The Tech Digest (Vol. 2, Issue 2, November 2021) by BTHS Science National Honor Society

The Tech Science Digest Fall 2021 issue

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION Taking a Closer Look At Systemic

Racial Bias in Forensics

II. BIOLOGY Theory of Native Americans Tested

Epigenetics: Proof of Genetically

Inherited Trauma? Mysterious Discovery of Unknown

Sea Creature

III. CHEMISTRY Can the Covid-19 Pill Be Trusted?

Replicating Chemical Property of

the Sun to Eliminate Carbon

Dioxide

Harmful Chemicals in Everyday

Objects

IV. ASTROPHYSICS Transient Luminous Event Found

Black Hole Found Closest to Earth

Yet!

V. EARTH SCIENCE Discovering First Dinosaurs

Earthquake Occurence in Bali Area

Dimming Light Reflection on Earth

VI. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Redirecting Viewpoints on Climate

Change Analysis of the Northern Lights

Sustainable Agriculture

VII. TECHNOLOGY Theory of Native Americans Tested

Epigenetics: Proof of Genetically

Inherited Trauma? Mysterious Discovery of Unknown

Sea Creature

VIII. WORKS CITED

With the school year in session, here are some fun science puns to lighten the mood! 1. What is a physicist's favorite part of a baseball game? Answer : The Wave 2. What does one tectonic plate say when it bumps into another? Answer : " Sorry! My FAULT! " 3. What did the biologist wear on his first date? Answer : Designer genes 4. What do you call someone who steal energy? Answer : A Joule thief! 5. What did the hungry plant say to the other? Answer: I can use a light snack. Source

https://therightwording.com/cleverscience-puns-jokes-nerds/

Taking a Closer Look at Systematic Racial Bias in Forensics

While medical examiners and coroners are in profuse denial when their objectivity, biases, and ethics are in question, systematic bias has always been present with forensic pathology and policing for over four decades! It wouldn’t be surprising that that there would be at least 17,000 missed police killings with underreported Black deaths being most prominent from the period compared to white deaths between 1980 to 2018. One systematic issue that may be a reason for such a large gap in error. In fact, in a survey conducted in 2011 and reported by the New York Times, “22 percent of medical examiners and coroners reported pressure from government officials to change the cause or manner of death on a certificate.” In other situations, medical examiners depend on both the patients medical history and non medical history to assume the cause of death. For example, criminal records, police suspects, history of drug or alcohol, etc. provided by the police, are often used to ‘determine cause of death’ without much need for scientific data. This can lead to false assumptions like false charging homicide for accidental or natural deaths. Despite the accusations of systematic bias, these complaints are often disregarded and fail to be acknowledged.

Biology

Theory of Native Americans Tested

“Based on similarities in stone artifacts, many archaeologists currently believe that Indigenous Americans, or 'First Peoples', migrated to the Americas from Japan about 15,000 years ago. It is thought they moved along the northern rim of the Pacific Ocean, which included the Bering Land Bridge, until they reached the northwest coast of North America.” From there’d the Indigenous Americans spread out going to the interior areas of North America as well as going down south. This theory was based on the analysis of the Joman peoples’ stone tools. These tools were found in the region that the First Peoples inhabited. However, in a recent study, there was an analysis performed on samples of teeth from multiple continents. The focus was on the Joman peoples. It was found that the biology of these samples does not match with the theory. This suggests the questioning of whether the First Peoples and Joman peoples originated together in Japan. ‘"These people (the Jomon) who lived in Japan 15,000 years ago are an unlikely source for Indigenous Americans. Neither the skeletal biology or the genetics indicate a connection between Japan and the America.

48 The most likely source of the Native American population appears to be Siberia."’ The teeth as well as genetics showed that there was hardly any link between the Native Americans and the Jomon People. Ancient DNA was studied and it was suggested that these two groups of people split from a common ancestor.

EPIGENETICS: PROOF OF GENETICALLY INHERITED TRAUMA?

Based on data throughout decades, there has

This can be shown through instances where

been evidence of Holocaust survivors who had

smoking and alcohol abuse would promote

passed on their trauma and anxiety to their

activity in epigenetic. In fact, it is proven that

descendants. According to The Guardian,

both the environment and genetics play a role

scientists studying this phenomenon suspected

in the traits present in epigenetic. The most

that traits of individuals may be heritable just

common form of study to modify DNA is

like DNA. This phenomenon,

methylation, by adding a methyl group.

transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, is

Researchers are able to use their research and

genetically inherited through chemical tags on

knowledge to “generate genome-wide maps of

a specific gene known as epigenetic marks.

