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INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880

The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 140, No. 36

8 Pages — Free

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2024 n ITHACA, NEW YORK

News

Dining

Science

Weather

Imperfect Matches

Collaborative Cooking

Brilliant Birdwatching

Cloudy

Kira Walters '26 describes the Moseying recruitment period and reviews the food and kitchen amenities in each of the co-ops.

This weekend's Great Backyard Bird Count promises to provide important data for ornithologists around the globe.

HIGH: 37º LOW: 27º

The Perfect Match team endured threats from Cornellians due to a six-hour delay in sending out pairings.

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Matchmaking Results Delayed Cornell Couples Perfect Match received threatening messages from students due to a six-hour delay. Declare "I Do" at Sage Chapel

ISABELLE JUNG / SUN GRAPHICS EDITOR

Matchmaking mayhem | Perfect Match, Cornell's student-run matchmaking program, experienced a six-hour delay.

By ANUSHKA SHOREWALA Sun Staff Writer

While Valentine’s Day is typically a celebration of love, Cornellians this year became so distraught over a six-hour delay in Perfect Match pairings that they sent threatening messages to the Perfect Match team.

The targeted attacks pushed the Perfect Match team to remove their personal information from the website.

Jamal Hashim ’22 founded Perfect Match in February 2019 to lift spirits and reduce isolation on campus. This Valentine's Day, over 5,000 Cornell students, alumni and professors created a profile on Perfect Match, Cornell’s Valentine’s Day matchmaking website, to find their algorithmic-determined ideal friend or romantic partner.

The issue arose when Perfect Match released the matches at 6 a.m. instead of midnight as the team previously announced on their website. Varshini Madhavan ’25, a member of the business subteam for Perfect Match explained that the team received threatening messages propelled by the

delay resulting in the team deleting their personal information from the website.

“We recognize that many students stayed up waiting for a dramatic release and that, unfortunately, did not happen,” Madhavan said. “I will say, it was a little disheartening to see threatening messages made to the point where we removed the team's personal information from the website.”

Madhavan explained that the unforeseen surges in interest for Perfect Match caused challenges for the team as it took longer than expected for them to post the matches on the website.

“We knew there was more interest than past years, but there was an insanely unexpected surge on the last day to submit,” Madhavan said. “This meant that though the matches were quickly generated, it took longer than expected to post on the website. With any data set this large, there are bound to be technical difficulties.”

The Perfect Match team released a statement on their Instagram story explaining that they made over 100,000 matches this year, ten times more than the previous year, which meant that the midnight deadline they had set based on previous data would be “physically impossible to reach.”

Gabriel Marshall ’26, a participant in Perfect Match, said that he opted into matching in hopes of meeting someone.

He anticipated meeting a potential Valentine’s Day date but was subsequently disappointed by the delayed matching.

“I am not currently in a relationship, so I thought if I matched with someone I could click with, I would enjoy my Valentine’s Day with someone,” Marshall said. “However, since I didn’t hear back until [this] morning, I was demotivated to make plans with anyone.”

But Marshall believes that the student body’s dramatic reaction to Perfect Match’s delay in release was unwarranted.

“I personally think that [sending threatening messages to Perfect Match’s team] is really ungrateful for the Cornell student body,” Marshall said. “This is a small group of people who want to make Cornellians' lives better. And attacking people who were trying to give you a gift is very ungrateful.”

See PERFECT MATCH page 3

Fraternities Suspended Over Hazing Allegations

By DINA SHLUFMAN Sun Staff Writer

The University temporarily suspended several chapters under Cornell’s Interfraternity Council due to hazing allegations, amid Cornell’s spring fraternity pledging process.

“Cornell University does not tolerate hazing or other forms of mentally and physically coercive activities.”

Representative of the University The Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards is currently investigating the alleged hazing instances.

“Cornell University does not tolerate hazing or other forms of mentally and physically coercive

“When the University receives activities,” a representative of the University wrote in a statement reports that concern the health and safety of our students, we to The Sun. During this suspension, all must take them seriously and act accused fraternities are not per- swiftly,” the representative of the mitted to engage in any chapter University said. activities. All brothers are also prohibited from contacting any “When the University new members or potential new receives reports that concern members.

