting that the surveys used for site assessment and characterization are factors” in these whale strandings, said Thorne. “Studying strandings, mortalities and injuries of large whales is important as it can provide information” about the relative impact of different threats.

The researchers found that New York and Virginia were hotspots of mortalities and serious injuries, with a subset of strandings confirming that vessel strikes were the cause of serious injuries or death.

A number of parts likely played a role. Beginning in 2016, vessel traffic in New York and New Jersey increased at the same time that observers noticed an increase in humpback whales.

These whales have also expanded into new foraging areas in recent years, regularly using inshore New York waters as a foraging ground starting around 2011.

The increase in the population of menhaden, which are a fatty, energy-rich forage fish, in the mid 2010s also expanded humpback whale feeding ground.

Menhaden tend to form dense surface schools in shallow coastal waters in mid-Atlantic states such as New York. These cetaceans often use surface foraging behavior to feed on menhaden, which could make them more vulnerable to vessel strikes.

Understanding and appreciating the causes of these strandings could lead to informed decision-making, in developing offshore wind farms and in creating responsible regulations for various vessels around the time whales might be foraging.

Wind farm activity

During the time these scientists studied humpback whale strandings, seven wind turbines were constructed and then operational. 

Looking at humpback strandings, the highest number of strandings in Rhode Island and neighboring states during the unusual mortality event occurred in years following construction, including 2017 and 2022, and not in the year when construction occurred. 

In Virginia, the highest number happened years before construction.

Their assessment of these patterns did not suggest a link between strandings and site assessment and characterization surveys for offshore wind development. Survey authorizations increased over the course of the unusual mortality events and primarily occurred between New Jersey and Massachusetts, whereas elevated patterns of strandings did not follow this pattern.

In the year 2016, Massachusetts had one survey authorization related to offshore wind.  Massachusetts, however, showed a lower number of strandings relative to other years, while the area from North Carolina to Rhode Island had higher strandings.

Thorne and Wiley are not involved in the stranding response. They used the data from the National Marine Mammal Strandings Database, which provides standardized data on marine mammals strandings collected by strandings responders.

They studied changes in the location and timing of humpback whale strandings, and of humpback whale mortalities and serious injuries that were caused by vessel strikes and entanglements.

To be sure, Thorne emphasized that their study focused on humpback whales, which are the species that strand most frequently. Other large whale species have different distributions, foraging and habitat preferences, which clouds the picture for any broader analysis.

Vessel strikes

The biggest increases in strandings occurred from Rhode Island to Virginia.

In the waters near New York and Virginia, strandings had some of the highest increases. Stranding responders confirmed the prominent role of vessel strikes in mortalities and serious injuries near these states.

As for the whales, they have also changed their spring and summer feeding ranges. Until more recently, the southern feeding range extended much further north, to the Gulf of Maine as well as areas farther north, such as Iceland and Greenland.

While humpbacks have foraged in New York waters periodically in the past, they have been consistently feeding in these waters during the summer since 2011.

The whales are following one of their food sources, as the population of menhaden has increased off the south shore of Long Island and in other mid Atlantic states.

Juveniles have also used the waters off the coast of Virginia as a supplemental feeding ground.

“We know that vessel strikes, along with entanglement in fishing gear, are the major threats to large whales around the world,” said Thorne.

When boats are moving more rapidly and whales are feeding in regions with a higher density of vessel traffic, such mortality events are more likely.

Possible solutions

For starters, the scientists urge further study to add to the body of research, including a more thorough understanding of the movements and habitat use of humpbacks and other large whales. 

Additionally, assessing the abundance and distribution of prey species will contribute to an understanding of habitat use and the health of large whales.

She also suggested further work to analyze feeding and feeding in shallow coastal habitats with the risk of vessel strikes.

Slowing ships down reduces the risk from a vessel strike.

“There’s a lot of interest in how we can better use dynamic management instead of management that is focused on fixed areas and times,” said Thorne.

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Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

It’s so easy to take each other for granted. Of course mom is going to drop everything at work, where she has an incredibly important job, and race to watch you play clarinet with your dad during a day-time concert because that’s what she does and that’s who she is.

And, of course, grandma is going to bring the entire family together for various holidays, welcoming us with hugs and kisses and ensuring that the house has the specific foods each of us needs for the days we share.

But these moments are not a given, any more than sunshine during a picnic or a last minute, life-saving reaction that avoids a traffic accident is.

Recently, my wife and I attended a service for my late mother-in-law. In a small ceremony at the cemetery, almost the entire extended family came.

My wife and I, our children and father-in-law arrived together over 90 minutes early. We sat in the car, waiting for everyone else to arrive and for the ceremony to begin. Other cars slowly glided past us, as other families and friends came to pay respects and to honor those whom they were fortunate enough to know but had lost.

Our children and I climbed out of the car and walked up and down the road, looking at the significant life-defining dates — when someone was born and when they died. We calculated how old each person was. A child died at the age of two in 1931, while a grandmother lived well into her 90’s.

Small raindrops started to fall, sending us scampering back into the car just before a sudden and surprisingly strong downpour.

My wife checked the forecast, which suggested that the rain would stop before the ceremony. Sure enough, 20 minutes before we had to get out of the car, the rain eased up and the sun peaked through the clouds, as the mixed weather served as a backdrop for moments of appreciation and an awareness of the keen loss.

