8-31-2023 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Tompkins County Forums

Amplify Local Voices

By

As part of its Strategic Operations Plan, Tompkins County is hosting community forums from Sept. 12 to Sept. 14 in different locations to discuss the county’s plans for the future.

The initiative follows a July announcement that debuted the Strategic Operations Planning Process. The plan aims to involve community members in the county’s decision making processes.

Tompkins County also launched a new website where residents can submit their feedback on county services, providing insight to county officials regarding allocating of county resources and achieving progress on county issues.

“Bringing more voices into local government is critical,” wrote Dominick Recckio, Tompkins County office communication director, in a statement to The Sun. “Ultimately the County’s policies and programs are in support

Project Teams Pursue Passions Over Summer

By MARIAN CABALLO Sun Staff Writer

of the public and the community, so knowing the impact we are having and could have helps us to improve and set priorities.”

Residents can also submit suggestions on a section of the website, which other members of the community can read and upvote as a show of support. These suggestions could potentially influence the allocation of the county’s budget of over $200 million.

During the school year, you’ll find scores of students hunkered down in Upson Hall’s Experiential Learning Lab building battlebots, coding autonomous underwater vehicles or developing custom formula SAE race cars. But even throughout the summer, students from Cornell’s 34 project teams continued to pursue their passions, ranking high in prestigious competitions and venturing across the globe.

“Going on a [competition] trip with friends that I’ve been working with the whole year was my favorite memory,” said Mark Edwards ’25, magnetic levitation lead of Cornell Hyperloop. “The best part was being involved with the development of our project from the start, and seeing it all the way to fruition.”

Cornell Hyperloop, along with Cornell Mars Rover, CUSail and Cornell Racing, traveled across the country this summer to compete against hundreds of teams in their respective fields.

Most notably, Cornell Rocketry won first place in the 10K Solid RocketStudent Research and Developed Components category and second place overall at the Spaceport America Cup, the world’s largest rocket engineering conference and competition. Baja Racing took home numerous top three awards at Baja SAE Oregon, and CUAir placed fourth overall at the AUVSI Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition.

While some groups, like Cornell iGEM, stayed close to campus this summer, other project teams

dispatched their members overseas to participate in charitable initiatives worldwide. Three members of Engineering World Health traveled to the Dominican Republic to manufacture prosthetics for amputees, while a group of students from Engineers in Action traveled to Eswatini to design and build a bridge for a community in need.

The Sun spoke to Cornell Hyperloop and Cornell iGEM to get a glimpse into project teams’ action-packed summers.

Keynote Event to Discuss Artifcial Intelligence Revolution

zations.

Alex Colvin, Ph.D. ’99, Dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and Nickle LaMoreaux ’01, IBM Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, will discuss how the artificial intelligence revolution may impact the future of workers, employers and consumers at a Sept. 7 event.

Colvin, the Kenneth F. Kahn ’69 Dean and the Martin F. Scheinman ’75, M.S. ’76 Professor of Conflict Resolution at the ILR School, focuses on employment dispute resolution in both his teaching and research. He particularly emphasizes procedures in nonunion workplaces and the impact of the legal environment on organi-

Nickle LaMoreaux leads IBM’s global HR team. She has supported IBM’s business growth through leadership development, talent acquisition, performance management and skill building.

New artificial intelligence outlets such as ChatGPT sparked controversy among professors and students at their inception. Some Cornell professors expressed concern with the chatbot’s potential to spread misinformation, while students shared their excitement and qualms about the program with The Sun in January

The ILR event will be held virtually at 11 a.m., where Colvin and LaMoreaux plan to explore AI and its impact on IBM. In particular, the seminar will highlight events leading up to

IBM’s investment in AI within HR, how AI is increasing productivity and cost savings at IBM and the convergence of consumer-grade experiences.

Professors in the ILR school have also researched topics related to AI and the future of work, which will be addressed along with topics such as an increased circular emphasis on data science.