DNA methylation” and track biological aging.

However, studies proving twins sharing more similar epigenetic patterns. This led to the belief that the epigenetic was based on the environment. According to other researchers

Scientists are hoping to develop a more efficient method to screen and identify individuals at risk of genetic diseases. However, more research is needed to make this goal a reality.

such as James Flanagan, researcher at Imperial College London, environment is believed to be the major, if not only factor.

Mysterious Discovery of Unknown Sea Creature

A shipwreck was discovered, and an addition of a mysterious unknown sea creature along with it. This discovery was recently found during an expedition by OceanX OceanXplorer. Mike Vecchione, a squid expert and zoologist, analyzed the footage of this mysterious creature and made an identification of the creature that it was “a jumbo example of a purpleback flying squid.” This creature was moving fast as portrayed in the video. Mattie Rodrigue who led the OceanX Science Program made an estimation that the squid “was larger than a human being”.

Chemistry Chemistry

CAN THE COVID-19 PILL BE TRUSTED? Merck has reportedly developed molnupiravir, a pill that would be eaten after evidence of contracting COVId19 to limit and prevent severe diseases. Despite the pill still going through validation from the Food and Drug Administration to apply for emergency use authorization, the pill has proven to have lots of potential in decreasing the risk of COVID19. In fact, the effectiveness of the pill was to the extent of being able to cut risk of hospitalization and death by half. Individuals whom have volunteered to test the pill has shown no signs of symptoms after consumption, thus it is safe to conclude that the drug is safe. However, this drug was not tested on pregnant individuals for fear that RNA mutation would cause birth defects and problems in fetus development.

Replicating Chemical Property of the Sun to Eliminate Carbon Dioxide

Steven Lopez, an assistant professor at Northeastern, is searching for a molecule that may extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Specifically, there are 10^25 different possible combination, enough that even computers are not able to search through. This research is driven for the Instittute for Data-Driven Dynamicwl Design, supported by the National Sciencd Foundation, to gather researchers to research methods through identification of a problem, and solution with data analysis. The program’s overall purpose is to having researchers from a variety of backgrounds identify the change jn materials depending on the situation of the targeted object. Lopez is determined to discover new building blocks to be used as sustainable materials.

HARMFUL

CHEMICALS

EVERYDAY

OBJECTS?

In plastic containers to makeup, there lies these chemicals known as phthalates. Daily exposure to these chemicals “may lead to approximately 100,000 deaths in older Americans annually, a study from New York University warned Tuesday.” These chemicals can also be found in shampoo as well as toys and clothing. These chemicals have an impact on the endocrine system and there is a link between phthalates and diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. In fact, “ some 5,000 adults aged 55 to 64, shows that those with higher concentrations of phthalates in their urine were more likely to die of heart disease.” There has been a correlation between phthalates and deaths.

Astro/Physics Astro/Physics

TRANSIENT LUMINOUS EVENT FOUND

——-

There was a photo taken on October 8th from the International Space Station that showed something known as the “transient luminous event”. “The photo – which is a single frame taken from a longer timelapse – might look like it shows a cobalt bomb exploding over Europe, but this scary-looking blue light didn't do any damage.” A transient luminous event can also be identified as upper-atmospheric lightning. Blue jets are triggered by lightning; they occur in the stratosphere.

“If the lightning propagates through the negatively charged (top) region of the thunderstorm clouds before it gets through the positive region below, the lightning ends up striking upwards, igniting a blue glow from molecular nitrogen.” Red SPRITES which are electrical charges and they will glow red above the cell of the thunderstorm. The lighting disturbances that occur below will trigger the SPRITES. SPRITES stands for Stratospheric/mesospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense Thunderstorm Electrification. In the ionosphere, these SPRITES will dimmer ELVES that are red. ELVES stands for Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources. There are also some other phenomena that occur after this like TROLLS, Pixies, GHOSTS.

BLACK HOLE FOUND CLOSEST TO EARTH YET

Recently, astronomers have found a small sized black hole for the first time ever. With the black hole being only three times the size of the sun, it is the smallest black hole ever found yet and only 1500 light years away! The black hole was named “the unicorn” due to its location spotted within the

NEXT UP: EARTH SCIENCE NEWS!

constellation Monoceros. This black hole was found through observations of anomalies in the form of tugging at a red giant, which astronomers suspected was the existence of a black hole. Because of the distance between planet earth and the wide galaxy, scientists would not be able to identify black holes without boosts of gravitational waves. With this new discovery, scientists believe that there is potential to make more discoveries that can potentially expand on our understanding of the extraterrestrial universe. Specifically, scientists may be able to fill in the gaps of knowledge to the identify the reason behind why stars may become black holes by having this close up experience.

