Vol. III Issue No. 1

DickinsonScienceMagazine 30 Nov. 2016 - Vol. 3 Issue No. 1

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CONTENTS

30 Nov. 2016 - Volume 3, Issue Number 1

EDITOR’S CHOICE 5

Mental Math

6

A Fly in the Milk

8

On CPR

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SCIENCE NEWS

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In Brief

12

World News

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Druggable Protein-Protein Interactions in Neglected Tropical Diseases

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Destination: Bennu

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The Next Great Extinction?

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Using Simple Math and Low Tech for Better Health and Effectivenes

19 Hope for Alzheimer’s Patients?

FEATURES

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Should I Stop Flossing?

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Budding Questions in Education: How to deliver a STEM Education?

TECHNOLOGY

RESEARCH

Seeing the Unseen: Using Geophysics to Investigate What Lies Beneath Earth’s Surface

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Strokes and Recovery

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Localization of α-actinin Within the Contractile Ring of Cytokinesis in Sea Urchin Embryos

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30 The Structure of Fluid Chaos

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3D Organ Printing

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7 New Advances for the iPhone 7

OPINION

The Yin-Yang of Cultural Continuity and Change

28 Our Summer on the Island

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A Slippery Devil

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Human Cloning

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Take Me to Church

ENTERTAINMENT

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The Sixth Extinction

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Silent Running

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Under the Microscope with Laura Watson

39 Crossword

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Letter from the Editor Hello, Dickinsonians!

This is Volume 3 Issue 1 of the Dickinson Science Magazine, and this semester’s theme is science education. This is a relevant issue on campus as well as in world news. Despite our status as one of the major world powers, the students in the United States are consistently outperformed on standard science and math tests by students from other developed countries. One of our feature articles covers a lack of experienced or qualified science educators at the K-12 level that results in teaching the sciences on a surface level. This does not allow students to critically evaluate the validity of science-related news articles distributed by media organizations or myths of popular science on the internet.

Although it may seem pointless or irrelevant at the time, science education before college is vitally important. Even if a student does not pursue science in higher education, it is important to understand how the physical world works. It teaches students how to develop a logical procedure to test an idea or hypothesis and think critically about the results, which can help the development of problem-solving skills that are applicable in practical life.

When I began at Dickinson, I wasn’t as interested in science education as I am now, but after beginning as a teaching assistant in the chemistry department over two semesters ago, I am beginning to see firsthand how valuable

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a good science class and a good science teacher can be. I love showing students how the experiments in lab help explain the world around them and how science can be fun and exciting. This experience is what first inspired me to consider a career in education.

My father is a science educator as well, and works in the physics department at Yale University. I grew up with a strong sense of the importance of science, which was reinforced by a few inspiring teachers at my high school and my science education here at Dickinson. Even so, I remember being frustrated by science in high school, when it just seemed like a list of facts that had to be memorized and none of it seemed practical or applicable in real life. In many ways, I have my father and those teachers to thank for my continuing interest in the sciences. I could see that they were passionate about their jobs, and took science education seriously. Because of them, I learned not to think of science as just a list of numbers and equations and facts, but as a way of understanding the world around us.

Not everyone has to love and study science this way, but everyone should have the opportunity to see science as more than a graduation requirement or a pointless exercise in a lab.

Understanding of science among the population is essential to the functioning of an information and data-based society, and this begins with education.

– Zoe Irons, ’18

DSM Dickinson Science Magazine Editor-in-Chief Zoe Irons ’18 Managing Editor Hannah Hartman ’18 Executive Layout Editor Courtney Gamache ’18 Associate Layout Editors Nidhi Charan ’17 News Editor Leah Wachsmuth ’19 Features Editor Alexis Scott ’19 Research Editor Tom Wegman ’19 Science & Technology Editor Jacqueline Hwang ’19 Science & Entertainment Editor Zach Benalayat ’17 Opinion Editor Nate Scheinberg ’19 Photography Editor Maddie Underhill ’19 Executive Copy Editor Bridget Jones ’17 Copy Editors Hieu Le ’19 Marissa Ruschil ’19 Allison Curley ’19 Simona Bajga ’20 Event Coordinator Janice Wiss Faculty Advisor Missy Niblock Email: scinews@dickinson.edu Facebook: https://facebook.com/ DsonScienceMagazine Issuu: http://issuu.com/dickinsonsciencemagazine

“THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO NEVER STOP QUESTIONING.”

— ALBERT EINSTEIN

Mental Math

Editor’s Choice

How Blind People Process Mathematics

By Joseph Detrano, ’19

Mathematics are often taught by tapping into the brain’s visual system. Children are told to imagine two trains speeding towards one another or a man buying fruit at a supermarket.

However, brain studies and research show that an individual’s number crunching abilities are not reliant on their sense of sight, but rather on a cluster of specialized nerve cells. The question remains: How much does one’s visual ability impact how they perceive math?

To find out, researchers at John Hopkins University set up an experiment designed to compare the brain activity of a group of 17 congenitally blind people and 19 sighted people wearing blindfolds. Participants were then asked to complete a series of increasingly challenging math problems as well as some language comprehension challenges, such as a question that asked participants about the number of flowers in a field based on a few numerical hints.

During these tests, results showed that both sighted and blind accessed parts of their frontal and parietal lobes - parts of the brain that are already known to be large factors in mathematical calculations. This result suggests that sight has very little to no impact on one’s numerical capabilities.

However, researchers uncovered something even more surprising: blind participants were using a part of their brains for math that is normally reserved for vision among sighted people.

The more difficult the problem, the greater the intensity of activity in that area. On the other hand, sighted participants showed no brain activity in this area during the tests. “These results suggest that experience can radically change the neurobiology of numerical thinking,” the researchers wrote in a paper that was published in September in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In other words, while some of how the brain interacts with math relies more on individual experience, other aspects of how humans think about math is more intimately primed.

Since the blind have been shown to have the ability to use a larger portion of their brains on mathematical calculation than sighted people, does this mean that blind people have greater innate mathematical skill? Although this might be a natural assumption, there’s no evidence to support it yet, as coauthor Shipra Kanjlia told The Atlantic. The only clear result of this study is that whether or not a person refers to math as a visual activity has no bearing on their abilities.

“Math, like everything else in my life, is something I interface with nonvisually,” said Scott Blanks, the senior director of programs for Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Blanks, blind from birth, has zero visual memory for reference.

He relies on other sensory memories in order to deal with math problems concerning the real world, such as the language comprehension problems given to him during the study. “If I’m considering say, the distance between two points, or how many people are in a room, I do those things on the fly ... I might employ previous experiences to contribute to my answer, or weigh associated factors to come up with a number. For example, to the question of distances, I might consider how long it has taken me to walk the route in question, how many blocks are encompassed in that route, and so on.”

Although much of mathematical thinking comes as second nature to many, it remains very difficult to articulate the visual process of mathematical thinking. It makes sense for humans to try to convey numerical puzzles through a medium they can understand, whether spatial, audial, or other sensory information. When visual memory is removed from the material that can be referenced, the brain compensates by pulling from other areas instead, choosing not to focus on what it doesn’t have and more on what it does. When it comes to the cognitive processing of math problems, it would seem that one doesn’t always need all the pieces to complete the puzzle.

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A FLY IN THE MILK

(LACK OF) DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

By Justine Hayward, ’18

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Editor’s Choice

I clearly remember when I fell in love with science.

