The Tech Digest (Vol. 2, Issue 3, JAN 2022)

The Tech Science Digest Dec-Jan 2021 Volume 2, Issue 3

Introductory Articles-3 Memory and Sleep Omicron, The Newest COVID-19 Variant Overeating and the Importance of Mental Health Treatment Burnout is Real. Here's How To Spot It - And Recover Viruses: Living or Nonliving?

Remembering Christa McAuliffe

Biology- 9 The Biology Behind Autumn Leaves Harnessing Knowledge on Hormones to Improve Health How Effective is the Covid 19 Booster Shot?

Are we still affected by Natural Selection?

A New Species of Ancient Human Proposed

Chemistry-15 New Way to Create Energy The Creation of Pharmaceuticals and Blue Light

Astro/Physics- 18 Don't Look Up What Kills Galaxies?

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Earth Science-21 Pouring of Ancient Earth?

Ancient Life Found in Rubies New Mineral Discovered New Look into Earth's First Continent

Environmental Science-26 Climate Change by 2500 An Unknown Type of Storm

Technology-29 Mind-Controlled Robots Artificial Intelligence Transition into Factories

Upcoming SNHS Events - 32 Sources-33

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Memory and Sleep Having trouble matching your classmates’ faces to a name? The solution’s simple. Go to sleep!

Through an experiment, researchers at Northwestern University concluded that people’s name recall and face recognition improved dramatically when their memories of recently-learned faces and name associations were reactivated during their sleep.

The only condition was that the sleep had to be uninterrupted.

In the experiment, participants were asked to memorize eighty pupils (forty from a hypothetical Japanese history class and forty from a Latin American history class). When each face was displayed again, they were asked to recall the name. Afterwards, when the participants napped and reached the “deep sleep” phase, names were played along with music related to the class (Japanese/Latin American). When the participants woke up, they were able to recall more names than before!

The results’ effects aren’t restricted to name recall. It’s also a breakthrough in understanding the connection between sleep and memory. It reveals that high-quality sleep is extremely important to improve memory storage. So if you sleep, remembering names and passing tests are a piece of cake!

Author: Mylien Lai

Omicron, The Newest COVID-19 Variant

It's been almost two years since the start of the pandemic, and yet another variant has emerged. The new variant, omicron (aa·muh·kraan) is by far the most concerning variant, compared to previous variants such as delta and alpha. According to Dr. Leong Hoe Nam of Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital in Singapore, "omicron will dominate and overwhelm the whole world in three to six months." Despite promises from the CEOs of Moderna and Pfizer, the leading pharmaceutical companies responsible for the COVID-19 vaccines, to produce an omicron targeted vaccine in a few months, Dr. Leong Hoe Nam believes that by that time, practically everyone will have been infected with omicron, deeming the idea of creating new vaccines impractical.

Although omicron is highly transmissible and can possibly evade immune protection you may have, doctors believe that the existing vaccines we have will provide a degree of protection against omicron.

Vaccine effectiveness may be reduced, but vaccines and boosters should still provide a "good level of protection," according to Dr. Syra Madad, an epidemiologist at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Leong agrees with Dr. Madad, adding that many countries still have low vaccination rates, and that omicron is "threatening the whole world" and could overwhelm health-care systems with the surge in cases.

Our best protection against omicron is to get vaccinated, get boosters, keep our distance and continue to wear our masks.

OVEREATING AND THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT BY: FRANCESCA NEGRI

A significant portion of Americans today suffer from obesity, however, the treatment offered to help these people is often focused only on treating their physical condition without taking into account one’s mental health. The medical advice given to obese individuals primarily involves instructions to eat less overall, eat healthier foods, and exercise more frequently. While this type of guidance seems straightforward and logical it fails to address the psychological issues that lead to the unhealthy behavior of overeating.

