Brainspace fall2017

Brainspace GENIUS & FUN with augmented reality: KIDS 8-14 w TO LEARN

THE SCIENCE OF SPOOKY

BE A

MATH SHARK!

THE EVOLUTION OF BONES

DETRITIVORES Death Eaters of the Nutrient Cycle

USE TRICK ALGEBRA PATTERNS

Newly Discovered Sharks!

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EDITING HOLLY BENNETT GRACE BUELER ART DIRECTION GALEXY STUDIO DESIGN CHANNON LEATHLEY CONTRIBUTING WRITERS HOLLY BENNETT PASCALE BIDER JOHN HOFFMAN BEN MAYCOCK TANYA DANIEL VIDEOGRAPHY ALEX MIDDLETON FACT CHECKING JENNIFER ALEXANDER PUBLISHER BRAINSPACE PUBLISHING INC. PRESIDENT AND CEO NICOLE MIDDLETON

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WE ARE DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO OUR PARENT/CHILD ADVISORY COMMITTEE Laurie and Kenny Weeden; Christine Bhumgara and Tia Nguyen; Rachel and Audrie Meredith; Catherine, Jill and Delia Jansen; Valerie and Alex Brown; Julianne and Michael McKall.

MISSION Brainspace magazine endeavours to produce intelligent and engaging articles for students ages 8 to 14 in a format that bridges the gap between print and digital technology to expand literacy and promote optimal learning.

NOTE The opinions expressed herein are those of the respective authors and not necessarily those of Brainspace magazine or of Brainspace Publishing Inc. Brainspace magazine and Brainspace Publishing Inc. will not be liable for any damages or losses, howsoever sustained, as a result of the reliance on or use by a reader or any other person of any of the information, opinions or products expressed, advertised or otherwise contained herein. Where appropriate, professional advice should be sought.

ADVISORY BOARD: PAUL EEKHOFF, CHRISTOPHER EMERY, JANE GERTNER, ROSEMARY SINCLAIR-MUNRO, ARMANDO IANNUZZI, BRYAN MIDDLETON, NIGEL NEWTON 2 brainspacemagazine.com /BrainspaceMagazine @BrainspaceMag

c ntents page 32 5 kinds of precipitates

4 MATH: POLYGONS IN NATURE 6 CODING: SIMPLE ANIMATION 9 MATH: ALGEBRA TRICKS 10 SPACE: CANADA’S FIRST SPACE ROBOT 12 HISTORY: BONES AND THEIR EVOLUTION 14 BIOLOGY: COLLAGEN KEEPS YOU TOGETHER 16 SCIENCE: A NEW SPECIES OF HOMONID IS DISCOVERED 20 SCIENCE: EXPLAINING SPOOKY STUFF 22 EXPERIMENT: MAKING A CUP SCREAM 24 INFLUENCERS: REAL-LIFE MAD SCIENTISTS 26 BIOLOGY: DETRITIVORES OF THE NUTRIENT CYCLE 28 ZOOLOGY: A NEW SPECIES OF SHARK 30 MEDICINE: RESEARCH HELP FROM TINY ZEBRA FISH 32 CLIMATE: TALLULAH’S 5 TYPES OF PRECIPITATION 34 BIOLOGY: CLASSIFYING ALL LIFE FORMS

12 • THE EVOLUTION OF BONES

6 • ASCII AND SIMPLE CODING

><(((* >

26 • DETRIVORES

20 • THE SCIENCE OF SPOOKY

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math

Natural

POLYGONS T

he word geometry means to measure the Earth (geo: Earth, metry: measure). A polygon is a geometric shape and a fantastic tool to visualize the shapes of everything around us. A polygon is a closed figure with many angles (poly: many, gon: angles). It is typically identified by its number of sides. The triangle is the simplest polygon having the least number of sides â&#x20AC;&#x201C; three. But polygons can have up to a million sides (megagon).

The key to measuring anything is your ability to find what its geometric shape is. The area of a mountain is calculated using math formulas that are based on the shape, or polygon, being measured. Though you may not be planning on measuring a mountain anytime soon, understanding polygons gives you the power to eventually do so.

The pictures show some of the polygons you may spot in nature.

triangle

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REGULAR vs IRREGULAR Polygons can be very funky in shape with lots of spikes and extreme angles. Drawing as many angles as possible to form a closed shape can be challenging and produce very interesting irregular polygons.

Regular polygons have a defined structure with a specific number of sides which makes them easier to identify. Below, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve identified regular polygons with up to 10 sides.

Build these shapes with toothpicks, straws or other objects.

Do make sure the ends, called corners or vertices, connect to form a closed shape. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t limit your imagination.

COOL HEXAGONS Snow crystals deserve a mention as some of the coolest geometric phenomenA. Like people, each and every snowflake is unique in its appearance. The odds of finding identical snowflakes are 1 in a million. However, the same way every person has 2 eyes, every single snow crystal has 6 points. How does nature do it? Go to www.snowcrystals.com to find more to compare.

THE 2 MOST IMPORTANT REGULAR POLYGONS ARE:

Triangles

3-sided polygon. Types of triangles are equilateral (all sides are equal in length), isosceles (2 sides are equal in length), and scalene (no sides are equal in length).

Quadrilaterals

hexagon

4-sided polygon. Types of quadrilaterals include rhombus, trapezoid, kite, parallelogram, rectangle and square.

OTHER REGULAR POLYGONS ARE: Pentagon 5 sides Hexagon 6 sides Heptagon 7 sides quadrilateral

Octogon 8 sides Nonagon 9 sides Decagon 10 sides

CAN YOU SPOT A HEXAGON ON THE TURTLE? pentagon

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coding

simple ><(((* > animation coding

by Patricia Foster, written for Beanz magazine

When watching your favourite cartoon or the latest superhero blockbuster, it’s tempting to think that the characters on screen are actually moving.

