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Daniel Dunaief

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By Daniel Dunaief

The federal government took them away and has, for now, returned them.

Amid a national crackdown on international students throughout the country, the federal government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program removed the visas of 11 international students at Stony Brook University on April 10, without providing any public information about the reasons for the decisions or the process that would follow.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine

Early this week, the downtstate flagship university announced that the student visas, which are necessary for work and, in some cases, to remain in the United States, were reinstated.

“We are delighted to share that all 11 Stony Brook students whose immigration status was terminated by the federal government several weeks ago had had their status reinstated,” Provost Carl Lejuez, Vice Provost for Graduate Educate Celia Marshik and Senior Associate Provost for Global Affairs Lindsi Walker announced in an email to faculty, staff and students.

The 11 Stony Brook students were among the 1,500 students nationwide whose visa status was terminated. Most of those students have also had their visas restored, although the government indicated that it was creating a new system to review and terminate student visas.

At the University of North Texas, 28 international students had their visas restored on Tuesday, while Rutgers students also had their visas restored this week.

Judges in numerous juridsictions had temporarily restored student record amid lawsuits challenging the decision by Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Program (SEVIS) withdrawals.

District Judge Ana Reyes in the District of Columbia on Tuesday called the withdrawals “arbitrary and capricious” and suggested that the terminations “showed a lack of concern for human individuals,” according to ABC News.

In their joint email, Stony Brook officials expressed appreciation for the community support for these students.

“Stony Brook is deeply enriched by the perspectives and contributions of our global community, and we are proud to learn, teach and conduct research alongside exceptional international students and scholars,” the officials wrote in their email.

The reversal comes as litigation against the federal government mounts, with student arguing that the revocations were unconstitutional.

After Stony Brook University announced the visas had originally been removed, students gathered to express their support for the students affected and to urge the university to help defend against deportation and the loss of any work study efforts.

Stony Brook officials indicated that students had continued with their academic pursuits amid the shifting visa process.

“We are not aware of students missing classes as a result of their status being revoked,” Lejuez explained in a written message, “and now, with this restoration, they are able to simply continue in their studies without further distractions.”

Political support

Local politicians from both parties welcomed the administration’s decision to allow these students to continue with their educational programs.

“I am pleased that the visas of the international students at Stony Brook were restored,” County Executive Ed Romaine (R) explained in a written message. “Educating international students in the U.S. helps those around the world better understand our country and apprecaite the many good things and freedoms we enjoy.”

New York State Assemblywoman Rebecca Kassay

Democratic State Assemblywoman Rebecca Kassay, whose district includes Stony Brook, Setauket, Port Jefferson, Port Jeffferson Station, Mount Sinai and Coram, appreciated the support of the university and of the office of Sen. Charles Schumer (D).

As soon as she learned that these student visas were revoked, Kassay connected with Stony Brook University’s Associate Vice President for Government Relations Carl Mills and with Schumer’s office.

Once the students had legal representation, Schumer’s office was able to ensure that the appeals process proceeded fairly, Kassay said.

At the time, and as a part of her ongoing responsibility to the district, Kassay urged anyone with concerns to reach out to her office to “make sure you are getting the calls back” from any of the various entities involved in the process, she said.

Kassay suggested that her staff works to make sure constituents are getting service from all levels of government.

Kassay recognized that this visa issue could return for international students in the area.

“We stand at the ready to help navigate whatever might come about with issues resulting from federal executive orders or policies,” Kassay added.

To be sure, Kassay suggested that students on visas don’t have the freedom to break laws or to violate the terms of their time in the country.

“If individuals are found to have a criminal background, or to have cause for removal from our country and that is proven by due process, then so be it,” she said. “We all deserve due process. Now is the time to make that clear.”

Kassay suggested that she felt sympathetic to students who didn’t face any public charges and whose futures had suddenly become uncertain.

“My heart goes out to the individuals and their families,” Kassay said.

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Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

In the best of times, we have the prvilege of living with a lightness of being.

We can anticipate events, opportunities and interactions that we find satisfying or that give us pleasure, like an enjoyable meal, great company, or entertaining or rewarding activities.

In the worst of times, sunlight can seem unbearably harsh to our eyes, the smiles and laughter of other people can feel like they are mocking our misfortune, leaving us isolated, alone and untethered.

Recently, tragedy struck a family we know well, as a member of the family in his 20’s died unexpectedly.

The ripples of that loss spread quickly, affecting everyone who had the privlege of knowing that person far too briefly and who had shared blissful moments without realizing how transient they were. That included siblings who learned of his death while away at college.

The loss had echoes with my own life, as I received a call from my family in my sophomore year. When I returned to my room after studying for a physics midterm, my roommate told me to call home regardless of the time.

My fingers twitched as I dialed the phone. My father had died.

While the memory of the oxygen-sucking reality of that moment has stayed with me decades later, I recognize that my father, who died earlier than the parents of almost all of my friends, lived much longer than this young person who was preparing to graduate from college.

So many moments after that loss and the discomfort it created have stayed with me over the years, even as time has allowed me to focus more on the memories and experiences I had rather than on the agony of what I’d lost.

I remember looking at the happy, worried, excited and normal faces of people in dining halls as I grappled with the reality of a present and future without the possibility of interacting with my father.

Soon after his death, people who knew me or were in the broader circle of friends, gave me “the look.” Some of them said they were so sorry and told me how unfair it all was. Not knowing what to say or how to act, others walked in the other direction or turned around when they saw me. Of course, some of that likely had nothing to do with me, as they might have forgotten a paper they printed out on their desk or realized that it was too cold to walk outside without a heavier jacket.