Colvin and LaMoreaux will also discuss how AI technologies create business value with data-driven culture, how IBM utilizes AI for their business needs and how a deepened data science focus has enriched the ILR undergraduate curriculum.

STEM summer | Members of Cornell iGEM spent the summer in Ithaca to work on ENERGEM, a synthetic biology project.

Daybook

Thursday, August 31, 2023

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

Today

Tomorrow

Whose America? A Reevaluation of US

Immigration Policy since 1980

Noon - 5 p.m., Virtual Event

Lactate Assay for Asthma

Detection

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., T01

Human Ecology Building

How to Fold Every Protein

2:30 p.m., 119 Baker Hall

Development of a Colorimetric Biomedical Engineering

7900 Seminar Series: Sriram Chandrasekaran, Ph.D.

2:45 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., 226 Weill Hall

Quantum Theory Seminar — Large N Theories of Critical Fermi Surfaces and Strange Metal: Haoyu Gua

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., 403 Physical Science Building

Independent Since 1880

E-MAIL sunmailbox@cornellsun.com

Postal Information: The Cornell Daily Sun (USPS 132680 ISSN 1095-8169) is published by the Cornell Daily Sun, a New York corporation, 139 W. State St., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850. The Sun is published Tuesday and Thursday during the academic year, and every weekday online. Three special issues — one for seniors in May, one for reunion alumni in June and one for incoming freshmen in July — make for a total of 61 issues this academic year. Subscriptions are: $60.00 for fall term, $60.00 for spring term and $120.00 for both terms if paid in advance. Standard postage paid at Ithaca, New York. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Cornell Daily Sun, 139 W. State St., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850.

Strategic Operations Plan to Host Multiple Community Forums

Strategic Operations Plan moves to its second phase, aims to collect feedback from residents

Though past plans have included community input and engagement, this is Tompkins County’s first Strategic Operations Plan.

In a press release shared with The Sun on Wednesday, the county’s office discussed the schedule for the forums as the second part of the plan, meant to engage the public about the progress so far.

The forums will take place in multiple locations across the county — including the Human Services Annex, 214 West Martin Luther King Jr/ State St. Ithaca on September 12; the Enfield Community Center 162 Enfield Main Rd, Ithaca on September 13; and the Southworth Library

24 W Main St, Dryden.

“These types of in-depth plans don’t come around very often, so sharing your perspective and ideas now will have an impact for many years. The County needs to hear from people who are impacted by our services and policies — that’s the only way we can improve,” wrote County Legislator Travis Brooks in the press release. “I’m proud that we’re giving so many opportunities for community input because it gives us a chance to consider other perspectives and hear directly from the people that we serve.”

The plan’s consultant, BerryDunn, will lead an exercise to talk about the current state of the County and services currently offered, followed by breakout and visioning sessions with attendees.

“This plan focuses on how our operations can best meet goals shared by the organization and community – having forums and gathering input helps to set those

up our sleeves and work on our operations, and I’m eager to hear more from these upcoming forums. Thank you to everyone who participates in this process.”

goals and give feedback on the County’s operations,” Recckio said.

The County’s office is expecting high-turnout from the event and expressed their excitement from the interest Ithaca residents took on providing the virtual feedback over the summer.

“I’m really proud of how engaged our community has been so far throughout this process. We’ve received hundreds of ideas and survey responses, many of which are really insightful,” said Shawna Black, chairwoman of the Tompkins County Legislature, in the press release. “I’m already starting to see where we can roll

Project Teams Work Together While Staying Local

Students collaborate over the summer as part of their preparation for upcoming competitions and projects

PROJECT TEAMS

Continued from page 1

Cornell Hyperloop

This May, select members from Cornell Hyperloop traveled to the second annual Canadian Hyperloop Conference hosted by the University of Waterloo. The project team worked throughout the year to research, design and develop their own hyperloop system. Popularized by Elon Musk, hyperloop systems allow for high-speed transportation within a vacuum tube.