Everything just looks so fluid! In reality, video is a clever deception. It’s actually a series of still images flashed so quickly that our brains are tricked into thinking that the images are one smooth sequence.

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Of course, the difference between neighbouring images has to be very small, or the motion looks jerky. There also have to be enough images – or “frames’”– per second for the illusion to hold. 24 frames per second (FPS) is the industry standard, but research suggests that our minds can create a smooth video out of as little as 16 FPS.

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Let’s make a simple animation with Py thon!

Setup First, open up your browser and navigate to www.repl.it and then type ‘Python’ or ‘Python3’ into the search box and hit Enter.

Drawing Frames

The most important part of animation is creating the images. To make things simple, we’re going to use ‘ASCII art’. This is a fancy way of saying we’re making images out of typed letters, numbers, and symbols.

For example:

Faces!

:-)

What is ASCII

:-D

:-O

Fishes!

><(((* > ><(((* < ><(((^ < ><(((^ > Waving

\(^u^)/

_(^u^)_ _(^.^)_ \(^.^)/

It is an abbreviation of ‘American Standard Code for Information Interchange’. It’s one of several systems programmers used to encode text on a computer.

Remember: since these images are strung together, the difference between them needs to be small!

The Code

Write the code snippet below into the left-hand window at the repl.it website: 1 2 3

import time

frames = [“/(^u^)/”, 4 “_(^u^)_”, 5 “_(^.^)_”, 6 “\(^.^)/” 7 ] 8 i = 0 9 for time_instant in range (2500): 10 print(“/r” + frames[i]) 11 12

time.sleep(0.1) i = (i + 1) % 1en(frames)

The ‘frames’ variable contain the ASCII images you’re going to animate. In order for the computer to read the letters properly, we have to explicitly tell the computer it’s dealing with text. We do this by adding quotation marks (both single and double are fine) around each image:

‘><(((* >’

Don’t worry — the quotation marks won’t show up in the animation.

When you’ve finished setting up your images on the repl.it website, hit the ‘Run’ button at the top-left of the screen, and watch the animation! brainspace FALL 2017

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Here’s how the code works!

THE LOOP In order to animate the pictures, we have to tell the computer when to display each one.

Instead of using complicated timers, our code uses a loop. At each ‘time_instant’, the code inside the loop is executed, and the print statement displays a new image onscreen, over and over, for a total of 25 images.

If you change ‘range(25)’ to ‘range(50)’, the animation will run twice as long, because it shows twice as many images. Try it yourself!

TIME.SLEEP

A computer can do millions of operations in a single second. Left to its own devices, it would animate our pictures far too quickly for us to see anything. ‘time.sleep(0.2)’ tells the computer to pause – to do literally nothing – for 0.2 seconds.

Play around with the number inside the brackets for faster and slower animations!

><(((* >

INDEXING AND MODULAR ARITHMETIC Our frames are stored in a list. Behind the scenes, the computer assigns each picture a number, so you get frame 0, frame 1, frame 2, etc. In this code, the letter i is going to vary between numbers 0 and 3. On the first run, i = 0. The next time, i = 1. Once i reaches 3, it loops back to 0 for the next round. Because we only have 4 frames, it wouldn’t make sense for i to go any larger than 3! (In computer science, numbering systems start at 0 hich means that the 4th frame is at position 3. ) This brings us to the most bizarre line in the program : i = (i + 1) % len(frames).

Well, the (i+1) part seems pretty straightforward; we’re increasing i by one ‘len(frames)’ is counting the number of pictures in our list. So if we have 4 pictures, len(frames) = 4.

The percentage sign is the mod operator. If the addition operator (+) is an industrious builder, then the mod operator is a big scary guy with an axe. Any number bigger than the predefined bound (in this case, len(frames)) is chopped back down to 0. So 4 % 4 becomes 0, whereas 5 % 4 becomes 1. In other words, modular arithmetic is used to keep numbers within two boundaries, 0 or 1.

A Note on ASCII Characters The ASCII system contains all the characters you expect: letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0-9) and symbols Character Description (/, *, &, %). But it also has whitespace characters; like spaces, tabs, and ‘newlines’). To make these characters \s space more readable, ASCII uses a special notation. \t tab The carriage return moves the cursor to the start of \n new line the line. The next frame prints superimposed on top of \r carriage return the previous frame to create the illusion of animation.

Some computers interpret ‘\r’ as a newline character, same as ‘\n’. This has to do with low-level operating system decisions we can’t really control. In those cases, the animation won’t be seamless. But you still see your character move down the screen.

><(((* > 8

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Now go code something! @BrainspaceMag

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math

Algebra is easily the most fun type of math. Who doesn’t love tricks, riddles or puzzles? That’s what algebra is all about. Try the exercise below! You’ll feel the magic too!

lain. n help us exp ca ra eb g al at th where the Here’s a trick digit number ere th y an n 951.

Write dow er, like 842 or rd o g in as re ec t the digits are in d s and subtrac er b m u n se o th ever your Then reverse the first. W hat m o fr er b m numbers u second n add those two en th , it e rs ve 853. answer is, re h the number it w te ra st lu s il together. Let’ 5

853

− 358

495

49

+ 594

1089

In other words, the difference has to be a multiple of 99. Since the original number has digits in decreasing order, a − c is at least 2, so it must be 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. Consequently, after subtracting, we are guaranteed to have one of these numbers:

Now try it with a different number. What did you get?

Remarkably, as long as you follow the instructions properly, you will always end up with 1089! Why is that?

Start with the three-digit number abc where a > b > c.