There was dated ‘90s music and graphics as I heard excited students yell “Bill Nye the Science Guy” on the video my 6th grade science class was watching on a rainy mid 2000s morning. Today, I still watch the occasional Bill Nye video but through the lens of someone who still loves science and wants the next Bill Nye to look more like me.

The more I research diversity in science education the more I realize that the next Bill Nye will not look like me. In fact, the next Bill Nye will probably look exactly like Bill Nye. This is the point in the article where I should insert some meaningless statistics for readers to debate over the authenticity. It is tempting to pretend that inequalities such as race, gender, and class do not exist, but recognizing they do is increasingly important.

Given the social justice demonstrations that have occurred since my first year, I have struggled to put my thoughts into coherent and cohesive statements. It troubles me that the field that I love most may contain some of the most glaring examples of what happens when race and gender grant socioeconomic privilege.

What I have learned at Dickinson, more than any other institution, is that the only way to get someone to acknowledge systematic inequality is to hold up a mirror to the oppressive face of bureaucratic academia in the most public forum. This is that forum.

I have done my own exploratory research on Dickinson’s diversity within the faculty of several science departments. I utilized the Dickinson College Faculty departmental webpages in order to ascertain this information. This basic search combined with a simple percentage calculation resulted in the chart above. The most glaring fact is that there are no science professors of color in two thirds of the Dickinson science departments and in seven out of nine, less than 50% of faculty members are women. I want to be clear that I am not doubting the scientific brilliance of the professors in these departments; I am more concerned about the systematic oppression that caused a lack of representation to exist for these communities. It seems that something as insignificant as melanin and chromosome structure should not be able to prevent so many future scientists from advanc-

ing as it has for the generations of scientists before us.

Historically, science has blood on its hands from the Tuskegee Experiments, the Aversion Project, and radioactivity experiments on pregnant women, all of which violated the human rights of people of color. Despite this checkered past, there are still people from these communities who want to be scientists, which is significant in itself. Without a diverse body of scientists, I worry that these one-time events will become cyclical and cause an even greater mistrust between these communities.

Yet the barriers for these communities are tremendous and far-reaching. From ridiculous textbook prices to lack of funding for science in the public school system, these barriers can present significant obstacles to brilliant developing scientific minds who could one day be the next Alan Turing, Marie Curie, Mae C. Jemison, or even Isaac Newton.

In a letter to Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton said that “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”

That may be true for science students who have seen farther on the shoulders of giants who looked like Isaac Newton, but that does not exist for scientists of diverse backgrounds. As a female scientist of color, I have very few giants upon whose shoulders I can stand to see the beauty of science. However, I am determined to be a giant so one day a little brown girl with an afro has someone’s shoulders to stand on. I hope one day her eyes widen in wonder from the view.

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On CPR

By Jonas A. Toleikis, ’19

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Editor’s Choice

The average human heart beats around 35 million times each year. It’s incredible that each of our bodies utilizes such an efficient coalition of cells to forcibly push our blood around, and it’s no surprise that the failure of such an important organ claims the greatest number of human lives in the United States – at a rate of 193.3 deaths per 10,000 individuals in 2013.

Cardiac arrest specifically affects nearly 600,000 people every year, approximately two thirds of which occur outside of a hospital setting. The survival rate of such an incident is 6%, compared to 24% for those in hospitals. There are a multitude of factors that affect these survival rates, and one of the most important is the efficacy of bystander intervention. While it may appear simple, the correct application of CPR is deceptively important.

The likelihood of survival decreases rapidly with time, at a rate of 10% per minute between the onset of the arrest and the return of circulation. What makes this especially frightening is that less than 3% of the U.S. population receives CPR training.

These points are wonderfully summarized by Robert Graham, Chair of the Study Committee and Director of the National Program Office for Aligning Forces for Quality at George Washington University.

“Although breakthroughs in understanding and treating cardiac arrest are promising, the ability to deliver timely interventions and high-quality care is inconsistent. Cardiac arrest treatment is a community issue, requiring a wide range of people to be prepared to act, including bystanders, family members, first responders, emergency medical personnel, and health care providers.”

A positive aspect of this inconsistency is that there are several regions which excel at administering care for cardiac arrest. One such area is King County, Washington, which boasted a 62% survival rate in 2013. Clearly, such a striking comparison to the national average indicates that the community is doing something very right. With nearly two million residents, King

County is the most populous county in Washington State, and the 13th most populous county in the U.S. In order to so successfully serve such a large population, the community has made numerous strides to improve their health care system. They boast an exceptional paramedic program that exceeds national standards and utilizes high-performance CPR. Also present is what I believe to be the most impactful factor contributing to their elevated survival rates- strong communal health-care involvement. The King County community now reaps the benefits of high rates of CPR training for residents, widespread placement of public AEDs (Automated External Defibrillator), and the training of 911 personnel in telecommunicator CPR. Integration of such policies in other areas’ emergency medical services (EMS) systems would no doubt show improvement in survival rates nationwide.

As with many organizations, one of the primary goals of EMS systems in the U.S. is the continual education of both EMS personnel and the population at large. To this end, many state governments have passed bills requiring CPR training for children to graduate from high school. If it were up to me, I would attempt to make CPR certification mandatory for all college students as well. It is not a difficult procedure to learn, but can drastically improve the likelihood of saving someone’s life. Fortunately, Dickinson College offers courses in CPR for gym credit, which I implore you to take if you’re looking for a way to complete the mandatory gym classes and provide an extreme benefit for your community.

Cardiac arrest is a serious and life-threatening condition, but it does not need to be a death sentence. Steps are continually being made to improve the care for those afflicted by this condition, and everybody can be a huge boon to society simply through learning CPR techniques.

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Hope for Alzheimer’s Patients?

“This is a discovery...that has the potential to revolutionize the medical world.”

The Next Great Extinction?

“There is little that we can do about the damage that our society has already caused.”

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Should I Stop Flossing? “...how do we ever determine anything is accurate, useful, or worth our attention?”

A Slippery Devil “Perhaps discovering how something works or came about does not exclude a divine influence.”

In Brief

an overview of this issue’s content

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World News Sarah Dembling ’19

Human Embryo Gene Editing Swedish researcher, Fredrik Lanner, opened his lab up to a reporter in order to share the gene editing experiments that he has been performing on viable human embryos. Scientists suspect that Lanner is not the only one out there using gene editing to do research; he is simply the first to make his studies public, as much controversy exists around the topic.

The gene editor that Lanner uses, CRISPR/Cas9, acts as a “molecular scissors” and brings forth possibilities for human gene editing in the future: a prospect with many promises, as well as potential dangers. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-era-human-embryo-gene-editing-begins?tgt=nr

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Extraterrestrial Artwork A new NASA mission involves delivering people’s artwork to the extraterrestrial world, where it will remain for centuries to come. The plan is to collect asteroid samples to bring back to Earth for study. The OSIRIS-Ex spacecraft will be heading out on the mission, and, on its way, will bring along a chip holding artwork—including poems, photographs, and songs—submitted from the public.

When the sample return capsule heads back to deliver the collected samples to Earth in the year 2023, it will leave behind the spacecraft holding the artwork in space. There, the art will orbit the sun for potentially thousands of years to come. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nasa-willsend-your-art-into-space_us_56e73ce3e4b0b25c9183081b?utm_hp_ref=asteroid

Our First Underwater National Monument Obama recently devclared a portion of sea deep beneat`h the Atlantic Ocean a national monument, akin to national sites like the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty. This monument, called the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, is home to deep-sea coral formations, dumbo octopi, and Greenland sharks, among thousands of other rare species. Though many appreciate the environmental benefits of this gesture, fishermen and miners who make their livelihood in the area are not too pleased with the new underwater preserve. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37425427

News

Vagus Nerve and Friendship

Snap Glasses

It has been found that a link exists between social connections and the vagus nerve, the longest of twelve cranial nerves that spans from the the brain, through the chest, and to the abdomen. Recent studies show that people with “authentic relationships” have less stress and a healthier vagus nerve, while those who experience constant feelings of loneliness tend to have decreased longevity in the vagus nerve and potential health effects including obesity and addiction.