We greeted other family members, who hugged us, shook our hands, or, in some cases, ignored us, carrying grudges or standing on principle for slights real or imagined long ago.

We saw an extended relative and her fiancée whom we hadn’t seen in person since their engagement. We congratulated them on their upcoming wedding, asked about the planning for the big day, and enjoyed the reality of a multi-year relationship transitioning into an upcoming marriage.

The officiant called everyone over, causing almost every other conversation to stop. After some somber words, he urged us to reflect on the person we were so fortunate to know and on the valuable time we shared.

After he expressed awe at the incredible long-term marriage between my father-in-law and mother-in-law, he asked if anyone wanted to speak. In a soft voice, my father-in-law celebrated the relationship he had with his wife, recalling the first time he met her and the bond they formed over 66 years of marriage.

When the officiant asked if anyone else wanted to speak, he turned to the grandchildren. Our son, who is the youngest grandchild and who gravitated towards his mother to offer his support, nodded.

He remembered the way his grandmother called him over whenever we arrived, smiling broadly and signaling with her index finger for him to come kiss her, which he and all the next generation readily did.

He also remembered how grandma, who was among the smallest people in any room, was always the cake cutter for birthdays. He described how her tiny arms worked their way through each cake, even frozen ice cream cakes, as she made sure everyone got a piece.

With each word, he reflected the love she gave to all her grandchildren back out into the world. In that moment, when he so eloquently captured his grandmother’s dedication to family, he made it clear that he didn’t take her for granted, any more than my wife and I took him for granted.

Without any preparation, he rose to the occasion, helping us see her through his grateful eyes.

There was no “of course” that day for grandma or for her grandchildren, just gratitude.

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Benjamin Cowley. Photo courtesy of CSHL Communications

By Daniel Dunaief

Most behaviors involve a combination of cues and reactions. That’s as true for humans awaiting a response to a gesture like buying flowers as it is for a male fruit fly watching for visual cues from a female during courtship. 

The process is often a combination of behaviors and signals, which the visual system often processes as a way of determining the next move in a courtship ritual.

At Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Assistant Professor Benjamin Cowley recently published research in the prestigious journal Nature in which he used a so-called deep neural network to mirror the neurons involved in a male fly’s vision as it interacts with a potential female mate.

Working with a deep neural network that reflects the fly’s nerve cells, Cowley created a knockout training process, in which he altered one set of neurons in the model at a time and determined their effect on the model and, with partners who conduct experiments with flies, on the flies themselves.

Cowley’s lab group, which includes from left to right, Rabia Gondur, computational research assistant, Filip Vercuysse, postdoctoral researcher, Benjamin Cowley, and Yaman Thapa, graduate student. Photo by Sue Weil-Kazzaz, CSHl Commnications.

Cowley worked closely with his former colleagues at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, including Professor Jonathan Pillow and Professor Mala Murthy. His collaborators genetically silenced a fruit fly’s neuron type, observing the changes in behavior. Cowley, meanwhile, trained his deep neural network on this silenced behavior while also “knocking out” model neurons, teaching the model by perturbing it in a similar way to the changes in the fruit fly circuitry.

This approach proved effective, enhancing the ability of these models not only to understand the wiring involved in processing visual information and translating that into behavior, but also to provide potential clues in future experiments about similar cellular dysfunction that could be involved in visual problems for humans.

What researchers can infer about the human visual system is limited because it has hundreds of millions of neurons. The field has taken decades to build artificial visual systems that recognize objects in images. The systems are complex, containing millions of parameters that make them as difficult to explain as the brain itself.

The fly visual system, which is the dominant focus of the fly’s brain, occupying about 70 percent of its 130,000 neurons, provides a model system that could reveal details about how these systems work. By comparison, the human retina has 100 million neurons.

“To build a better artificial visual system, we need to know the underlying mechanisms,” which could start with the fly, Cowley said. “That’s why the fruit fly is so amenable.”

Researchers need to know the step-by-step computations going from an image to neural response and, eventually, behavior. They can use these same computations in the artificial visual system.

‘A suite of tools’

The fly’s visual system is still robust and capable, contributing to a range of behaviors from courtship to aggression to foraging for food and navigating on a surface or through the air as it flies.

The fly “gives us a whole suite of tools we can use to dissect these circuits,” Cowley said.

The fly visual system looks similar to what the human eye has, albeit through fewer neurons and circuits. The fruit fly visual system has strong similarities to the early processing of the human visual system, from the human eye to the thalamus, before it reaches the visual cortex in the occipital lobe.

Interpreting the visual system for the fly will “help us in understanding disorders and diseases in human visual systems,” Cowley said. “Blindness, for the most part, occurs in the retina.”

Blindness may have many causes; a large part of them affect the retina and optic nerve. This could include macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

In its own right, understanding the way the visual processing system works in the fly could also prove beneficial in reacting to the threat of invasive species like mosquitoes, which pass along diseases such as malaria to humans.

Visual channels

Anatomists had mapped the fly’s 50 visual channels, called optical glomeruli. In the past decade, researchers have started to record from them. Except in limited cases, such as for escape reflex behaviors, it was unknown what each channel encoded.

Cowley started the research while a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton Neuroscience Institute in Jonathan Pillow’s lab and finished the work while he was starting his own lab at CSHL. Mala Murthy’s lab, who is also at Princeton, performed the silencing experiments on fruit flies, while Cowley modeled the data.