Just as the number 853 can be simplified to its base 10 value to = (100 x 8) + (10 x 5) + 3, the number abc has a value of 100a + 10b + c. When we reverse the digits, we get cba, which has value 100c + 10b + a. By subtracting, we get

(100a + 10b + c) − (100c + 10b + a) = (100a − a) + (10b −10b) + (c − 100c) = 99a − 99c = 99(a − c)

198, 297, 396, 495, 594, 693, 792, or 891 In each of these situation, when we add the number to its reversal,

198 + 891 = 297 + 792 = 396 + 693 = 495 + 594 = 1089

we see that we are forced to end up with 1,089.

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space space

t x e D

bot ly o r This t exact no ut may 2D2, b st be R e close th r he’s g so fa thin

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Dextr

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6 3.

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ís a d a n a C : re

Meet Dextre. a Canadian-made robot who “lives” and works on the International Space Station. Dextre, whose real name is Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, does everything from fixing broken parts, changing batteries, and servicing cameras to helping unload equipment that spacecraft deliver to the space station. Dextre has also been used to refuel mock satellites in hopes that spacecraft can be refueled in space someday.

“One of Dextre’s main jobs is fixing things that are broken,” says Ken Podwalski, Director of Space Exploration Operations and Infrastructure at the Canadian Space Agency. “Space is a very harsh environment. The temperature goes from terribly cold to terribly hot every 45 minutes, so the hardware and connections take quite a beating and have be replaced regularly.”

Dextre, who stands 3.6 metres tall (and 2.3 metres wide at the shoulders), looks sort of like a skinny Transformer with very long arms that can bend and twist all kinds of ways. His “hands” are pretty cool too. “Dextre’s hands are actually grippers that work much like a Swiss Army knife, ” says Podwalski. Each hand has a motorized socket wrench to turn bolts and connect or detach hardware, and a special plugin connector to provide electricity, and data and video connections when needed to power equipment and experiments. Dextre’s hands are also equipped with a camera and lights so operators can get a good close-up look at what the hands are doing.

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Robotic Space Handyman

Check out this video to see how Dextre works to fix broken space equipment.

How is Dextre Operated?

Dextre is operated by flight controllers at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) or the Space Centre in Houston. The operators sit at keyboards and input step-by-step commands to tell the robot what to do. Everything Dextre does has to be broken down into teeny-tiny, bit-by-bit steps. It takes a lot of planning to get those commands ready. “We’ll do literally thousands of hours of planning to get ready to do a one-hour operation,” says Podwalski.

When Dextre is working he moves very, very slowly. The videos you see on the CSA or NASA websites are sped up. “We have to be very careful with Dextre,” says Podwalkski “When we go to pick something up we move about one centimeter at a time. We also limit the amount of voltage that can go to the joint, so the arm wouldn’t have the force to be able to do any damage.”

Does Dextre Make Mistakes?

Not really. But a few things haven’t gone as planned. For one thing, when they first powered up Dextre one of the astronauts noticed that when they’d give the command for Dextre to twist to the left he would actually twist to the right. “It was a simple coding error. We fixed it before it became a problem,“ says Podwalski. “And then one time we had to pick up the International Docking Adaptor, which is way bigger than what Dextre was supposed to be able to pick up. But we figured out how to do it. We’re always learning with Dextre.”

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history

1.5 billion years ago 500

635 million years ago 1.5 billion years ago, the earth was a very different place. There was very little life besides algae, and what little life did exist was aquatic.

Because of the powerful movement of Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tectonic plates, massive quantities of minerals were carried into the oceans. This surplus of minerals, including calcium, is what eventually allowed organisms to develop hard and mineralized body parts, like bones.

540 million years ago Before bones, all forms of life were soft-bodied, meaning they did not have shells, teeth, or solid skeletons. Most organisms would have looked like modern jellyfish, sponges, or worms.

Some did have internal structures resembling skeletons, but these were made of softer cartilage instead of bone.

Precambrian 12

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The first hard mineral body parts to appear were called conodonts.

These structures were made of dentine or enamel and looked like cone-shaped teeth.

They were developed by organisms similar to modern day eels, who used them for hunting or for protection against predators.

Cambrian

million years ago

In the Ordovician period, jawless fish of the agnatha class developed bony face shields. These were made from many different types of bone tissues and helped protect the fish.

These shields were special because they were inside the fishâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body, under the skin.

This made them one of the earliest known elements of an endoskeleton.

The tissues that composed these early endoskeletons are thought to be well preserved to this day.

The tissues in our bones are still very similar to those of the agnatha fish.

Ordovician @BrainspaceMag

440 million years ago

Over this period of time, more and more different classes of fish began to appear.

Now, there were fish with skeletons made of cartilage, but also fish with skeletons made of bone. Among those with bony skeletons, there appeared lobefinned and ray-finned fishes. As humans, we are related to the lobe-finned class, and the bone structure of our arm still has a lot in common with the bone structure of the fins of these ancient fishes.

Silurian /BrainspaceMagazine

BY PASCALE BIDER

Inside every single one of us, there are bones. They give our bodies structure, protect our organs, and contain important minerals. We have what is called an endoskeleton, meaning that our bones are inside our bodies. Bones are made of cells surrounded by hard calcium phosphate and collagen. Now, we couldn’t live without our bones, but millions of years ago, animals didn’t have any bones at all! So how did bones get inside us? To answer that question, we need do some time travelling!

410 million years ago

Descendants of the lobe-finned fish developed lungs that were able to breathe air. Thanks to this, they were able to begin living on land.

These organisms became known as tetrapods, or the first amphibians. In order to be able to move easily on land, the tetrapod’s bones and skeletons had to become stronger to better support the body’s weight when out of the water.

Devonian

140 million years ago

360-290 245 million years ago million years ago 210 million years ago

During this period, skeletons continued to evolve and adapt to their new environments. As body shapes changed, more and more new animals began to appear, such as reptiles.

In the Triassic period, the first dinosaurs appeared. Some dinosaurs, like the brontosaurus, had pneumatic bones.

