CLOSE
Tags Posts tagged with "Daniel Dunaief"

Daniel Dunaief

by -
0 438
Kyle Swentowsky in front of the maize fields at CSHL’s Upland Farm preserve. Photo courtesy of CSHL

By Daniel Dunaief

Farmers typically plant the sweet corn that fills Long Islander’s table some time between late April and June, with flavorful yellow kernels ready to eat about eight weeks later.

But what if corn, which is planted and harvested on a typical annual crop schedule, were perennial? What if farmers could plant a type of corn that might have deeper roots, would become dormant in the winter and then grew back the next year?

Kyle Swentowsky, holding corn on the north fork of Long Island.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory postdoctoral researcher Kyle Swentowsky, working in the lab of  Professor Dave Jackson, is interested in the genetics of perennial grasses, which includes maize, wheat, rice, barley, sorghum and others. He uses maize as a model.

Extending the work he did as part of his PhD research at the University of Georgia, Swentowsky, who arrived at CSHL in July of 2021, is searching for the genes that cause the major differences between annual and perennial grasses.

Kelly Dawe, who was Swentowsky’s PhD advisor, described him as “passionate” “diligent” and “thoughtful.” Dawe explained that perennials have been beneficial in the farming of other crops. Perennial rice has enabled farmers to save 58.1 percent on labor costs and 49.2 percent on input costs with each regrowth cycle, Dawe explained, adding, “The rice work is much farther along, but could have a similar impact on corn.”

Aside from producing crops over several years without requiring replanting, perennial corn also has several other advantages. Perennials, which have deeper roots, can grow in soil conditions that might not be favorable for annual crops, which can help stabilize the soil and expand the range of farmable land.

Recently, people have also considered how scientists or farmers might take some of the sub-properties of perennials and apply them to annual crops without converting them to perennials. Some annuals with perennial traits might stay green for longer, which means they could continue the process of photosynthesis well after annuals typically stop.

A complex challenge

Scientists have been trying to make perennial corn for about 50 years. The perennial process is not as simple as other plant traits.

“We don’t understand all the underlying sub properties of being perennial,” Swentowsky said. “It’s very complicated and involves a lot of regions in the genome. My work aims to get at some of these sub traits and genomic loci that are involved in this process.”

In his work, Swentowsky is interested in the sub traits that the major genes control. He expects that a reliable perennial corn wouldn’t make the annual variety obsolete. Even after researchers develop an effective perennial corn, farmers may still cultivate it as an annual in some environments.

In the bigger picture, Swentowsky, like other plant researchers at CSHL and elsewhere around the world, recognizes the challenge of feeding a population that will continue to increase while climate change threatens the amount of arable land.

Plant breeders need to continue to come up with ways to increase crop yield to boost food production, he suggested. While some people have considered dedicating resources to back up plans like astro-botany — or growing crops in space — Swentowsky suggested this was challenging and urged ongoing efforts to produce more food on Earth.

Impressed with the way Matt Damon’s character in the movie The Martian farms potatoes on the Red Planet, Swentowsky suggested that such an agricultural effort would be challenging on a large scale in part because of the extreme temperature variations.

As for work on Earth, perennial corn may also remove more carbon dioxide from the air, reducing the presence of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

Swentowsky cautioned that the idea of carbon farming is still relatively new and researchers don’t know what would make a good carbon farming plant yet. At this point, his work has involved breeding and back crossing corn plants. Once he develops a better idea of what genes are involved in the perennial life cycle, he will consider taking a trans-genetic approach or use the gene editing tool Crispr to test the effects of the involved genes.

Swentowsky expects that several genetic changes may be necessary to develop a perennial plant. He and others have mapped the master regulators of perenniality to three major genes. He believes it’s likely that dozens or even hundreds of other genes scattered throughout the genome play a small role influencing perennial sub-traits.

California roots

A current resident of Long Beach, Swentowsky grew up in Sacramento, California. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of California at Santa Barbara. After six years, he was “tired of perfect weather,” he laughed. He would sweat through football games in January, when it was 80 degrees amid a cloudless sky.

As an undergraduate, he took a plant development course and appreciated the elegant way scientists tested plants. His two favorite scientists are Gregor Mendel, whose pioneering pea work led to the field of modern genetics, and Barbara McClintock, a former CSHL scientist whose Nobel Prize winning research on corn led to an understanding of transposable elements, or jumping genes in which genes change position on a chromosome. 

Outside of the lab, Swentowsky enjoys traveling, including camping and backpacking, spending time on the beach, attending reggae, alternative, classic rock, hip hop and electric concerts and going to breweries. During the winter, his favorite beers are stout and porter. In warmer weather, he imbibes sour IPA.

Swentowsky doesn’t just study corn: he also enjoys eating it. One of his favorites is elote, or Mexican street corn. He grills the corn on a barbecue, covers it with mayonnaise and cotija cheese and sprinkles lyme or chili powder on it.

Swentowsky, who is funded through the summer of 2025 at CSHL, appreciates the opportunity to contribute to work that could support future farming efforts. He hopes that studying perenniality in corn could have future applications.

by -
0 570
Photographer Steven Zaitz won second place in the Best Picture Story category for his coverage of the Town of Smithtown’s Memorial Day Parade.