Even mundane activities seemed to raise questions. Should I shave, should I take a walk or a run, how much did I really care about succeeding on a test, or taking any of the next steps in what felt like an unfamiliar life?

Even the few times I managed to smile in the days after his death, I felt guilty. Was I allowed to be happy so soon after his death?

In those awful first few weeks of pain and numbness, friends who took me to lunch, listened or stayed by my side while I stared out a window provided some measure of comfort and connection.

The shocking relief I felt at meeting someone new, who didn’t know my story and wasn’t still giving me “the look,” was extraordinary.

New people weren’t sorry and didn’t know or see the cloud that rained grief and dumped freezing rain over my head regularly.

Time helped, but so did unexpected moments of escape from the loss, a sense of purpose that came from knowing how my father would have wanted me to live, and an awareness that everyone isn’t living their happily ever after all the time.

Other people are persevering through their challenges, losses, and difficulties. My loss and grief weren’t any less real, but they also weren’t so exclusive or blatanlty unfair.

While I still feel the loss of all the things that would have given my father joy, like meeting my wife or making his grandchildren laugh or  the way he made me smile even when I was marinating in my moody teenager phase, I know that I and so many others, including our family friends, are not alone in living our fractured fairy tales.

The days ahead for the family will undoubtedly include difficulties. People who know them can help by checking in and offering ongoing support. At some point hopefully before too long, they may find themselves smiling. They may realize that they are not forgetting or being disrespectful, but they are allowing themselves to breathe in a moment of sunshine, which they can share, in their own way, with the memory of their loved ones.

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James Wishart at the Laser Electron Accelerator Facility. Photo by Roger Stoutenburgh/Brookhaven National Laboratory

By Daniel Dunaief

Leave a bicycle out in the rain for a few weeks and the metal gears and chain will develop rust that reduces the value and usefulness of that once shiny vehicle.

Now, imagine what the inside of a nuclear reactor looks like after high temperatures and ionizing radiation collide with everything they hit.

Chemists at Brookhaven National Laboratory, working with their partners at Idaho National Laboratory, recently showed how reactors cooled by molten salts had less corrosion in the reactor metals.

Molten salt cooled reactors are “intrinsically safe,” said James Wishart, Distinguished Chemist at BNL and director of the Molten Salts in Extreme Environments Energy Frontier Research Center. “They are already molten so they can’t melt down.”

The advantages of molten salt reactors are evident in their safety and their economics. These reactors are also better for the environment and for non proliferation of nuclear material. 

That is in contrast to what happened in 2011 after a tsunami hit the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, which had a meltdown at three of the plant’s reactors.

Fukushima lost the ability to cool the reactors because the tsunami knocked out the generators. A water reactor type meltdown can’t occur with a molten salt reactor because the fuel is already liquid and the reactor materials contain it in that state.

Chromium studies

In recent research published in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Wishart and his collaborators described the radiation-induced reactors of two ions of chromium, chromium 2+ and chromium 3+.

“Chromium is frequently the easiest metal to corrode from an alloy,” Wishart explained.

When chromium has a positive charge of three, it could be particularly problematic for the structural integrity and performance of the reactor. Chromium with a positive charge of two, on the other hand, may not be as problematic or corrosive to the nuclear reactor materials. Molten salts, which have negative ions of chlorine, can reduce chromium to the less reactive version.

By using the Laser Electron Accelerator Facility (LEAF) and the two-million electron volt Van de Graaff accelerator, Wishart tested the rate and temperature dependencies of reactions of the two chromium ions with reactive species generated by radiation in molten salt.

The solvated electrons and dichloride radicals, both of which have a negative charge, change the oxidation state of chromium to the less corrosive Cr 2+.

Commercial applications

Molten salt reactor research started in the late 1940’s.

In 1972, the Atomic Energy Commission expressed reservations about some technology issues and suggested that the engineering development of large components, a better understanding of the behavior of fission products and adequate remote inspection and maintenance techniques would be needed before molten salt reactors would be suitable for development.

The molten salt reactors were also not high enough on the development priority ranking of the government to have assurance of the required sustained resource allocation, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency Report on the Status of Molten Salt Reactor Technology.

Currently, however, at least a dozen companies are working on generators cooled by molten salts, with some involving chloride and others using fluoride.

Texas Abilene Christian University is building one such reactor, which would be the first university-based molten salt research reactor. The interest in these types of reactors has been growing around the world.

“We are providing information to help [people working in applied areas] understand the chemical transformations that molten salt fuel will undergo due to radiation inside the reactor,” said Wishart.

Several companies, including Thorcon Power and Seaborg Technologies, are also working on designs that can be built into modular forms and shipped by barge wherever power is needed.

In addition to reducing the threat from a melt down, these molten salt reactors also operate at relatively low vapor pressures, which is a “huge benefit in safety and in engineering,” Wishart added.

Molten salts have much lower vapor pressures than water because they are held together by very strong Coulombic forces, which come from the attraction of oppositely-charged ions.

Next studies

While the molten salt reactors favor the creation of a less problematic ionization state of chromium, they also produce other side reactions.

“With time and the large amount of radiation within the reactor, side reactions can lead to permanent products,” Wishart explained.

Studies of molten salt corrosion show a correlation between the presence and quantity of air and water and the rate of corrosion. Salts with low water and air contamination show little corrosion.