From 2017 to 2021, 28 the health and safety of our Cornell fraternities were suspended due to hazing allegations. students, we must take them In 2019, then first-year student seriously and act swiftly.”

Antonio Tsialas ’23 died due to Representative of the University fraternity hazing at Phi Kappa Psi, leading to Cornell indefinitely revoking the chapter’s status.

The University declined to Potential new sorority and fraternity members were mandat- provide information regarding ed to complete a Canvas course the specific fraternity chapters discussing how to recognize and suspended. prevent hazing and the consequences of failing to stop hazing before participating in the Spring Dina Shlufman can be reached at dshlufman@cornellsun.com.

2024 recruitment cycle.

By ANUSHKA SHOREWALA Sun Staff Writer

Even if students do not have plans for this Valentine’s Day, Cornell may still be the site of their future wedding vows.

The Sun spoke with five couples who said “I do” at Cornell to learn more about their decision to get married on the hill. From an interfaith ceremony to a traditional Indian wedding, each couple described their sentimental ties to Cornell's picturesque campus.

Celia and Peter It was the second day of her first year at Cornell when Celia Rodee ’81 met Peter Cooper ’80, working at Cornell Dining in Balch Hall, a historic all-female residence on North Campus.

When they initially met, Rodee was still dating her high school sweetheart. Rodee and Cooper, however, soon began to develop a strong friendship when working together at Cornell Dining and socializing with their friends. After a year of being friends, Cooper and Rodee started dating, getting engaged only a year later.

“We met working jobs at Cornell Dining and fell in love at Cornell,” Rodee said. “ And Peter gave me his first valentine that spring in February 1978.”

When deciding where to get married, Rodee and Cooper chose Cornell due to both its sentimental significance as where they first met and as a location where they could celebrate and honor their two different faiths.

Rodee being Protestant Christian and Cooper being Jewish, Sage Chapel, a non-denominational Christian chapel, stood out as a symbol of unity.

“Cornell was our connection — we met there [and] we fell in love there,” Rodee said. “But we thought that [since] Cornell would be a more neutral place being an interfaith couple, both families would compromise.”

Rodee and Cooper reflected on the multitude of special moments intricately woven into their big day by the campus setting. From the delight of enjoying Purity ice cream at the rehearsal dinner behind Peter’s fraternity, Sigma Phi, to visiting the suspension bridge and reliving the memory of kissing Cooper, Rodee enjoyed every moment commemorating their love in cherished spots.

To continue reading this story, please visit www.cornellsun.com.

Anushka Shorewala can be reached at ashorewala@ cornellsun.com.

ISABELLE JUNG / SUN GRAPHICS EDITOR

Say yes | Couples chose to get married at Sage Chapel due to their sentimental ties to Cornell.

2 The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, February 15, 2024

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The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, February 15, 2024 3

News

Delay in Matches Leads to Threats From Student Body PERFECT MATCH Continued from page 1

Maia Mehring ’27 thought that Perfect Match would be a fun way for her to meet new people on campus. While she was confused by the delay, Mehring explained that the delay didn’t have a big impact on her Valentine’s Day plans.

“My roommate and I were getting ready for class this morning and she told me her matches had come out, so I checked for mine,” Mehring said. “It did make me leave my dorm a little later since I had gotten caught up in who my matches were, but other than that I was pretty indifferent.”

This year, angry reactions to the Perfect Match delay may have overshadowed its original purpose to cultivate connection and community.

Madhavan said the platform was created to give students and other participants a chance to connect, from exploring data analytics to meeting new people on campus.

“Valentine’s Day can be an isolating time for people who aren’t in relationships, and we wanted to add some level of joy and excitement around this day to celebrate love,” Madhavan said.

Madhavan also acknowledged the variety of reasons people utilize Perfect Match.

“People definitely fill out the form for different reasons — some do it to meet friends, some do it to go on a date and some just want to see the analytics at the end, specifically, machine learning professors who discuss

Perfect Match in their lectures.”

Taerim Eom ’24, the head of algorithm for Perfect Match, explained that the algorithm’s Perfect Match’s process is broken down into two main steps — scoring and matching. Eom explained that Perfect Match uses the Gale–Shapley algorithm, a common algorithm used by dating apps such as Hinge.