Trine Tetlie Eik-Nes, an associate professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, recently conducted a project to study the effects of “interdisciplinary treatment that considers the psychological aspects of morbid obesity.” All 42 of the people who participated in the project had been diagnosed with third-degree obesity or seconddegree obesity with additional health problems.

Eik-Nes was inspired to complete this study in the hopes of gaining greater insight on the possible beneficial impact of treatment designed to help both the patient’s physical and mental health. She believes that the medical world’s current understanding of the relationship between treatment of obesity and overeating is severely limited. She explains that habits of overeating generally can’t be simplified to just an unusually large appetite, genetic susceptibility, and “laziness.” In fact, research has been done which proves that overeating can often be tied to certain

internal and external stressors such as childhood trauma, contempt for the body and social difficulties.

The new treatment used in Eik-Nes’s project consisted of teaching sessions and small group discussions where participants were able to “dissect” their everyday lives and identify the things which triggered them to repeat episodes of overeating. Overall, the study proved to be rather successful. There was approximately a 30 percent reduction in the number of overeating episodes that patients experienced while receiving the treatment as well as reports of significantly improved emotional issues such as anxiety, depression and irritability. The primary goal of Eik-Nes’s treament was to emphasize emotional safety and openness and evidently this method has produced beneficial results for participants.

Long-term analysis of the treatment has yet to be completed, however, the work of Eik-Nes and her team is hopefully building a foundation for further research on the relationship between obesity and psychological disorders. Research which may prove to be beneficial for helping individuals struggling with problems such as overeating which not only takes a physical toll on one’s body but can have a serious impact on a person’s mental well-being.

By Katherine Chmelev

BURNOUT IS REAL. HERE'S HOW TO SPOT IT-AND RECOVER. Burnout is increasingly becoming more significant in workers nowadays, especially in the midst of the pandemic. As a response to chronic stress, burnout is not only exhaustion and feeling mentally drained, but it can also be forgetting the meaning of everything you do, or feeling like you’re bad at what you like doing, as indicated by psychologists at the Maslach Burnout Inventory.

Burnout is not only mental, but it is also physical - coming from the body’s stress-response system. Scientists studying burnout more specifically look at the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or the HPA axis. The HPA axis releases a hormone called cortisol when we are alarmed by something threatening, which raises heart rate and helps the body collect its energy from glucose to help run from said threat. Additionally, cortisol will suppress any activity in other systems of the body that aren’t necessarily significant at the moment, such as the immune system. When the hypothalamus in the brain senses large amounts of cortisol in the blood, it shuts the stress response down and its work is essentially done.

We do need cortisol to survive though. When people feel burnt out, they’re tired, functioning with improper amounts of cortisol. This can lead to memory change and cognitive disfigurement.

While burnout might sound similar to depression, they’re very different. Burnout can cause depression, and depression could lead to burnout. The main difference though, is that burnout is mostly a work-related issue. When you get away from work, you don’t feel that burnout. Depression doesn’t work that way - it doesn’t just go away. That means that any time you’re around work, you feel that terrible burnout feeling. Taking time off or doing self care doesn’t change that.

The main things that factor into the intensity of burnout are things like workload, the amount of freedom you have in the workplace, fairness in Dexamethasone is a drug that tells the hypothalamus to decrease the workplace, how you’re stress response, therefore making a person produce less rewarded/compensated for your work, the cortisol. However, multiple studies have shown that people with overall community, and whether or not your burnout have a different response to dexamethasone - either work aligns with your interests. So, that means having little to no reaction at all and continuing to produce the that management at your job can try to make same amount of cortisol, or having extreme responses to the your job a more friendly environment by trying drug by suppressing too much cortisol. Researchers believe that to create a welcoming, supportive, and easy this is a sign of two stages: burning out, and being burnt out. going environment to minimize stress.