Thus, researchers see it as important to form genuine social relationships, as they can benefit our tenth cranial nerve and overall well-being.

Snapchat, a social network where pictures can be sent to others for short periods of time, is soon to release its first hardware product: Snapchat “Spectacles.” A more stylish, more accessible, and less expensive version of Google Glass, these sunglasses contain a built-in camera that allows users to take videos at an angle analogous to the eye’s natural field of view. Viewers can then save their video or photograph to their Snapchat. The company plans to utilize a limited release technique, beginning later this year, in order to test out user likability before potentially distributing the new product to the masses.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-simon-md/ friendship-and-our-vagus-_b_12153748.html?utm_hp_ref=brain

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37460682

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News

Druggable Protein-Protein Interactions in Neglected Tropical Diseases

By Jason Gavenonis, Professor of Chemistry

The cell is a busy place, with trillions of molecules colliding hundreds of thousands of times per second, seemingly at random. Much of this chaos is carefully managed by complex assemblies of proteins, the molecular machinery of the cell.

Proteins are, at their simplest, linear polymers (polypeptides) of hundreds of amino-acid building blocks, but can fold into a wide variety of three-dimensional structures, which may then assemble into larger supramolecular structures. Careful design of a synthetic peptide as short as 8-15 amino acids can allow for the selective disruption of individual protein-protein interactions and the subtle modulation of a wide variety of biological functions.

The research in my lab focuses on three broad, but closely related, areas of protein biochemistry: the computational design of protein-protein interaction inhibitors, the development of new methods for controlling and mimicking the three-dimensional geometry of peptides, and the search for new drug targets in neglected tropical diseases. Central to this work is the idea of “hot spots,” a few key amino acids that are essential for allowing proteins to stick together in these assemblies.

Published three-dimensional structures of multi-protein complexes are analyzed using a technique called computational alanine scanning. This virtually mutates each individual amino acid in the protein, determining its overall effect on the stability of the complex, and allows for the rapid identification of likely hot spots. Regions of the protein interface containing multiple hot spots can then be further analyzed and optimized. Molecular dynamics simulations virtually twist, shake, and bend our hot-spot

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laden peptide to determine what shape it will take when isolated from the whole protein sequence. Docking simulations determine if the isolated peptide will fit back together with its binding partner. Both allow for the virtual introduction of synthetic modifications to our peptide: artificial cross-linking to hold the peptide in a particular three-dimensional conformation (confirmed by molecular dynamics) and the introduction of unnatural amino acids to tailor the fit of our peptide to its binding site. Taken together, these last two tools allow us to take our potential inhibitor through several iterative rounds of design and testing, without even setting foot in lab.

In my lab, these techniques are currently being applied to neglected tropical diseases such as Chagas Disease, Leishmaniasis, and African Sleeping Sickness, which are all caused by closely related insect-borne kinetoplastid parasites. These parasites have a unique defense system against oxidative stress that allows them to evade the host’s immune response. Many of the parasites’ enzymes involved in this defense are what are called “obligate homodimers,” which are enzymes that consist of two protein subunits loosely held together by these hot spot-mediated interactions. Using the computational techniques above as a starting point, we are currently engaged in an effort to synthesize and test new inhibitors of these protein-protein interactions. Successful inhibition of these enzymes will validate new druggable targets in these parasites, and pave the way for the development of the next generation of therapies for neglected tropical diseases of poverty.

News

DESTINATION: BENNU

By Angie Minot, ’20

September 8th marked a milestone in U.S. space exploration with the launch of the NASA mission, “OSIRIS-REx”.

Launched from Cape Canaveral, OSIRIS-REx will be the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid and return them to Earth. First, the craft will orbit the sun for a year and then use Earth’s magnetic field to slingshot to the asteroid, Bennu. In August of 2018, the approach to Bennu will begin and from there, OSIRIS-REx will take a year long survey of the asteroid, determining the site where the sample will be taken. With help from its rocket thrusters, the spacecraft will match velocities with Bennu and commence to land. To retrieve samples from the asteroid, OSIRISREx is equipped with a mechanical arm that will release a puff of nitrogen gas. The gas will cause the debris on Bennu’s surface to be stirred and then captured by the spacecraft’s arm. OSIRIS-REx has enough nitrogen gas to do three sampling attempts. In March of 2021, the departure window for the spacecraft will open and OSIRIS-REx will arrive back home September of 2023.

Scientists know of 600,000 asteroids, mostly in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter – so why did NASA choose Bennu as the destination for OSIRIS-REx? Bennu has three key

characteristics particularly attractive to scientists and engineers.

Firstly, Bennu is close to Earth. Due to gravity of nearby planets in orbit, sometimes asteroids are sent on trajectories out of the asteroid belt. There are a handful (over 10,000) of these asteroids near Earth, giving them the name, “near-Earth asteroids” (NEA’s).

Bennu is one of these asteroids. Secondly, Bennu (along with less than 1000 other NEA’s) has an optimal orbit for a sample return mission. Lastly, many asteroids are either too small or rotate too quickly for a spacecraft to safely land on. Bennu is big enough and has a mild enough rotation, making it the perfect pick for OSIRIS-REx.

The samples retrieved from Bennu will help scientists better understand the early solar system, its composition, and how life formed in it. Not only will OSIRIS-REx help us look back, however, it will also help us look forward. We will be able to look at the potential hazards and resources in near-Earth space with OSIRIS-REx’s collected samples and data. Overall, OSIRIS-REx will open new windows to help scientists look at the past as well as pioneer the future.

Photos © NASA

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THE NEXT GREAT

EXTINCTION?

By Cecilie Macpherson, ’19 16

News

This year’s Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters

lating science to the public. Her most recent book,

Prize for Global Environmental Activism was given

The Sixth Extinction, has helped the general public

to the well-renowned journalist and writer Eliza-

to better understand our Earth’s current situation

beth Kolbert. On September 20th she visited Dick-

regarding a future human induced mass extinction.

inson’s campus, sat in on a variety of classes, gave a

Starting her lecture off on a comical note, she en-

lecture on her book, and held a book signing. Kol-

gaged her audience through the story of a sexually

bert has an eclectic work background: she has been

disoriented Hawaiian crow named Kanue whose

a New Yorker staff writer for over a decade and has

species is on the verge of extinction. After getting a

traveled across the globe reporting on a diverse range of topics including politics and religion.

couple of laughs from the crowd, Kolbert went on to discuss the three main reasons for the mass extinction

Within the last couple of

event, or the coined “sixth ex-

years, Kolbert’s focus has

tinction,” and how humans

shifted to the environ-

have made such a negative

ment, specifically to the

impact on Earth. She dis-

increasing loss of species

cussed the effect of climate

diversity worldwide.

change, ocean acidification

Being a distinguished

and carbon emissions, and

journalist, she had the

their effect on specific species

opportunity to travel with a team of researchers to the Great Barrier Reefs, the Amazon, and the

of plants and animals.