By Heidi Sutton

From news articles and feature stories to photography, special supplements, ad projects and classifieds, TBR News Media  took home 11 awards from the New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest this year. The winners were announced during NYPA’s annual Spring Conference and Trade Show in Albany on March 31 and April 1.

Over 150 newspapers in New York State took part in the annual event celebrating newspaper excellence with 2,657 entries competing for 380 awards in 73 categories covering the editorial, advertising and circulation efforts of the state’s dailies and weeklies. Members of the Colorado Press Association were tasked with judging this year’s contest.

“Newspapers create a brand-new product on a daily or weekly basis, 52 weeks a year,” said New York Press Association Executive Director Michelle Rea in a press release. “They work on tight deadlines with small staffs, covering local government, breaking news, sports, business, entertainment, and more. Receiving recognition from their peers in another state is affirming and energizing. We salute them for the top quality, important work they do.”

TBR News Media’s weekly opinion piece, D. None of the Above by Daniel Dunaief, captured first place for Best Column. In reviewing the three submissions — “The complexities of plural nouns and words for animal groups,” “From Suffolk, UK, to Suffolk, NY, a family reflects on the late queen,” and “Seeing teachers through the eyes of an appreciative child” — the judge wrote, “Imaginative and compelling. Fun storytelling that makes for an easy read.”

Editor Raymond Janis won second place in the Coverage of Local Government category. Regarding his submissions of the articles “Uptown Port Jeff undergoes transformation” and “On the edge: Port Jeff Village weighs the fate of its country club,” the judge commented, “This reporter delves deep into a complicated story about a town landmark and development pressures and how a community can approach preserving a delicate area in the face of continued deterioration. Nicely written, well-sourced and clearly a story that is of deep interest to this community. This kind of coverage is the hallmark of strong local reporting.”

Janis also received an Honorable Mention in the Best News or Feature Series category for covering the Town of Brookhaven’s redistricting process.

TBR News Media was honored with second place in the Best Local Business Support Campaign category for its annual People of the Year feature which honors community members who have shared their time and talents to enhance the place they live for the benefit of all. “Nice program,” wrote the judge. “Shows involvement in the community. And involves the community.”

Managing editor Rita J. Egan received an Honorable Mention in the Best Feature Story category for her article titled “Town to move Roe Tavern back to North Country Road in East Setauket.” The judge wrote, “I like the way this combined current and historic information.”

Cartoon by Kyle Horne

The paper’s resident cartoonist Kyle Horne also received an Honorable Mention in the Best Editorial Cartoon category for an illustration related to the Town of Brookhaven’s redistricting process with the judge commenting, “I like the local angle this takes, even though it could be a cartoon drawn for any place in the country, following redistricting.”

Photographer Steven Zaitz won second place in the Best Picture Story category for his coverage of the Town of Smithtown’s Memorial Day Parade. “Good variety of parade photos. Clear photos, good composition and lots of expression!” wrote the judge.

TBR News Media’s annual supplement Harvest Times by editor Heidi Sutton received two third place awards — one for Best Special Section Cover and another for Best Special Sections/Niche Publications in Newsprint — with the judge commenting, “Love the entire fall theme, from festivals, farms to seasonal soup and pie recipes. Creative use of color. Layout is very readable.”

Art/Production Director Beth Heller Mason received an Honorable Mention for Best Small Space Ad for the design of the Pazzo Ristorante and Wood Fired Pizza ad in TBR’s Arts & Eats supplement. “The flames and brick in the background tell you that this is brick oven pizza without ever saying it in words. The ad tells me this is no ordinary pizza!” wrote the judge.

Rounding out the awards, Classifieds Director Sheila Murray won second place in the Classified Advertising category. “I like the way the designer used different line weights to separate sections. Also, the use of white space above and below the line ads makes the pages not feel so cluttered and makes it easier to read the ads. Sometimes designing in black and white can be challenging, but this layout is an example of how to do it right. This was very close between first and second places,” wrote the judge.

“I’m tremendously proud of our staff and grateful for their commitment to excellent journalism. I’m delighted that the awards represent the breadth of our talent, from writing to advertising to art,” said TBR News Media publisher Leah Dunaief. “In addition to it being our job, it is our pleasure to serve our communities.” For a full list of winners, visit nynewspapers.com/nypa.

by -
0 342
Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

I’m a happy idiot, or HI for short. I admit it. I’m even thinking of forming a club. No, it’s not a political party, and no, we’re not excluding anyone, which means that self-hating people will struggle to accept that we accept them without exception.

Whew, it feels good to get that off my chest. I know, I know. I’m supposed to find people who disagree with me, who come from a different political party, who celebrate different holidays or different religions annoying or frustrating. I’m supposed to look past those people at the ones who live and think like I do.

How do I know that? My political leaders and the pundits on TV spend a great deal of time telling me that other people are ruining my life, this country, history, religion, baseball and apple pie. Most apple pie has dairy in it anyway, and I’m allergic to dairy, not that I’m offended by dairy or anyone who eats it. I like watching people eat food with dairy, like ice cream, because I know it makes them happy, and as a charter member of the happy idiot club, I’m pleased to share vicariously in other people’s happiness.

I can’t ascribe to the endless need to bicker and find fault. It’s not who I am, and it’s not fun. Sure, people can be annoying and can say things that I find problematic or objectionable.