So, the burning out stage happens when your stress response system just goes into overdrive. Cortisol levels increase as stress Sometimes, fixing burnout might even mean does, and at one point, your stress response gets so tired that you changing your job completely or looking for things that you truly want to work on to make stop producing cortisol at high levels. We do need cortisol to things more enjoyable. The solution isn’t always survive though. When people feel burnt out, they’re tired, rest: it’s making a change in your workplace and functioning with improper amounts of cortisol. This can lead to memory change and cognitive disfigurement. changing your approach to your work sometimes.

So, the burning out stage happens when your stress response system just goes into overdrive. Cortisol levels increase as stress does, and at one point, your stress response gets so tired that you stop producing cortisol at high levels.

Viruses: Living or Nonliving? By Maya Tello When we think of whether something is living, a checklist comes to mind: can the organism reproduce, does it require metabolism, can it evolve? If the organism does not fit some of the requirements listed, out of the 8 characteristics, then it's automatically categorized as nonliving. However, are there unique circumstances in which it can somehow be both? Biologist Patrick Forterre of the Pasteur Institute in Paris seems to think so.

In 2011, Forterre argued that viruses alternate between an inactive state (outside a cell) and a living, metabolically active state (inside a cell) that he calls the virocell, hence arguing that a virus can be both nonliving and alive.

However, due to the fierce debate of the categorization of viruses- whether they are alive or not, viruses are usually disregarded and considered as ‘not urgent to study’ when in reality, they are an integral part of all living organisms.

This leads to many viruses remaining unknown but if explored, can actually help lead to new discoveries.

In fact, viral genetic sequences that have permanently taken up residence in the genomes of all organisms, including ours, can help us fight off other viruses. Viral DNA is required for the formation of the mammalian placenta- it is essential in the growth of early embryos, and the human innate immune system even has traces of ancient viral proteins that help make it up.

Shockingly enough, when a person is combating COVID-19, they are being assisted with the help of viruses that settled in our cells long ago.

Colin Hill, an infectious disease specialist at University College Cork in Ireland, remarked “Without viruses, one cannot fully understand the mechanisms of evolution.” In fact, some scientists consider viruses to be the world’s leading source of genetic innovation. In short, viruses are tightly weaved into our everyday life and even every living organism's genetic material, so it is important to acknowledge viruses' existence and explore it to learn more about our world and the things that inhabit it.

REMEMBERING CHRISTA MCAULIFFE A couple numbers: 11,000 applicants 1/28/1986 62 °F 73 seconds As a social studies teacher in New Hampshire and a mom, Christa McAuliffe represented an opportunity to break past the norms of a traditional society. She embodied the mission of the Challenger because it was a trip, not only to test the limits of “man”kind, but also the expectations of women to remain in the domestic sphere. Her message to “Reach for the stars” was personal to the American people. So, they watched through a TV screen as the Challenger shrank into a growing cloud of smoke and grieved for this lost symbol of possibility. Despite the tragedy of the Challenger, Christa McAuliffe’s legacy continues in the next generation, earnest for change. In 1986, women held 14.4% of all bachelor degrees in engineering. In 2019, that number is at 22%. Although we have yet to attain true equality, the bravery of pioneers like Christa McAuliffe will continue to be “one small step” for humanity.

Biology

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THE BIOLOGY BEHIND

AUTUMN LEAVES Every fall, leaves on trees change color from green to warm colors such as red, orange and yellow. This is a result of chemical reactions within the leaf due to changes in weather.

Leaves have several compounds that are responsible for their pigment: chlorophyll, xanthophylls, carotenoids, anthocyanins, and tannins. The presence of chlorophyll dominates over all the other colors from other compounds.

In fall and spring, leaves are green because of the high levels of chlorophyll in the leaves. Chlorophyll is unstable so trees have to constantly synthesize them, but warm temperatures and sunlight is needed.

In autumn, the decrease in temperature causes chlorophyll levels to drop, and carotenoids and xanthophyll pigments become more visible.

These compounds give off colors by absorbing different colored lights.

Different colored lights have different amounts of energy, purple having the most and red having the least. For instance, beta carotene, a common carotenoid, absorbs green and blue light to reflect red and yellow light, causing an orange appearance.