The initial score for everyone starts at 1000, and for each compatible response, the score increases. Different questions are weighted differently depending on whether or not students consider them “deal breakers.” According to Eom, last year, on average, every person had a potential matching list of 984 people with their final list including around 19 people.

“If someone says I like these movies and then someone else says I like these movies, it would have something to do with the compatibility,” Eom said. “Each survey question is somehow weighted differently, there is a bit of subjectiveness that goes into there, like how we determine compatibility.”

Despite this year’s discontentment of students with Perfect Match leaders, the website stands as a Cornellian-created project for fellow students’ enjoyment.

“Perfect Match was a passion project created to give Cornell students an outlet and opportunity to meet other people,” Madhavan said.

Anushka Shorewala can be reached at ashorewala@cornellsun.com.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

4 The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, February 15, 2024

News

The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, February 15, 2024 5

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Dining Guide Your source for good food

Exploring Collaborative Cooking In The Co-ops

By KIRA WALTERS Sun Staff Writer

O

n Sunday, Feb. 11, Cornell’s undergraduate co-ops kicked off their Spring 2024 moseying process with a series of open houses. From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m, potential new residents were welcomed to eight different Cornellaffiliated housing units for a brief tour and a closer look into cooperative living. Moseying, a long-time tradition amongst the co-ops, is a casual two-week recruitment period. It involves social events from late night crafts to collaborative dinners, resulting in selecting new co-op residents for the upcoming semester.

As moseyers — people who partake in the co-op recruitment process — consider where they want to call home, a significant part of the decision is based on the dining experience.

Though not every co-op has a meal plan, each one offers unique cooking opportunities unavailable at campus dorms. How different communities celebrate food and spend time in the kitchen infiltrates every aspect of co-op life. While cooking is not always easy, most residents agree that despite cooking disasters ending in smoke alarms or recipe mishaps, it provides a valuable bonding experience. You might be curious about what makes a co-op’s cuisine special — each one offers a standout menu that will not disappoint.

Wait Terrace Cooperative Located at 308 Wait Avenue, the Wait Terrace co-op is an iconic yellow house on North Campus, neighboring Louie’s Food Truck across from Risley and downhill from the Clara Dickson volleyball courts. There is no official meal plan at this 13-person residency, but that doesn’t prevent them from creating their own fun kitchen customs. Baking is a favorite activity amongst students here and home-made brownies were a staple of the Wait Terrace tour. Residents bake cakes with a thrifted Bob The Builder cake pan while housemate Marco Scocca ’25 dedicates time to preparing Italian dinners. Shrimp scampi and garlic bread are only a few of his specialties. The pantry is constantly stocked with a range of shared staples including oats, tea and chocolate chips.

Sunday dinner is a chance to make empanadas, perogies and horchata while occasional parties are supplied with quiche or cheesecake.

Wait Avenue Cooperative Just next door to Wait Terrace is the Wait Ave co-op, an all female co-op housing 14 people in one of the North Campus’s oldest buildings.

The house is equipped with a modern sunlit kitchen and ample fridge space. Though a meal plan isn’t established here either, the women of Wait Avenue store tomato sauce, garlic and other ingredients voted on during food polls. Managers go on grocery runs often.

“No one goes hungry in this house,” said

Cocoa Poopat ’26.

Members of the co-op enjoy preparing fresh soup with a surplus of on hand pots and pans.

Meanwhile, an extensive “So You Can Bake?” ingredient list challenges residents to try sweet treat recipes with molasses or chia seeds.

The Prospect Of Whitby A quick trip down Wait Avenue, neighbors at Prospect of Whitby are particularly successful at fostering a positive cooking culture. The Whitby meal plan provides five dinners a week with an emphasis on vegetarian options. Meals are decided by food stewards and assembled in cook groups of four to five people. A whiteboard in the kitchen is dedicated to suggestions; in fact, Whitby’s open house took place after a much anticipated burrito lunch. Whitby has a spacious dining room and invited moseyers in with fresh apple cider by the fireplace. When asked about dining at the co-op, Co-President Sofya Maslova ‘24 summarized the environment by describing her own experience.