And, yes, I would take issue with anyone who trampled on principles I believe in or who, through word or deed, violated my sense of right or wrong or who broke the law.

As a matter of daily living, though, I don’t celebrate moments when the other side loses because I often have friends on both sides of any aisle, and I don’t believe a loss for the other side is as good, if not better, than a victory for me. 

I’m not going to revel in the schadenfreude that has come to define so much of American life, in which taunting, making faces, humiliating or name-calling makes people happy.

On a daily basis and apart from when I watch political leaders or pundits on TV, I find most people unobjectionable. When I start chatting with someone — whether that’s on the sidewalk, in the supermarket, at the gym, or at an early season baseball game — my first thought isn’t about how they might have voted for the wrong person or that they might believe in the wrong things. I don’t judge the tattoos on their arms, their piercings, or the different clothing they wear.

I listen to what they say and to how they say it and have found that they are as welcoming of me, with my untucked shirt and the endless array of sports paraphernalia I wear, as I am of them.

More often than not, they talk about something relatable, like their day, the struggle to help their children, the search for a plumber who won’t charge too much or their excitement that their daughter just got into an extraordinarily competitive college.

With our phones, we have endless ways to connect with people from all over the state, the country and the world. Our political leaders, however, would have us believe that we should make an effort to disconnect or to disrespect those whom we consider different or other.

Well, as a happy idiot, I won’t scream at you and tell you whom to hate, fear or blame. Like me, you can enjoy the comfort of friends and neighbors hoping for a better tomorrow without the screaming, shouting, insulting or hating. Being happy doesn’t keep you from succeeding or working hard: it keeps you from wasting energy being annoyed, angry, irritated or fearful. So, come, join the happy party. 

by -
0 461
Ogochukwu Enekwizu with a suite of instruments at Brookhaven National Laboratory to make and study soot-seeded clouds. Photo courtesy of BNL

By Daniel Dunaief

Combining forces to form a three-part team, they strive to understand processes that are as visually stunning and inspirational as they are complex and elusive.

Clouds, which are so important to weather and climate, are challenging to understand and predict, as numerous processes affect properties at a range of scales.

A team from Brookhaven National Laboratory has provided the atmospheric sciences community with a host of information that advances an understanding of clouds.

In the atmospheric sciences community, “we typically talk about the three legs of a stool: modeling/ theory; field measurements; and targeted laboratory studies,” explained Arthur Sedlacek, Chemist in the Environmental and Climate Science Department.

Sedlacek conducts field experiments by collecting air samples from clouds in a range of locations such as flying through wildfire plumes.

In the beginning of 2021, BNL added postdoctoral researcher Ogochukwu Enekwizu to bolster another leg of that stool. Enekwizu conducts the kind of laboratory studies that provide important feedback and data for the work of Sedlacek and cloud modelers like Nicole Riemer, Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign.

Enekwizu studies how soot aerosols from wildfires influence the lifetime and formation of clouds. She’s also investigating how soot-cloud interactions affect the absorption and scattering of light by soot particles.

Wildfires provide kindling for the climate, as fires release warming agents that contribute to increases in global temperatures which result in more wildfires. By determining how these smaller scale processes in soot affect clouds, Enekwizu can reduce the so-called error bars or level of uncertainty in the models other scientists create and that rely on the data she develops.

Enekwizu’s collaborators appreciate her contribution. As a modeler, Riemer suggested that Enekwizu’s work provided key information.

“While the microscale processes of soot restructure are incredibly complicated, [Enekwizu] was able to boil it down to a few simple parameters,” Riemer explained. “This makes it feasible to implement this process in a model like ours, which look at aerosol populations, not just a few individual particles. From there, we can come up with ways to implement this knowledge into climate models, which are still much more simplified than the model that we are developing.”

Sedlacek, who is her supervisor, suggested that Enekwizu’s work is “now on the cusp of answering important questions of how aerosols interact with clouds.” He descried her set up as “truly unique” and expects her results to inform the community about wildfire aerosol-cloud interactions and will offer guidance on other necessary field measurements.

In broader research terms, wildfires can be important for the ecosystem, as they remove decaying material, clear out underbrush, release nutrients back into the soil and aid the germination of seedlings

The increasing frequency, duration and intensity of these fires has been important to the scientific community. The general public has become increasingly aware of its importance as well, Enekwizu said.

Collaborations

Recruited to BNL by Sedlacek and Atmospheric Scientist Ernie Lewis, Enekwizu is considering collaborations with other researchers at BNL.

She has started speaking with scientists at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials about exploring soot microstructure in a planned joint collaboration with her New Jersey Institute of Technology PhD advisor Dr. Alexie Khakizov. For this effort, Enekwizu has been in discussions with Dmitri Zakharov, who is in charge of the environmental transmission electron microscope at the CFN.

She hopes to take samples and introduces forces under a controlled environment in the transmission electron microscope to see how that affects the structure of soot in fine detail.

Looking at the news with one wildfire event after another, Enekwizu feels compelled to conduct research in the lab and share data amid “a heightened sense of urgency to get this work done” and to share it with the world at large.

Scientific origins

Born in the southeastern part of Nigeria in Enugu and raised in Enugu, Lagos and Abuja, Enekwizu developed an interest in science at 13. She enjoyed classes in a range of sciences and said chemistry was her favorite.