Wishart is now looking at more complex salt mixtures than the first series of experiments. Different cations, or positively charged ions, affect the reactivity of solvated electrons. He is investigating how that might divert the electron into side reactions that lead to the accumulation of permanent products.

Ground floor

Wishart was responsible for the construction of LEAF and for its operation for most of its 26-year history. When he and his colleagues were building the facility, he was eager to test out the facility’s ability to follow reactions on fast time scales, at about 10 picoseconds. A picosecond is such a small unit of time that an eye blink, which lasts about 0.1 seconds, is about 100 million picoseconds, so it records reactions rapid reactions.

Wishart was pleasantly surprised by all the scientific questions LEAF could address.

“I only started working on ionic liquids three years after LEAF was completed, so we could not anticipate how LEAF would enable that science to grow and then see it translate into molten salts,” he explained.

Wishart has published 76 papers on the radiation chemistry and/or physical chemistry since he started working on them in 2001.

Originally from the Detroit area, he returns periodically to spend time with family.

Wishart’s interest in chemistry began when he was a photographer for the high school yearbook, which, at the time, was printed in black and white. He made prints using traditional silver-based emulsions and was interested in the chemistry that caused the images to form under development.

When he was a PhD student at Stanford, Wishart mainly studied the chemistry of ruthenium, which is a second-row transition metal in the same family as iron. He found ruthenium satisfying to work with because scientists can watch the colors change to indicate when a reaction is done.

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Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Words pour out of our mouths like different kinds of liquids.

Sometimes, those words can offer necessary relief from white hot anger, agony or discomfort, serving as a cooling salve, bringing a smile to our miserable faces and turning, as the cliche would suggest, a frown upside down.

Other times, the words people choose to share can exacerbate an already inflamed state, serving as lighter fluid, threatening to turn us from a mild shade of pink into a deep red.

Words can also become an avalanche, forcing us to look elsewhere as a nonstop collection of words, phrase or ideas threatens to bury us beneath their verbal weight. Desperate to get away, we might hope the speaker gets distracted by a flying turtle.

A diatribe, lesson or self-aggrandizing soliloquy can be exhausting and irritating.

But, it’s not just the words and their effect that are so familiar in conversations.

No, you see, it’s the facial expressions. Many people have a remarkable ability to run the gamut of human emotions and thoughts without saying a word. A tightening of the skin around their eyes, a slight narrowing of the lids, a crooked smile, or a baring of teeth, which is probably the least subtle of the facial reactions, can reveal something about our inner state or disclose how we’re feeling about the world around us or, more precisely, the person in front of us.

To varying degrees, actors and actresses have mastered the art of using their often photogenic, compelling, or sympathetic faces to tell stories and, perhaps, to reveal the inner conflict we know they are feeling when, say, their sister asks them to be a bridesmaid when she’s planning to marry a person the actress has loved for years. Yes, that was a mildly amusing movie and yes, you probably know it.

The rest of us mere facial mortals, however, may not be as capable of altering our features to reflect the wide range of emotions we might reveal in response to the way we feel behind the masks we try to wear.

When I lived in Manhattan, I thoroughly enjoyed people watching. It’s a form of endless entertainment. Leaning on the railing at Rockefeller Center in mid December years ago, I watched an elderly couple gliding around the rink together, holding hands and glancing contentedly at each other, clearly enjoying the moment. With gloved fingers interlaced, they synchronized their legs as well as any pairs figure skaters might.

While I imagined that they had been together for decades and that they might have gone to an ice skating rink on an early date, they also could have been together for a couple of months or, perhaps, gotten married a year earlier.

Either way, their faces, which I can still picture decades later, revealed a keen and profound satisfaction.

Some people undoubtedly have mastered the art of the poker face, appearing interested or attentive when they are thinking about where to eat dinner later that night, what laundry they need to take to the dry cleaner, or when to sell a stock that’s been teetering with all the others amidst concerns about corporate profits and a potential slowdown in the economy.

Others, however, can reveal the equivalent of an SOS call, with a slight turn of their neck, widening eyes, and a faint but noticeable grimace around their pained mouths.

When we get to know family or friends well, we can read their expressions or hear the flat tone in their voices, knowing that the word “interesting,” or “you don’t say,” really means, “please stop talking. I’ll pay you to stop talking. In fact, here is a set of fake plastic ears that look like mine. Chew on them and, when you’re done, please recycle what’s left over.”

Sometimes, when I know someone well enough, I’ll watch their faces as they listen to a perspective that irritates them, a joke they don’t find remotely amusing, or a comment they don’t appreciate and I’ll recognize the unspoken but deeply held thoughts etched in their faces.

With all the finely tuned muscles in our faces and our ability to raise or lower our eyebrows, we can send signals that the attentive listener or others can read like a subtle or, perhaps more obvious, signal.

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Symptoms can range from dizziness and lightheadedness on standing to an inability to get out of bed.

These symptoms, which are characteristic of several medical conditions, are at the heart of a condition called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.

Affecting considerably more women than men, POTS, which is caused by a sudden and sometimes dramatic increase in heart rate when people stand, can be anything from a nuisance to a debilitating condition.

On Saturday, April 26, at 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., several doctors, working with Dysautnomia International, will present information at a continuing medical education course at the MART auditorium at Stony Brook University about POTS, which people can also attend virtually. Details and registration can be found below. This course is designed for medical professionals, but patients and caregivers are welcome to register too.

The condition is triggered by a problem with the autonomic nervous system, which controls heart rate, blood pressure, digestion and temperature regulation among other functions.