Through hundreds of interactions between the flies in which some part of the fly’s visual system was silenced, Cowley created a model that predicted neuronal response and the behavior of the fly.

The deep neural network model he used deploys a new, flexible algorithm that can learn its rules based on data. This approach can be particularly helpful in situations when researchers have the tools to perturb the system, but they can’t recover or observe every working part.

In some of the experiments, the males became super courters, continuing to engage in courtship activities for 30 minutes, which, given that the fly lives only three weeks, is akin to a date that lasts 25 days.

It is unclear why these flies become super courters. The scientists speculate that silencing a neuron type may keep the male from being distracted by other visual features.

In the experimental part of the experiments, the researchers, including Dr. Adam Calhoun and Nivedita Rangarajan, who both work in Murthy’s lab, tried to control for as many variables as possible, keeping the temperature at 72 degrees throughout the experiment.

“These flies live in nature, they are encountering so much more” than another fly for potential courtship, said Cowley, including the search for food and water.

This research addressed one small part of a behavioral repertoire that reveals details about the way the fly’s visual system works.

A resident of Huntington, Cowley grew up in West Virginia and completed his undergraduate work and PhD at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.

An avid chess player, which is a field that has included artificial intelligence, Cowley, who spent much of his life in a city, appreciates having a backyard. He has learned to do some landscaping and gardening.

Cowley had been interested in robotics in college, until he listened to some lectures about neuroscience.

As for the next steps in his work, Cowley hopes to add more complex information to his computational system, suppressing combinations of cells to gather a more complete understanding of a complex system in action.

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The four person MSU crew Patricia Babiam, Kristofer Martin, patient Bill Rothmeier, Anthony Papaleo and Frank Time, reunite for a reunion.

By Daniel Dunaief

Ralph Sabatino, a lawyer and St. James resident, was in his bedroom, sitting at his computer when he fell out of his chair.

Ralph Sabatino of St. James. Photo courtesy Stony Brook Medicine

When his sister Maria, who was visiting from New Jersey in April of 2023, came into the room, she immediately called his wife Claire, a registered nurse, to come check on him. 

“I noticed his left arm and left leg were paralyzed,” said Claire Sabatino, who has been married to Ralph for almost 44 years. “HIs speech was garbled.”

Claire called 911 and told the dispatcher that her husband was exhibiting the signs of a stroke. Within minutes, an EMS ambulance and one of the two Mobile Stroke Units from Stony Brook hospital arrived.

In the mobile stroke unit, technicians conducted a CAT scan, forwarding the results to Dr. David Fiorella, Director of the Stony Brook Cerebrovascular Center and Co-Director of the Stony Brook Cerebrovascular and Comprehensive Stroke Center at Stony Brook Medicine. When he arrived at the hospital, Sabatino bypassed the emergency room and went directly into an operating room.

Fearing the worst, Claire Sabatino called their adult daughter Gabrielle and told her to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

“I never saw anybody with the symptoms my husband was exhibiting that fully recovered in the past,” she said. “When I saw him on the floor, I thought that would be the way he’d live for the rest of his life, if he survived. I wasn’t sure he would.”

After the stroke and the operation, Sabatino, who is now 68 years old, has no symptoms following what is far too often a life-altering condition.

“It’s sometimes hard for me to fathom how massive the stroke was because I have had no lingering effects,” he said.

Indeed, Sabatino estimates that the time between when he had the stroke until he was wheeled in the recovery room was about an hour and a half.

“Stroke is an emergency,” said Fiorella. “Although it’s not painful, numbness, weakness involving one side of the body, difficulty with speech, understanding speech, difficulty with vision, anything that presents acutely shouldn’t be ignored. It needs prompt attention.”

As a way to recognize the signs of stroke and the urgency to get help, doctors in this field suggest that people remember the acronym BE FAST, which stands for balance, eyes, face, arm, speech, time.

With seniors representing the fastest growing population on Long Island, residents and their families and caregivers need to be aware of stroke symptoms and, in the event of a stroke, to have an action plan in place.

“We have an aging population and the prevalence of stroke is increasing,” said Fiorella.

In Suffolk County, Stony Brook has two mobile stroke units, positioned on the Long Island Expressway at Exits 57 and 68. These units are located within 10 miles of 46 EMS territories.

Since Stony Brook started deploying these mobile stroke units in April of 2019, these specialized and life-saving ambulances have responded to about 8,000 stroke calls.

During those years, the hospital has demonstrated a significant reduction in time to treatment, with more patients receiving clot busting medications while in transit, and lower rates of mortality and morbidity, Fiorella explained.

A workup and diagnosis at other hospitals can take three or more hours, which a mobile stroke unit can perform with a CAT scan.

Additional benefits

David Fiorella, MD, PhD stand for photo at Stony Brook Hospital on Monday Sept. 12, 2022. (9/12/22)

Fiorella explained that the technicians in the ambulance share considerable information about the patient while in transit, including whatever contact numbers they could collect from family members on site.

Stony Brook Hospital can then begin a dialog with those family members, preparing them for any potential procedures and, if the patient is a candidate for a new treatment, receiving authorization.

A well-established and industry leading stroke unit, Stony Brook is involved in several experimental protocols designed to improve treatment.

