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The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 135, No. 14
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
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Black Vernacular
Cayuga Sound
Homecoming Showdown
Partly Cloudy HIGH: 76º LOW: 64º
Professor John Rickford explained discrimination as a result of Black Vernacular English at his lecture. | Page 3
Peter Buonanno ’21 talks with artists performing at Cayuga Sound this weekend. | Page 11
Football is set for a grudge match with Yale at Schoellkopf this Saturday. | Page 16
Pocket Point Deals Wansink Faces Six More Retractions Researcher has had 13 papers pulled for ‘questionable research methods’ Likely to Change Over Next Few Days By MARYAM ZAFAR Sun Staff Writer
Six more of Prof. Brian Wansink’s papers were retracted Wednesday, increasing the Cornell Food and Brand Lab founder’s total number of retracted papers over the last 18 months to 13. Wansink is a well-known researcher whose research has been featured in many news organizations, and he previously led a White House food program in 2010. Many of his areas of research focus on subtle, situational shifts that allegedly affect individual eating habits, like whether being hungry can affect a grocer’s habits or the impact of plate size on eating habits. “This was quite a surprise,” wrote Wansink in an email to The Sun. “From what my coauthors and I believed, the independent analyses of our data sets confirmed all of our published findings.” The papers retracted Wednesday were written between 2008 and 2014, according to Retraction Watch. They were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and were investigated following an
“Expression of Concern” published this past May, according to a JAMA news release Wednesday. The May statement expressed concern about the validity of all JAMA papers authored by Wansink. “The decision to retract these articles follows the previously issued notices of Expression of Concern and was based on notification received from Cornell University that its investigation was unable to provide assurance that the results of the studies were valid,” a statement from JAMA Network said. “We appreciate Cornell University’s evaluation and assistance in addressing the important concerns about these articles.” Wansink’s work was initially criticized after a blog post that supposedly promoted questionable research practices in November 2016, The Sun previously reported. In January 2017, three researchers published a paper criticizing apparent statistical inconsistency. Alumnae and former lab researchers characterized his repeatedly retracted work as stains to the reputation of themselves and the University, The Sun previously reported. Food science major Dean Hauser ’17 found that Wansink’s “dodgy” research hurt the department’s reputation, and was frustrated by the association of scandal with Cornell Food See WANSINK page 4 COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Risky research | Prof. Brian Wansink’s publications have been criticized for research practices and inconsistencies. He now has 13 paper retractions.
Mars Rover Unresponsive Following Massive Dust Storm Though large dust storms can be common on Mars’ dry surface, this is the Sun Assistant News Editor planet’s most severe global dust storm in A massive Martian dust storm knocked decades, Squyres said. However, the storm out communication with NASA’s is now dissipating and Opportunity conOpportunity rover in early June, and now, tinues to to remain unresponsive. “The skies are clearing; the dust is setas the dust settles and the rover remains unresponsive, NASA is forced to recon- tling,” he said. “So either the rover is still sider the future of one of its most famous alive and we’ll hear from it, or it’s not alive and we won’t.” missions. The rover runs on “Our rover, which “I’d love to see him solar power from sevwas designed to last for 90 days and has been again, but ... we built it eral solar arrays, which make dust storms a paron Mars for 14 and a half years, has just been for Mars. I think Mars is ticular problem. Dust through the most trauwhere it should stay.” blocks direct light from reaching the arrays, matic event of its long “dramatically” affecting and eventful life,” Prof. Prof. Steven Squyres the amount of power Steven Squyres ’78 Ph.D. that can be produced, ’81, the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences, principal Squyres said. For now, investigators are waiting to investigator of the Mars rover missions, see if Opportunity will eventually regain told The Sun.
By HUNTER SEITZ Sun Staff Writer
The redeemable food discounts on the app “Pocket Points” are set to change over the course of the next few days. “Students will notice over time that the rewards will change, and will continue to change throughout the life of the program. In addition, redemption periods for specific offers will expand and contract,” said Karen E. Brown, director of Campus Life Marketing & Communications. The University and Cornell Dining are disagreeing on the ultimate direction of the app with members of certain Cornell campus eateries saying deals will no longer be honored after Friday Sept. “Students will notice over 21, despite the University assur- time that the rewards will ing users it intends change and will continue to continue the to change.” program. Pocket Points, Karen E. Brown first released in fall 2014, was created by Mitch Gardner and Rob Richardson. Within the first year of its release, the app was downloaded more than 200,000 times at more than 100 universities and colleges across the U.S., according to USA Today.
Long-lived | The
See POCKET POINTS page 4
COURTESY OF NASA
Opportunity rover was sent to Mars via a Cornell-led mission in 2003.
By SARAH SKINNER
enough power to respond to messages from mission control. “If there’s enough power, it will wake up and talk to us,” Squyres said. “The thing doesn’t have an off switch. There’s no way to actually turn it off. The problem with having an off switch is that you might accidentally use it.” NASA will continue “actively listening” for approximately the next month and a half, sending commands to the rover instructing it what to do rather than simply
waiting for communication. NASA currently transmits these commands multiple times per day according to a status update, which Squyres described as “time-consuming, costly, a lot of effort and, frankly, probably unnecessary.” “If we get enough power on the solar arrays, it will wake up and try to talk to us,” he said. Eventually, if the rover does not See ROVER page 4