Xanthophyll is responsible for the yellows of autumn leaves by absorbing blue light. Anthocyanins absorb blue, blue-green, and green light, therefore reflecting red light.

Hence, it is easy to determine the main compound in leaves depending on the color.

Moreover, other factors such as temperature, light, and water supply affect how much color we see and how long we can see them. Warm and wet weather allows trees to synthesize more chlorophyll and delays the changing of color. Cold and dry weather depletes chlorophyll supply, inducing color changes.

Next fall, notice how the colors of the leaves are different from the previous year. More importantly, enjoy the colorful trees!

Harnessing Knowledge on Hormones to Improve Health BY: FRANCESCA NEGRI

Aavia is a mobile application designed to help users track their hormone cycles, enabling people to gain insight on how changes in hormone levels can impact their physical and mental health. From quality of sleep to skin health, our fluctuating cycles can significantly alter how we are feeling on a day to day basis.

The Aavia brand was founded in 2017 by MIT alumni, Alexis Wong, Aya Suzuki and Aagya Mathur. The three were originally brought together by their desire to raise awareness about female health and its relation to the hormone cycle.

“We’re helping people have a better health journey than their mothers,” claims Mathur. Aavia is working to combat the societal stigma that still exists around the menstrual cycle in the hopes of helping people gain a deeper understanding of how hormones play a major role in our journeys to improved health.

Although it originally started out as a way to address the problem of “forgetting to take the pill,” Aavia has developed into a community that provides all kinds of support for users dealing with hormone related issues such as acne, anxiety, and even premenstrual dysphoric disorder. The app offers “actionable insights” depending on one’s hormone cycle. For instance, it can alert a user about what days they are more likely to feel anxious and recommend some things that can be done to reduce heightened stress levels.

Aavia is paving the way in changing people’s perception of hormone cycles. There is power in better understanding how our bodies work and Aavia shows users how to harness that power to successfully decrease stress and increase confidence!

By Katherine Chmelev

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COVID-19 BOOSTER SHOT? A new model from United Kingdom researchers indicates that the COVID-19 booster shot protects people 85% more against experiencing extreme symptoms of COVID-19.

A team at Imperial College London created a model using information about the omicron variant, as stated by BBC News. They found that while the vaccine’s succession rate is dipping slightly, the booster shop has an 80-85.9% chance of stopping severe symptoms.

However, scientists are still unsure about how much more severe the omicron variant is in comparison to other variants. With that, the main thing that must be done by governments right now is to minimize any potential impact and stress the importance of getting booster shots.

According to The Washington Post, a lab study indicates that the omicron variant can surpass all of the COVID-19 vaccines, but the plus side is that it has much less severe COVID-19 symptoms if you’re vaccinated.

The main thing to do right now is to get vaccinated if you aren’t already, and in terms of dealing with omicron right now, you should get your booster now.

ARE WE STILL AFFECTED BY

NATURAL SELECTION?

By Adam Santana

Natural selection is a phenomenon that has possessed an undeniable impact on human development and evolution over the millennia in which mankind has existed, but the influence it holds over modern humans is still a hotly debated subject in the scientific community. A new study published November 13th in the scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour, however, suggests that natural selection has continued to have an active role in shaping the human genome in the past 3,000 years.

The study was done through cross-referencing and comparing the collected DNA of people of European ancestry available through the U.K. BioBank, as well as datasets of ancient human DNA, comparing three distinct time periods: the modern era; the past 2,000 to 3,000 years; and up to about 100,000 years ago. Through tracking the appearance of genes and their frequency over time, the researchers could infer which traits were being positively or negatively selected for—genes that appear more frequently likely have traits that are positively selected for, while those that appear less so are likely to be correlated with negatively selected traits.