“It’s 40 servings. It’s a lot of work, it’s hard to cook that much. But it’s such a valuable cooking experience. I learned to cook really well here,” Maslova said.

Triphammer Cooperative The co-op at Triphammer is a little further north from Whitby but well worth the visit. They share similar cooking principles with a vegetarian meal plan and collaborative dinners. The kitchen is equipped with a long wooden table where residents often snack and hang out after class.

Here, food preparation takes place separate from stoves, counters and fridges. In the basement of Triphammer, students ferment kimchi and other vegetables at the treasured fermentation station.

The shelf of glass jars provides room for a different kind of culinary creativity. Residents at this unit also prioritize their health by keeping an abundance of oranges and apples around common areas.

Wari Cooperative Near Jessup Field and the Africana Research Center, Wari is the last cooperative residence on North Campus. Wari is home to 10 undergraduate women of color and was founded in 1968 to promote an atmosphere of support and personal confidence. Wari does not have its own meal plan but students here often come together to create meals in a uniquely bright green kitchen.

The House has a gorgeous front lawn and as a very socially active organization, women here make frequent desserts and snacks to supplement events.

Watermargin Headed towards West Campus, Watermargin is a beautiful blue house tucked away near the Johnson museum. Though secluded, this co-op

KATIE RUEFF / SUN STAFF WRITER

Cooperative Dining | The Prospect of Whitby’s dining table.

is complete with gorgeous views and multiple residential stories. A spiraling wood staircase complements the home in addition to a marvelous kitchen. The Watermargin meal plan runs from Sunday to Thursday and most shopping is

KATIE RUEFF / SUN STAFF WRITER.

Mosey Treats | Wait Terrace Cooperative offers Moseyers snacks.

conducted by stewards at either Trader Joes or Walmart. Popular bites amongst housemates consist of curry udon, egg drop soup and shakshuka, a dish of cooked tomatoes with egg.

Redbud Cooperative Down University Avenue, the largest of the eight co-ops is Redbud at Von Cramm Hall. With a grand total of 34 members, turning out dinner for everyone is always an adventure. Redbud’s six-day meal plan requires a little extra dedication from cooking groups. Grilled pizza is a speciality at the hall and students are equipped with a wider array of cooking gadgetry, including an ice cream maker. Instead of one large table, Redbud’s dining room is decorated in cafeteria-esque style with multiple close seating arrangements. The area is perfect for banquets held from time to time. Looking back on the trials and triumphs of Redbud cooking, Irfan Adizan ‘25 explained that, “cooking itself can be a hit or miss, but eating together, getting together is how you get to know people in the house.” There is certainly an air of festivity that unites those living here.

660 Stewart Avenue Cooperative Closest to Collegetown amongst Cornell’s co-ops is 660 Stewart. 660 continues an optional meal plan that serves three vegetarian meals a week. Rice, oats, honey and fruit are several staples of the house since residents are extra considerate of gluten-free diets. An outdoor barbecue is used for everything from summer grilling to maple syrup production. Most groceries around the co-op are for public consumption but personal shelves get thoroughly filled at 660.

Housemates share generously, especially when it comes to beloved tacos or lasagna. Potato and leek soup is a cozy selection for cold second semester beginnings.

Cooking practices at cooperative living units are certainly not what comes to mind when most imagine college dining. Dorm meals or hall buffets are the common choice for many Cornellians, whether or not they prefer it. But co-ops offer another choice; collaborative meals in an environment reminiscent of a home away from home.

Though the nostalgia of childhood recipes or baking memories may feel distant, it is being recreated almost daily within these eight units. For those who miss enjoying the kitchen together, cooking in the co-ops may be the answer.

Kira Walters staff writer, is a sophomore in the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences. She can be reached at kjw242@cornell.edu.

6 The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, February 15, 2024

Opinion

The Corne¬ Daily Sun Independent Since 1880 141st Editorial Board ANGELA BUNAY ’24 Editor in Chief

SHEILA YU ’25

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Advertising Manager

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Hugo Amador

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HUGO AMADOR ’24

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Opinion Editor

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JONATHAN MONG ’25

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Editors in training Editor in chief Desker Managing Desker Associate Desker News Deskers Dining Desker Photography Desker Science Desker Layout Desker

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Hugo Amador is a senior editor for The Cornell Daily Sun’s 141st Editorial Board. He can be reached at haa45@cornell.edu.