“You have this pod — which is essentially a train — that is magnetically levitated,” Edwards said. “There’s no friction slowing it down, and it’s in a vacuum-sealed tube, so there’s no air resistance. That’s why it can go so fast.”

Founded in 2017, Cornell Hyperloop originally aimed to compete at SpaceX’s Hyperloop Pod Competition, which was discontinued in 2020. After a year of training, research and development, students representing each Hyperloop subteam headed to Waterloo for three days of competition and workshops.

“This is the first time we’ve gone to a competition, which was very big for us,” said Mahika Goel ’24, former

Hyperloop mechanical lead. “With COVID, our team got hit hard organizationally, so it took a lot of effort to bring our team back up to be fully-functioning.”

According to Edwards, the team had the opportunity to showcase numerous Hyperloop subsystems in the guidance, braking, propulsion and aeroshell categories. On the very last day, the teams raced their pods down a 100-meter I-beam.

Despite the competitive environment, members of Cornell Hyperloop expressed joy in sharing their passion for hyperloop technology. The competition consisted of seven universities from across the globe.

“A big goal of the conference was just to collaborate with other teams,” Edwards said. “We wanted to soak in a bunch of knowledge and see other design processes — what worked and what didn’t.”

This year, Cornell Hyperloop was primarily focused on training team members, who read hundreds of research papers to keep updated on electromagnets, linear induction motors and other concepts central to hyperloop systems. Starting their freshman year, team members work to construct complex and novel technologies including guidance and stability, propulsion, electrical computing and levitation systems.

“You’re not going to be able to Google the answer and find out how it’s built, or how people do it,” Goel said. “I think that’s the best part of being on Hyperloop — that you’re learning things that you normally would never ever learn in class,” Goel said.

Reflecting on their work and competition, Goel and Edwards said they were grateful for their time with Hyperloop and the opportunity to gain hands-on experience.

“Being able to have that project and see it all the way through, it’s just incredibly rewarding,” Edwards said.

Cornell iGem

Cornell iGEM is a project team that uses synthetic biology to develop solutions to issues spanning medicine, environment and human and animal health. Many students from iGEM spent their summers in Ithaca preparing for the iGEM Giant Jamboree, a competition hosted in Paris each November.

This year, iGEM is developing ENERGEM, an enzyme which converts caffeine into the biochemicals methylxanthine and paraxanthine.

“We’re creating these products because they have a high application to aggressive forms of myopia, which is near-sightedness,” said Michael Constant ’25, Wet Lab co-lead. “Making methylxanthine and paraxanthine chemically is low-yield and very, very expensive.”

iGEM’s project involves using E. Coli to produce caffeine-metabolizing enzymes, optimizing the enzymes and

designing a system to efficiently produce the compounds. According to Constant, iGEM’s biological method is not only cheaper, but can possibly produce high-yield, high-purity methylxanthine and paraxanthine for medical applications.

“[This summer], Wet Lab was doing a lot of [molecular] cloning and getting our plasmid into bacteria so that it could produce the enzymes to make methylxanthines,” Constant said. “Those enzymes would go into a bioreactor that the product development team is creating. They completed their first iteration over the summer.”

It is iGEM policy to have members from the Wet Lab, Policy & Practices and Product Development subteams spend their first summer in Ithaca working on iGEM projects. All iGEM members are invited to stay each summer, and students often split their time between iGEM, research, internships and other jobs.

“If we were to do work solely during the school year, it really wouldn’t allow us to have the full range of opportunity to develop our project and work as thoroughly as we’d like,” said Aindri Patra ’25, Policy & Practices lead. “It’s also a social opportunity for members to get to know each other beyond just work.”

The team made sure to balance work and fun. According to Constant, iGEM members would often spend their evenings together. The weekends consisted of gathering for socials, hosting outreach events at the Sciencenter or filming educational science videos for kids.