Elizabeth Kolbert

emphasized that her book conclusion

Andes to report on species endangerment. As

has no call to action. Kolbert’s lack of optimism

a result of these experiences, she wrote the critically

was meant to show that there is little that we can

acclaimed Field Notes from A Catastrophe and the

do about the damage that our society has already

Pulitzer Prize winning book The Sixth Extinction:

caused. Ending on an ambiguous note, she left the

An Unnatural History.

audience to decipher and ponder the future of our

generation. The world is changing, for better or for

The Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize

is given to an individual who is passionate about

worse, and no one has an answer.

environmental change. Kolbert, while stating she is not an environmentalist, has been vital in trans-

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USING SIMPLE MATH AND LOW TECH FOR BETTER HEALTH AND EFFECTIVENESS

By Jeff Ernst, Professor of Mathematics

There are thousands of new technological tools available today that we are told we should use to be better organized or that are supposed to help us achieve our goals more effectively. Whether you are 50 or 20, you are expected to be “tech savvy” or you risk being left behind. At least that is what the media and the marketers want us to think. If this is the case, when today’s 50 year olds were in college, we would have to assume they were not as organized and much less effective without all this tech. I disagree. Certainly our smartphones have allowed us to be better connected and more informed about our environment but if we do not use this information to our advantage or use the correct tools, perhaps some of us are actually less effective than before these technologies existed.

Sometimes basic mathematics and less technology is the best way to keep ourselves focused on our priorities and goals.

Writing something down and simply looking at it each day as you eat your breakfast is a great reminder of what is truly important in your life. For example, make a list of your personal goals for the year, be very specific. Maybe you want to run three times a week, four miles each time or take two trips. Write them down and keep them in a place that you will come across them on a weekly basis.

Every time you look at them, you will be motivated to take action.

By putting away your technology for a few minutes and focusing your mind on your important life goals, you will be more focused in your efforts to achieve them.

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Personally, I keep a paper calendar on my desk and every

day I make a note on that calendar regarding the exercise and activity I did to keep myself healthy. If I can’t put a mark on the calendar in the morning when I get to work, I immediately feel guilty. Then I make mental plans to take a walk later than night or stop in the gym for a quick workout before dinner. Just that low tech calendar, simple math and a few moments of undistracted focus on a goal is enough to keep working towards daily successes.

Ultimately, simple math is all most of us need to be happy

and healthy. Keeping track of things manually such as how many miles you walked or ran or how long you worked out this week adds up quickly and will make you feel good about yourself. Wrist worn gadgets are hugely popular-- but what does that technology do for us? For most people, it simply reminds them that they need to take more steps or keeps track of what they did. If you already know you are achieving daily successes, is spending $300 on a gadget really necessary? A society where technology is constantly developing and becoming a larger presence, we need to consider how we utilize it and cannot forget that returning to the basics can sometimes be beneficial. By using simple math and a red pen and your calendar, keeping track of successes and achievements can be simple and inexpensive.

News

Hope for Alzheimer’s Patients?

By Sadie Signorella, ’18

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, five million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, an irreversible brain disorder. Worldwide that number skyrockets to about 47 million people. Despite the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, their mechanisms aren’t completely understood.

For Alzheimer’s there is no known cure, only techniques and methods of easing symptoms or slowing its progression.

As of now it is understood that Alzheimer’s develops from Aβ aggregates in the brain. Aβ is a protein naturally found in the body, however incorrect processing of this protein can cause it have a higher affinity to hydrogen bond with other Aβ proteins. The body naturally has mechanisms in place to try and clear these aggregates, however they don’t always function quickly enough. As these proteins keep binding to each other without being untangled by the body, they eventually form masses so interwoven and so tightly bound that the body can no longer undo them. After years and years, they can accumulate in enough volume that the patient begins to experience neurological effects. Treatments so far have been confined to lifestyle interventions to reduce the likelihood of the formation of these aggregates, but as of now there are very few successful options for Alzheimer’s patients.

Sevigny et al. have attempted to develop a method that will do just that. Their paper entitled “The

antibody aducanumab reduces Aβ plaques in Alzheimer’s disease” outlines a new and hopeful technique for clearing Aβ aggregates through the use of antibodies.

T observed human B-cells of the immune system and selected cells naturally “triggered by neo-epinopes present in pathological Aβ aggregates”. Thus they gleaned B-cells that had the inclination to attack Aβ aggregates that were present in functioning tissue of the brain. In the immune system, B-cells have the important job of producing antibodies. These B-cells were taken and the antibodies they produced, called aducanumab, were isolated. This is a challenging task because the Aβ protein is a natural protein in the body. In preliminary tests it appears that aducanumab is selective and specific in targeting only abnormal Aβaggregations. According to Sevigny et al. it even showed a “> 10,000-fold selectivity for aggregated Aβover monomer” (53). They also stated that aducanumab was successful in clearing and preventing aggregate plaques. Patients who were administered doses ranging from 1 to 10 mg/kg showed signs of plaque clearance from aggregations in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging scans.

Sevigny et al. bring very promising results to the scientific world, and as they progress into the clinical phase 3 trials their work brings hope for the future of Alzheimer’s disease. This is a discovery in the field of monoclonal antibody treatments that has the potential to revolutionize the medical world.

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News

SHOULD I STOP FLOSSING? A SHORTAGE OF UNDERSTANDING

By Alexis Haynie ’17

“A new report says…” “Scientists now say…” We hear these phrases so often that the majority of us no longer understand what they mean. I recently heard a report on the radio about flossing. In a surprised tone, the show host stated that flossing is not proven to have any health benefits, and consequently, the necessity of flossing is in question (Deamer, 2016). Some listeners will ignore this information all together. Others, however, will take this report as the ultimate source on flossing, which is perhaps even worse. This situation highlights a fundamental misunderstanding between the STEM community and the general populace. Information flows through media and the internet in a way that makes it easy for anyone to learn about a field. The accessibility of information supposedly makes it easy for anyone interested to be educated on a topic. However, if we do not know how to critically interpret this information, are we actually well informed?

The flossing report I heard stated that not enough evidence exists to decide if flossing is necessary. The important point that many people miss is that not enough research has been done, peer reviewed, published, and re-tested to make a well-founded conclusion according to a study by Deamer. The radio host conveniently left any of those nuances out of his report. The question then arises, if we cannot rely on those presenting the information to us and if we sometimes cannot even rely on the people who collected the information, then how do we ever determine anything is accurate, useful, or worth our attention? The answer is

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that we must rely on ourselves. While this is a simple answer, it is wildly difficult to actually accomplish.

For the general populace to be literate in the art of synthesizing the information we are presented with every day, education is key. Education, however, is always a focus of concern and is targeted for improvement by a vast range of critics. Obviously, our current system is not functioning to its full potential. If our foundational education from K-12 is unstable, how can we hope to build an open-minded, critical, problem-solving populace?

One major issue being discussed in education is the shortage of teachers in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Education keeps a yearly list of areas needing educators by state going back to 1990, showing that people have been aware of this issue for over two decades. Special education, languages, sciences, and mathematics are cited as being some of the most affected areas in Strauss’s 2015 study. Many aspects of the education system are looked at critically to determine if there is a shortage of teachers.

These aspects include the return rate of teachers from year to year, the number of people enrolled in teaching programs, and principals’ opinions on their own school’s situation. The take away point is that determining whether there is a shortage of teachers is not as simple as it might seem due in part to the fact that the number of classrooms without teachers cannot be counted. Students must be taught each year, so teachers are always found one way or another, Barshay finds.