The Brilliant and The Damned

O

n a February day in 2022, a lean brunette man with blue eyes named Tadzio walked out of his home and paraded two houses down to a party hosted by his fellow law students. Not many people knew of Tadzio’s life outside of Myron Taylor Hall. He lived on East State Street in a small wooden home plastered blue and white on its exterior. The curtains always remained closed; they added a layer of protection from sunlight and peering eyes, with the branches of the trees surrounding the home acting in first defense. He lived, rather begrudgingly, with two graduate students. On the weekends, his roommates never saw him; his door, slightly unhinged, unleveled, remained closed beholding him behind it, only allowing a sliver of space above its perimeter to be seen.

He was — to say the least — a man ambitious to live hidden. On that very February night, however, perhaps in a moment of vulnerability, or desperation to be seen, he told me: “I think about hurting people.”

When I first met Tadzio that February, he came across as calm, well-spoken and above all, brilliant. He was beautiful. His intelligence and the intensity of his character carried him as an intimidating individual throughout the hills of Ithaca, but he also gave himself to kindness with those that cherished him. In his room, a dead stick bug laid enclosed in a frame with pins in its abdomen. It hung on his wall above his torts textbook and an English translation of À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust. He had caught the creature among the depths of the tropical forests in an excursion to Central America. “It reminds me of Honduras,” he would tell me. “The bug?” I asked. “No. the pin in its abdomen,” he responded. He had spent a few years living in Honduras where violence was the norm; gunshots were the last thing you heard before you fell asleep. Upon his return to the states, he spent sleepless nights in Ithaca — tossing and turning, tremors, raging from his shoulders to his feet, would jolt him awake. I could see, in the drawer adjacent to his creature a collection of drugs, bottles of empty opiate prescriptions he somehow mustered together from the dark web, friends and family.

He would only do a few lines every night. He needed those to sleep.

He highlighted a troubling youth; his mother terrorized him as a child.

When he was a teenager she was diagnosed with cancer and passed away.

He had walked in on his grandfather, dead, after he had shot himself in the head. A few days later, his grandmother shot herself too. As a child, Tadzio told me, he was often suicidal. The very frustration of his dark, confusing youth and adulthood led him to behave with impulsive belligerence towards those

around him, and to himself above all.

“I still think about hurting people, even though I won’t.” he told me. “I can’t practice law with a crime under my belt,” he continued. He now works at the most prestigious international law firm in New York City.

Despite his inner turmoil, he was very poised in his demeanor. To me, Tadzio lived the most vivid life. But he lived every day, silent and intent, at a steady, anxious pace. To him, despite his desire to revel in the beauty of nature, in literature, in art or in music, there was a fear that engulfed him. At times it developed into thoughts of violence against himself and those around him. And I’ve noticed that this fear isn’t novel, especially for us at Cornell.

In 2018, a former student, Maximilien R. Reynolds, was arrested for housing an AR-15 rifle and a homemade bomb in his Collegetown apartment. Reynolds later explained it was out of fear and paranoia.

That same year, former student Charles Tan was arrested for killing his father with a shotgun he had tasked another Cornell student to purchase.

“I entered my parents’ home through the back door, walked upstairs, turned into my father’s office and shot my father three times as he was sitting at his desk,” he admitted. In an affidavit, Tan took full responsibility for the crime, claiming he lived in fear of his father given years of verbal and physical abuse against him and his mother.

On Nov. 9, I attended Patrick Dai’s hearing in federal court after he threatened to conduct a mass killing on our Jewish community at Cornell. Despite knowing the macabre nature of his actions, I sat through his hearing waiting for his defense attorney to utter the word “fear,” and hoping that it would somehow explain what led him to the terror that he imposed on society.

Perhaps I was hoping to find some humanity within him.

It was then, from that corner of that courtroom, a few steps away from Dai, fully knowing that he had committed a crime of violence, that I questioned whether Dai ought to be vilified in the way the nation has done. It was the same doubt, from the moment Tadzio spoke to me, that led me to think: I was to be his friend. It would be established.