Among these came a few surprising results: genes with seemingly entirely negative traits associated with them, including those that account for skin cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and anorexia nervosa, have increased in frequency! This suggests the fact that these conditions are only side effects, and the genes responsible for them may control other more positive traits, resulting in them continuing to be selected for. Alternatively, these traits might have once had benefits made obsolete as a result of the changing times—perhaps inflammatory bowel disease would have been useful in a time when a highly active immune system could have safeguarded against infections of the intestines.

Of course, as with any study, there is the possibility of error and misinterpretation. Genes are, well, complicated. It becomes difficult to definitively state that a gene causes a specific trait to occur, only that they may be associated. This results in a difficult comparison between two demographics, where differences may appear at first glance to be genetic in nature when they were actually the result of their respective environments—an error known as stratification. To draw upon a common example, when doing a study comparing the genes of Tokyo and London, it may appear that the former possesses a gene corresponding to heightened skill in using chopsticks. However, in truth, that skill is solely the result of practice due to cultural traditions, not an inherent aspect of an individual’s genome.

By studying our genome and how it continues to be shaped in the modern era, we can better understand the inner workings behind our worst diseases and our best characteristics.

A New Species of Ancient Human Proposed

If we hope to better understand evolution, it’s crucial that we look back in the annals of history upon our own ancestors—including two ready to be replaced.

Homo heidelbergensis is a rather elaborate name for a species of human alive during the Middle Pleistocene, a period spanning 780,000 to 126,000 years ago, that has served as a classification for any fossils that didn’t fit neatly into Neanderthals, H. sapiens, or H. erectus. However, it has been criticized for misattributing newly discovered fossils and confusing the origin of Homo sapiens, especially after a recent array of DNA evidence has suggested that some Homo heidelbergensis fossils actually belong to early Neanderthals—thus, its inclusion among our ancestors could be considered redundant.

Similarly, Homo rhodesiensis has held a rather contentious history. Initially proposed as the most recent ancestor of H. sapiens and Neanderthals, the species had never achieved a great deal of recognition or popularity, due in part not only to its vague and nebulous classification criteria but also its namesake being Rhodesia’s violent and aggressive colonizer, Cecil Rhodes.

As such, a group of paleontologists has proposed that a new species be named: Homo bodoensis, named after a 600,000-year-old skull discovered in 1976 in Bodo D’ar, Ethiopia. All fossils found of Homo heidelbergensis and Homo rhodesiensis in Africa will be retroactively recategorized under this new species, while fossils found in Europe will be reclassified as Neanderthals.

By Adam Santana

Chemistry

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New Way to Create Energy “A research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has identified a new way to convert ammonia to nitrogen gas through a process that could be a step toward ammonia replacing carbon-based fuels.” This discovered technique utilizes a metal catalyst and releases energy.

It’s important for scientists to find a source besides carbon to create energy in order to accomplish the goal of being carbon neutral.

From this, “the UWMadison team is proposing a nitrogen energy economy based on interconversions of nitrogen and ammonia.”

It turns out the ammonia addition to a metal catalyst containing ruthenium produces nitrogen with no additional energy.

Electricity can be produced by this process having protons and nitrogen as byproducts. “In addition, the metal complex can be recycled through exposure to oxygen and used repeatedly, all a much cleaner process than using carbon-based fuels.”

Ammonia was actually burned back in the times of World War 2 but the products that were released were toxic nitrogen gas.

However, this new way that was discovered does not have toxic byproducts. “The group's next steps include figuring out how to engineer a fuel cell that takes advantage of the new discovery and considering environmentally friendly ways to create the needed starting materials.”

The Creation of Pharmaceuticals and Blue Light

BY MAYA TELLO Who could have known blue light and the creation of more sustainable pharmaceuticals would have ever overlapped? To the shock of many, including chemistry researchers at the University of Bath, this overlap has been reported to significantly reduce the amount of energy needed and the chemical waste created in the manufacturing process.