This means that their bones were hollow, and had air pumped through them by air sacs. Other dinosaurs, like triceratops, did not have any air spaces in their bones.

Carboniferous Permian

Triassic

The Jurassic period saw the evolution of even more new organisms. During this time, mammals appeared, as well as birds. Because they evolved from dinosaurs, birds also have pneumatic bones. The sacs that pump air through their bones allow them to get oxygen while breathing in as well as when breathing out.

Jurassic

The past 500 million years have been full of change. Bones have progressed from small protective spikes to full skeletons that are essential to an animal’s function.

Even now, as species continue to evolve and adapt, skeletons and bones are changing.

When you see spooky skeletons walking around this Halloween, think about how much time it took to make them look the way they do today, and what they might look like in the future!

To Present brainspace FALL 2017

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biology

Collagen Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what keeps you connected

You probably know the most abundant substance in your body is water. But what comes second? The surprising answer is collagen.

Collagen is a group of proteins that make up the connective tissue in your bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skin, bones, muscles, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. In the following activity, you can get a feel for the properties of this amazing substance by experimenting with gelatin, which is made from animal collagen.

Protein power Collagen is one of the most common proteins in nature, and your body produces it with the help of the food you eat. Soy products are high in collagen, as are dark green vegetables and red fruits and vegetables.

CONNECTIVE TISSUES

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try this

Materials

Method

∙ Unflavoured gelatin

1. Cover your work surface with newspaper. Empty 1 envelope of gelatin into the paper or plastic cup.

∙ Water

2. Add 2 teaspoons of water and stir rapidly with the straw.

Continue until the gelatin is well mixed and thick enough to scoop out with your finger.

(such as Knox™ brand) ∙ Paper or plastic cup

3. Take some of the gelatin mixture and knead it between your hands. Form it into a ball and let it sit for 2-3 minutes.

∙ Teaspoon ∙ Straw

What connective tissue looks like!

Pick up the ball of gelatin and give it squeeze. Now bend your ear and let it go. Can you feel the similarities between your ear and the gelatin? Your outer ear is made up largely of cartilage, a connective tissue built from collagen fibres.

Now gently push down on your nose and let it bounce back. Is there cartilage in your nose?

Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Bend forward and feel the thick cord behind your ankle. This is your Achilles tendon. A tendon is another type of connective tissue that attaches muscle to bone. Compare the feel of the tendon with your gelatin.

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history

Say Hello to

I D E L A N HOMO lps discover he t is nt ie sc an A Canadi tree the human family on er mb me w ne a

By Holly Bennett

A Tight Squeeze

Marina Elliott

Marina Elliott was a PhD student at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, when a Facebook ad looking for excavators for a cave in South Africa, where some hominin fossils had been spotted by local cavers or spelunkers.

For the young paleo-anthropologist, who’d done a lot of recreational caving, it seemed like a perfect fit. She got the job because of her knowledge and skill – and because she was the right size.

The expedition leader, Lee Berger, explained that the route into the Dinaledi chamber of the Rising Star cave system includes a “pinch point” of only 18 cm (7 inches) wide, so everyone on the excavation team had to be able to fit through this small gap. “We all spent time stuffing ourselves under furniture to make sure we’d be able to do it,” says Marina. “But I don’t think I really grasped what it would be like until we actually went into the cave to check it out.”

At first it didn’t seem too difficult. Then they reached the part called the “chute.”

“It’s a deep crack into the chamber, and the pinch point is partway along. You look down the chute and it basically looks like a series of sharks’ teeth going down for 12 metres.”

Marina admits she had a moment of doubt. But the next day, the team went all the way in and she was the first down.

NOTE: All caricatures are true renditions of the female team that explored the treacherous Dinaledi chamber of the Rising Star cave system in South Africa.

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Specimen: Homo naledi Description: right proximal femur composite photo http://www.morphosource.org/Detail/MediaDetail/Show/media_id/6540

Paleoanthropologist A scientist who studies the origins and development of early humans.

Hominin A biological group consisting of modern humans, extinct human species and all our immediate ancestors.

(Hominid is a bigger category, including all Great Apes).

Fossil The remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mould or cast in rock. Body parts, like feathers and bone, can become petrified (turned into porous, fragile rock) when their organic matter is replaced over thousands of years by harder minerals, like calcite and silica.

Specimen: Homo naledi Description:3D rendering of right metacarpal http://www.morphosource.org/Detail/SpecimenDetail/ Show/specimen_id/2122

A New Species is Discovered The team expected to find the remains of maybe one skeleton of a known species. Instead they found a huge treasure trove of hominin remains. “We brought up over 1,350 fossil fragments over 21 days of excavation. We soon realized we had way more than one individual,” says Marina.

In the second week, the team realized something even more exciting: the remains did not match any known species. “We brought up a large piece of skull, and it looked different from anything we’d seen. The skull shape of each hominid species is quite distinctive, so suddenly we were asking, “what are we dealing with here?”

More and more fragments were discovered that did not match existing evidence. And because the team had the remains of multiple individuals, they could find more than one example of these oddities to be sure they weren’t the result of a deformity or injury.

This was a brand-new species on the human family tree! They named it Homo naledi.

Alia Gurtov

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Want to see Homo naledi fossils in 3D? Use Blippar to scan the skull and watch it rotate. To see more skeleton parts, visit the link below: http://morphosource.org/ Detail/ProjectDetail/Show/ project_id/124

Specimen: Homo naledi Description:3D shape files of composite skull (skull and mandible) http://www.morphosource.org/Detail/SpecimenDetail/ Show/specimen_id/2422

ELEN FEUERRIEGEL

The Mystery

Introducing Homo naledi

Why would a cave contain over 1,500 Homo naledi fossils – and nothing else? “After the first few days, the scientists at the surface asked if we were selecting only the hominin bones, because we weren’t bringing up any other kinds of fossils,” remembers Marina. “But that is all we found.”