“Whenever we can, we offer newer and better technologies,” said Fiorella. By participating, patients not only benefit from advances in the field, but also help the thousands who come after them. Patients can “make tremendous contributions to their own care and to medicine” amid developments and advanced technologies, he said.

In cases where patients or their representatives prefer not to use any advanced or newer technology, Stony Brook provides other life-saving services.

Fiorella added that the mobile stroke unit doesn’t only bring patients to Stony Brook, but also takes them to other comprehensive stroke centers for advanced treatment.

While strokes disproportionately affect the elderly, with the Medical University of South Carolina estimating that 75 percent of strokes occur in people 65 and older, certain conditions can increase the risk of strokes, such as smoking, vascular or heart disease, high blood pressure and peripheral vascular disease.

Another success story

The four person MSU crew Patricia Babiam, Kristofer Martin, patient Bill Rothmeier, Anthony Papaleo and Frank Time, reunite for a reunion.

Bill Rothmeier, who lives in Oakdale, was coming back from upstate in 2019 when his wife Eileen recognized that he was driving strangely.

She asked him to pull over so she could use the restroom. When she returned, she took over the driving. By the time they got home, Rothmeier’s ability to speak had declined.

Eileen Rothmeier spoke to a next door neighbor, who was involved with a community ambulance in Sayville. He had heard about the stroke unit.

“The next thing I knew, two ambulances were in front of my house,” said Bill Rothmeier, who is now 68. The MSU did a CAT scan and gave him a shot on the way to the hospital.

When he was in the recovery room, Rothmeier said Fiorella came in and told him he put in a stent and pulled two blood clots out of his brain.

“He said it like I was going out to a deli to get lunch,” said Rothmeier, who, as it turns out has owned the Lake Grove Deli for 29 years. “If it wasn’t for those guys,” including the MSU crew and Fiorella, “I could be in a nursing home or worse right now.”

Rothmeier was one of the first to receive life saving treatment through the mobile stroke unit and at the hospital.

A rewarding job

While the mobile stroke unit provides an important service for people battling a stroke, it doesn’t add any cost for the patient.

Stony Brook provides the units “free of charge,” because the “outcomes are so much better,” Fiorella said.

Patients who have untreated strokes or whose strokes are treated much later can have an irreversible brain injury, which could involve hospitalizations that last for months.

Stony Brook receives the same flat rate from Medicare for stroke victims, which helps provide financial support for the ambulance and is a “home run” for the patient, Fiorella added.

From Fiorella’s perspective, the opportunity to help people more than compensates for the 2 am calls he sometimes gets when he needs to come in for emergency surgery.

In the 25 years he’s been involved in stroke care, Fiorella has “never lost the fascination in how great the technology has become and how quickly it’s advanced,” he said. After treatment, people who couldn’t speak or understand speech and who couldn’t move the dominant side of their body can return to normal activities.

“It’s such a wonderful experience being involved with this,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to do this without the support of Stony Brook.”

As for Claire Sabatino, who had never heard of the mobile stroke unit before the ambulance was parked on her driveway last April, the benefit of the rapid transit and the Stony Brook team is “nothing short of a miracle.

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John Perkins and Mike Gugliotti, chief navigation officer and his ‘water Sherpa.’ Photo courtesy Maggie Fischer Memorial Swim

By Daniel Dunaief

What are you planning to do this Saturday?

John Perkins, Community Outreach Manager at St. Charles Hospital and St. Catherine of Siena Hospital and Islip Terrace resident, is planning to swim 12.5 miles around Key West. The swim isn’t just an exercise in rugged outdoor activities or a test of his endurance, but is a way to raise money to support St. Charles Hospital’s stroke support group and promote stroke awareness and prevention.

As of Tuesday morning Perkins, who is 56 years old, has raised $4,900 out of his goal of collecting $5,000.

“Stroke survivors can have challenges for the rest of their lives,” said Perkins. “My hundreds of hours of training and hundreds of miles I’ve swam over the last year is nothing in comparison to someone who has a stroke” and then has a gate impairment, a speech impediment or is visually impaired.

Perkins added that about 80 percent of the estimated 800,000 strokes in the United States are preventable, through efforts like managing high blood pressure and/or diabetes, increasing physical activity and eating a healthier diet.

Perkins hopes the money he raises can add a new piece of equipment in the emergency room or help with the stroke survivor and support group.

Challenging conditions, with help

Getting ready for this swim took considerable work, especially given that Perkins didn’t even know how to swim until he was 50.

That’s when a group of childhood friends called him up in 2017 and suggested he join them for a two mile swim in the Straight of Messina, between Sicily and Calabria.

He rose to the challenge and raised $1,200.

To prepare for this much longer swim, which he estimates could take eight hours of more, he has been getting up at 4 am and is in the pool by 5 a.m.

Three days during the week, he swims two miles before work, often surrounded by people who are training for grueling races like triathlons and ironman competitions. On weekends, he does longer swims. He has been increasing the distances he swims in the pool, recently covering 10 miles in six and a half hours.

When he’s doing these longer swims, he gets out of the pool every two miles to take a 30-second break, which could involve hydrating and a quick restroom stop.

“You can not be a marathon swimmer without considering the nutrition aspect,” he said.

When he’s swimming around Key West, he plans to bring a special blend of carbohydrates, with calcium and magnesium and some protein, making sure he consumes about 300 calories per hour.

In expending over 6,000 calories for the swim itself, he wants to ensure he doesn’t tire or get cramps.