The Learning Institute released a report for the 2013

News to 2014 period to look at how qualified teachers are by state. More underqualified teachers mean that there is indeed a shortage of qualified ones. So, the issue becomes not the inability to find people to teach, but the difficulty in finding well-qualified teachers.

Questions arise when we recognize this difficulty: Are teachers themselves being educated and motivated successfully? Are teachers teaching their students effectively? Are teachers staying in the profession long enough to develop the necessary skills and wisdom to do the job well?

Some trace this issue to the lack of respect given to K-12 teachers. A primary or secondary school teaching position is not typically viewed as a glamorous or high level professional career according to Dreifus. Some of the reasons behind this negative view of teaching include the often mediocre salary compared to various other STEM careers and lack of need for a degree past the undergraduate level. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, via the U.S. News, the median salary for high school teachers in the U.S. in 2014 was $56,310. The lowest ten percent in 2014 made an average of $37, 540, and the top ten percent made $88,910. The salary for high school teachers is extremely variable across public and private schools as well as across school regions.

While teachers in the top ten percent range are making a more than decent salary, the bottom ten percent could likely earn a better salary in other science careers, perhaps requiring more years of higher-level education. Although some high school science and math teachers may make a satisfactory living, many do not make as much as other STEM careers available, especially at the entry level. Teaching K-12, however, is one of the most important STEM careers because teachers provide the first introduction to math and science for students and have the opportunity to make this experience either inspiring or discouraging.

Perhaps the most significant challenge facing the education system is the challenge of filling teacher vacancies with qualified, motivated, and creative teachers. According to Weiman, the traditional focus of STEM education in K-12, excluding Advanced Placement courses, is on memorization. The facts of biology, chemistry, and physics are laid out in as straight forward a way as possible and students are expected to be able to regurgitate them. The emphasis is on passive learning: listening to lectures, doing small, repetitive activities, and rote memorization.

Informational knowledge is important in the sciences in order to have the correct vocabulary to talk about the topics at hand.

However, this language is the stepping stone to being able to talk

about questions and complexities within the subject. It is not that a higher level of information needs to be taught earlier, but that a higher level of thinking needs to be encouraged.

Deeper engagement with the material is necessary to unlock the cognitive processes needed for learning. This type of learning can be accomplished through problem solving, reflection, and feedback from teachers on students’ work, Wieman finds. Information must be reviewed outside of class and thought over by the striving learner, in order for them to process it in such a way that works for them and allows them to understand it, not just memorize it. Teachers play a major role in why students get stuck in a simpler way of thinking about learning. If students are presented all the facts as if they are one-hundred percent concrete, then there is no need to think through them and wonder about other possibilities. The latter, however, is one of the major ways of thinking that allows professional scientists to find trails to investigate and to shape research questions.

Being more true to the process of science in the classroom earlier in students’ education would have multiple benefits.

A more accurate conception of science at the secondary level, in particular, would better prepare students for undergraduate studies. A more engaging curriculum would hopefully increase enthusiasm for learning and exploring sciences, and consequently, perhaps more students would go on to be teachers themselves.

Even students who did not continue with science would benefit immensely from a better understanding of the scientific procedure. With so many people, experts and frauds alike, touting their own findings and opinions, everyone needs a way to sort through the media. The process of scientific thought that could be taught in schools would help exponentially with this struggle. It provides a platform of doubt and questioning necessary to weed out misinformation. It provides the ability to pull information from multiple sources to make sense of a topic instead of relying on only one. In summary, teaching the process of scientific thought in addition to scientific facts would benefit all students and perhaps the cycle of science education and recruitment of teachers as a whole.

Increased understanding of the scientific process, even if general, leads to more accurate information sharing between us and the scientific community. Ease of understanding helps the whole populace better understand what is going on in the world around us. Critical thinking allows us to approach those pesky reports we hear daily with confidence so that we can deduce for ourselves if we will continue to floss.

PERHAPS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE FACING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IS THE CHALLENGE OF FILLING TEACHER VACANCIES WITH QUALIFIED, MOTIVATED, AND CREATIVE TEACHERS.

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Budding Questions in Education:

HOW TO DELIVER A STEM EDUCATION?

By Eric Palermo ‘20

Among the headlines of educational issues vying for attention in the media, questions regarding schools focused in teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (popularly referred to as STEM schools) have made their way to the forefront. Between President Obama’s 2010 national initiative to increase students graduating with a STEM degree to the more recent STEM vs STEAM debate, the topic of STEM education has exploded onto the national scene and raised controversy in all aspects: How necessary are STEM charter schools? What courses should be taught? How should instruction be delivered?

In 2000, the problem of lack of employees with training in the fields relating to science, technology, engineering, and math flew onto the United States’ radar when Governor George Bush incentivized students studying STEM fields in college by offering loan forgiveness. Studies that indicate a problem in the United States education system are numerous and have been conducted by a variety of organizations such as the U.S. Department of

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Education and the Program for International Student Assessment.

Virtually all have reached the same conclusion– the quality of K-12 education in the United States has remained stagnant in comparison to the rest of the developed world. However, the issue of teaching proficiency in these subjects is hardly a recent development. In 1965, the Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement produced a study that placed the United States in last for mathematical proficiency, behind 12 other countries such as Israel, England, and France.

The emergence of educational shortcomings in the United States on the nation’s laundry list of issues is not because it is a new development, but rather because, in the wake of the 20th century, jobs requiring students trained in STEM fields have surged far beyond the capacity of the United States to produce these students.

Over the past 10 years, the Department of Commerce reports, the number of STEM related jobs have grown three times as fast as those not related to the STEM fields. According to a 2012 report

News

from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the U.S. would need to produce one million college graduates in STEM related fields over the next decade just to meet the demands of the economy. The average growth rate of STEM fields overall in the decade of 2010-2020, according to the U.S. Department of Education, is expected to be 14%.

The need for schools focusing on a STEM curriculum is clear, but the question remains of how to effectively provide an education that prepares students to pursue a career in a STEM field. The new question becomes not whether STEM education is needed, but rather how it should be delivered. On the forefront of this question is the debate between “STEM” and “STEAM,” or in other words, whether or not art should be included in the mix with science, technology, engineering, and math.

The primary argument against the inclusion of arts in STEM is that it will detract focus from desperately needed STEM instructions. The counterargument to this belief is that addition of the arts in STEM does not replace STEM lessons but rather augments them in honing a student’s creativity and ability to adopt new perspectives. The idea that integration of arts into a student’s curriculum will improve overall academic performance has academic backing, as shown by a 2014 University of Florida study examining the relationship between a student’s participation in the arts and SAT scores. According to this study, students who

THE NEW QUESTION BECOMES NOT WHETHER OR NOT STEM EDUCATION IS NEEDED, BUT RATHER HOW IT SHOULD BE DELIVERED. engaged in art studies during all four of their high school years scored an average of 98 points higher on the math section of their SAT, in comparison with students taking one year or less of arts.

Similarly, high school students who engaged in music programs for four years scored an average of 61 points higher on the verbal section and 42 points higher on the math section than students who only took one year or less of a musical studies.

Even earlier in 2005, College Board, the corporation that administers the SAT’s, published a meta-analysis that reached the same conclusion– participation in the arts increases academic performance in all fields tested on the SATs. In 2012, the West

Virginia Department of Education went even further by studying a cohort of 14,653 high school students and finding that students who merely took two or more art classes (either musical, performance, visual, etc.) were on average 1.3 times more likely to be ranked proficient in mathematics and 1.6 times more likely to be ranked proficient in English/language arts. Moreover, students taking two or more art classes were 1.5 times more likely to score above the national average than their peers with two or less art classes. Both of these correlative studies provide a basis for the claim that a well-rounded curriculum inclusive of the arts increases overall student achievement by helping students develop creativity and a sense of engagement in their education.