This really puzzled the scientists. How did the bones of just one ancient species get there? The Rising Star team thinks it’s because the cave was used as a kind of burial ground, to dispose of bodies. Some scientists are skeptical that a non-human species would do that, but so far nobody has found a better explanation!

Recently, the team announced that they had found a second chamber containing naledi remains in another part of the cave. This area contains the remains of some small animals, but provides more evidence that Homo naledi was using the Rising Star cave in a special way.

The Rising Star scientists have learned a lot about this early human relative. In some ways Homo naledi seems very primitive: it had a very small brain and powerful shoulders, like living apes. But it also had long legs, more like modern humans. Their teeth, says Marina, are very similar to humans and other late hominins and reveal that they likely ate a mixed diet.

“And,” she says, “they were pretty healthy – the bones don’t show signs of obvious disease.”

The big surprise? While the shape of the skull first suggested the species might be a million years old or more, it seems this population is much more recent.

After using a number of different dating methods, the results suggest that the Dinaledi remains are only 350 to 250 thousand years old. That’s actually pretty young on the evolutionary family tree. Homo naledi might even have met our own species, Homo sapiens!

K LINDSAY HUNTER

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By Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom - Stringer, Chris (10september 2015). “The many mysteries of Homo naledi”. eLife 4: e10627. DOI:10.7554/eLife.10627. PMC: 4559885. ISSN 2050-084X., CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43130024

What was it?

not quite human or ape, it’s h. naledi To Berger and his team, the bones they found clearly belonged in the Homo genus. But the skeleton was unlike any other known member. This was a new species! They called it Homo naledi (pronounced na-LED-ee), in honour of the cave of the Rising Star region, where the bones had been found. In the local Sotho language, naledi means “star.”

Human/homonid) features

Ape/australopithecine) features

Humanesque skull

Narrow primitive shoulders

Versatile hands

Flared pelvis

Long legs

Curved fingers

Human-like feet

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science

The Science of

BY JOHN HOFFMAN

Why do many people believe in ghosts?

There are many reasons, no doubt. Here are a few examples of scientific research that can help explain why people believe in things that seem impossible.

Most scientists agree that ghosts, haunted houses and other spooky things exist mostly in our imaginations. But even so, a surprising number of Canadians believe in ghosts.

The Unseen Presence People who talk about ghosts or hauntings often say they felt or sensed a nearby presence, even when they couldn’t see it. Why might they feel that way? Some scientific experiments provide us with some clues.

As Egon Spengler often said in The Real Ghostbusters cartoons, “Difficult to say.” But it’s clear that people’s perceptions can be influenced by outside forces in ways that make them feel like something, or someone is there, when there isn’t. Mix that with people’s imaginations, emotions, and beliefs, and it’s no wonder that many people believe in ghosts, haunted houses, and other things supernatural.

In a 2006 poll, two in five people said that either they or someone they knew had been in the presence of a ghost.

And one in ten said they had lived in a haunted house.

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Magnetic Fields Magnetic fields exist in all sorts of places. Some come from the earth and some are created by electrical devices such as televisions, computers, and even alarm clocks. Magnetic fields can affect the brain and body in various ways, including some we’re not really aware of. Michael Persinger, a professor of psychology at Laurentian University in Sudbury, found that most people said they sense and “unseen presence” when he applied a weak magnetic field over the right hemispheres of their brains, using a special helmet that he called “The God Helmet.”

Brain Tricks In a spooky experiment, Professor Olaf Blanke tricked people’s brains into feeling like there was an unseen, ghostly presence in the room. Test subjects, who were blindfolded and wearing earplugs, moved their hands while attached to a robotic device. That device relayed signals to a robot arm, which was behind them. When the subjects moved their hands in a certain way, the robot arm poked their backs. When the robot arm’s poke was in synch with the subject’s movements, their brains could tell that they were causing the pokes. But when researchers delayed the timing of the poke so it was out of synch with the person’s movements, people said it felt like someone else was touching them. Some said it felt like someone, or something, (like a ghost) was in the room with them.

Haunted Places British psychology researcher, Richard Wiseman (who started out as a professional magician) investigates the presences of magnetic fields at some locations that are widely believed to be haunted, such as Hampton Court Palace, a London castle that was built in 1515. He found that natural magnetic fields were more variable (they changed more often) in the environments of haunted places. Researchers say that the experiences people report in supposedly haunted places are very similar to the neurological and mental symptoms of people exposed to toxic molds or fungi. Many hauntings are reported in older buildings that would be more likely to have various kinds of mold and fungi.

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science

How To Make a Cup

Scream

Explore sound vibration and amplification with this easy and effective demonstration.

materials •

plastic cup • string (cotton or yarn work best) • a paper clip • paper towel • a nail • scissors • water

1

Cut a piece of yarn about 20 inches (40 cm) long.

With an adult’s help, use the nail to carefully punch a hole in the center of the bottom of the cup.

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2

Tie one end of the yarn to the paper clip. Push the other end of the yarn through the hole in the cup and pull it through as shown in the picture.

3

Cut a piece of paper towel into a rectangle that is about the size of a money bill. Fold it once and dampen it in the water.

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4

Hold the cup firmly in one hand, and wrap the damp paper towel around the string near the cup. While you squeeze the string, pull down in quick jerks so that the paper towel tightly slides along the string. /BrainspaceMagazine

How does it work?

This demonstrates how a sounding board works. A sounding board is a thin sheet of wood over which the strings of a piano are positioned to increase the sound produced. In this demonstration, the rubbing of the string produces vibration, but alone it can hardly be heard. The cup amplifies the sound.

try ic on Listen to mus e. your cell phon g While the son t is playing, pu ide the phone ins ry a glass. Now t a bowl. Is the d? sound affecte

try Try different types of string like nylon or thread. Does it change the sound?

try Use a variet y of cup sizes. Tr ya paper cone or a plastic funn el.