“I’ve had patients who were previously athletes who can’t exercise anymore,” said Dr. Jeffrey Boris, a pediatric cardiologist with a private practice, an expert in POTS, and one of the speakers at the course at Stony Brook. 

In a previous study Boris conducted, he found that two out of three of his POTS patients had at least 10 symptoms, while half of them had at least 14 symptoms and 30 percent had at least 26 symptoms.

“The degree of debility can vary from some exercise intolerance to pretty much unable to get out of bed,” said Boris, who sees patients exclusively through telehealth and who is licensed to practice medicine in 18 states, not including New York.

An estimated one to three million Americans had some form of POTS before Covid. That number has increased to as many as six million.

Often triggered by an infection like the Epstein Barr virus, which causes mononucleosis, by Lyme Disease or even by concussions, POTS has no specific standard of care, as doctors have used a variety of pharmacological and non pharmacological treatments to help people suffering with these symptoms.

Some studies suggest that genetics plays a role in contributing to the disease.

Several high profile women have shared their battles with POTS, including Olympic gold-medal swimmer Katie Ledecky and Tori Moore, the wife of Super Bowl winning quarterback Nick Foles. Some doctors recommend swimming to POTS patients.

Medical education

The health care field hasn’t focused as much on POTS as it does on other diseases or conditions.

Doctors don’t always recognize POTS because they never learned about it in school, don’t believe it exists or didn’t train for this in their specialty work, Boris said.

The combination of these factors makes it harder for patients to receive a diagnosis.

Additionally, several other conditions have similar symptoms, including thyroid disease, low vitamin D, low iron and Addison’s Disease, among others.

The average patient takes four years to get an accurate diagnosis, according to Lauren Stiles, founder and president of Dysautonomia International (DI) and Research Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. Stiles is the course co-chair for the POTS.

Indeed, Jennifer Samghabadi, who works as a registered nurse for neurologist Dr. Mark Gudesblatt, had symptoms of POTS as early as 2004, but didn’t receive a diagnosis until after her symptoms worsened in 2012 following a bout with swine flu.

POTS “is often misdiagnosed,” said Samghabadi, who is a resident of Port Jefferson Station. “Symptoms mimic so many other things. Your autonomic nervous system is misfiring in every which way.”

Stiles, who founded DI in 2012 and has created support groups in over 80 countries for people who suffer from this condition, has been working with medical schools around the country to create more training for doctors.

Patients are typically treated through a combination of pharmacological and non pharmacological approaches. The medicines they have used, including ivabradine, have been approved for the treatment of other conditions and are used in an off-label basis.

Boris is planning to talk to doctors about various types of treatments he’s used that work.

“I can’t routinely predict what therapies are going to help,” Boris said. “It’s really variable from patient to patient. It can be a lot of trial and error.”

Non-pharmacological treatments include elevating the head of the bed frame about six to eight inches. That can cause the kidneys to hold onto salt and water, which can lesson symptoms, Boris explained.

Additionally, doctors recommend a high salt, high liquid diet, which can include three liters or more of water each day.

Boris has had some success working with abdominal binders, which he has found are more effective than compression stockings.

To be sure, some patients have gastrointestinal issues, including nausea, bloating and constipation. For those patients, as well as people who have autism spectrum disorder, abdominal pressure won’t likely provide any relief and may make some symptoms or discomfort worse.

In the talk Boris is giving, he would like doctors to recognize that the disease exists, it’s validated and it’s something that, if health care professionals are creative and thoughtful, they can find possible treatment options for patients who are often suffering through different levels of symptoms.

At this point, federal funding for research into POTS stands at about $4 million per year, which is up from $2 million per year before Covid, but is still short of what doctors and advocates would like to see for a potentially debilitating disease.

Boris hopes that further research will provide a better idea of what is leading to POTS, which may lead to a Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment.

People who wants to learn more about the condition can visit the web site CurePOTS.org. Dysautonomia International offers a list of doctors skilled in diagnosing and treating POTS as well as other autonomic disorders.

Samghabadi, who is on the board of DI, urged medical care professionals to attend the course.

“It’s going to teach you everything you need,” she said. “It’s practical, evidence-based strategies for diagnosing and treating dysautonomia and is immediately applicable to patients.”

Even doctors who don’t think they can treat these patients should be aware of it so they know where to send patients, she suggested.

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DETAILS AND REGISTRATION: 

Dysautonomia International and Stony Brook University School of Medicine invite you to join us for a Continuing Medical Education course, Updates in Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome Clinical Care & Research, on Saturday, April 26, 2025, 9am-4pm ET, held at the Stony Brook University MART Auditorium.

A networking reception with light refreshments will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. after the course.
Advanced registration is required. Up to 5.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ are available for online or in person CME registrants. Please see the event website for details on CME credits. The lectures will be recorded and made available to all registered guests after the live event. CME credit is only available by watching the live broadcast or attending in person.
In Person Registration Fees:
Stony Brook University Students, Faculty & Staff (with CME credit): FREE
Community Physicians (with CME credit): $100
RN, PT, OT, Allied Health: (with CME credit): $75
Patients & Caregivers/Public (no CME credit): $25
Livestream Registration Fees:
Stony Brook University Students, Faculty & Staff (with CME credit): FREE
Livestream with CME credit: $100
Livestream with no CME credit: $25
If you are unable to attend in person or watch the livestream, but would like access to the recorded lectures, you can register for the “Livestream with no CME credit” option.