“We all went to my apartment, ordered food, and put on TV,” Patra said. “But we’d be working together for a solid five, six hours straight — holding each other accountable.”

Both Constant and Patra said they gained valuable knowledge this summer, especially regarding the importance of communication, project management and crossteam collaboration.

Applying to Project Teams

Project team application season is now in full swing, with recruitment having opened Aug. 14. While the application and interviewing process varies from team to team, all applicants must submit the General Project Team Application before proceeding to team-specific applications.

Numerous project teams are holding information sessions and coffee chats for students interested in applying, and Project Team Fest will be held in Duffield Atrium on Aug. 31, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“The County needs to hear from people who are impacted by our services and policies — that’s the only way we can improve.”

Travis Books, County Legislator

COURTESY OF CORNELL HYPERLOOP

Continued from page

Mia Tapas Bar and Restaurant Quality Dishes to Satisfy all Taste Palettes

By QUINTIN CERIONE Sun Staff Writer

Ihave been rather critical of the restaurant scene here in Ithaca. Sometimes, it’s hard to convince myself that it’s worth it to eat out in Ithaca, with the risk of having crummy food or paying way more than one should for a decent meal.

However, I will admit that maybe my dissatisfaction isn’t always the restaurant’s fault; like everything in life, sometimes your experiences depend on your approach to the situation in front of you. If you order the wrong entrée, neglect the appetizers or become too full for dessert, you may be missing out on what everyone else seems to be enjoying.

Despite the restaurant scene in Ithaca sometimes feeling like a barren wasteland with no hope of finding a place to satisfy my dining needs, I realized that Ithaca does have one restaurant that is truly in a league of its own: Mia Tapas Bar and Restaurant.

Mia is a Pan-Asian restaurant located in the heart of downtown Ithaca. Its location, nestled inside the Ithaca Commons, is accessible to all. They offer a number of exquisite appetizers and allow you to choose between a number of tapas (small dishes) or large plates for your entrée. I grew up in a family where we rarely chose to share our meals with one another. When we would dine out at a restaurant, it was typical for each of us to order our own entrée. At times, we would split an appetizer.

Every now and then my family would make the occasional visit to Mia and I would typically feast on the same entrées each time. I am a mighty fan of the half roast duck, and the savory taste of the lamb always leaves me completely satiated. The food is incredible. Until recently, I thought I was getting the most out of the establishment with what I ordered.

Shortly after the semester had ended, and the warmth of summer finally began to emerge from the dismal Ithaca spring, some friends and I decided to reflect on some memories over a nice Saturday evening meal at Mia. I was thrilled to indulge in my favorite dishes in town until the tapas menu caught my eye. I realized that I finally had the chance to do something totally different than what I have been accustomed to my whole life. Given the opportunity to share some plates with my friends, I opened a new chapter in my culinary life.

As I glanced over the menu, I was taken aback by the plethora of dishes. I had a craving for the thai-sun dried beef, but I felt like that was too easy of a choice. The steamed mussels seemed like a delicacy, but I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to fulfill my appetite. Once I took in all my options, it felt impossible to make a decision.

The prawns in Kerala southern Indian curry sounded remarkable and was a plate that seemed quite unique to me, especially for Upstate New York. The crispy baby pork shank, served with sweet soy & five-spice sauce, was a dish that I just could not refuse, and it only made my stomach rumble even more. To com-

plete my order, I just needed to add on a small bowl of rice and some naan. After the waiter took my order, my taste buds were frolicking with excitement for what came next.

Within twenty minutes, the food was delivered to our table. I was beyond excited to dig into this new world of food, but at the same time I was also a little intimidated. What if it’s not what I hoped it would be? What if it’s not enough to fill me? What if Mia isn’t as great as I always held it to be? The skepticism only lasted for a matter of seconds before my hunger took over. Before I knew it, my fork was crashing down onto my plates, swinging back up for me to take my first bites.