When he swims around Key West, Perkins said his wife Pamela, who is a registered nurse and whom he calls his chief nutritionist, will be in a two-person kayak. She will signal to him every 20 minutes or so to take a break for some liquid nutrition.

Meanwhile, his chief navigation officer, Michael Gugliotti, whom he also refers to as his “water Sherpa,” will ensure that he stays the course, not straying from the checkpoints so that he doesn’t wind up adding any distance to the long swim.

When he’s swimming, Perkins tends to think about the struggles stroke survivors have that they have to deal with for the rest of their lives.

“Strokes impact your life, your community’s life, your family’s life,” he said.

People interested in donating can do so through the following link: St. Charles Host Your Own Fundraiser

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Want a social ice breaker with even the most reluctant neighbor? Get a dog!

People share quite a bit about themselves when they’re reaching down to pet a pooch who stares them in the eyes, wags his tail and appreciates their attention.

Thoughts, ideas, and pieces of themselves come pouring out in a range of categories.

Shaggy dog tales: Friends, neighbors and strangers in a park often offer vignettes about their own dogs. They talk about how much they enjoy having them in the house, how their beloved pets are eating the furniture, and how delighted they are to return to the house to find creatures who, unlike their teenage children, are genuinely happy to see them.

Would that they could: Even as they pet my eager dog, they sometimes share wistful thoughts about how they’d like to have their own dog. They travel too much, can’t get up early enough or have friends and family members who are allergic. Some are still in mourning for their late canine friends and can’t imagine getting another one.

Dog whisperers: Then, there are those people who know what your dog is feeling and thinking far better than you, despite the fact that you have lived with your dog for years? They direct their not so-subtle observations to the dog. “Oh, you adorable puppy, you look so hot. Are you hot? Do you need water? Do you need a bath? Do you need a better owner than this eavesdropping oaf at the other end of your leash?” Or, perhaps, “Are you walking too far for your short legs? Do you wish your owner would get more of his exercise at the gym and less of it taking you for these marathon walks?” “Are you hungry? Do you need a snack? Is your mean old owner trying to lose weight himself so he’s not feeding you enough?” Sometimes, of course, those people are right and my dog is hot, tired, or hungry. Then again, he’s a dog attached to a stomach, so he’s always hungry.

Feel free to unload while my dog does the same: While my dog relieves himself, people share considerable information about their lives. One woman told me, in eerie overtones with the show “Dear Evan Hansen,” how she and her ex-husband felt the need to intervene with a daughter battling mental health issues. Fortunately, the daughter and her parents are doing well.

The keep away owners: Some dog owners use their dog or dogs as shields, walking them at rapid paces on tight leashes, making it clear that they, and their dogs, have no interest in catching up. They are out getting some air or exercise and they have no need to give their dogs a chance to sniff each other, or to compare thoughts on anything from the weather to the best way to get rid of that not-so-fresh dog smell.

The couple competition: Even as dogs have non verbal cues as they approach each other, so, too, do humans. Some couples, who are walking next to each other, break apart, as one person is eager to be the first to pet the dog. Like Groucho Marx, my dog is more interested in joining the clubs that might not want him as much, and maneuvers around the extended hand to try to win over the more reluctant walker. The eager petter will whine, “what about me?” My dog either ignores him or gives that person the dog equivalent of an exasperated eye roll.

The dog watchers: Yes, I know it sounds conspiratorial, but they do exist. People sometimes sit in their homes, watching carefully to see if a dog leaves an unattended, unwanted dropping on their lawn. Eager to catch their neighbors in the act, they have cameras at the ready to document the offending moment.

The fact collectors: Some people seem more interested in learning details about my dog than they do in hearing about me. They ask me to remind them how old he is — one day older than when you asked yesterday — how much he weighs, where I got him, how he sleeps, and what games he likes to play. With them, it might be better to skip the “How are you doing?” and go straight to “How’s your dog’s day going?”

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Lucille Betti-Nash demonstrates the pencil technique at the workshop.

By Daniel Dunaief

Their illustrations, which have graced the pages of journals for decades, tell tales that move and inspire people, emphasizing and recreating the beauty, power, elegance and fine structures of living and long extinct creatures.

Invited by Zooreach to join a workshop that employs a combination of story telling, theater and art, Stony Brook residents Stephen Nash and Lucille Betti-Nash, who are both successful scientific illustrators and have been married since 1990, recently traveled to Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu State in Southern India for two weeks to share their talents with local artists focusing on conservation and climate change.

The Nashes believe India is “poised to become a superpower and yet, one of the greatest challenges it faces is climate change” as well as population control, said Stephen Nash, Scientific Illustrator for the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Art at Stony Brook University.

Indeed, during their fortnight in India, the Nashes experienced temperatures that were over 100 degrees every day. At the same time, a lighter monsoon season last year, which runs from June through September, meant that the reservoirs, which provide cities with water, were depleted and local wildlife was struggling to find places to drink.

Stephen and Betti-Nash, who had worked at Stony Brook and is now retired and doing freelance work, had hoped to see elephants during their trip, but the animals had retreated to more remote regions to find water. The Nashes did, however, see plentiful cows wandering. People practicing Hinduism consider cows sacred.

With support from the workshop provided by the US Consulate General, Chennai that is part of the Art for Conservation Program of Zoo Outreach Organization, the Long Island illustrators enjoyed their trip, made meaningful connections with local artists, and appreciated the amenities their hosts provided, including air conditioned rooms.