I was to understand the very fear that forced these men into solitude and violence at Cornell, but more importantly: why society made monsters out of them. And I wanted to understand it more than I wanted life, or anything else.

On Oct. 31, Dai was arraigned and brought into custody. His Collegetown apartment was searched by Cornell University Police, the Ithaca Police Department, New York State Police and the FBI. To continue reading, visit cornellsun.com.

Comics and Puzzles

Sundoku

The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, February 15, 2024 7

Puzzle 2007

ARPEGGIO

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once. Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name.

(Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sudoku)

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The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, February 15, 2024

Science

SCIENCE

Great Backyard Bird Count Provides a Bird’s Eye View for Cornell Ornithologists

By DAN HONG LOH

SREANG HOK / CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Sun Contributor

The Great Backyard Bird Count will connect scientists and the public through bird watching from Friday, Feb. 16 to Monday, Feb.19 during the annual spring bird migration.

Planned by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and Birds Canada, the GBBC is an annual birding event where participants birdwatch and remotely submit their observations to a database.

Since its inception in 1998, the GBBC has gone global, with an estimate of more than 555,000 participants last year.

Participants only have to birdwatch for a minimum of 15 minutes from any location — even from the comfort of one’s backyard — and submit observations.

Participants can benefit from connecting with nature and observing wildlife, and scientists can benefit from receiving new data.

Participatory science can be incredibly valuable for scientists, according to Becca RodomskyBish, the project leader of the GBBC at the Lab of Ornithology.

More than 160 publications last year used data contributed by birdwatchers to eBird — a database for bird biodiversity born of the success of the GBBC. The eBird data is not only for scientists but also for the public to explore and analyze.

“The power of participatory science is to invite the public to share

Brilliant birdwatching | Isaiah Scott ‘25 leads a group birdwatching hike around Beebe Lake. their wisdom,” Rodomsky-Bish population. A momentous study liferation of windows and outdoor said. “With that data, we have the from 2019 revealed a decline of cats has increased bird mortality.

Conservation efforts for birds capacity to ask and engage in much almost three billion birds in North bigger questions over time.”

America since 1970, using decades are now more crucial than ever, Brian Hofstetter ’26, an expe- of data from the North American according to Rodomsky-Bish, esperienced birder and undergrad- Breeding Bird Survey conducted cially given their important roles uate researcher at the Lab of by thousands of birders every year. in their local ecosystems. To aid Ornithology, noted that because The study connected the decline conservation efforts, individuals scientists are limited in the data to several anthropogenic factors — can purchase bird-friendly, shadethey can collect, participatory those derived from human activity grown coffee such as Birds and science is all the more powerful. — such as agricultural intensifi- Beans Coffee, grow native plants on Participatory science in birding has cation. 74 percent of bird species lawns, put out bird feeders or water been particularly popular because associated with farmland habitats and keep cats indoors. “[The decline in the bird popof the charismatic nature of birds, were found to have experienced according to Rodomsky-Bish. a loss in population over the past ulation has] been a real wake-up Rodomsky-Bish noted that with several decades, and this decline call,” Rodomsky-Bish said. “People GBBC data, scientists are noticing was correlated with increased use say that birds can be your first birds moving to higher altitudes of pesticides and farm productivity. eco-indicator of whether ecological earlier in the year, due to milder Rodomsky-Bish also noted that systems are functioning properly winters and food availability. habitat loss and fragmentation have and healthy, or if they’re not.”

During the upcoming GBBC, This decline follows a half-cen- affected the ability of birds to forpublic participation can make a tury pattern of a dwindling bird age, feed and nest. Even the pro-

difference. The Merlin Bird ID app and eBird — both managed by the Lab of Ornithology — are great tools for participants to log and submit observations. Hofstetter noted that while Merlin is especially helpful for identifying birds based on their appearance and sound, eBird provides regional checklists that are good for data logging.

The GBBC also recently launched a community map to connect people around the world with birding opportunities near them. Cornellians have fostered community by integrating philanthropy with birdwatching efforts.