Instantly, I was blown away. The prawns were magnificent and the curry was out of

this world. The dish was filled with pungent flavors with its rich spices leaving my mouth watering for more. The naan was wonderfully soft and I felt like I was eating the curry off a pillow. I then went for the baby pork shank and was once again blown away. I’m not sure if I have ever tasted so much flavor in pork before — truly incredible. I nibbled on the rice, and although I can’t say it was anything special, it solidified the rest of my dishes, serving as a reliable base to soak up the flavor from my scrumptious meal.

Nearing the end of my meal, I collected the remaining curry from my plate with some naan and gnawed the pork off of my fork. I was full and did not even consider finishing off the meal with some dessert (even though their creme brulee trio sounded heavenly). I was at peace.

I have always thought of Mia as an exceptional establishment, but this meal only heighted my regards for it. I can comfortably say that you cannot go wrong with ordering your own meal or a number of smaller plates to share with. No matter how you approach your dining experience at Mia, you will come out a happy customer.

I strongly encourage everyone to take a trip down to Mia if they get the chance. I truly believe it is one of the most all-encompassing restaurants Ithaca has to offer. So many plates,

so many tastes. If you need a little something different to spice up your typical dining rotation, Mia is without a doubt a must-try establishment in the Ithaca scene.

Quintin Cerione is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at qcc2@cornell.edu.

COURTESY: ITHACA TIMES

Mia Tapas Bar and Resturant, located in the Ithaca Commons, opened in 2015.

SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OR GUEST COLUMN

The Cornell Daily Sun is devoted to publishing a broad and diverse set of content from the Cornell and greater Ithaca community.

We want to hear what you have to say about today's paper or any of our pieces.

Guidelines on how to submit can be found at Cornellsun.com. And here is our email: associate-editor@cornellsun.com

Daniel R. Schwarz

Should a Lottery be Added to the Admission Process?

To think admission to elite colleges has been fair is a form of magical thinking. For that reason, I propose we select a quarter of the entering class at Cornell as well as at other colleges where many qualified applicants are rejected.

Given the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that stipulated that affirmative action is unconstitutional as well as increasing attention to how legacies, donors, athletes and the very wealthy are favored, we need to ask the following questions:

1) How can the highly selective colleges achieve ethnic diversity in the face of the Supreme Court ruling?

2) How can highly selective colleges achieve socio-economic class diversity, including first generation college students?

3) Can colleges phrase the admission essays in such a way that we can get information necessary to have a diverse class?

4) Will elite colleges consider legacies on the same footing as other applicants rather than make legacies — especially multiple legacies — a deciding factor? Will these colleges continue to favor the children of the wealthiest legacies who are major donors along with children from families with significant donor potential?

5) Will the highly selective colleges continue to favor applicants from elite private secondary schools — and a small number of suburban public schools in wealthy areas — even though we know how much help some of them get not only from school counselors but also highly paid private advisors?

6) How much preference should be given to elite school applicants whose athletic skills will successfully represent the school in winning conference championships?

7) Will college limit favoritism to faculty/ staff children who apply and who have benefited from a different kind of affirmative action?

The college application process has long been scrutinized for its fairness, particularly around alleged racial quotas, as demonstrated by the case against Harvard University on which the Supreme Court recently ruled. While I am fully supportive of Diversity, Inclusion and Equality, I am not comfortable knowing a much smaller percentage of qualified Asian students were admitted than apply, just as I am uncomfortable with the knowledge that the same was true for Jewish applicants at elite private colleges and universities in prior generations.

But at the most competitive colleges, where administrators are seeking a diverse class of brilliant, well-adjusted students whose later accomplishments — including economic success — will bring luster and funding to their college and universities, the very question of how to determine who is fit for admission needs rethinking.