Normally the process of synthesizing small-molecule drugs is complex and results in waste that is toxic and difficult to get rid of. In fact, as of now, for every kilogram of a drug made, around 100 kg of waste is produced. However, with the help of blue light, the synthesizing of nitrogen-containing chemicals called primary amines reduces the complexity of synthesizing drugs, uses less energy, and drastically reduces the amount of waste produced.

This breakthrough was put to test when a team of researchers at Bath, led by Dr. Alex Cresswell, a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the University's Department of Chemistry, synthesized a drug used for multiple sclerosis, Fingolimod. The test turned out to be a success and results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Doctor Cresswell emphasizes the importance of this discovery by highlighting the relief it can give to the environment: "People don't really think about the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to carbon emissions, but some studies have calculated that big pharma emits more than the automotive industry." Now, the amount of carbon the pharmaceutical industry produces can be cut down.

Whilst the new process is not likely to be quickly implemented by pharmaceutical companies due to the high demand for existing drugs, the team hopes that the method might speed up the process of discovery and development of new drugs, by making it easier to synthesize new chemical structures for testing which will also appeal to pharmaceutical companies in the long run. In fact, the team is now collaborating with several pharmaceutical companies to scale up the process.

Astro/Physics

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Don’t Look Up Picture this: You’re on the very top of the roller coaster ride and, being scared of heights, your friend in the seat next to you tells you to close your eyes and “Don’t look down.”

It doesn’t stop the reality of the tiny houses dangling below your feet or somehow make the metal bars around you feel more secure, but you still heed that advice anyways. Afterall, you’re unprepared if the worst happens.

What would you do if, looking up one day, you see a shooting star growing increasingly bigger as it heads in your direction?

“Don’t look up.”

That’s the name of the movie released in December of 2021.

Now, in January of 2022, with five asteroids “nearly” missing Earth by more than a million miles, the story sensationalized by the media, and the weaponry of “planet killers” we’re faced with, the movie feels especially applicable. As an allegory for climate change, it points out our habit of denial. As one humanity, we are underprepared for a crisis, whether that’s the sudden appearance of asteroids on the path of Earth or the gradual deterioration of our home planet. Although that advice to not look can seem enticing, we need to be aware that it does not equate solving the problem.

What Kills Galaxies?

Astronomers know that galaxies are being killed by their environment.

But why? The Virgo Environment Traced in Carbon Monoxide Survey— VERTICO reveals the physical processes affect molecular gas and how they dictate the life and death of the galaxy, as when enough gas is robbed or destroyed, star formation is shut down and the galaxy becomes dead.

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, lies within the Local group, in which the nearest galaxy cluster is the Virgo Cluster. The VERTICO project observed the gas reservoirs of 51 galaxies in the Virgo Cluster in highresolution and found an environment so extreme and inhospitable that it can stop entire galaxies from forming stars through a process known as galaxy quenching, or gas stripping. Gas stripping occurs when galaxies are moving so fast through hot plasma in the cluster that vast quantities of cold molecular gas are stripped away from the galaxy. The Virgo Cluster is almost like a galaxy graveyard, so to say!

Although with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), large amounts of data were gathered, more research still needs to be done to fully understand the mechanisms of dying galaxies!

Earth Science

21

Pouring of Ancient Earth?

“Today, we are experiencing the dramatic impacts that even a small increase in global temperatures can have on a planet's climate.” There is not much known about the behavior of the clinage and atmosphere during what is called the hothouse periods. However, a study has shown that the cycles of dryness as well as massive rain storms have occurred during the periods of hot temperatures.

The research conducted in this study can help us understand more about the climate in exoplanets. In fact, an atmospheric model has been developed. The temperature was increased by a significant amount.

An inhibition layer which is heated air was formed from the atmospheric water vapor absorbing the sunlight.

This layer is “a barrier that prevents convective clouds from rising into the upper atmosphere and forming rain clouds.” However, that evaporation ends up getting stuck in the near-surface atmosphere. In the inhibition layer in the upper atmosphere, clouds begin to form as the heat is lost to space. However, the rain has evaporated in these clouds before they reach the surface which results in the return of water to the system. A massive rainstorm would occur if something can break through the barrier, letting the heat go into the cool atmosphere.