How does it affect the sound?

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geography influencers

Peculiar Pet Scientists are well-known for being creative thinkers. In order to come up with revolutionary theories and imaginative new ideas, you really have to think outside the box. But sometimes, scientists think so far outside the box that their ideas can seem... a little crazy! From strange pets to wacky experiments, here are a few of historyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oddest scientists.

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Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer who lived at the end of the sixteenth century.

His research on the position of stars laid the groundwork for a lot of what we know about astronomy today. However, Brahe was known to be rather eccentric in his personal life. Among other crazy antics, he was reported to have owned a pet elk that lived with him in his house. This pet elk enjoyed drinking beer, so much so that it actually died from drinking too much and falling down the stairs!

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Freaky Physics Wolfgang Pauli was a brilliant physicist with many notable accomplishments, including the discovery of the neutrino particle and the foundation of quantum physics. His work even earned him a Nobel prize in 1945. But things were not always easy for Pauli. In fact, he believed himself to be under some kind of curse!

Whenever he was in the lab, scientific equipment would break and go wrong all around him.

Was this just coincidence or was the curse real? To this day, no one knows for sure...

Master of Mind Control José Delgado was a neuroscientist who invented the “stimoreceiver.”

This creepy device was composed of electrodes that, when implanted into the brains of animals, allowed Delgado to control their behaviour. In a famous demonstration, Delgado implanted his electrodes into the brain of a bull, then waved a red blanket at it. The enraged bull charged at him, but when Delgado activated the electrodes, the animal stopped in its tracks! Delgado felt that his invention would be beneficial in medicine, but the rest of the scientific world disagreed with the idea of doctors using mind control on their patients.

Eventually, Delgado had to retire the stimoreceiver for good.

Painful Procedures Alien Ancestors Francis Crick is well-known for contributing to the discovery of the structure of DNA. However, he was also interested in other, more mysterious branches of science. Crick believed in the theory of directed panspermia. According to this theory, living creatures didn’t appear on Earth naturally. Crick believed that our ancestors were intentionally placed on Earth by aliens. While this theory may seem a bit out there, some people still believe in directed panspermia to this day!

If you’ve ever been stung by a bee, you know it hurts a lot. Now imagine getting stung by 25 bees all over your body! You would have to be crazy to let that happen to you on purpose, right? And yet, this is exactly what scientist Michael Smith did to himself for a 2014 study. His goal was to determine where on the body it is most painful to be stung by a bee. His verdict? Stings to the nostril are the worst, followed by the upper lip.

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biology

by Pascale Bider When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re hungry for a snack, the last thing you want to eat is something dead and rotten. But to a detritivore, anything dead is a delicious dinner!

Detritivores, meaning eaters of detritus, are the organisms responsible for decomposing organic material once it is no longer alive. Basically, they eat dead stuff! When plants wilt, or when animals die, detritivores will consume and break down their remains back into their most basic organic elements.

How detritivores eat

1 1 11

2 2 22

3 3 33

4 4 44

Detritivores Detritivores Detritivores release release release release Detritivores Organism Organism Organism Organism is is dead isisdead dead Detritivores Organism Organism Organism Organism is is alive isisalive alive Detritivores Detritivores Detritivores absorb absorb absorb absorb nutrients nutrients nutrients nutrients Detritivores release Detritivores absorb nutrients Organism is alive alive Organism isdead dead digestive digestive digestive digestive enzymes enzymes enzymes enzymes and and organism and and organism organism organism is is decomposed decomposed isdecomposed isdecomposed decomposed digestive enzymes and organism is

Detritivores can be fungi, bacteria, or water molds.

They are so good at decomposing because of the unique way they eat.

Detritivores feed using a process called absorptive nutrition.

Instead of ingesting their food and digesting it inside their bodies, detritivores will release digestive chemicals onto the dead organism they want to eat.

Zombies should fear these death eaters!

The entire fungi kingdom including mushrooms, yeasts and molds are all detritivores! There are also animals that are detritivores including millipedes, springtails, woodlice, dung flies, slugs and many terrestrial worms. Zombies arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t safe in water either. Marine detritivores include sea stars, sea cucumbers, and fiddler crabs.

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These chemicals break down the organism into basic molecules, and the detritivores are then able to absorb the nutrients they need. This process is important to detritivores, because it allows them to eat, but it is also important for the well-being of the ecosystem as a whole. By breaking down organisms into simple molecules, detritivores play a crucial role in the nutrient cycles of our planet.

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Detritivores in the Carbon Cycle The carbon cycle is a global process that controls how much carbon is in the athmosphere, and how much of it is contained in the plants, animals, and earth. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how it works:

There is carbon in the atmosphere.

Plants absorb it through the process of photosynthesis.

When animals breathe, they release some carbon back into the atmosphere. Plants also release some carbon through the process of respiration.

1

2 4

3

The whole process starts again!

3 When the plants and animals die, detritivores break them down.

This process releases the carbon that was still contained in the organisms back into the atmosphere.

Detritivores in the Nitrogen Cycle The nitrogen cycle is another nutrient cycle in which detritivores play a key part. It regulates how much nitrogen is present in the atmosphere, and how much is in the earth. The nitrogen cycle works as follows: Animals eat the plants.

Nitrogen exists in the atmosphere as the molecule 1 N2. It is fixed into the earth by lightning or by nitrogenfixing bacteria. In this process, it is transformed into different compounds such as nitrates or ammonia.

3

The animals poo and pee.

4

6 2 Plants absorb ammonia from the soil.

6

The ammonia can then be re-used by plants, or returned to the atmosphere as N2 by denitrifying bacteria.