Online and in person registration options are available at bit.ly/StonyBrookCME

 

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Scully competing at a state meet. Photo courtesy of Despina Scully

By Daniel Dunaief

Fresh off setting a county record in the shot put in the winter, Miller Place High School track star Jillian Scully has her sights set on setting a new state record in shot put and another track and field event this spring.

A high school senior, Scully is determined to etch her name into the record books in the discus as well.

Jillian Scully, center, at the 2025 State Championships

“I’m 100 percent confident I’m going to crush” the record in the discus, said Scully, who has suggested that the 2.2 pound discus has been flying out of her hand.

The current state record is 172 feet, while her personal best, which she threw last year, is 159 feet 8 inches.

“She has got enormous potential, which is why so many world class athletes are chasing her,” said Bill Hiney, the Assistant Track and Field Coach during the winter and spring seasons for Southold High School and Scully’s personal coach. Scully took a standing throw that traveled over 120 feet. Scully has also thrown the discus 150 feet against the wind and without warming up properly, Hiney said.

College coaches at several programs reached out to Scully to recruit her to their schools, hoping she could bring her athletic talents to their programs.

“We told her it was her decision” about which college to attend, said Jillian’s father James Scully, who owns and runs the construction company JFS Contracting. His daughter responded that she’d ask them if she needed their help.

As it turned out, she made the decision on her own, selecting Louisiana State University.

“I walked on campus and I said, ‘This is for me,’” said the six-foot, one-inch athlete. She should be able to throw discus and shot put outside year round. Scully would also like to explore competing in the weight throw and the javelin.

“When I go to LSU, I want to try it all,” said Scully.

Scully’s father believes the weather will work to her advantage in Louisiana.

“She practices in the rain and will be out throwing when it’s windy and cold,” he said.

Scully is intrigued by the range of foods available in the Pelican state.

During one of her visits, she enjoyed fried alligator with rices.

“It tastes like chicken,” she laughed.

Academic interests

Scully doesn’t just want to finish strong athletically: she also would like to have a successful final showing academically.

“I want to make sure I hit honor role for the third and fourth quarter,” she said. 

As for her academic interests in college, she plans to study engineering and, in particular, is interested in biomedical engineering.

Scully could see herself as a Paralympic track coach one day.

She recalled watching a video of a world championship event in which a Paralympic athlete was preparing to compete. The athlete struggled with a prosthesis that was causing a problem.

“Not a single person there could help him,” Scully said. “He missed out on competing.”

She recalled telling herself that she’d like to be there to help, particularly after knowing how hard every athlete trains.

“I couldn’t imagine how that felt for him,” Scully said.

California dreaming

As for her own athletic performance, Scully would like to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in the discus.

Hiney recognizes that athletes with Scully’s build and determination don’t come along too often.

“You don’t regularly get to train” athletes who have Scully’s strength and frame, he said.

“Ambition is not in short supply,” Scully’s father James added. “She’s motivated and she loves setting goals for herself.”

Scully believes his daughter can accomplish anything she decides to try.

He and his wife Despina “Debbie” Scully have gone to their daughter’s competitions during her high school years and are looking forward to traveling to some of the competitions in Louisiana as well.

As for their expectations, Scully believes they align with their daughter’s.

When she reaches her goals, he said, “Is it surprising? Yes. Is it exciting? Yes. Are we shocked by the fact that she broke a record? No.”

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An aerial view of the Village of Port Jefferson. Photo courtesy of Port Jefferson School District

By Daniel Dunaief

Benjamin Batter, a 10th grader at Earl L. Vandermeulen High School, noticed a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con near the side of the road.

Rather than keep going, he took it apart, cleaned it, fixed the battery and got it to work.

Earl L. Vandermeulen High School

His decision reflects the kinds of actions the Port Jefferson school district is taking as it embraces evolving technology in a host of contexts, providing new classes such as Esports as well as clubs, STEAM and drone camps.

US News and World Reports ranked Earl L. Vandermeulen High School as one of the best STEM schools in the nation, encouraging administrators and the Board of Education to continue to invest “energy and financial resources to build in this area,” said Robert Neidig, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in the Port Jefferson school district.

Indeed, Port Jefferson built a computer science center in the high school that opened before the start of the academic year and wanted to capitalize on additional opportunities.

This summer, the middle school and high school are partnering up with Inspirit AI in a two-week artificial intelligence boot camp taught by graduate students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and others that offers personalized teaching.

“We’re providing the venue while the professors come and teach and work with our students in terms of projects they can create and build under their leadership,” said Neidig. “It’s something I’m very excited about [as the school gets] some of the best and brightest minds to wet their palate.”

Summer projects with Inspirit AI for a middle school and high school class, which will start out with 10 to 12 students each, will deploy coding and AI skills to accomplish different tasks, such as efforts to improve the environment or enhance medical services.

Drone and STEAM camps

All year round, the school district offers STEAM and drone camps.

While rooted in the world of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math, Port Jefferson schools envision using these technology-driven skills sets in other arenas.

Robert Farenga, center, with two of his students.

“In coding for social studies or science” students apply the same computer science skills in various contexts, Neidig said.

Drones, meanwhile, have provided an outlet for students interested in photography, videography and other applications.

Sixth-grader Jonathan Kogan appreciates the opportunity to work with others in the drone camp. He feels as if the drones expand his horizons.

“I like flying the drones and taking pictures and videos,” said Kogan. When he’s operating something in the air it “feels like you’re flying as well.”