“I knew I was not going to go into medicine because I was squeamish,” she said.

Chemical engineering fascinated her and also appeared to offer career opportunities.

During a chemical engineering internship, she worked at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation where she learned about flaring practices. It inspired her final year project on biogas as a renewable energy source and sparked her curiosity on the fate of pollutants and particulate matter that arise from legal and illegal flaring activities. 

In flaring, companies burn off excess gas to control pressure variations, increasing the safety of the operation at the expense of burning a potential resource.

When Enekwizu was at NJIT, Lewis, who is a longtime collaborator with Sedlacek, reached out to Khakizov to inquire about someone with a background in carbonaceous aerosols. After interviewing with Lewis, Sedlacek and others, Enekwizu received the job offer and began working in January of 2021.

A resident of Ridge, Enekwizu, who goes by the name “Ogo,” enjoys festivals and events around Long Island. She also appreciates the area’s ubiquitous beaches and has delighted in strawberry picking.

She hopes to explore Montauk later this spring or summer.

Mentoring

Enekwizu is passionate about mentoring students, particularly those who might be under represented in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine.

She served as a graduate student mentor for Divyjot Singh, who was an undergrad at NJIT. Enekwizu taught Singh, who had grown up in Bhopal, India and had only been in the United States for six months when they met, “how to come up with research questions, how to develop hypotheses, how to write a proposal, how to make good presentations for conferences and everything in between,” he explained in an email.

While working with her, Singh found his passion for research and decided to pursue a PhD. 

Enekwizu is also passionate about supporting young women in science. She suggested that young black girls sometimes feel intimidated by STEM classes and careers. She urges a hands on approach to teaching and hopes to be a role model.

“If young girls see people like me thrive in STEM, they’ll be encouraged not to give up,” she said. “That is a huge win, in my opinion.”

by -
0 348
METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

They’ll win some, they’ll lose some, and it’ll rain, and they’ll have to play some other day.

No, I’m not going to predict anything about the on field action this year as the “boys of summer” take the field this week for the start of the 2023 baseball season.

Instead, I’m going to make some predictions about the action in the stands. After all, the number of people and stories from the stands far exceeds the paltry size of the teams, umpires, grounds crew and everyone else involved with “The Show.” So, without further delay, here are a few predictions for the upcoming season.

Someone will walk into one of the local stadiums and be too awestruck to speak. He may have been to other games, but returning to his favorite stadium and looking at the shimmering green grass, the bright foul lines, and the oversized baseball bag will take his breath away, even if only for a moment and even if no one notices the goose flesh on his arms despite the warm temperature.

Someone will share some of their favorite lines from baseball movies, suggesting that the team is a “bunch of lollygaggers,” or that, in as deep a James Earl Jones voice as they can muster, “the one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.”

During long day games, fans, clad in T-shirts, jerseys or tank tops, will forget sunscreen and will develop a sunburn. For some, that sunburn will be a reminder of the game. For others, it might provide sore or red skin.

Debates that border on arguments will occur in every part of the stadium. Some disagreements will arise over whether the umpire made the right call, while others will reach into history. Who was the best left fielder? Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?

Fans will celebrate birthdays, waiting for that fleeting moment when their name appears on the screen with best wishes from Joe, Mo, Mary and the rest of the crew.

People will propose marriage. Most will say “yes” and will cover their mouths in astonishment. Some will storm off, throw the ring back, or yell something, leaving others to wonder whether the scene was real or staged.

Some fans will offer unconditional support for their favorite players, urging them on even after they struck out four times. Others will reserve the right to suggest that they could do better or that the player is a “bum.”

Most fans will stand in salute to veterans, as the public address announcer shares details of a person’s service and awards, and his or her family beams nearby, blinking back tears in a strong sun.

Important people will take important calls, making it tough for them to focus on the game. Some of those people will have to leave the game and go back to the office, while others will talk through a document or deal amid a series of ongoing crises.

Awestruck people will realize their fantasy and will catch a foul ball. They will raise the ball as if it were a trophy, giving the strangers around them a chance to applaud. A generous fan will likely hand a ball over to a nearby child, knowing how valuable that souvenir will be for him or her.

Fans will high-five people sitting next to them during a key moment in a big game, sharing their joy with anyone and everyone.

Someone from an earlier generation will shout “Holy Cow” when a player hits a towering home run, sending his friends into fits of laughter.

Someone will believe that the next pitch will alter the course of the game and, perhaps, that person’s world, regardless of the score and the standings. Play Ball!

by -
0 1022
1 of 6
Tim Malloy in Saudia Arabia in 1995.
Tim Malloy in Saudia Arabia in 1995.
Tim Malloy (right) with another jumper (Ness) from 2019 reenactment of Normandy.
Tim Malloy in a poppy field after Normandy jump.
Tim Malloy in Kuwait right after 9/11.
Tim Malloy fast-roping down to the roof of a building.
Tim Malloy skydiving off the coast of Long Island in the mid 1990's.

By Daniel Dunaief

Tim Malloy worked behind the scenes at highly visible military operations between 1976 and 2003. The fast twitch Malloy, who grew up in Islip and currently lives in Baiting Hollow, was frequently on high alert with his team of US Air Force Combat Pararescuemen.