The counterargument to a lottery is “Human judgment must prevail,” but that pretends that there is enough available evidence to make an informed judgment. At present I conjecture that three or more times the number of applicants whom we accept for admission have outstanding SAT and ACT scores — if they submit them at all — as well as the same number of AP courses with the same scores and, due to

rampant grade inflation, virtually the same grades and similar recommendations. We cannot be sure how many hands wrote the application essay and if one or more of those hands were paid. If we don’t require SATS and ACTS, it is palpably discriminatory to use their absence as an indication of the student’s inferiority to those who do submit.

When I was writing my book How to Succeed in College and Beyond: The Art of Learning, I observed the Cornell admissions process in the College of Arts and Sciences for a few hours a week over the course of a number of years. Before my children applied here in the 1980s, I also volunteered to work on the committee one morning a week so as to learn how the process worked. I concluded that well-meaning people convinced themselves that they could make nuanced discriminations on what I regarded as little evidence.

One problem is the sheer number of applicants which due to the Common Application have grown exponentially. Even if we were to discuss every application for 15 minutes, we would need a larger admission staff. In fact, many applications thought to be from unqualified students were discussed in less than a minute. Lacking a staff to read extremely large numbers of applications, we now outsource applications to retired teachers and other alumni in the community.

As to alumni interviews, they are often conducted by close friends of the parents, especially in high income areas where a Cornell parent interviews the daughter of Brown parent whose son in turn is interviewed by the Cornell parent.

Sometimes the difference between acceptance and rejection is a compelling story such as a student having an unpaid internship volunteering to help physicians in Botswana, or sex workers in Thailand, or motherless elephants in Kenya. But do we think a young person from a modest working-class family who needs to earn money for college has such an opportunity?

Suppose that what follows was the first sentence of a college essay: “I am a Pacific Islander. My grandmother was born in a cave in Guam during the Japanese Occupation.” Now it happens this is, I believe, a true statement from a student I taught, admired and advised, but how, without a large staff of researchers, could admissions people validate such claims or indeed the ones mentioned previously.

Thus, I propose a lottery for a part of the class at Cornell and for each college and university that has far more qualified applicants than available spaces. field they chose to study, I would put some percentage of both the fall early decision and the spring regular decision into a lottery.

If we believe that in a democracy higher education is a value and if acceptance at an elite college is a bridge to success, then a lottery may be the fairest way to create opportunity and possibility for qualified applicants who might otherwise be rejected by admissions people who see differences when there may be none.

Daniel R. Shwarz is the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of English Literature and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow in the College of Arts & Sciences. He is Te Cornell Daily Sun's 2023 visiting columnist. He can be reached at drs6@cornell.edu.

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)

Bear with me

CLASSIFIED AD RATES

Ads are accepted at Te Sun’s ofce at 139 W. State Street downtown, by phone or e-mail. Deadline: 2:30 p.m. at Te Sun’s ofce on the day preceding publication. Monday’s deadine: Friday, 2:30 p.m. at Te Sun’s ofce.

Standard Rate: $3.95 per day for the frst 15 words, 39 cents per day per word thereafer. Five or more consecutive insertions, $3.70 per day for the frst 15 words, 37 cents per day per word thereafer.

Commercial Rate: $5.95 per day for frst 15 words, 40 cents per day per word thereafer. Five or more consecutive insertions, $5.75 per day for the frst 15 words, 38 cents per day per word thereafer.

Te Sun is responsible for only one day make-good on ads.

273-3606 classifeds@cornellsun.com

9 LOST AND FOUND

Lost Your Earrings?

If you’re a second-year CU student from Massachusetts, and you shopped for antiques with your family in Trumansburg a week or so ago, tell me the MA town you’re from, and I’ll give you your earring back. Contact slist@cornellsun.com.