When the school was considering the purchase of new tables in the cafeteria, Batter took overhead photos with a drone. The Board of Education considered those photos when choosing what kinds of new tables to buy.

Drones can help in other contexts. In Rwanda and Madagascar, officials fly medicines by drones to populations that might otherwise be difficult to reach with other transportation.

As for the safety of the drones, Port Jefferson has educated the middle and high school students on altitude limits.

“Education is paramount in all these endeavors,” said Neidig. “Before drones go up, [students] are looking at the rules for flights” which vary depending on the area. “We have the ability to understand what the flight rules are in Port Jefferson.”

Robert Farenga, a high school and middle school teacher who runs the STEAM and drone camps and teaches esports, is planning on collecting student images from the drones in areas of the town and the school and putting up pictures around the school and in his classroom.

Farenga has discussed the use of drones in real estate, entertainment, the party business, and advertising.

“A person who is trained in using drones and knowing how to edit that film or photography can create a lucrative business,” he said.

Esports

Drone photo taken by students attending the Port Jefferson School District’s drone camp. Photo courtesy the Port Jefferson School District

In the two sixth-grade Esports classes that started this year, students have had the opportunity to play games and learn about the business.

Farenga, who also runs the STEAM and drone camps, suggested the business is “one of the fastest growing sports industries around.”

Farenga teaches a mixture of high school students grades about programming, announcing of games, management, marketing and other aspects of the business.

In a class they take for academic credit, students learn about job opportunities while they also discuss social and emotional learning through gaming.

Students don’t take formal quizzes or tests, earning grades based on their participation and projects.

Eventually, Farenga would like to add virtual reality goggles, which allow drone fliers to see through the lens as the drone is flying.

He would also like bring in guest lecturers who can share their experiences and background.

Artificial Intelligence

Port Jefferson schools are encouraging teachers to embrace educational opportunities through artificial intelligence.

Screenshot

Eva Grasso, the middle school/ high school library media specialist, is dispersing information to the staff and works with the middle school computer science students and engages them in critical thinking and problem solving activities.

AI is “insanely cool and super provocative in its potential for education in lots of fields,” said Grasso. At the same time, it could “have detrimental effects on society.”

Grasso sends out weekly tips to the middle and high schools that are meant to provide ways to learn more.

She has also worked with sixth graders in a range of subjects from algebra to language.

Even with AI, students are “finding their way back to those core skills that students 100 years ago and 100 years from now will need: can you collaborate, can you work well with others and can you recognize that frustration at not knowing something, which is not just a part of the process, but is an essential part of the process,” Grasso said

As educators, Grasso urges schools to teach students how to use AI responsibly.

In addition to Inspirit AI, Port Jefferson is also planning to offer a high school cybersecurity class this fall.

“We’re moving into this technology and offering these” options as a way to prepare students for the next steps in their lives, Farenga said.

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Jeremy Borniger with Cecilia Pazzi, a student from the cancer neuroscience course. Photo courtesy of CSHL

By Daniel Dunaief

People battling cancer can sometimes live long after they and their doctors first start treating the disease. Even if and when their types of cancer don’t continue to threaten their lives in the same way, they can struggle with symptoms such as chronic fatigue, pain, and difficulty sleeping.

These ongoing symptoms, however, could be a remnant of the way the nervous system and cancer interact, as well as a byproduct of the treatment.

Cancer neuroscience uses “tools from both neuroscience and cancer to fundamentally understand how cancer influences the functioning on the nervous system” and how the nervous system can be used to affect cancer, explained Jeremy Borniger, Assistant Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Indeed, the field of cancer neuroscience, which extends beyond the study and treatment of brain cancer, has been growing over the last six years, after researchers made important discoveries that suggest the possible role and target for treatment of neurons.

A group of student during one of the lab sessions. Photo courtesy of CSHL

To encourage cancer scientists to learn more about the principles and techniques of neuroscience and to bring neuroscientists up to speed with cancer research, Borniger and three other scientists coordinated the first two-week Methods in Cancer Neuroscience course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory last month.

Attended by 14 researchers from domestic and international institutions, the days often started early in the morning and lasted past 10 p.m. The course included lectures about the basic science as well as considerable lab work.

Course attendees, most of whom had a background in cancer biology but little background in neuroscience, appreciated the opportunity to learn from the lecturers and to build their networks.

“We were introduced to a wide variety of techniques from the leading experts in the field and got to listen to insightful lectures from the invited speakers,” said Irem Uppman, a graduate student at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Uppman was grateful for the opportunity to meet her fellow students and hopes to stay in touch throughout their careers.

“It was also very exciting to meet all the instructors and lecturers,” Uppman said. “The small size of the course allowed us to interact more intimately which is something we often can’t do in the setting of big conferences.”

Uppman, who has been a PhD candidate for three years and hopes to graduate in the next two years, is a tumor biologist by background and hopes to incorporate more cancer neuroscience in her future work.

Course origins

During another conference, Borniger recalled how a group of cancer neuroscientists were discussing the field. One of the speakers suggested the need for a workshop where students could learn techniques from both of these disciplines.

“I raised my hand and said, “Cold Spring Harbor does this all the time,” Borniger said.

The leadership at the lab, including CEO Bruce Stillman, were excited about the possibility and encouraged Borniger to help coordinate the course. After the lab publicized the conference, 67 prospective students submitted applications. The organizers had several marathon zoom sessions to review the applicants.

“We wanted a good spread of earlier career and later career students,” said Borniger.