Part of an elite group of soldiers with extensive and demanding training, Malloy, who retired as a Chief Master Sergeant, waited 15 miles away aboard a C-130 plane during Space Shuttle launches, prepared to jump into the water to provide assistance to astronauts in the event of an emergency.

In addition to heading into violent and dangerous storms, Malloy traveled to countries including Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq as part of the Air Force’s efforts to protect and retrieve troops.

Malloy and his fellow pararescuemen recognized the dangers of their job. “Every time you get in an airplane, you don’t know if it’s going to come back,” he said. “It’s a humbling feeling.”

A friend from childhood who Malloy convinced to become a pararescueman, David Ruvola suggested that Malloy is the kind of partner in arms other members of the military hope to find.

“When you’re dealing with life and death situations, you want the guy next to you that’s going to put his life on the line for yours,” Ruvola said. “You have to have the mindset of ‘if I lose my life trying to save my brother next to me, guess what, I’m going.’ There’s no question that [Malloy] is that kind of guy.”

Malloy and Ruvola were a part of a unit that supported efforts in Iraq.

During a firefight outside Abu Ghraib prison 20 years ago, a Humvee with several soldiers aboard rolled into a waterway. Without a moment’s hesitation, another soldier, Andrew Baddick, dove into the water to try to rescue the crew. Ruvola, who was a squadron commander during a time when Malloy was a pararescueman, were called to the scene.

The pararescue squad was the only one in the country with scuba tanks, although those tanks didn’t have any air. Ruvola filled them up in a firehouse and sent two helicopters, including Malloy to the scene.

Malloy and his team entered the dirty water, where they traveled hand over hand to find the fallen soldiers, including Baddick. “It took us quite a while, but we recovered the bodies,” Malloy said.

Emotional meeting

About a decade after recovering the soldiers, Malloy was at a camper show in Hershey Park, Pennsylvania, where about 50,000 people attended. He noticed a man wearing a gold star hat, which meant he had lost a family member during a conflict. Malloy expressed his sympathies. When the father told his story, Malloy recognized the details. “I recovered your son’s body,” Malloy told Joseph Baddick, who was Andrew’s father. “I remember the whole thing.”

At lunch that day, Malloy shared details with Baddick about his son. “He didn’t know the nuts and bolts of the whole thing,” Malloy said. “It was, by far, one of the most emotional moments for me in the military.”

Sea rescues

In addition to high profile missions or rescue attempts, Malloy experienced some challenging and high risk efforts that were part of his Air Force responsibilities.

After a Portuguese ship sank, four fisherman were in a life raft designed for three people. Malloy and another rescue man jumped from a helicopter and swam to the raft in frigid waters in the middle of November. Suffering from hypothermia, the fishermen weren’t thinking clearly and had started taking off their clothing.

The Air Force crew raised the fisherman, who had pink skin from the cold, into the helicopter. One of Malloy’s crew got into a sleeping bag with a fisherman to help raise his body heat. In the cold helicopter, the crew administered intravenous fluids they had preheated.

“As the blood was getting back into their body, they started shivering violently,” Malloy said, which was a good sign that they were starting to warm up.

In a separate incident, the appendix of a man aboard a tanker in the middle of the ocean burst. Malloy and another rescuer jumped out of a C-130 in the middle of the night and swam to the ship, where they relied on their training as emergency medical technician at a paramedic level to treat the crew member.

A life changing article

When he was young, Malloy recalled how people stood when the flag went by during Flag Day and Veteran’s Day. He enjoyed the hot dogs and soda he consumed at the American Legion after attending parades.

After he graduated from Islip High School, Malloy wasn’t sure what he’d do with his life. “I ended up reading an article in the Daily News about guys who jumped out of planes and rescued people,” he said. “I mentioned in to my mom and she said, ‘it sounds like it’s right up your alley.’”

The training was more difficult than he thought, especially because, despite being playing lacrosse, basketball and football, he wasn’t much of a swimmer. Even with the Air Force’s effort to weed out people, he didn’t believe quitting was an option.

Sounding like Richard Gere in the movie An Officer and a Gentleman, Malloy said he had “nothing to go back to.” Being surrounded by like-minded men raised Malloy’s game, making him work harder. 

His military experience “fit my personality and lifestyle and worked for me,” Malloy said. He joined the Suffolk County Police Department after he retired, where he worked until 2018. The military “taught me how to treat people,” he said. Even some of the people he arrested thanked him for how he interacted with them.

Normandy

After he retired from the police force, Malloy heard about an effort to recreate the 75th anniversary of the Allied Forces’ attack at Normandy. He signed up to jump out of an airplane. The participants had to have 15 recent jumps to qualify, which he did by jumping out of planes in Oklahoma, Florida and Texas. Wearing original combat uniforms and jumping out of a restored airplane from the invasion, Malloy, who was the only New Yorker in the anniversary jump, was on the first plane from which soldiers parachuted into a poppy field in France. French residents came up to him and thanked him for coming.

In the United States, Malloy appreciates the treatment veterans receive from most civilians.“It’s a really good feeling,” he said. “I get treated with a lot of respect.”

This column is generously sponsored by Casper Contracting Inc.
631-605-5129/631-846-1537/caspercontractinginc.com

by -
0 473
A scene from 'No Time to Die'

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Infinitives appear to be like peanut butter and jelly for me. I don’t want to add bananas, nuts or anything else between the two spreads, because peanut butter and jelly represent a taste combination that agrees with me and my digestive tract.

