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The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2001/02/26/fencing-prepares-for-ifa-champs/)

February 26, 2001

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Fencing Prepares for IFA Champs

By ryan | February 26, 2001

Entering the weekend, the fencing team knew that a near impossible task lay at hand. Not only would it have to battle against five teams on Saturday afternoon, but in doing so, the Red would also have to tackle some of the toughest teams in the league.

Competing at Penn State, the Red faced the host Nittany Lions — the national champions the last several years running — Temple, Penn, Columbia, and Hunter College.

Cornell left the weekend with a 1-4 record, its sole victory coming against Hunter.

“Despite the losses, everybody fenced their hearts out,” said senior tri-captain Ellyn Rajfer.

“We knew it was going to be our hardest weekend of the season,” senior tri-captain Patricia Blumenauer added.

Stephanie Glaser — still a freshman — may have had the best performance for the Red when she destroyed an opponent from Penn by a 3-0 score.

“She gave it her all and fenced really well this weekend,” explained senior tri-captain Elinor Granzow.

“It was amazing,” Blumenauer added about Glaser’s performance.

The Red will focus its attention on next weekend’s IFA Championships at Harvard, where it will once again meet many of the teams it saw this weekend.

Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj

Related

Late Candidate Added To Class Council Ballot

By ryan February 27, 2001

A fire that broke out in the Ivy Room two weeks ago prolonged the deadline for students to turn in petitions seeking candidacy in the Class Council officer elections next week. Nevertheless, the extra two days made available for petitioners to enter the races did not forestall any last-minute changes in the candidate lineup, released last night by Jennifer Davis, director of the Class Councils. While the Senior Class presidential election originally featured Lisa Adelman ’02 running unopposed, Davis’ official list showed two candidates vying for the position: Adelman and Danielle Martin ’02, the current Class of 2002 president. Following a Class Councils meeting yesterday, Davis notified Adelman that the Class Election Officer Committee — made up of the vice presidents for each class — would hear an appeal from Martin to consider accepting her petition past the deadline set by the provision of the Class Councils constitution. “Due to her academic and personal situation, she felt that there was justification for turning it in beyond the deadline,” said Christian Pierce ’02, Class of 2002 vice president and a member of the election committee. The committee agreed with Martin’s reasoning, thereby conditionally accepting her appeal and granting her a space on the ballots that will decide the election next week. “She had a rigorous academic course load which could have definitely hindered her ability to complete the packet at that time,” Pierce said. Confirming her candidacy last night following the committee’s deliberations, Martin expressed relief in the outcome. “I’ve been interested and involved in Class Council since when I set foot on campus,” she said. Should Martin emerge victorious next week, she will have represented the Class of 2002 during each of her four years at Cornell. The issues that Martin raised in her appeal, however, were not the only factors calculated by the election committee, Pierce noted. “I would say that we did take into account that it was an uncontested race,” he said. Adelman responded to this consideration, questioning whether the committee’s decision was rooted in a constitutional framework. From her perspective, the rules setting a deadline for candidate petitions are firm — and cannot be compromised. “I am the only candidate who had [the] petition and other required materials in by the deadline,” Adelman said. “I have faith in the process and that this matter will be resolved accordingly.” Claire Ackerman ’01, Class of 2001 president, who worked last November on amending the Class Councils constitution, asserted that the committee’s ruling need not be challenged. “They know what their duties and their responsibilities are,” Ackerman said. “They based their decision on what they felt was the most appropriate and legitimate reasoning.” Still, Adelman argued that the decision deserves a closer look. “Whether its an uncontested race or not, I do think the election committee should adhere first and foremost to their constitution,” she said. Adelman noted that she will return to the election committee today and present an appeal of their latest decision, adding that in the meantime, “I will just go about this as I normally would.”Archived article by Matthew Hirsch
Cornell Professors Looking To Prove Extraterrestrial Life

By ryan February 27, 2001

Cornell professors are searching the heavens for the presence of molecular oxygen and water that may lead to the discovery of life on other planets. Using data collected from infrared (ISO) and submillimeter wave (SWAS) telescopes, Prof. emeritus Martin Harwit, astronomy, built a strong case at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual symposium for a space observatory to monitor and search planets outside the solar system for water and oxygen. “We presented a set of satellite measurements that are beginning to tell us where various molecules that are important for the sustenance of life are present in the universe,” Harwit said. Planets outside our solar system have never been viewed clearly, according to Harwit, due to the fact that the stars near them emit so much light it overwhelms the viewing possibilities of the planet. Therefore planets similar to Earth have never been investigated. “We know very little about other planets like Earth. We know too little about small planets around other stars. That would be the main focus of this station,” Harwit said. The data collected so far has shown molecular oxygen to be very scarce, at least 100 times less abundant than water vapor, which seems to be present in large quantities in certain regions of the galaxy, according to Gary Melnick of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that monitored the SWAS telescopes. “We came up with the estimate of [an] Earth’s ocean worth of water vapor produced every few minutes. That would be enough water for if these interstellar clouds would collapse to a solar system it would form our system several times over,” he added. The project itself would take years to put together and more to operate. “What we really need to do is to think about this process as something that is going to take a number of steps from ten to twenty years,” said Prof. Paul Goldsmith, astronomy. However, the evidence for the generation of life creating molecules in interstellar clouds is encouraging evidence for scientists who believe there is life on other planets. “More than 100 different molecules have been found generated in interstellar clouds by non-biological chemistry. It’s very surprising that you can find molecules with up to 13 atoms in them,” Goldsmith said. Goldsmith said he is still unsure of whether there may be amino acids present in some galactic materials; these are the building blocks for proteins. Surfaces have not been studied or analyzed to see if they contain any life originating molecules such as oxygen or water. Martin Kessler, who worked in the operation of the infrared telescope investigating interstellar clouds, presented the evidence for the presence of these molecules. “Why water is abundant in some places and in other regions seems to be totally lacking is a question we need to answer. Because the regions between the stars are so cold it could be that the water is in solid form. One detects it in a different fashion; it’s easy to detect but harder to quantify,” Harwit said. The main indication of life present on a planet is unusual concentrations of molecules normally found only sparsely throughout space. “Let’s say you find another planet, you take its spectrum what’s in its atmosphere. If you can find evidence of things being out of equilibrium, one of the main suspect is that life is doing that,” Goldsmith said. According to Harwit, astronomers at the symposium were “very enthusiastic” at the idea of combining the capabilities of both telescopes and other resources for a space observatory that can monitor other planets uninhibited by our atmosphere or humans. Archived article by Leonor Guariguata