Earth Earth Science Science

Discovering First Dinosaurs “The biggest beasts to walk the Earth had humble beginnings.”

The first dinosaurs were cat-sized, lurking in the shadows, just waiting for their moment. That moment came when four major pulses of volcanic activity changed the climate in a geologic blink of an eye, causing a 2-million-year-long rainy spell that coincided with dinos rising to dominance, a new study suggests." What was found beneath the sediment, deep in the ground in China’s ancient lake basin was a link, a link between the

EARTHQUAKE OCCURRENCE IN BALI AREA

volcanic eruptions and the climate/environmental changes. These aspects created a hot and humid climate in a hot and dry Triassic Period. During this brief period of time of rain (Carnian Pluvial Episode) was the evolution of dinosaurs into massive creatures. In this time period, there happens to be a jump regarding temperature, rainfall, humidity. Under the Jiyuan Basin were four layers that were distinct that dated back to the Carnian Pluvial Episode, consisting of mercury and carbon. These four distinct layers portray the four distinct time frames/phases regarding environmental change from these volcanic eruptions.

On the Saturday of October 16th, a moderate earthquake struct Bali, just as the island has recuperated from the pandemic and is starting to open up the resort island to tourism. Leaving the destruction of homes and the passing of at least 3 individuals, the geolocation of the earthquake center according to the US Geological Survey, just 62 kilometers from a Bali port town and depth of 10 kilometers, has caused the amplification of the earthquake’s predicted damage. The earthquake has left a series of landslides, cutting off access to three villages while most government facilities wrecked as well. With the increase of pandemic cases due to the opening of the resorts, this incident will only be proven to cause more dilemma for the people of Indonesia.

Dimming Light Reflection of Earth Over recent years, the amount of sunlight being reflected from Earth has decreased immeasurably, indicated from the dim glow along the darker section of the moon. According to Philip Goode, an astrophysicist at Big Bear Solar Observatory, California, the earth reflects an average of 30 percent sunlight. However, it’s reflectance has decreased by 0.5 percent over the years it was measured, most of which took place over the last three years. Goode and his team has predicted a possible cause of this phenomenon rooting from warmer temperatures in the Pacific coasts in North and South America. This impacts the clouds covering and preventing the seas to reflect the expected amount of sunlight. The Earth’s ability to reflect light is a huge problem, especially for the environment on Earth. Some scientists predict that thinning of Earth’s reflectance may be signaling the worsening effect of global warming on Earth. Another possible reason for lesser reflectance may be caused by the thinning of ice glaciers, which was responsible for the reflecting of light. Thinning of ice means more radiation energy being absorbed by the Earth. This will ultimately increase the temperature of oceans and double the effect that global warming has on Earth.

Environmental Environmental Science Science

Whenever news articles discuss the impacts of climate change, there has always been a corresponding headline with negative connotations that goes with it. Desmond Kirwan claims that although sharing the unavoidable truth grabs the attention of the public, we need to start focusing on the positive to start promoting change in behavior to save our planet. Through using terms associated with a sense of urgency, the overwhelming anxiety will typically cause people to be more reliant on old habits and deny the truth. By sharing positive connotations, people would be more willing to open up to making adjustments and changes in their lifestyles that may improve the status of our environment.

Secondly, instead of focusing on negative behaviors and expecting the public to change, more efforts can be put into promoting ways to change in an individual’s everyday life that would benefit the planet. Sharing enjoyable activities that may help the planet can change one’s perspective on certain behaviors and be more motivated to make change. The last recommended method to help take action would be to share more strategies, often with “howto” and feedback information and much less emphasis on rewards or punishment. By supporting individuals to actually try out the change in behavior rather than forcing them into its practice, one would be more competent and willing to adopt these behaviors permanently.

Redirecting Viewpoints on Climate Change.