The combination of the word “to” and a verb belong together, without adverbs, adjectives, nouns or other parts of speech jammed between them. I want to love, to live, to eat, to sleep, to play and to laugh without any additional words attempting to clog up the ideas or to interfere with the narrative flow.

And yet, in modern prose, people increasingly chose to split infinitives, jamming words in between “to” and a verb. For me, that’s like forcing a reader to add a verbal hiccup. Maybe some English — or language arts in modern educational parlance — teacher back in my days at Ward Melville High School shared his or her dislike for split infinitives that makes me want to cringe when reading an otherwise effective sentence.

To make my point, I’d like to consider (yes, this is a column about infinitives so prepare to be amazed) how several important quotes, phrases, book and movie titles might read with a split infinitive. To begin, let’s explore Thomas Jefferson’s words from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident.” Those words would falter if he had chosen to write: “We hold these truths to fundamentally be self evident.” 

Would you like to consider Shakespeare? Hamlet’s soliloquy in which he ponders whether “to be or not to be” would fall flat if he said, “to kind of be or not to comfortably be.” That not only sounds wrong, but it loses the power of a pithy line about the nature of existence and his willingness to continue to live (yup, two in a row) in a world of treachery.

Let’s pause to consider Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Perhaps an infinitive splitter might want to add an adverb, such as “To Treacherously Kill a Mockingbird” or “To Slanderously Kill a Mockingbird.” Both options struggle to add an unnecessary word.

How about James Bond’s “License to Kill?” Would a split infinitive change that to “License to violently kill?” It’s already a Bond film, so you’re prepared to witness violence. Would you prefer to imagine “License to vengefully kill?” Would that have affected its ability to win at the box office? I tend to doubt that.

Another Bond movie with an infinitive is “No time to die.” An adverb addict might want to convert the title to “No time to literally die.” Well, yeah, Bond films force the titular character to confront death. These days, people are inclined to overuse the word “literally” anyway, as in, “I literally ate all the food on my plate.” I suspect few people would interrupt to ask if you’d figuratively or literally eaten everything.

How about Tina Turner’s song “What’s love got to do with it?” If we split the infinitive, she might sing, “what’s love go to accurately do with it?” Turner doesn’t want to encourage love when she’s enjoying the physical connection. Would “accurately” threaten to trample on the song’s meaning?

The book by Ernest Hemingway, who preferred to use simple prose, would lose some of its resonance if we added anything to the title, “To have and have not.” Borrowing from a vastly overused word that could become “To fully have and have not.”

So, to sum up the idea, to get to the point, to address the important issue, and to make myself clear, I still believe, no matter how acceptable it might be, that splitting infinitives jams an unnecessary word where it doesn’t belong, threatening to dilute its meaning, to alter its trajectory and to cause unnecessary misdirection. Let’s agree to keep infinitives together, giving them room to be, to love and to bask in their original meaning. Now, to return to where I began, I’d like to find some peanut butter and jelly. 

by -
0 690
Nivea Pereira de Sa Photo by Rodrigo Carvalho da Silva

By Daniel Dunaief

When people are immunocompromised, exposure to what might ordinarily be a harmless fungus can cause significant health problems.

Researchers in the laboratory of Maurizio del Poeta, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, have been looking to create new treatments and develop vaccines against these fungi.

Working with a team of scientists at Stony Brook, research scientist Nivea Pereira de Sa, who joined del Poeta’s lab in 2018 as a postdoctoral researcher, recently published research in the journal mBio about potential anti-fungal drugs that target a key enzyme in the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. 

Without the enzyme, the fungus can’t cause disease and the host defenses have time to eliminate it even if the host is immunodeficient.

Working with Michael Airola, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at SBU, Pereira de Sa started out by trying to find the structure of sterylglucosidase, an enzyme that is a molecular key for the fungus during infection and that aids in its ability to adapt to environmental changes such as low oxygen levels and changes in pH.

Pereira de Sa learned how to do x-ray crystallography from Airola, a process that reveals the structure of compounds.

In an email, Airola described Pereira de Sa as an “expert” in the technique.

Airola called the research “one of the most exciting projects” he’s worked on and hopes the group can translate the results into the clinic. A talented biochemist, Pereira de Sa is also an “expert in so many different scientific areas,” Airola wrote, which he described as “rare.”

Pereira de Sa also determined the structure of the same enzyme for Cryptococcus, another invasive and potentially harmful fungus. The enzymes in both fungi have a high degree of similarity.

Pereira de Sa expressed satisfaction at the application of such work. “Every time I get a crystal structure, it’s so amazing,” she said. “I love doing that.”

Pereira de Sa started screening potential compounds to inhibit sterylglucosidase in Aspergillus,

Del Poeta’s lab coordinated the design and testing of these inhibitors with Iwao Ojima, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Director of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at Stony Brook.

Refining potential drugs

Ojima’s group is synthesizing derivatives of the hits Pereira de Sa found and she will start tests outside a living organism, or in vitro, soon.

Ojima has synthesized several compounds using computer-assisted drug design. He is currently developing several inhibitors that scored high on his computational molecular docking analysis and will synthesize two to three dozen potential small molecules.