The Nashes continue to be in contact with the artists and appreciate how their hosts, Payal and Sanjay Molur, who is the Executive Trustee of Zooreach, took care of them “as though we were family.”

First steps

Before they traveled to India, the Nashes, who have done workshops in Peru in 2016 and Brazil in 2017, provided google drives with a set of folders including copyright free books on natural history that revealed various rendering techniques. They also shared United States government slides that revealed how artists depicted statistics of climate change.

Once the three-day class they taught began, the Nashes started their presentation with an introduction to the field of scientific illustration, including medical, forensic, technical, biological, archaeological, and paleontological areas, among others.

They discussed various illustrating techniques, from rendering various forms of wildlife to organizing and presenting scientific data. They communicated the importance of sticking to the scientific facts when producing art related to climate change and conservation.

The class, which was comprised of educators and artists in their 20’s and 30’s, were most intrigued by pen and ink illustrations. Using a pen dipped in ink, each artist could control the darkness and width of any mark by applying different pressure and changing the angle at which the pen crossed a page.

“We were pleasantly surprised by how well they took to pen and ink,” said Nash.

The Nashes didn’t bring any India ink, figuring that they could readily find it in the country that bears its name. “We were thinking it would be widely available, but we could not find it,” said Betti-Nash. “We had to settle for fountain pen ink, which was not waterproof.”

The Nashes and the students in the class discussed Manga, which are Japanese comics and graphic novels as a way of using the power of art as a sequential medium.

Betti-Nash demonstrated one of her technical strengths with water colors.

The students were “enraptured” when Nash created one of his illustrations, “watching every move with colored pencils,” Betti-Nash said.

Nash suggested they were hoping to inspire their students to come up with “their own local way of pictorially rendering data that would be more meaningful for them and for the people in their immediate village or community.”

To create illustrations that address the challenges of climate change and conservation, Nash takes what he described as a “Bing Cosby” approach, in which he tries to “accentuate the positive.” Optimistic by and about nature, Nash has seen how ecosystems can recover if allowed by humans. He prefers to show the beauty of an endangered animal rather than show a landscape denuded of trees with a lonely gibbon siting on a tree stump.

“I wouldn’t want an image with that negativity on my own walls,” Nash said. “It’s better to help people appreciate [nature] than to show the possible” cataclysmic results of climate change.

Betti-Nash urged the artists to draw their favorite animals, recreating whatever was their spark animal that led them to the field of conservation. Some chose endangered sharks, which are a part of the bycatch when commercial fishing vessels hunt for more valuable fish. Local students shared their appreciation for snakes, who perform an important role in Indian ecosystems.

Face to face with the real thing

Nash met the Molurs, who invited them to visit India, in the mid 1980’s, when he had done a drawing for a conservation education campaign on the lion-tailed macaque.

When he arrived in India, Nash saw three species of primates in the hills alongside the road in a protected area, including the lion-tailed macaque. Nash thought the animal was the size of a German shepherd, but realized it was closer to the dimensions of a domestic cat.

Nash focuses on capturing the character as well as the characteristics of an animal and suggested artists needed to be aware of the goals of their illustrations.

Betti-Nash likes to demonstrate the interaction of the animals she’s illustrating with the environment, including what they eat and what they provide to the ecosystem.

As for the workshop, Betti-Nash suggested the purpose was to “draw people in” and to get the artists to learn ways to be creative in their messages about conservation and climate change.

Nash added that they wanted to “open the students’ eyes to the possibilities and the vastness of scientific illustration” and to improve their analytic observational skills.

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Dr. Suzanne Fields, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Chief of the Division of General, Geriatric and Hospital Medicine. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook Medicine

By Daniel Dunaief

A year after its formation, the Center for Healthy Aging has not only brought groups of scientists and doctors across the Stony Brook University campus together, but has also funded several early-stage projects.

An initiative started by SBU President Maurie McInnis and that received financial support from the Stony Brook University Presidential Innovation and Excellence Fund, the CHA is currently jointly run by interim co-directors Dr. Suzanne Fields, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Chief of the Division of General, Geriatric and Hospital Medicine and Dr. Christine DeLorenzo, Professor of Psychiatry and Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Center for Understanding Biology using Imaging Technology.

The CHA has several themes, including helping people live longer and healthier lives. In addition, it will serve as a research center that will include basic science, translational, clinical and health services research.

McInnis spoke with Dr. Peter Igarashi, the Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, to create this initiative.

Dr. Igarashi wanted to make it a center where people from different departments in the university, the five Health Sciences Schools and the Program in Public Health, as well as affiliated institutions such as the Northport VA and the Long Island State Veterans Home collaborated on innovative projects related to aging.

Fields and DeLorenzo anticipate the collaborative research with bioinformatics, pharmacology and bioengineering, for example, will help clinical providers prescribe effective medications for older patients safely through special alerts/ suggestions, identify patients at risk for falling through mobility sensors, and assist clinical providers with AI diagnostic tools.

‘Shark Tank’

Last June, the CHA held a workshop in the style of the “Shark Tank” television show.

Over 100 faculty members attended that meeting from different parts of the university, where they formed groups with other attendees to pose research questions and address challenges people face as they age.