10 FOR RENT

Homecoming on Cayuga Lake! Dream home, 3 bdr, 2 bath, 2 decks, private dock with view of Cornell, 15 minutes from campus. No Parties. Book a weekend this fall: https://www.airbnb.com/h/westsidestoryithaca

11 FOR SALE

Classical Piano Library (books and pieces from all periods) Price Negotiable. 315-339-4513

26 APARTMENT FOR RENT

cornellsuncom

************************ RENT NOW, GET THE BEST 2024-25 3 bedroom apartment 5 bedroom house 7 bedroom house 8 bedroom house ALL FURNISHED matoulashouses.com matoulashouses@gmail.com PHONE: (607)339-9644 FIRST – COME, FIRST – SERVED *************************

Mr. Gnu

Mr. Gnu

Mr. Gnu

SC I ENCE

Saturn, Super Blue Moon Align in Ithaca Skies

By LAINE HAVENS Sun Staff Writer

Saturn appeared close in the sky to a Moon that was both a supermoon and a blue moon on the night of Wednesday, Aug. 30. While the conjunction of Saturn with the Moon occurs frequently, it is rare for it to align with a Super Blue Moon.

A supermoon occurs when the Moon is at its closest position to the Earth. Because the orbit of the Moon around the Earth is elliptic, there are positions that are closer to the Earth and farther away.

While the supermoon title corresponds to a full moon satisfying certain physical requirements, like the close proximity to the earth, the blue moon simply refers to any moon which is the second full moon in a single month

Saturn reached opposition on Aug. 27, meaning it was directly opposite of and illuminated by the Sun. Opposition marks Saturn’s peak brightness and visibility from Earth — however, it will continue to be visible until Feb. 2024.

“It [gave] people a perfect opportunity, when they

[were] looking at the Moon, to use their binoculars and see if they might be able to see the rings of Saturn,” said Prof. Gordon Stacey, astronomy.

After Wednesday’s sunset, the Moon and Saturn appeared in the night sky about five degrees apart. The two celestial objects were close enough to view with the naked eye but too far apart to see together with a telescope.

“There’s a lot of stuff where it’s hard to see it with your eyes, especially in a light polluted place, so it is a little bit special when there’s things you can see even from a city with just your eyes,” said Gillis Lowry ‘24, Cornell Astronomical Society president.

Because the Moon was in close proximity to the Earth, it appeared somewhat brighter and larger than normal, according to Stacey.

“That difference [in position] is modest, but it’s something like a total of 40,000 kilometers, so [about] 10 percent the distance to the Moon, so it gets [about] 12 percent larger when it’s close to us than when it’s away from us,” Stacey said. “It’s a 25 per -

cent difference in brightness, but it’s hard for a person to remember how bright it was [on average].”

The Moon’s rotation and its orbit around the Earth are synchronized, meaning that the moon rotates once in the same time as it orbits once around the earth. Consequently, only one side of the Moon can ever be seen from Earth. The visible side reflects different amounts of sunlight, known as phases, depending on the Moon’s orbital position. For example, when the Moon is opposite the Sun, it is completely illuminated, and a full Moon will appear. However, when the Sun, Moon and Earth form a right angle, only half of the visible side is illuminated, creating a half-moon.

The lunar month is the time between successive new moons, the phase when the visible side of the moon is not lit by the Sun. A lunar month is just 29.5 days, therefore, there are about 12.4 lunar months per year and 37.2 lunar months per three years. However, only 36 calendar months pass in three years. This discrepancy explains the

existence of blue moons.

“Every three years, where there’s 12 months in a year, there’s going to be an extra [full] moon in one of the months, guaranteed,” Stacey said.

A true supermoon occurs about every 413 days, and a full moon within 90 percent of the closest distance to the Earth can happen multiple times a year. Under this definition, the final supermoon in 2023 will occur on Sept. 29. However, the Super Blue

Moon combination is less regular with the next two occurring in 2037.

“[A supermoon] is something that comes up a lot of times, so it’s not something you have to feel bummed about if you miss it,” Lowry said. “[But] it’s cool enough that it’s still somewhat rare. You can’t see it just every night.”