Going deeper than the academic disciplines, whether scientific or artistic, critical thinking lies at the core of a STEM education. A 2014 study by the America Society for Engineering Education has outlined the following characteristics that lead to the development of critical thinking in successful STEM charter schools: Engaging and applicable content, interdisciplinary connections, inquiry based lessons, as well as a heavy focus on teamwork and collaboration. At this point, being a student at a liberal arts college, the recipe for creating a student well-equipped to enter a STEM career might strike you as being very similar to what Dickinson College and many other liberal arts institutions offer their students.

As it turns out, many STEM charter schools work to mimic the environment and teaching methods used by liberal arts colleges in order to ensure academic success for students pursuing STEM careers. The majority of STEM schools, including the one that I attended from 9th to 12th grade, do not distinguish themselves from normal schools by boasting about access to great lab equipment, teachers with experience in industry, or the internships that students can look forward to as a result of attending the school. Instead, STEM schools show off an entirely different aspect of their education. Glancing at any brochure advertising a STEM school, you are likely to see words such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and creativity as the defining characteristics of the school.

As more STEM charter schools open their doors across the United States to meet the President’s call for more students equipped to take a major in a STEM field, hopefully educators place more attention not on whether STEM schools should exist or what should be taught at STEM schools, but rather on how teachers can most effectively deliver an education that helps an individual to develop a universal set of skills that is useful in any context.

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Research

SEEING THE UNSEEN

USING GEOPHYSICS TO INVESTIGATE WHAT LIES BENEATH EARTH’S SURFACE Professor Jorden Hayes, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences

Our planet is changing at historically unprecedented rates due to human induced climate change. Nearly two thirds of the global population (roughly four billion people) rely on water that is sourced in mountain watersheds. To grasp this large number, one might think of it as the combined population of the ten most populated countries on Earth or as the population of all the countries in the world except the most populated three (China, India, and the United States). One outcome of climate change is that certain weather patterns are predicted to be more extreme.

Specifically, rain is expected to be intensified in some regions and drought intensified in others.

The western United States has already felt the stress of this changing environment as California just completed its fifth consecutive year of historic drought. The 20 million people impacted by this drought might seem a far away concern for those of us in Carlisle, but we should not forget that half of the nation’s fruits, nuts, and vegetables are produced in California’s farmlands.

We too are impacted by this drought.

Consumable water in the mountain West is slowly built up in the winter snowpack and then transported downstream during the spring melt. Drought conditions can be predicted when the winter snowpack is insufficient in thickness or total snow water equivalent (a measure of the liquid water contained in the solid snow). Further adding to the devastation of drought and lack of snowpack, a study by Bales et al. of the Sierra Nevada mountain range showed that as much as 26% of mountain stream runoff could be lost due to rising average temperatures (a predicted outcome of vegetation migrating to higher elevations). But surface water is a relatively small reservoir for fresh water on Earth; about 25x more water is stored in the subsurface as groundwater.

As an earth scientist and geophysicist, I am interested in the storage and fate of this subsurface water and how groundwater shapes the architecture of Earth’s near surface interior—especially in mountain watersheds such as those of the Sierra Nevada. To understand these processes, scientists have classified Earth’s outer skin as the critical zone. The critical zone is the life-sustaining veneer of Earth where the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere interact. Although processes within the critical zone regulate the distribution of nutrients and water, this zone is not well characterized and the dynamic interaction between Earth’s spheres within the critical zone is poorly understood. Moreover, it is unclear how these processes and the critical zone will change

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with changing climate. To better understand the critical zone, the National Science Foundation has established ten critical zone observatories (CZO) across the United States, involving more than 400 scientists to better understand the complex processes at our planet’s surface.

Critical zone science is highly interdisciplinary. One of my favorite aspects of studying the critical zone is working with a wide range of scientists including biologists, ecologists, soil scientists, hydrologists, and geochemists. As a geophysicist, my role in a team of critical zone scientists is imaging the subsurface to better understand landscape-scale variations in the architecture of soil and rock. There are a variety of techniques that can be employed to image the subsurface. Seismic refraction methods measure small ground motions generated by a sledge hammer to extract information about the structure and porosity of soil and rock. Resistivity methods use electrical currents to estimate relative variations in water content. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) can image small scale layers and boundaries within the subsurface. I often try to incorporate many different types of geophysical datasets (including those listed above) to support interpretations of the subsurface.

Geophysical methods have revealed astonishing new details about the critical zone structure. We are now making estimates of the total water storing capacity of groundwater reservoirs in places like the Sierra Nevada, like Holbrook et al., which can help us better understand the water budget and the fate of our freshwater resources in the face of climate change. While my past research has been focused on understanding the porosity distributions in watersheds of the mountain West, recently I’ve been involved with two new critical zone observatories – one in central PA (the Susquehanna Shale Hill Critical Zone Observatory, SSHCZO) and another observatory on Guadeloupe, a French-owned Caribbean Island. This research is offering new insights in critical zone architecture in areas with dramatically different substrates (sedimentary rock vs. crystalline igneous rock) and in areas with different climates. This fall pause, myself and a group of students will head up to the SSHCZO to collect data that will help us better understand how periglacial climates from the distant past have influenced subsurface fractures and distribution of rocky boulders along a hillslope. This information will improve models of water flow and mineral weathering in this region and allow for comparisons with other critical zones such as those in California.

Research

Strokes and Recovery

By Alan Jacks ’17

A stroke is a loss of blood flow to certain or multiple areas of the brain. This leads to a lack of oxygen, causing anoxia in the area affected leading to temporary or permanent loss of function. Unfortunately, the brain is a very complex organ with sometimes ill-defined areas that are difficult to access. With surgery ruled out, how does someone heal?

Luckily, the brain can still be strengthened like any other part of the body. The brain uses neural circuits in order to connect anything from simple external stimulus to complex theories, and these neural circuits are constantly adapting in order to strengthen important connections. Often times, stroke victims will undergo therapy in order to work around the damaged area, recreating neural signals in order to regain function. Therapists will encourage repetitive movement in order to facilitate neural pathways for the movement. While these methods are often effective, what happens when someone who has lost their sense of touch tries to regain motor control in that area?

Close your eyes and briefly turn the page back and forth.

How could you realize that you were actually doing it? The sense of touch is often something that is taken for granted, and is critical for our ability to move. In fact, they are so interconnected that the sensory and motor areas of the brain are positioned right next to each other for easy neural communication between the two.

When you finger between pages in this magazine, you are able to move individual pages by registering the differences in sensory

input and then using motor control to act upon it. However, if you lost your ability to have voluntary movement in your hand AND you can’t feel the pages, how will you ever be able to effectively move between pages?

For stroke victims, specifically those with ischemic strokes in dorsolateral portions of the brain, both the somatosensory and motor cortex can be affected. These strokes cause not only lack of movement, but also loss of touch to certain corresponding body parts. My research is to find out how stroke patients may recover motor control in the absence of touch, and how to regain the sense of touch once it is lost. Researchers have been using techniques such as mirror therapy, where a patient will perform a behavior with their non-affected limb and attempt to imitate the behavior with the affected limb, while a mirror is blocking vision to the affected limb and showing representation of the non-affected limb in the affected limb’s place. This is aimed to fool the patient visually to thinking the affected hand is performing the behavior, with the hope that over time the visual input will interact with the motor and sensory cortex to rebuild the neural connections. Another approach is Constraint Induced Motor Therapy (CI Therapy), binding the non-affected limb for 90% of the day and literally forcing function of the affected limb.