“There was so much enthusiasm there,” said DeLorenzo. “We have so much expertise on campus. We have brilliant researchers who are working on everything from age-related effects at the cellular level all the way through to lifestyle interventions for elderly folks.”

After that meeting, the CHA provided $40,000 to two projects, hoping the support could help ideas get off the ground enough that the principal investigators could then apply to larger funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Aging, for additional funding.

Led by Adam Singer, the chair of the Emergency Room department, one group of faculty developed ideas to help people who suffered from falls.

“When people who are elderly come into the ER and they’ve fallen, the chances” of them falling again doubles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said DeLorenzo. “What I love about that pitch the table gave, which was a mixture of clinicians, biomedical engineers, a respiratory therapist, and a physical therapist is that people were coming at this question from all angles.”

The group pitched an idea to create an intervention program that helps explain how to change a person’s lifestyle to prevent another fall.

Senescent cells

Markus Riessland, an Assistant Professor in the Empire Innovation Program in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, led the other funded pitch.

Riessland’s project looks at a particular type of cell that can become problematic as people age.

Older cells sometimes get stuck in a senescent state, where they don’t die, but give off signals that cause an inflammatory response.

Riessland’s group “got together and asked, ‘How can we intervene to clear away these senescent cells?’” said DeLorenzo.

Young immune systems typically recognize senescent cells and remove them. As people age, the immune system has a diminished ability to detect and remove these cells, causing inflammaging, which describes a build up of inflammation during the aging process, Riessland explained in an email.

“If you remove senescent cells from an old mouse, these mice show improvements in the function of virtually all tissue” including heart, liver, lung and brain and the lifespan increases by 30 percent, Riessland added.

Researchers have hypothesized that there is also a threshold number of senescent cells a human body can tolerate. If a person exceeds that threshold, it “causes inflammaging and age-related symptoms,” he wrote.

Based on his laboratory work, Riessland found that specific neurons in the brain become senescent and that these neurons secrete proinflammatory factors.

Riessland and his colleagues aim to ameliorate this inflammation and have found a molecular regulator that could be a drug target.

Based on the work Riessland did through the CHA study, he and his colleagues are writing a grant proposal for the National Institutes of Health. In the future, he, DeLorenzo and Dr. Carine Maurer will perform a clinical trial on Long Island that will assess the feasibility to ameliorate the inflammaging process in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Fall awards

In the fall, the center gave out six awards for $40,000 each and six for $100,000, many of which were in basic science, according to Dr. Fields.

“There was a broad array of topics, with some translational and some basic,” said Fields. “We’re following up with those people.”

Nancy Reich, a Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, received support as a part of the fall round.

The funding from CHA has “allowed us to begin to investigate the development of pancreatic cancer in the older population versus the young using a mouse cancer model,” Reich explained in an email. “Our hypothesis centers on the immune defense response.”

Search for a new director

Now that the center has made some headway and brought various teams together, the university is searching for a permanent director.

“It’s a real joy and pleasure to see this center start up,” said DeLorenzo.

DeLorenzo urges anyone interested in learning more to check the center’s web site, Center for Healthy Aging | Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

“We have events, and we would love for the community to go to them,” said DeLorenzo.

DeLorenzo encourages community members to reach out to Fields and her with any questions.

Riessland added that the CHA-funded projects will “have an impact on the understanding of the aging process itself.”

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Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis celebrates with Class of 2024 graduates on May 17. Photo courtesy Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

The New York public university that could is looking for a new president.

Maurie McInnis, who started her tenure as president of Stony Brook University four years ago, is resigning to become the president of Yale University, effective July 1st. She will become the first permanent female president of Yale.

McInnis, who earned master’s degrees and a doctorate at Yale, is leaving Stony Brook after important wins and achievements for the university, several of which the Simons Foundation helped make possible.

The State University of New York plans to oversee the leadership transition until the downstate flagship university can find its seventh president.

“It has been a pleasure working with Maurie McInnis these past few years,” Marilyn Simons, chair of the Simons Foundation, said in a statement. Her “leadership at Stony Brook has left it in a strong position” and she is “confident that Stony Brook’s supporters will continue to invest in and build upon its successes.”

Maurie McInnis is the sixth President of Stony Brook University. Photo courtesy Stony Brook University

Reached by the Times Beacon Record Newspapers on the day of the announcement, some faculty expressed appreciation for McInnis’s contribution and for the positive momentum for the university.

“It’s a huge loss for Stony Brook University,” Heather Lynch, IACS Endowed Chair of Ecology & Evolution, wrote in an email. “President McInnis has been an effective advocate for our institution and has led a number of major initiatives that will pay dividends in the years to come.”

Governors Island win

During McInnis’s tenure, which started in March of 2020 just as the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic was causing dislocation in communities and universities around the world, Stony Brook was named the anchor institution of the New York Climate Exchange research center on Governors Island.

Competing against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University and a group co-led by CUNY and The New School, Stony Brook University won the rights to develop the project with the support of a $100 million donation from the Simons Foundation and $50 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The exchange will house a 400,000 square foot, state-of-the-art campus dedicated to research, education and public programs that address climate change.

The center, which will cost $700 million to construct and is expected to open in 2028, will run solely on electricity generated on site and will generate enough power to provide some energy to the city. It will also be one of the first sites in the country to achieve True Zero Waste, and will meet all of its non-potable water demand with rainwater and treated wastewater.