Ojima, who partnered with Pereira de Sa in this study, “greatly appreciates her and her seminal contributions to this project,” he wrote in an email. She made critical contributions to the study that ensured its success and Stony Brook is “very fortunate to have her as a leader in this project.”

Ojima plans to identify highly potent inhibitors individually for Aspergillus and Cryptococcus separately, and then will try to find and develop broad spectrum inhibitors based on those compounds.

The need for a treatment has increased dramatically as the number of immunocompromised patients has increased.

Invasive aspergillosis can have mortality rates above 90 percent. The World Health Organization last October released its first ever list of health threatening fungi, which includes Aspergillus.

Pereira de Sa suggested two possible uses for this inhibitor. It could work as a treatment, knocking down the virulence of the fungus or it could contribute to the development of a vaccine.

In strains with a mutated enzyme, a mouse model has full protection against infection.

Getting a vaccine approved through the Food and Drug Administration for immunocompromised individuals might be challenging, she said. Several studies would be needed to confirm its safety.

Del Poeta added that the vaccine his lab has developed is effective alone when heat killed, reducing the threat a live virus with a defective enzyme might pose to an immunocompromised patient. Del Poeta has been developing a vaccine for cryptococcus and aspergillus and is testing it for other fungal infections as well.

‘A beautiful cause’

Del Poeta described Pereira de Sa as a key contributor to his lab, who is methodical, systematic and hard working.

The program she is developing will take years to go to clinical trials, he added.

Del Poeta met Pereira de Sa in 2017, when he visited Brazil and spoke with her mentor, Daniel de Assis Santos, who gave her an enthusiastic reference.

After meeting with her for only five minutes, del Poeta offered her a job.

“I will never forget her face: surprised, joyful, excited and she could not hold back some tears,” del Poeta described.

Del Poeta is thrilled with his choice, as she has gone above and beyond his expectations.

Born and raised in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Pereira de Sa lives in East Setauket with her husband Rodrigo Carvalho da Silva, who is an airplane mechanic.

She enjoys Long Island, particularly during the summer, when she goes hiking, visits parks, kayaks and goes paddle boarding.

Pereira de Sa is encouraged by the progress in her work and is hoping her research contributes to future treatments.

“We are developing tools to help people,” she said. “It’s a beautiful cause I’m fighting for.”

She said the mortality rate from these fungal infections is “very high,” especially because a fungus like Aspergillus is ubiquitous.

“The fungus is present everywhere,” she said. “We are inhaling the spores of it every day.”

The invasive fungal disease starts in the lungs and spreads to the rest of the body, including in the brain, which can cause seizures.

Pereira de Sa recognizes the urgency of developing an effective treatment.

“We need some solutions and we need it now,” she said. “We are not prepared to fight fungal infections” on a large scale.

by -
0 355
METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Generally, we don’t need distractions. We’re distracted enough, what with our electronic devices allowing us to check the weather in Albany during a storm, the latest trends on social media, the minute-to-minute value of our investments, and the world of sports news and scores.

And yet, there are those times when we desperately need a distraction. Our boss, for example, might ask about a project for which we’ve done almost no work and that we promised to work on last week, but that we didn’t get to because we were, well, distracted by other things.

Everyone likely has their own bag of go-to distractions that they turn to in moments when they need to deflect or distract someone just long enough for a meeting to end, a temper tantrum to subside, or an anxiety to abate.

I often start with almost factual information. By getting a sensational and exciting story almost correct, I trigger people to check their own phones to see if they can prove me wrong about some detail that isn’t as important as recognizing some bigger problem, like not getting an assignment done.

This phone check also tends to pull people’s minds into their electronic devices, where they might see text messages that need attention, a picture of their dog that reminds them of an upcoming trip to the vet, or some other big news that will divert their attention away from my almost factual statement and whatever other subject I’m trying to avoid.

Then, there’s always passion. I’m a generally level-headed person who stays calm, even when discussing subjects that are near and dear to me. Dialing up the passion, like changing the decibel level in a soft song with a message, can be distracting and effective. “I can’t believe the spectacular sportsmanship that women’s softball team displayed when they carried the player from the other team around the infield so she could touch all the bases after she fell. I’m so inspired.”

That, of course, also encourages people to dive back into their phones. Most of the time, that is effective unless the phone reminds them of whatever I’m trying to avoid, in which case, I turn to other methods.

Reverently appreciating silence is also an effective method. It’s the slow-down-so-we-can-think moment. Staring off into the distance, putting up a finger as if I’m coming up with some great idea, and then thanking that person for giving me that time can often alter the trajectory of a meeting.

Once the silence ends, I slowly offer an awed appreciation for the value of time and space, an admiration for nature, or anything else that suggests a depth that counterbalances my ineffective presentation.

Poignant anecdotes or even effective and dramatic metaphors, if given the opportunity to share them, can also suggest that I’m capable of deep thoughts, even if I haven’t had any related to the incomplete assignment.

Then, of course, there’s the Socratic method. Someone asks me something about an assignment, and I lean into it, asking a wide range of questions about the assignment, its direction, our target audience, and opportunities to build on it.

The answers to those questions sometimes reveal more about the expectations.

I never pretend to have a stomachache. I know people do that, but I get stomachaches often enough that I wouldn’t even pretend to have one, lest my system decided to oblige me and turn my charade into an afternoon of discomfort.