Although progress is being made toward regaining somatosensory and motor function, there is still not yet a definitive method.

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Research

Localization of α-actinin within the contractile ring of cytokinesis in sea urchin embryos

By Jesse Bissell ’ 17

Cellular processes and structural support would not be efficient without an elaborate set of filamentous protein networks. These proteins further the understanding of cell motility, rigidity, and contractility during cell migration, adhesion, and division. This faculty research with Professor John Henson was an investigation of the contractile ring specific localization of the actin-binding protein α-actinin and its potential role in actin and myosin II filament organization. Actin filament structure and function are influenced by a host of actin-binding proteins, including Myosin II filaments (MyoII). During contraction, the cell division process of cytokinesis, Myoll filaments are thought to align with actin filaments along an equatorial structure known as the contractile ring (CR) that serves to effectively pinch the cell in two. Throughout the formation and constriction of the contractile ring, select actin filament bundling proteins are thought to be involved in cross-linking adjacent F-actin fibers, enhancing the overall structural organization of the actin filaments and allowing them to efficiently interact with MyoII.

To further investigate the α-actinin’s association with Myosin II filaments, this study used immunofluorescent staining combined with fluorescence microscopy to initially characterize anti-α-actinin antibody localization in mammalian PK1 tissue culture cells and then in first division sea urchin embryos of the species Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and Lytechinus pictus.

Staining for α-actinin was combined with an established marker of the CR, an antibody against the phosphorylated (and therefore contractile

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competent) form of the myosin II regulatory light chain (anti-Phospho-MyoRLC). Embryos triple labeled for α-actinin, Phospho-MyoRLC, and chromosomal DNA clearly demonstrated a co-distribution of α-actinin and Phospho-MyoRLC in the CR region of embryos undergoing cytokinesis. In some instances these staining patterns suggested the presence of filamentous entities within the CR. In addition, whereas Phospho-MyoRLC staining was restricted to the CR the α-actinin labeling was also present throughout the embryonic cell cortex suggesting a possible association with cortical actin filaments.

After viewing the results from the immunostaining conclusions were drawn within the different cell models. PK1 cells had the presence of α-actinin in contractile structures such as stress fibers in interphase and CR during mitosis in mammalian tissue culture cells. S. purpuratus sea urchin embryos showed a faint enrichment of α-actinin in the CR region defined by staining with the CR marker protein PMyo, and was more present during late stage CRs. Staining of L. pictus first division embryos showed a clearer codistribution between α-actinin and PMyo, even in early stages of cell division. New information appeared such that both species of sea urchin α-actinin also stained cytoplasmic and cortical structures which suggested an association with the non-CR actin cytoskeleton. Our overall results were consistent with the hypothesis that α-actinin is a component of the CR in sea urchin embryos and may play a role in properly structuring the CR actin filament organization.

The Yin-Yang of Cultural Continuity and Change Professor Rui Zhang, Assistant Professor of Psychology

I am a cultural/cross-cultural psychologist, which means that I study the psychological imprints of cultural context, be it national, ethnic, or religious. Perhaps not surprisingly, it turns out the context inhabited by our own tribe could be strikingly dissimilar from the contexts of tribes, say, on the other side of the hill or the ocean, thus producing differences in psychological experiences. Comparing groups situated in different cultural contexts has been the mainstay methodology that aids cultural psychologists in deciphering the workings of culture. For example, a humongous amount of research supports the distinction between cultures that tout the virtues of individualism (the “I” mentality) and cultures that promote collectivism (the “we” mentality). How does the U.S. American culture score on this cultural dimension? You may have guessed it: U.S. is one of the most individualistic nations.

However, there is more than one way of studying culture.

There is a burgeoning interest in tracking change over time within a single culture. This second approach makes sense because like all living things, culture also evolves. So where are world cultures going? The best available evidence suggests that the worldwide trend is toward individualism. The reason appears to be that economic growth, along with other indicators such as urbanization and formal education that tend to change together as most societies in the world develop, is a strong predictor of how individualistic a culture will become. To put the two strands of research together, as world cultures continue to differ in individualism and collectivism, the world as a whole is also becoming increasingly individualistic.

The question that has intrigued me for a while is, given the worldwide trend, will cultural differences eventually disappear, as prophesized by Marshall McLuhan who coined the term “global village” and later described by Thomas Friedman with the vivid image of a flattening world? To get a good handle on this, I think we need to understand the relation between cultural continuity and cultural change. Research has taught us that culture tends to perpetuate itself, even after the initial conditions that gave rise to it were long gone. That’s why when people move to a new culture, they typically bring their cultural baggage with them and try to maintain at least some of the old ways of life in the new environment. The most cherished aspects of a culture are particularly persistent. For a variety of reasons, core culture is more resistant to change than peripheral culture, aspects of a culture that do not distinctly define a common cultural identity. This was the hypothesis that guided the project that I started during my time as a post-doc and completed this past summer. In this project, I focused on cultural change in China because of its staggering

transformations in the last few decades. As an anecdote, I did not have my first taste of the mysterious Big Mac until middle school.

But having grown up in one of the major cities in China, I’m positive I was among the first bunch of Chinese youngsters who had the privilege of gulping down the world’s favorite junk food.

Another reason why I examined China was that there had already been quite a bit of research showing the rise of individualism in China. What I wanted my research to add to this work was to see if core Chinese culture has remained relatively stable despite the overall move toward individualism. To track cultural change over time, I took advantage of a tool recently made available by Google. One way of measuring culture is to analyze cultural ideas expressed and circulated in popular culture, such as song lyrics, books, newspapers, and TV shows. Under Google’s initiative, millions of books in nine different languages (one of them is Chinese) were digitized, thus making it possible to examine temporal change in usage frequencies of specific words contained in those books. When I plotted Chinese words associated with individualism and collectivism between 1980 and 2008, two things became clear. First, consistent with previous research, individualistic words appeared more frequently in recent books, while collectivistic words were used less frequently. Second, there was one major exception to this general trend. That is, collectivistic words that were considered central to Chinese culture did not decline in usage frequencies; in fact, they experienced a slight revival over time. Most of those words embody the Confucian philosophy: filial piety, family, reciprocity, and so forth. Thus, there was little sign of core culture losing ground in contemporary China.

Do the findings from this research have implications for other cultures, such as the U.S. culture? I believe they do. Knowing that like it or not, core culture tends to linger on sheds light on the relevance of American cultural legacies in the contemporary American life. For instance, it helps explain why it is extremely challenging to have rational conversations about the Second Amendment, a text that is enshrined in the minds of many Americans. It also explains the well-documented fact that U.S. was and still is the most religious among the Western democracies. This is in spite of secularization being one of the products of individualism. Indeed, some researchers have argued that even the stronghold of individualism is attributed, in part, to America’s Puritan-Protestant roots. So the seeds of today’s culture may have been sown in the distant past long before you and me came around.