5 Detritivores break down the animalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; poo as well as the animalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; bodies when they eventually die, transforming both back into ammonia.

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r h a k!

S 300m

below sea level

Sharknado and Shark Week have fascinated us with sensational stories of this large predatorial fish. Sharks have been the subject of fiction in movies, bragging rights for surfers, and headlines in news stories. This year, scientists uncovered something remarkable: a new species of shark in the ocean, one that is tiny but mighty.

Combine a firefly and a foot-long shark,, and you get a tiny glowing animal called a lanternshark . As cute as this shark sounds, thes e creatures are tough predators. in They are found deep cold depths the dark and frigidly s l hundreds of meter of the ocean, severa ernshark’s special underwater. The lant cence. Its glow is power is biolumines actually an effective quite pretty but it’s g prey. The prey are method of attractin light that they swim so captivated by the unting is a whole towards the shark. H comes to you! lot easier when prey rnivorous and will Lanternsharks are ca imals such as eat small deep-sea an h. krill, shrimp, and fis

Papuan Lanternshark

400m

below sea level

Laila’s Lanternshark

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In February 2017, a new species of lanternshark was encountered near the northwestern Hawaiian Islands in the central area of the north Pacific Ocean. Its common name is Laila’s Lanternshark but researchers will often refer to it as Etmopterus lailae. The shark found was about 37 centimeters long. Scientists propose that this shark is likely to inhabit ocean depths of approximately 300 to 400 meters.

In comparison to other lanternsharks, Laila’s Lanternshark has no scales on its underside and a longer snout. Researchers believe that this enhances its sense of smell when hunting. Interestingly, Laila’s Lanternshark also has fewer teeth and a higher number of vertebrae in its spine.

NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED Species: Etmopterus lailae Common name: Laila’s Lanternshark Location: North Pacific Ocean Length: 37 cm long Ocean depth: 300 m to 400 m Features: long snout, no scales on its

underside, fewer teeth, higher number of vertebrae in its spine

Species: Etmopterus samadiae Common name: Papuan Lanternshark Location: Central Pacific Ocean Length: 15 cm to 28 cm long Ocean depth: 350 m to 800 m Features: black horizontal dash markings on its sides

If one newly discovered shark species isn’t enough to fascinate you, how about two? Just a month later, a new lanternshark species was announced named Etmopterus samadiae, or commonly known as the Papuan Lanternshark. This type of lanternshark was noticed in the western area of the Central Pacific Ocean near the northern shores of Papua New Guinea. This shark is short in length, measuring 15 to 28 centimeters. The Papuan Lanternshark is found hiding in even deeper parts of the ocean ranging from 350 to 800 meters underwater. As well, it has a number of unique black horizontal dash markings on its sides. Overall, this shark species is similar, yet distinct from the other lanternsharks.

ized s as of 2016, lanternshark specie will be at least gn There were 38 reco

is year, there and by the end of th . It’s added to the record two more officially much the progress of how quite exciting to see ssing sharks with each pa we’ve learned about y

e hopeful that man ies will be made more shark discover . Here’s to in the next 20 years

ar year. Researchers

pressive discovering more im mer! shark facts next sum

Actual size!

Compare with this ruler.

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innovation

P L E H G I B es from

Small Creatur

Scientists are always working together to discover new ways to cure diseases, but some are collaborating with some very surprising (and very small) creatures in the name of making kids and adults feel better.

Casper zebrafish

Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Fast Fact

by Ben Maycock

Zebrafish: Allies in the fight against cancer Can you imagine being able to look inside your body to see if your medicine is working?

Casper, a variety of zebrafish, allows scientists to do just that. Its translucent (see-through) skin acts as a window for doctors to observe the zebrafishâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cells as they look for cures for diseases such as cancer.

Zebrafish are ideal specimens for doctors to study how the human body reacts to new treatments. This tiny fish has many of the same organs as humans including the brain, heart, liver, spleen, pancreas, gallbladder, intestines, kidney, testes and ovaries. It also shares many genes with humans, a surprising 70 percent of them.

These similarities mean that the zebrafish can develop many of the same types of tumours we can.

Scientists introduce cancer-causing cells (xenografting) or genes (transgenesis) into the fish to study how the disease can be halted. By attaching a glowing green protein to the cell or gene, scientists can watch as tumours grow and then shrink as they respond to experimental treatments.

Zebrafish reproduce at a fast rate â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a mating pair can produce 200-300 embryos a week. And they grow fast, developing as much in one day as a human does in one month.

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Watch SciShow’s video “The Tiny Fish That’s Changing Modern Medicine” to learn how zebrafish are used in medical research.

The Berman Zebrafish Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia will be playing a big part in the exciting new Canadian project to battle cancer, Terry Fox PROFYLE (Precision Oncology For Young peopLE).

Fast Fact The genes in our microbiome outnumber our human genes by about 100 to 1.

The Microbiome: The world inside of you Like the planet Earth, the human body is not just a single organism but a collection of ecosystems made up of microbes, living things too small to be seen with the naked eye.

Bacteria, viruses, and fungi are some types of microbes you may be familiar with, but there are many different types of life forms within you. While some microbes can cause disease, most are essential to keeping our bodies healthy.

A community of microbes is called a microbiome. Your body plays host to a number of microbiomes, each one a unique environment that is only habitable to certain microbes. We get our microbiomes from the environment at birth. As we grow and change, our microbiomes change with us. Where you live, what you eat, even the pets you keep can change your microbiome.

The digestive tract is a warm, damp environment that plays host to your most populated microbiome. Many of the microbes living in this ecosystem are helpful to the human body: aiding in digestion, strengthening the immune system and directing the body to do important things like store fat.

Crohn’s disease is a disease of the digestive tract that is becoming more common in Canadian children. Scientists hope that by changing the balance in the microbiome (through diet, for example), microbes will help in the battle against the illness.