It would have been possible to fill the course with students conducting research on brain cancer exclusively, but the organizers wanted a broader scientific representation.

Neurons and cancer

As electrically active tissue, neurons play important roles in healthy biology as well as with cancer.

“It’s not just another cell type in the tumor environment,” Borniger explained, adding that nerve cells connect tumors with the central nervous system, which governs all conscious and unconscious systems.

Historically, cancer neuroscience has had two major moments that helped push the field into the mainstream of scientific research.

In a couple of papers between 2010 to 2013, before anyone started using the term “cancer neuroscience,” scientists showed that getting rid of localized sympathetic nerves, which include the kinds of nerves that control the heart rate and blood pressure, can cause breast cancer and prostate cancers to stop growing. 

“Everyone assumed the nerves don’t really do anything,” Borniger said. They are “little tiny projections in the tumor. A lot of cancer biologists ignored it” in part because of a paper in the 1960’s that suggested tumor cells were not electrically coupled together. Scientists believed, prematurely and inaccurately, that electrochemical signaling didn’t play a role in cancer. 

Then, in 2019, three papers came out around the same time that demonstrated that tumors in the brain can form connections with neurons like normal neurons do. These cancerous cells can integrate with circuits and communicate with each other.

“The level of integration that these cancer cells have with your brain dictates how bad the cancer is,” Borniger said. “If you disconnect the cancer cells from the neurons in your brain, you can make cancer much easier to treat.”

Researchers and pharmaceutical companies are looking for ways to use drugs to slow or stop the cancers.

Some research efforts are trying to block the gap junctions which dramatically reduces the number of cancer cells that receive input.

In breast to brain cancer, scientists are looking to target NMDA receptors, while in brain cancer, they’re targeting AMPA receptors.

Researchers are hoping to repurpose drugs approved for other conditions, such as bipolar disorder or epilepsy.

Origin story

When Borniger was in graduate school at Ohio State University, he was interested in sleep and how sleep works. He had the opportunity to attend several lectures and talks to gather information and pursue research that interested him.

In one meeting, which he said he might have attended to get free food, oncology nurses were talking about the subjective experience of cancer patients. At the end of the talk, they shared a summary slide of the top complaints, which included fatigue, pain, sleep disruption, cognitive impairment and changes in appetite.

Borniger thought these were all neuroscience problems.

He immediately looked online to see if anyone had seen how a tumor influences these neurological processes.

When he tested to see if breast cancer could influence brain activity and lead to sleep disruption, what he found convinced him it was a research field worth pursuing.

“The signal that comes from the tumor can reprogram your brain,” he said. “How does that work? That got me into the field.”

When he got the job at CSHL in 2019, Borniger attended a Banbury conference where the top people in the developing field gathered. He’s also interested in the opportunity to contribute to a new field.

“There’s not 30 years of dogma that we’re going to have to break down,” Borniger said. “We’re inventing the foundation as we go.”

Borniger is hoping to continue to expand the field to newer people, including those who work in neurodevelopment, bioinformatics and behavioral science. 

The tide is turning towards cancer neuroscience, Borniger believes. Years ago, cancer biologists would say, “Who cares about sleep? We’re driving to cure the cancer!” Now, with help from patient advocates, Borniger explained, clinicians are starting to realize the subjective health of the patient can have “immense impact” on their prognosis.

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Their names fly by after the final scene amid music that often recapitulates what we’ve just heard in a movie theater or at home during a streaming film. 

In fact, oftentimes, the streaming services will suggest the next film before the credits role, giving us the option to move effortlessly from one movie to the next without pausing to allow the movie to resonate or to squint at the names during the credits.

Every industry is filled with the invisibles. These are the people who make stuff happen, but who are not at the center of an effort.

Take dining out. We see the maitre d’, the waiter or waitress and we might even acknowledge the cook or the sushi chef. But, really, numerous invisibles are a part of the food process, from the fishermen who woke up before sunlight to catch the fresh fish we’re considering eating to the farmer who planted and harvested the vegetables to the truck drivers who ship these products all over the state and the country.

We are often a part of a bigger industry that relies on the services of others, many of whom we don’t know or see but who contribute to our lives.

Products like pharmaceuticals rely on numerous contributions. Patients take a drug during its clinical trials, tended to by doctors and nurses, while scientists may have discovered a potential target for an illness or a disease and then searched for a small molecule that might change our fates or improve our condition.

The invisibles also glide by the way homes and the tops of trees pass as a part of a blurry landscape when we’re riding the Long Island Railroad.

We walk by people as we navigate a crowded sidewalk towards a Broadway show or on our way to an important appointment in the city.

We sit at a traffic light to turn left, waiting for the cars we can see, but not necessarily the people in them, to pass us so we can get to our destination.

When children are young, they see and observe everyone. As my wife and I used to say, “the recorder is always on,” whether someone is lecturing about what children should know or do or is setting an example or, as the case may be, a counter example.

I was on a plane recently when a mother holding a baby in front of her stopped to wait for others to put away their luggage. Unconcerned about social convention, the young child stared at my wife and me, then shifted his eyes and looked directly at the people in the row across the aisle.

The mother continued to look straight, anticipating the moment when she could continue past us on her way to her seat.

Social convention keeps us from looking directly at people for too long. We don’t want to make them uncomfortable and, sometimes, we also don’t want to encourage everyone to engage in conversation with us.

As we pass through various grades, we become selective about our friends, no longer feeling the need to invite everyone in class to birthday parties.