In a pinch, I metaphorically beat up on myself, suggesting how I could have done better on this and that I am disappointed in the pace at which I’m completing this project. It’s hard to beat up on someone who has already accepted responsibility and is eager to make amends.

by -
0 1215
A reconstruction by Ludovic Slimak of the arrows Homo sapiens likely used 54,000 years ago in France. Credit: Ludovic Slimak

By Daniel Dunaief

Have bow and arrow, will travel, even in Eurasia 54,000 years ago.

An archaeological site in the south of France that’s 70 miles from the coastline called Grotte Mandrin not only provided evidence that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals lived in this area around the same time, but also offered proof that early humans used bow and arrows to hunt for prey like bison and wild horses.

Jason Lewis. Photo from SBU

In research published in the journal Science Advances, Jason Lewis, a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University; Ludovic Slimak, cultural anthropologist at the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès; and Laure Metz, an archaeologist at Aix-Marseille University, shared an extensive analysis of stone artifacts that demonstrated the use of bows and arrows.

These hunting tools, which inhabitants of the cave could use to pursue herd animals migrating between the Mediterranean region and the plains of Northern Europe, provide the earliest evidence of mechanically propelled projectile technology from Eurasia.

“We looked for diagnostic evidence of a very powerful impact once the stone tip hits something,” said Lewis. “We can see experimentally what type of damage” is produced on the tips of the arrows. The damage to these arrows is in line with everything that modern archers are doing because the tools human ancestors used were so light, Lewis added.

The collaborative effort to study these arrows in labs across two continents involved an extensive analysis of the flaking pattern around the tips of the arrows. The researchers didn’t find any of the organic materials that the early hunters would have used to create the bow.

This technology, which likely took about an hour to make, likely enabled Homo sapiens to bring down prey. Effective hunting from about 10 to 20 yards likely would have required more than one arrow, particularly with the size and strength of the targets.

At an archaeological site in the Middle East, scientists described stone tools around the same time that look similar to the bows and arrows humans in Eurasia used.

“The evolving modern humans were developing and using projectile technology,” Lewis said.  

Cultural differences

Lewis, Slimak and Metz showed in a seminal paper last year that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals had lived in the same cave, sometimes separated by a year or even a season.

While these two types of humans lived around the same time and in the same place, they didn’t share the same technology or have the type of cultural exchange that would enable Neanderthals, who typically hunted with hand-thrown spears, to use the same hunting tools.

“There’s no evidence of learning exchange,” Lewis said. Neanderthals did not start using the smaller points typical of the arrows or that would have been used as projectiles.

“It doesn’t look like there was a cultural exchange between the two groups,” Lewis said, as the artifacts from the time Neanderthals occupied the cave didn’t include any arrows.

Cultures sometimes develop identities that preclude using technology from other groups. Such cultural differences existed in the Maale and neighboring Tsamai people in Southwestern Ethiopia.

“Even though [bows and arrows] might be logically or objectively advantageous, some cultures suggest that ‘that’s not what we do,’” Lewis said.

Indeed, cultural differences have occurred in other areas that groups haven’t bridged, despite the availability of similar resources and the chance to learn the technology.

At the cave in Grotte Mandrin, researchers found a large collection of stone tools in Layer E of the cave.

The scientists believe the numerous arrows could have been the early equivalent of a munitions dump.

While bows and arrows would have provided a hunting advantage to Homo sapiens, the technology doesn’t explain why the two groups of early humans occupied the cave or dominated the area at different times.

“I doubt it comes down strictly to stone tool technology,” Lewis said. “There’s not a continuous march of occupation and expansion” as the interactions between the two populations were long lasting and complex.

Homo sapiens and Neanderthals moved up into a region and then moved back. This is akin to the way European settlers interacted with Native Americans when ships first crossed the Atlantic.

The Europeans moved into the region, interacted with people who already in the country, returned home, and then, at a later point crossed the ocean again.

Arrow studies

To understand the technology used to create these arrows, Metz and Slimak have spent years studying the way rocks flake off or get damaged in response to contact with animals or objects they hit when shot through the air.

Working for over a decade, Metz has been conducting experimental replication of the effect of use on these stone tools.

Scientists who shoot these stone arrows into carcasses from butcher shops can see the flaking pattern and scratches on the arrows.

Lewis explained that the flaking on the arrow heads could not have been made during the creation of the arrows themselves.

“Only high velocity strikes” could produce such markings, Lewis said.

These kinds of studies combine geology, physics and natural science. Lewis said John Shea, Anthropology Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University, has pioneered the study of such technology during the Pleistocene Ice Ages.

Lewis explained that his primary role is to bring the contextual understanding about how various types of early humans were using the landscape and interacting with the animals.

He also brings the context of work he does in Africa around the same time period as a comparator.

Lewis explained that more research would be forthcoming from this site.

“This is part of a larger modern human ability to conceptualize the world,” Lewis said. Early humans were trying to change their environment to match their needs, with boats, clothing, dwelling structures and other elements of their lives.

Such tool use could reduce hunting time and could enable a greater division of labor, suggesting that “each person didn’t have to do everything” to meet basic needs. 

 

Prev1...262728...85Next Page 27 of 85
TBR News Media is your local news and entertainment website.
We provide you with the latest breaking news and information for your community.
Contact us: [email protected]

Most Viewed

©