ANCIENT LIFE FOUND IN RUBIES A special ruby was recently discovered by Geologist Chris Yakymchuk and his team.

They were scouring one of the world’s oldest ruby deposits in Greenland to better understand conundrum minerals, minerals such as sapphires or rubies.

The ruby Yakymchuk found was special due to the presence of graphite within the stone. There was only a residue found, but it is still significant because it is a sign of the microorganisms which roamed the Earth long before its multicellular descendants.

According to Yakymchuk, this is the first time anyone has found evidence of ancient life in rubies.

But what exactly are rubies? Rubies are a type of corundum mineral, which means it is an aluminum oxide. Rubies shine a deep red or pink color from the chromium present in it. Depending on the amount of chromium, rubies can become a lighter or darker red.

Rubies are created at the edge of tectonic plates, where the pressure is the greatest, using intense heart and pressure to form.

Due to the old age of many gemstones, scientists need to use carbon-14 to date them.

The graphite, however, was found with carbon-12. Carbon-12 is an isotope which is common in living organisms which leads scientists to believe that the graphite in the Ruby is a sign of what used to be life. Additionally, the scientists were able to find the age of the gem and use it to narrow down what time period the organism lived in. This allows scientists to discover more about the life of the unicellular organisms which lived on this Earth 2.5 billion years ago.

NEW MINERAL DISCOVERED In 2021, scientists, Oliver Tschauner and his colleagues, found a small diamond that had ejected from a volcano. Unknown to them, the diamond contained an incredibly rare mineral that had never been seen before in nature.

This mineral, called “davemaoite” was previously only produced in labs in a synthetic form. The name comes from an experimental highpressure geologist, Ho-kwang “Dave” Mao. The reason for its rarity is due to the extreme pressure that is required to form this mineral which is 200,000 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure.

Davemaoite typically resides in the Earth’s lower mantle, and if the scientists were to retrieve these samples themselves, they would melt instantly. This is why the diamond plays such an important role in preserving the davemaoite above sea level. The force needed is fulfilled by the great internal pressures of the diamond (which can go well over 1,000,000 times the atmospheric pressure) therefore allowing the rare mineral to be discovered above land.

Davemaoite is important because it will help scientists gain more insight into the way elements are formed and shifted within the Earth’s mantle. The discovery of this mineral also helps researchers understand how to better extract minerals from deep inside the Earth while remaining intact.

New Look into Earth’s First Continent Although it is not commonly brought up, many may wonder how was the first continent created? New research has found that unlike land today, Earth’s first continent, the cratons, was actually formed by combinations of solid rock floating atop magma approximately 750 million years earlier than the initial predicted age, 2.5 billion years! Because of the emergence of land, Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and climate began to change with it. With the new transition of phosphorus, DNA

and

other

biological

building blocks began to evolve, starting a new era in Earth’s history. Researchers studying the Singhbhum continental

Craton, layer

making

the up

some of Earth’s oldest sediments in eastern India. Initial analysis of sedimentary rocks from volcanic activity and chemistry of the rock structures, geologists are able to date and differentiate between elements from different periods. With more research,

Singhbhum Craton, Jharkhand

now using rare sedimentary rocks deposited in rivers on top of earliest cratons, geologists have found that the craton may be just as old as 3.3 billion years old. The big question, however, is how large the Earth’s earliest continent may be. By solving this big mystery, scientists hope that they may trace the continent’s earliest stages with more depth and better estimations.

Environmental Science

26

YOU SHOULD LEARN ABOUT

Climate Change by 2500 A collaboration between science and art provides visualizations of how climate change will have affected the world by 2500, emphasizing the urgent need to take action and push climate projections past 2100.