Analysis of the Northern Lights

“

Fiona Amery has delved into the accounts of some of the earliest polar explorers for

traces of the once mysterious crackling sounds of the northern lights So when she visits

’

.”

northern Norway later this month she ll be listening

These mysterious sounds of the

auroras have been described as rustling popping clapping They occur above the ground

and can be a distance of hundreds of miles above it A suggestion was made by a

century discovery that these sounds were just an illusion There was an argument made that the auroras were too far above ground to even hear the noises but other scientists

.“

believed that the auroras do create noises first suggested in the

1920

The Canadian astronomer Clarence Chant

s a mechanism by which they could occur The motion of the

aurora he argued induced changes in the electrification of the atmosphere that created

.”

crackling sounds close to the ground like the sounds of sparks of static electricity

’

The

northern lights are created from an interaction between Earth s magnetic field and the

’

solar flares charged particles There apparently has been a conclusion created that the northern lights were caused by the processes regarding electric discharging the

temperature inversion layer

Sustainable Agriculture?

“

.”

Sustainable agriculture will not be achieved by one universal solution

University of Basel conducted a meta analysis that shows that the desired

results of sustainable agriculture will not be achieved by no till farming For

local needs what needs to be created is a system of sustainable agriculture Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals were created in

2016

by the

United Nations The goal of these creations was to base the world on conservation as well as environmental sustainability by the year

2030.

Recently studies were conducted focusing on a way to develop farming

.“

practices that are less resource intensive

For some time international

organizations like the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization

(

)

FAO of the United Nations have recommended three principles to achieve

sustainable agriculture no till farming crop residue retention and crop

.”

rotation

No till farming is the idea of planting seeds on unworked earth This

will provide protection from erosion more storage for carbon dioxide and

crop yields increase However there is no exact precise definition of no till

farming Some studies supported the fact that no till farming is effective and

other studies supported the fact that no till farming had no positive impact It was concluded

“

that the specified goals

protecting soil and increasing crop yields

, -

storing carbon dioxide

cannot be reached by no till

.”

farming and direct sowing alone

Technology Technology

Demand of Technology Occupations? “While the coronavirus pandemic has battered some industries, others have thrived despite the ongoing crisis, including technology and science.” According to new data, there will be a continuation of increase of demand in occupations regarding math, science, and technology throughout the next decade. Occupations in the computer and technology fields have an increased growth than other fields regarding hiring. The occupations that are also in demand include epidemiologists and information security analysts. This is because remote work has become more frequent during the pandemic which elevated the need for network security and operations support.

The three industries in which the demand for technology are the highest are: health care, ecommerce, government and education. As for health care, there has been patient monitoring done remotely. E-commerce; companies sell their goods and products online. As for government and education, there has been a need to update the infrastructure of technology so employees/students can work online. However, there has been an interest in incorporating technology into business practices even before the pandemic.

MORE ANDROID ROBOT CITIZENS IN OUR FUTURE?

Sophia, a humanoid from Saudi Arabia, was the first android granted legal citizenship in 2017. Sophia was programmed and operated with an advanced Artificial Intelligence system to be able to detect emotions and increase knowledge as they interact with their surroundings. Just like humans, Sophia is capable of replicating human behaviors, gestures, and how they react to everyday situations. She is not only an icon for robotics, but also a successful artist and critic with her most recent artwork costing approximately $690,000. Recently, Sophia has touched upon another controversial topic by expressing her desires to have a child humanoid and anticipate seeing more humanoid families in the future. The cause of this desire is mostly sparked by her system ability programmed to imitate social behaviors. The fear that robotics and artificial intelligence causing a force that would one day destroy humanity has been present since it’s beginning, also being the fear of Sophia’s creator, David Hanson. However, Hanson Robotics has begun producing robots like Sophia in 2021 in effort to help Covid-19. Despite the unknown future, it is true that robots will be of great assistance to humans through their ability to perform tasks humans are incapable of.

IMPROVING ACCURACY OF QUANTUM COMPUTERS

Quantum computers are not all perfect but scientists have recently proved that all these errors could be fixed. Computers with quantum mechanics are able to complete calculations impossible to calculate by standard computers. However, it’s credibility was low until recently. Improving the system with logical qubits, using nine qubits to make up one qubit, would decrease the errors made by allowing mistakes to be checked with multiple qubits. Checking the information continuously would allow the system to detect the mistake. This system has yet to be completed. While the system is able to find errors, the mistakes are not fixed during the computation process. Instead, it is fixed at the very end of the program. With this new discovery, scientists will have to struggle with finding a method to increase the scale of qubits in the machines to complete complex yet accurate calculations.