C.U. Researchers Study Photocathodes, HERACLES Beamline

By CRISTINA TORRES Sun Staff Writer

Researchers at the Newman Lab are currently experimenting on different photocathode materials and their degradation to improve their durability in harsh environments. In doing so, they will better understand phenomena, such as ion back bombardments, that only run at high currents.

Photocathodes, surfaces that emit electrons when hit by light, are used for many scientific instruments today — such as X-ray machines, free electron lasers, semiconductor manufacturing and electron microscopy. Shining specific types of lasers on these photocathodes will emit electrons based on the properties of the laser and photocath -

ode. Photocathodes, however, become damaged when exposed to these laser beams for long periods of time.

The High ElectRon Average Current for Lifetime ExperimentS (HERACLES) beamline is a test accelerator that can create an environment similar to that of the photo injectors used in some of the world’s largest particle colliders. HERACLES is a testing facility, used primarily in the development of foundational knowledge of photocathodes behavior in particle accelerators.

Generally, this environment is incredibly harsh on the photocathode, leading to performance degradation,” said Sam Levenson grad, who works in the Newman Lab. “By replicating those conditions in a controlled fashion, we

can perform research aimed at improving the photocathodes robustness.”

Photocathodes can be split into two families: metal photocathodes and semiconductor photocathodes. Metal photocathodes are a family of photocathodes made up of metals, such as coppers and magnesium. Semiconductor photocathodes are typically made up of gallium arsenide, gallium nitride and cesium antimonide.

The Newman Lab used quantum efficiency — a metric used to evaluate the ratio of the number of emitted electrons to the number of photons — to measure the sensitivity of the photocathode to light.

Their study found that metal cathodes last for long periods of time but do not exhibit high quantum efficiency, meaning they are not very effective at converting photons to electrons. Semiconductor cathodes, however, have very high quantum numbers but do not last very long. As the photocathode dies, quantum efficiency decreases, so the cathode is no longer sensitive to light or able to effectively convert the photons into electrons, leaving the photocathode ineffective.

HERACLES emulates these harsh environments of particle accelerators by running at high currents with powerful lasers. This, however, can have negative effects on the photocathodes.

“When the emitted [HERACLES] beam collides with residual gas molecules, it will make them positively charged. Since the ions have the opposite charge, they are accelerated towards the cathode,” Levenson said.

This interaction, called ion back bombardment, causes damage to the photocathode.

The Newman Lab is currently testing different locations of a growth chamber in relation to HERACLES, as well as different photocathode coatings, to promote advanced photocathode growth. High-efficiency photocathodes must be kept in vacuum to mitigate the effects of chemical poisoning from gas molecules, which can quickly degrade a photocathode.

The photocathodes are grown in a vacuum chamber located on a different floor of the lab in order to mitigate the effects of chemical poisoning, and they must be transported with a vacuum suitcase that connects to the back of HERACLES. This process takes time, leading to the degradation of the photocathodes. The construction of an attached growth chamber will allow for the photocathodes to be tested immediately after growth.

The researchers are also testing different semiconductor photocathode coatings to determine their sensitivity. For example, gallium arsenide requires a layer of cesium on the surface, which is an extremely sensitive chemical element that oxidizes quickly and easily. This leaves it extremely vulnerable to the ion back bombardment that degrades these photocathodes.

This area of research provides insight into the potency of photocathode sources on X-rays, electron microscopy and more devices that rely on photocathodes. Having photocathodes that can withstand more time in harsh environments will create more effective instruments not only in particle physics facilities, but also in hospitals and laboratories and other institutions that rely on this technology.

Photocathode laboratory | A visual representation of the HERACLES beamline, a machine that emulates harsh environments of the largset partcle colliders.

Cristina Torres can be reached at ct538@cornell.edu

Laine Havens can be reached at lfh36@cornell.edu

Rare sighting | The supermoon rising in front of the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. on Nov. 13, 2016.