As we grow and change our microbiomes change, with us.

Where you live, what you eat, even the pets you keep can change your microbiome.

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climate

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by Tanya Daniel

CLASSIFY ALL LIVING THINGS USING A FUN MNEMONIC DEVICE TO REMEMBER 7 DIVISIONS OF

Taxonomy:

King Philip Came KINGDOM

CLASS

PHYLUM Chordata are animals with notochords. All vertebrate animals belong to this phylum.

The phylum divisions for non-chordata animals are numerous. There are 33 in total.

Chordata include Mammalia (mammals), Aves (birds), Reptilia (reptiles), Amphibia (amphibians), and Pisces (fish).

Non-chordata include Porifera (sponges) Cnidarians (jellyfish, corals, sea anemones) Platyhelminthes (flatworms) Nematoda (roundworms) Annelida (earthworms) Echinodermata (sea star, sea urchins, sea cucumbers) Mollusca (squid, snails) Arthropoda (insects, ticks, spiders, grasshoppers, lobsters, crabs)

BUT TER

STA RFI S

HUM AN

Animalia (animals), Plantae (plants), Fungi, Monera (bacteria), Protista (ancient singlecelled life-forms). Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re identifying animals only in this exercise. However, taxonomy applies to all kingdoms of life.

H

FLY

34

ANIMALIA

>

CHORDATA

>

MAMMALIA

>

ANIMALIA

>

CHORDATA

>

FISH

>

ANIMALIA

>

ECHINODERMATA

>

ASTEROIDA

>

ANIMALIA

>

CHORDATA

>

MAMMALIA

>

ANIMALIA

>

ARTHROPODA

>

INSECTA

>

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W

hen scientists discover a creature, they can’t just call it by any name. They follow a universal classification for all living things. It is known as taxonomy.

All living and extinct creatures have been classified into seven divisions: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. We use the mnemonic device: King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti (note the first letters) to help us remember.

Why do we classify? Being able to group and chart similar creatures together allows researchers to observe the evolution of life on Earth. Each taxonomy division highlights a particular trait that is distinctive to a creature.

Taxonomy is hierarchical. It starts from biggest and goes to smallest. It begins with the Kingdom: Is the creature a

plant, animal, bacteria, fungus, or ancient single-celled life form? Let’s say animal. It then becomes more specific with Phylum: Does it have a notochord (a rod or spine) supporting its body? Yes. Now let’s determine its Class: Is it a mammal, fish, bird, reptile, or amphibian? Mammal.

OK. Now let’s figure out its Order: Does it have hooves, feet, flippers or wings? This type of thinking continues until we’ve reached the Species of the animal in question.

Taxonomy can become a fun guessing game with friends. Wikipedia is helpful when researching this work.

Have a pet? Classify it! Create a chart like the one below to add more animals like creepy crawly spiders which are arthropods. What is Sponge Bob? A porifera of course! A starfish, like Patrick, is classified below. Have fun!

Over For Good Spaghetti ORDER

FAMILY

There​ ​are​ ​about​ ​ 500​ ​orders​ ​in​ ​the​ ​ Animalia​ ​kingdom​ ​ alone.​ ​Some​ ​ common​ ​orders​ ​ include Primates​​ (monkeys),​ ​ Hymenoptera​​(ants,​ ​ bees,​ ​wasps),​ ​and​ ​ Salientia​ ​(toads​ ​and​ ​ frogs).

PRIMATES

>

SALMONIFORMES >

GENUS Animals​ ​in​ ​the​ ​same​ ​ genus​ ​are​ ​closely​ ​related​ ​ so​ ​they​ ​have​ ​very​ ​similar​ ​ characteristics​ ​as​ ​well as​ ​habits.​ ​A​ ​specific​ ​ example​ ​is​ ​the​ ​genus​ ​ Mustela​​which​ ​group​s ​ small,​ ​active​ ​predators​ ​ with​ ​long and​ ​slender​ ​ bodies​ ​and​ ​short​ ​legs​ ​ like​ ​the​ ​weasel.

Families​ ​are​ ​grouped​ ​ together​ ​by​ ​physical​ ​ features​ ​that​ ​are​ ​more​ ​ easily​ ​observable​ ​ with​ ​the naked​ ​eye.​ ​ For​ ​instance,​ ​all​ ​cat​s​ ​ with​ ​their​ ​different​ ​fur​ ​ patterns,​ ​from​ ​as​ ​small​ ​ as​ ​a housecat​ ​to​ ​as​ ​big​ ​ as​ ​the​ ​lion,​ ​fall​ ​within​ ​the​ ​Felidae​ ​family.

HOMINIDAE

SPECIES

>

SALMONIDAE >

HOMO

Every​ ​animal​ ​is​ ​uniquely​ ​ classified​ ​with​ ​their​ ​very​ ​ own​ ​species​ ​name.​ ​By​ ​ definition,​ ​males​ ​and females​ ​of​ ​the​ ​same​ ​species​ ​ are​ ​able​ ​to​ ​mate​ ​together​ ​ to​ ​make​ ​healthy​ ​babies​ ​ of​ ​their​ ​own​ ​kind. There​ ​ are​ ​approximately​ ​60​,​000​ ​ vertebrate​ ​species​ ​and​ ​1.2​ ​ million​ ​invertebrate​ ​species!

>

ONCORHYNCHUS >

H. SAPIENS

SALM ON

O. TSHWYTSCHA

>

BRISINGIDAE

>

ASTROLIRUS

>

A. MANNINGSTAR

RODENTIA

>

CAVIDAE

>

CAVIA

>

CAVIA PORCELLUS

LEPIDOPTERA

>

NYMPHATIDAE

>

DANAUS

>

D. PLEXIPPUS

GUIN EA PIG

BRISINGIDA

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, t i Wa

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