When we’re older, we attend larger gatherings and we greet everyone. Well, no, not exactly everyone. We may not spend much time chatting with the busy waitress, getting to know members of the other family at a wedding, or connecting with the Uber driver who took us to the catering hall.

We don’t need to acknowledge everyone all the time. That would be impossible. Some people also enjoy the freedom a cloak of invisibility provides. Some of my favorite parties, in fact, were those where so few people knew me that I had no social responsibilities or obligations, allowing me to dance with arms flailing and shoulders shimmying with a relaxed grin pasted across my sweaty face.

And yet, there are those times, when someone is sitting alone or is taking another long drive, when a few words might provide the kind of connection that helps them feel seen.

To return to the movie example, we sometimes watch characters who are otherwise ignored or written off who become central to other people’s lives. Those people may be waiting for an opening or an acknowledgement or for the opportunity to feel our recognition and appreciation. We can be moved by people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago, but we can also move with those who share time and space with us today.

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Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine presenting the State of the County address. Photo taken from the livestream of the event

By Daniel Dunaief

After four upgrades from bond rating agencies and a comprehensive effort to work together with the legislature, County Executive Ed Romaine (R) believes Suffolk is doing well.

That, however, doesn’t limit opportunities for improvements, particularly in areas such as sewers, water quality, highway and road safety and the opioid war.

In a wide-ranging State of the County address before the 18 members of the county legislature, Romaine began his talk by thanking the group for working well together, setting off a distinction from national and state governing bodies.

“I look at other levels of government” including Washington and Albany and “the partnership is missing there, replaced by partisanship,” Romaine said. Local governments at the level of villages, town and counties, have to “deal with the pragmatic and we have to make sure that things work.”

Indeed, since he took office 15 months ago, Romaine said he hasn’t vetoed a single resolution.

Recognizing the bigger picture challenges of an economy that could suffer amid tariff tumult, Romaine suggested that seasoned political veterans had been through tough times before, such as the pandemic in 2020, the financial market meltdown in 2008 caused by the subprime mortgage market meltdown and the stock market rout of 1987.

“We got through tough times before and we’ll get through this as a team,” Romaine said.

Romaine highlighted how the county had received four bond upgrades. In December, Moody’s Ratings upgraded the county’s debt rating to A1 from A3 due to the county’s improved financial position, sales tax growth and operational oversight, according to the Bond Buyer.

Bond rating upgrades lower the cost of the county selling debt through the public markets, as investors typically don’t require as much interest for borrowing entities that are more likely to pay back their debts. This benefits the county and taxpayers, who don’t have to pay additional interest.

Romaine reiterated that he would never pierce the tax cap, which is the state limit on how much an entity can charge in property taxes.

Additionally, Romaine plans to settle some of the outstanding lawsuits that the county has been facing since before Romaine took office.

Claw back money

On the fiscal side, Romaine suggested the previous administration, run by Steve Bellone (D), had spent about $27 million on cybersecurity.

Romaine said he’s looking to claw back money from spending that “should not have taken place,” he said.

Romaine has hired a chief information officer, who is working with Homeland Security and cybersecurity and infrastructure security agencies.

“We have someone on staff and virtual,” Romaine said, in an effort to continue to safeguard infrastructure.

As for the Department of Public Works, he is aiming to improve roads, drainage and sewage, as he suggested infrastructure was “neglected for far too long.”

Sewers are a significant challenge for the county, with 70 percent of the county having cesspools and septic tanks.

In the next three and a half years, Romaine plans to spend over $1 billion in the county on sewers.

Speaking to a representative from the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), Romaine challenged the governor to invest in the county, which he would match dollar for dollar on sewers and clean water.

Well water, which can be contaminated, is also a problem for the county.

“Imagine having to drink that water, or bathe your child in that water, or put formula in that water?” Romaine asked.

Residents need a funding source to change their source of water. Romaine plans to work with federal and state governments.

Water quality “should not be based on income,” Romaine said.

Energy

In addressing the likely energy problems created by future storms that threaten to cut off the energy supply when trees topple on power lines, Romaine indicated he’s talking with the Long Island Power Authority and PSE&G about burying their lines over many years to increase resilience.

While Romaine would like to come up with incentive programs to encourage industrial buildings, schools and other public buildings that can structurally afford it to put solar panels on their rooftops, the substations for these energy companies are “inadequate.”

“LIPA, spend the money, invest in substations,” he said. “That’s my very clear message.”

Pointing to another resource, Romaine suggested linking the extensive farm system on Long Island with schools to work to ensure that no one, particularly children, should go hungry.

Schools “can purchase farm products for school lunches,” which are more nutritious and support farmers, he said. “The synergy has to be worked out.”

To celebrate and promote aquatic farmers, Romaine said Smith Point would be the site of the first all Suffolk oyster festival in the third week in August.

Echoing a focus of Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina, Romaine focused on road safety.

“When you get on the highway, you don’t have to take your life in your hands,” said Romaine.

The County Executive launched a permanent task force to combat street racing and takeovers. The Suffolk County Police Department recently added nine patrol officers to enhance highway safety and will add more officers in the summer.

In addressing safety from one of the scourges of the island, Romaine asked the legislature to work with him to reform the opioid fund distribution review process.

He would like to get the third round of funding out by this summer. The first two rounds included worthy applicants, such as the Police Department, the Medical Examiner who buried 400 people from overdoses, the probation department, the sheriff’s department and the health and social service department which all received no funding.

These agencies need to know what they have to do to get the necessary funding to make a difference in the lives of people battling addictions to opioids.

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