“President McInnis inspired Stony Brook students, faculty, and staff to be bold and to confront global challenges like climate change,” Kevin Reed, Associate Provost for Climate and Sustainability Programming explained in an email. The Climate Exchange will provide a path for the development of local solutions to climate impacts in New York and beyond.

“The impact of her leadership at Stony Brook will be felt for years to come,” Reed added.

Simons Foundation donation

Last year, the Simons Foundation agreed to donate $500 million over the course of seven years to Stony Brook University. The university plans to use the gift, named the Simons Infinity Investment, for student scholarship for a diverse student body, endowed professorships, research initiatives, development of new academic fields and clinical care.

The gift from the Simons Foundation and the Climate Exchange win are “outstanding achievements at Stony Brook,” said Shirley Kenny, who was president of Stony Brook University from 1994 to 2009. “She is certainly to be congratulated for these and other achievements.”

During McInnis’s tenure, Stony Brook also reached its highest ever rankings among U.S. News and World Reports Best Colleges listing. The magazine named SBU the top ranked public university in New York, the 26th highest ranked public university in the United States, and the 58th highest rank in its 2024 Best Colleges guide. The University was ranked 93rd in 2022.

“We congratulate [McInnis] on this prestigious appointment, merely the latest in her series of extraordinary professional accomplishments,” SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. said in a statement. Her “election is a testament to both her exceptional ability and the esteem with which Stony Brook is viewed by its peers. I know that we will have superbly talented candidates to choose from as we begin this search for [her] successor to lead one of the nation’s most prestigious public universities and a true engine of research innovation and social mobility.”

McInnis, like other college presidents, contended with challenges during this time, including protests related to Israel’s military action after Hamas’s attack on October 7.

McInnis “dealt with the recent demonstrations on campus in an effective manner,” Bruce Stillman, president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and an Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Stony Brook, explained in an email. He congratulated her on her appointment at Yale.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY1) added that McInnis “deftly handled the Stony Brook protests and I am confident she will bring a needed dose of common sense to the Ivy League.” In an email, LaLota added that he has been “working with her for the last two years to ensure Congress is doing everything we can to support Stony Brook and I appreciate her fierce advocacy for the university.”

McInnis shared some thoughts on her tenure.

“I have been so proud to lead Stony Brook during this exciting time in its history,” McInnis said in a statement. “When I talk with other leaders in higher education, it is clear that they recognize Stony Brook is an institution on an upward trajectory, combining groundbreaking research with expanded opportunities for students from all backgrounds. I want to express my appreciation to all the faculty, students, and staff who are achieving great accomplishments. I am confident that Stony Brook’s best years lie ahead.”

 

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

In connection with the Times Beacon Record Newspapers’ coverage of Stony Brook University’s Center for Healthy Aging, I asked a host of people what gets better for them with age. I promised each of them anonymity, so I have altered their names.

Starting with people in their 40’s to 60’s, one of the most common responses involved the relationship they had with their children.

“The first thing that comes to my mind is that my kids get better with age,” explained John in an email. “It has been such a joy to watch [his 15-year old daughter and 13-year-old son] grow up and become smart, relatively well-adjusted, and really interesting young adults.”

Indeed, Mary, whose children are in their early 20’s, suggested that her relationship with both of them has gotten better with each passing year. She appreciates their support and caring and feels time with them, by definition, has become quality time.

Julie, who is an empty nester, believes her relationship with her husband has improved dramatically. In the first few years after her children graduated from college, she and her husband did not have the same ideas about how to help guide and direct their children, leading to tension in their household and their marriage.

After a few important and stressful conversations, as well as an ultimatum or two, Julie and her husband have never been closer and are enjoying the opportunity to live, work and play together.

The 40’s to 60’s group also shared their professional confidence and comfort, trusting their own judgment as they have poured considerable time and effort into building their careers.

“Perspective gets better since you’ve seen more situations and something that might have appeared catastrophic earlier comes into focus as something that will pass,” Robert said in an email.

Dana feels her sense of self has improved. “I know who I am, and my thoughts, feelings and actions are now more aligned, which leads to contentment,” she said.

Fred suggested that his friendships have gotten better over time, both in importance and depth. He also feels his dog has made a ‘tremendous difference in my life.”

As the years since formal schooling slip further back in his life, Fred appreciates the opportunity to read for his own enjoyment and for himself, instead of to fulfill the requirements for a class.

The younger generation, which includes a sampling of people in their low to mid 20’s, couldn’t resist showing a little attitude.

The first response to “what gets better with age” was “cheese and wine.”

Sharing the sentiment expressed by those who have older children, they added “their appreciation for their parents.”

Also making the cut were “little things you took for granted,” “going on a long run and not getting hurt,” and “an appreciation for hanging out with friends.”

In the years after playing on school teams became less frequent, they also appreciate the opportunity to return to the court or to the field to play sports that are no longer scheduled a few times a week over the course of a long season.

As for those over 65, the list includes “focusing on the things that matter,” said Sheila. “Don’t sweat the little things.”

Carrie has learned to care less about what others think and do what she wants to do.

Joe suggested that “wisdom and temperament” come with age, although he added that’s not always the case.

“I don’t have to worry everyday about whether I will succeed in my goals,” said Paula, who is still working and traveling as a part of her job as she approaches 80. “I don’t have to worry whether my child will survive or thrive, whether I can pay my bills. I can relax a bit, but not too much because there is so much yet to do.”

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