Hofstetter, a member of the Cornell Birding Club, plans to lead a bird walk on Saturday, Feb. 17 around Beebe Lake with Isaiah Scott ’25. Named Birding and Black History, this bird walk will be held in support of the Cornell Pan-African Students Association.

This year, common birds — including crows, ravens, blue jays and black-capped chickadees — will be active in Ithaca in February.

Rare birds like tufted ducks, glaucous-winged gulls and roughlegged hawks may also be observed.

As a participant, Hofstetter appreciates seeing how people bond over birdwatching.

“It’s really nice to see the community aspect of the GBBC,” Hofstetter said. “It’s a time to celebrate a lot of backyard birds.”

Dan Hong Loh can be reached at dl962@cornell.edu.

New Metabolite Regulates Lifespan, C.U. Researchers Find

By CRISTINA TORRES

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / ZERISS MICROSCOPY

Sun Staff Writer

Cornell researchers recently discovered a novel metabolite — a byproduct of life-sustaining chemical processes called metabolism — that is connected to the lifespan of a species of roundworm.

According to the study published in Nature Chemical Biology, the new classification of metabolite — acylspermidine — is produced through interactions between sirtuins and spermidines.

Sirtuins are an enzyme family that is involved in many essential processes like DNA damage repair, and spermidine is a compound found in all cells responsible for life-sustaining functions. Researchers found that when the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans did not produce acylspermidine, its lifespan decreased.

This discovery helped to focus research into aging and age-related diseases like cancer, according to Prof. Robert Weiss, biomedical sciences.

The researchers first discovered acylspermidines after the Schroeder lab, led

by Prof. Frank Schroeder, chemistry and chemical biology, created a version of C. elegans without the gene responsible for producing sirtuins in the mitochondria — the part of the cell responsible for energy production. This technique of removing genes is known as a knockout and is a tool commonly used to better understand the role of a particular gene.

When they compared the molecules present in the C. elegans lacking the sirtuin gene to a wild type C. elegans

Radical roundworms | A newly discovered metabolite in the C. Elegans roundworm regulates its lifespan.

with no knockouts, the researchers found that it had a reduced production of an unknown metabolite — an intermediate they would later identify as an acylspermidine. First author Bingsen Zhang grad discovered the makeup of this unknown intermediate through the use of tandem mass spectrometry and structural analysis.

Tandem mass spectrometry is a technique to measure the weight of a molecule by breaking it into smaller fragments through the use of high energy. This process allows researchers to understand the fragments individually before determining the chemical makeup of the whole molecule. Verifying chemical makeup was troublesome due to the presence

of multiple metabolites, according to Zhang.

“It was conceptually very challenging to say what [the metabolite] is because [the fragments were] actually coming from two molecules and not coming from one molecule,” Zhang said.

However, despite this difficulty, the researchers confirmed that the unknown intermediate was a new type of metabolite that they called N-acylsperminide, with the ‘N’ prefix referring to the attachment of particular components of the metabolite to nitrogen.

In order to further investigate N-acylspermidine, the researchers consulted the lab led by Weiss, which focuses on studying sirtuin in the context of

cancer. Weiss supplied the Schroeder lab with cultured mouse cells to continue studying the interaction between the sirtuin and spermidine.

In the mouse cells, the researchers observed a similar effect on lifespan to the one that had been noticed within C. elegans. When the gene that produced sirtuin was knocked out, the number of mouse cell colonies decreased.

The results of the knockout indicated that the regular functions of sirtuins are necessary for producing N-acylspermidine and therefore prolonging lifespan, Weiss explained.

Without sirtuin to interact with spermidine, N-acylspermidine is not produced.

According to Weiss, many avenues of exploration are being considered. Sirtuin enzymes and spermidine proteins are present over a multitude of species, and the discovery that they interact to prolong lifespan has helped guide researchers in a new direction. Going forward, both Zhang and Weiss plan to look at all aspects of the pathway of metabolism, and not just the final outcome of the process.

“Right now, it’s a pretty wide-open question of how [N-acylspermidine] influences lifespan and cancer cell proliferation,” Weiss said. “I think it’s a great question for future study — it’s really opening a new avenue for research.”

Cristina Torres can be reached at ctoress@cornellsun.com