Researchers have found that the average global temperature will continue to increase by approximately 4.6 degrees C until 2500, which poses a major threat to the structuring of the world’s biomes. These include unsuitable living temperature in the tropics as well as loss of most of the Amazon rainforest. A research team collaborated with artist James McKay, who created detailed paintings illustrating global landscapes now compared with that in 2500. One example shows how farmers may need to wear protective clothing in order to be able to work outdoors in 2500. The images help convey that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to remain high, the environment as we know it will transform on a global scale and affect our living conditions drastically unless we take action.

AN UNKOWN TYPE OF STORM OBSERVED TO OCCUR OVER THE WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN, SCIENTISTS HAVE DISCOVERED A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN STORM CALLED AN “ATMOSPHERIC LAKE.” UNLIKE MOST STORMS, WHICH ARE FORMED BY A VORTEX, ATMOSPHERIC LAKES ARE CREATED BY DENSE WATER VAPOR CONCENTRATIONS THAT ARE ABLE TO PRODUCE RAIN. THESE ATMOSPHERIC LAKES ARE ALSO DIFFERENT FROM ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS, AS THEY ARE SLOWER AND ARE DISCONNECTED FROM THE WEATHER SYSTEM THEY’RE CREATED FROM. THEY SEEM TO DRIFT WEST OVER THE EAST AFRICAN COAST AND BRING RAIN TO THE AREA. A FULL STUDY IS BEING RUN IN ORDER TO FIND OUT HOW AND WHY THESE STORMS ARE DETACHED FROM THEIR WEATHER SYSTEM, AS WELL AS WHETHER THEY ARE SELF-PROPELLED OR DRIVEN BY LARGER-SCALE WIND PATTERNS. IF FURTHER RESEARCH SHOWS THAT THE LATTER IS THE CASE, THEN THE RELATION BETWEEN WIND PATTERNS AND CLIMATE CHANGE PRESENTS THE POSSIBILITY THAT INCREASING TEMPERATURES COULD ALTER THE MOVEMENT OF ATMOSPHERIC LAKES. THIS WOULD IMPACT THE RAINFALL THAT REACHES AREAS WHERE IT IS NEEDED MOST.

Technology

29

MIND-CONTROLLED ROBOTS Author: Mylien Lai

They’re objects usually only considered real in sci-fi movies. Yet in real life, they actually have the potential to exist! How is this possible? It’s surprisingly more possible than you think!

Researchers developed a machine-learning program where a human brain can command a robot through electrical signals produced by neurons. The origins of the program is in another similar invention: the robotic arm. To create the program’s foundation, they first intended to improve the arm’s mechanism to become more precise during obstacles. Sometimes it went towards too wide or too narrow paths for the activity. From there, developers were able to the build the program brick by brick.

Later on, the program was completed! All the user needs to do is look at the robot while wearing a headcap to track their neuron’s signals. The robot will complete the task through negative feedback: an increase of brain signals from thoughts like, “No! Try again!” will decrease the robot’s likelihood to execute the movement that caused the signal in the first place. Soon, after three to five attempts of trial and error, the robot will figure out exactly what the user wants it to do!

Artificial Intelligence Transition Into Factories Image taken from Landing AI website: landing.ai

With artificial intelligence taking a big leap in their involvement with today’s society, transitioning to manufacturing companies would be a huge start. Andrew Ng, founder of Google Brain research lab and former chief scientist at Baidu, hope to achieve this goal. In 2017, Andrew Ng founded Landing AI in Palo Alto. It’s purpose is to develop computer vision tools, software tools to derive information from images and videos, to create a visual inspection software.

Companies throughout the world such as “Stanley Black & Decker” (US) and

“Foxconn” (Taiwan) has reported increase in accuracy and efficiency of their production! According to Ng, the addition of funding will only improve the speed brought to these companies.

AI has been beneficial to our lives now but it is only at the beginning of showing it’s full potential.

Events: 2/16: Speaker Event 2/17: STEM Science Career Panel 2/28: Computer Science Workshop

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