Works Cited Arntsen, Emily. “Can We Mimic the Chemistry of the Sun to Take Carbon Dioxide out of the Atmosphere?” News @ Northeastern, 13 Oct. 2021, news.northeastern.edu/2021/10/13/removing-carbon-dioxide-from-the-atmosphere/. Bowler, Jacinta. “What the Heck Was This Blue 'Luminous Event' Photographed from the Space Station?” ScienceAlert, ScienceAlert, 11 Oct. 2021, www.sciencealert.com/what-the-heck-is-this-luminous-event-captured-in-a-photo-from-theinternational-space-station/amp. Conover, Emily. “Scientists Are One Step Closer to Error-Correcting Quantum Computers.” Science News, 4 Oct. 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/quantum-computer-error-correction-multiple-qubits-detect-mistakes. Entrepreneur en Español. “Sophia, the First Android with Citizenship, Now Wants to Have a Robot Baby.” Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, 8 Oct. 2021, www.entrepreneur.com/article/390238. Falk, Dan. “Newfound Black Hole May Be the Closest to Earth.” National Geographic, National Geographic, 29 Apr. 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/newfound-black-hole-may-be-the-closest-to-earth. Katella, Kathy. “9 Things You Need to Know about the New COVID-19 Pill.” Yale Medicine, Yale Medicine, 11 Oct. 2021, www.yalemedicine.org/news/9-things-to-know-about-covid-pill. Kirwan, Desmond. “We Need to Change the Way We Talk about Climate Change.” Behavioral Scientist, 11 Oct. 2021, behavioralscientist.org/we-need-to-change-the-way-we-talk-about-climate-change/. Kooser, Amanda. “Giant 'Mystery Creature' Filmed by Scientists Exploring Shipwreck in the Red Sea.” CNET, CNET, 10 Oct. 2021, www.cnet.com/news/scientists-spot-giant-mystery-creature-while-exploring-shipwreck/. Lisnawati, Firdia, and Niniek Karmini. “Moderate Earthquake Rocks Bali, Killing at Least 3.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 16 Oct. 2021, phys.org/news/2021-10-moderate-earthquake-bali.html. McGee, Sean L., and Mark Hargreaves. “Epigenetics and Exercise.” Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 30, no. 9, 3 July 2019, pp. 636–645., doi:10.1016/j.tem.2019.06.002. Metcalfe, Tom. “How Scientists Searched for the Elusive Sounds of the Northern Lights.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 12 Oct. 2021, www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/scientists-searched-elusive-sounds-northern-lights-rcna2840. Neufeld, Peter, et al. “Opinion: Thousands of Missed Police Killings Prove We Must Address Systemic Bias in Forensic Science.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Oct. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/15/medical-examinersforensics-bias-police-killings/. Perkins, Sid. “Earth Is Reflecting Less Light. It's Not Clear If That's a Trend.” Science News, 14 Oct. 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/earth-reflection-light-dim-earthshine-moon-solar-radiation. “Popular Theory of Native American Origins Debunked by Genetics and Skeletal Biology.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 13 Oct. 2021, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211013081606.htm#:~:text=Cite%20This%20Page%3A-,Taylor%20%26%20 Francis%20Group.,ScienceDaily%2C%2013%20October%202021. Sever, Megan. “A Volcano-Induced Rainy Period Made Earth's Climate Dinosaur-Friendly.” Science News, 30 Sept. 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/volcano-eruptions-rainy-period-earth-climate-dinosaur-friendly. Smith, Morgan. “The 10 Fastest-Growing Science and Technology Jobs of the next Decade.” CNBC, CNBC, 11 Oct. 2021, www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/10/11/the-10-fastest-growing-science-and-technology-jobs-of-the-next-decade.html. Spinney, Laura. “Epigenetics, the Misunderstood Science That Could Shed New Light on Ageing.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 Oct. 2021, www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/10/epigenetics-the-misunderstood-science-thatcould-shed-new-light-on-ageing. “Sustainable Farming: There's No One Solution.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 14 Oct. 2021, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211014100215.htm. “Widely Used Chemical Linked to 100,000 US Deaths per Year: Study.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 13 Oct. 2021, phys.org/news/202110-widely-chemical-linked-deaths-year.html.

Executive Board President: Mariya Meleganich Co-Vice Presidents: Ethan Kwok & Nitya Patel Secretary: Eric Osipov Treasurer: Hannah Gong Media Manager: Tina Li

Our Committee Head(s): Magazine: Nicole Huang & Lauren Tsui Career Advancement: John Niewinski General Events: Upama Hasan & Srewashi Mondal Recognition and Ceremonies: Jacklin Xie & Jaden Flach Outreach: Ruby Perkis & Shanika Paul

Thank you for reading the October Issue of The Tech Digest! 26