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Research

OUR SUMMER ON THE ISLAND

By Rulaiha Taylor, ’18 & Ali Resnikoff, ’18

This summer we had the benefit of working with Professor Tony Pires and an REU student at the Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL) located on one of the San Juan Islands in Washington State. Friday Harbor Labs is known for its contributions to the world of marine biology and it offered us a unique lab space to conduct our first research opportunities. We continued Professor Pires’s NSF grant proposal on the effects of ocean acidification on larval competence, metamorphosis, and juvenile performance in a common mollusk called Crepidula fornicata. With the mentorship of Professor Pires we wrote our own research proposals, performed individual experiments and contributed to ongoing research.

We spent most of our days in The Ocean Acidification Lab, our secondary lab space, where advanced technology allowed us to control various aspects of water chemistry including pH, temperature and salinity. The lab consisted of about sixteen oversized coolers, gas and air flow controllers, carbonate chemistry machines, and hundreds of different marine organisms. Our lab had access to four of the sixteen coolers where we kept our hundreds of Crepidula larvae in 16-ounce glass jars. Professor Pires spent the previous academic year thinking about how he could improve the experiment set up in the cooler chambers to have consistent

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experimental controls, like temperature and pH. To maintain pH Professor Pires came up with a unique gas-exchange system to maintain pH and airflow to all of the culture jars that required us to get busy in the wood shop. An average day in the lab consisted of us feeding the snails t-isochrysis algae and recording the chemistry of the water.

As two juniors who are “#abroadinCarlisle” for the year, we are so grateful to have been able to spend eight weeks on a beautiful island together. We learned more about ourselves like….

• Ali enjoys jumping off of thirty foot cliffs into freshwater lakes and accidentally goes on thirteen mile morning runs • Rulaiha has a newfound love for nature, wild deer, and jumping off of docks • Professor Pires loves buttery popcorn and building boats

The community at FHL made the eight weeks fly by. We made new friends from all around the world that all shared a common passion in marine biology. We grew an appreciation for nature and really took advantage of what the island had to offer. We were sad to leave the island but are excited to continue research with Professor Pires in the spring.

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THE STRUCTURE OF FLUID CHAOS HOW SYSTEMS EVOLVE FROM DISORDER TO ORDER

By Professor Strickland, Visiting Professor of Physics and Astronomy

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Technology

The first and most fundamental question we face as humans asks why is there something rather than nothing, a question that is beyond the scope of the scientific endeavor. There is a follow up question that we can meaningfully address as scientists, which is why something is arranged in the way that it is.

Consider the cosmic evolution of the universe.

We had an event, commonly referred to as the Big Bang, followed by a very brief period of rapid inflationary expansion, which allowed quarks, protons, electrons, and the like to emerge. During the following 380,000 years, the universe was a random mixture of protons and electrons (a plasma) that was too hot to condense into hydrogen atoms. As the universe continued to expand over the subsequent 13.7 billion years, this disordered chaotic messy plasma eventually condensed into a hydrogen gas, which in turn condensed into galaxies, stars, planets, etc. The initially disordered plasma developed highly ordered structures, from a fluid chaos into a robust structure.

This flow from “disorder’’ to “order’’ is the consequence of the fact that the universe does not conserve energy. The steady expansion of the universe removed energy from the primordial plasma, thereby cooling it so that electromagnetic effects could “overpower’’ thermal effects, allowing protons to capture nearby electrons producing hydrogen gas. The continued cooling then allowed gravitational effects to overcome thermal effects to allow galactic, stellar, and planetary formation.

Whether we 1 consider the foamlike structure of the universe, the spiral structure of a galaxy, 0.8 Rayleigh-Benard convection in a star, polarization in societal 0.6 organization, specialization in embryonic development, etc., all 0.4 of these systems share a few key features.

These are non-equilibrium spatially distrib0.2 uted systems whose

0

0

0.2

0.4

individual members are initially randomly arranged but are subject to behavioral rules that dictate their interactions with other members. As a result, these systems evolve from a “disordered’’ nearly uniform primordial mess into highly ordered structures.

As a dedicated field of study, the emergence of structure from chaos (a.k.a. pattern formation) has only been around since the 1920’s, and the formal study of pattern formation is not just about accounting for the visually appealing emergence of fingers, stripes, swirls, or lattices. The structure of these emergent patterns affects transport behaviors and thereby the properties of the systems. For example, the oceans tend to develop huge streams (e.g. the gulf stream) that transport huge amounts of thermal energy. If the oceans did not develop these stream-like structures, then the continent of Europe would be a giant popsicle and the Caribbean would be far too hot for humans to survive.

Ongoing work in the field is varied and broad.

Some researchers try to find new types of patterns while others try to identify the difference between patterns and noise. Still others try to describe the conditions under which patterns (and thereby spatial and temporal structures) emerge as well as the amplitude of the patterns, the effects of the patterns on the overall transport properties, etc. If you want to enjoy the beauty and significance of these patterns, I encourage you to look at the American Physical Society’s (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics’ (DFD) Gallery of fluid motion (https://gfm.aps.org/).

To leave you with one last puzzle, in the 2D plot to the left, I’ve identified roughly 10000 points whose x and y components fall in the range from 0-1.

Does this arrangement of points constitute a pattern or is it merely a random arrangement of dots? What type of statistical tests might you run to decide?

0.6

0.8

1

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Technology

3D ORGAN PRINTING

By Madeleine Gardner ’18

If you’re a fan of ABC’s TV show Grey’s Anatomy, then you’ve seen 3D printing at work in the medical field. In one episode of the show, a 3D printer is used to print a model of a heart, liver, and a tumor wedged in between them as a surgical tool for visualizing the tumor and determining the best way to remove it.

But what if 3D printers could build whole, living organs? Current research is engaged in a collaborative project to print viable organs for patients who would otherwise be waiting for months or years on transplant lists.

Just as a printer lays down ink on a piece of paper, typical 3D printers layer materials such as plastic, glass, or metal on top of each other. These solid materials can produce models for medical training, construct prosthetics, and build specialized hearing aids.

However, engineering organs requires soft living materials such as cells and tissues. Biomedical engineers at Carnegie Melon University are testing a method called “Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels,” in which collagen and fibrin make up the structure within a supportive gel mold that can later be melted away. With the organ structure remaining, living stem cells can be embedded into the surface to grow into a proper configuration. Researchers at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are now working on engineering a 3D printer, the Integrated Organ and Printing System, that can print both a structural foundation of biodegradable plastic-like material, and implant cells into it at the same time. To this point, they have

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grown muscle tissue, bone tissue, and ear tissue.

The challenge today lies in innervating organs in 3D printers with enough blood vessels to deliver nutrients to the growing tissue. The tissues constructed at Wake Forest have been printed with small channels, which allow for nutrients and oxygen to reach the cells. Large organs, like a heart with several layers of tissue and open cavities, are still on a whole other level of complexity.

Nonetheless, the Wake Forest team has started animal trials. After two months, ear tissue embedded in the skin of a mouse grew connecting cartilage and sprouted blood vessels.

Bone tissue and muscle tissue has been implanted in rats, and similar results were seen. These trials will forecast whether or not the organs are strong enough to integrate with the human body.

In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Defense is funding a project at the Wake Forest Institute to regenerate portions of organ tissue and use it to test the effects of drugs and chemical warfare agents on the tissues. A startup company Organovo is printing cancerous tissue to test the effects of cancer treatments. Ultimately, the long term goal of 3D printing research is to engineer vital heart and lung organs from a patient’s own stem cells to ensure that the organ will not be rejected by the patient’s immune system. These organs will be able to help people with organ failure due to disease or accidents, as well as infants born with organ abnormalities.

7 New Advances for the iPhone 7

By Alisa Kuklina ’20

For the past few months, the newly released iPhone 7 has stirred up a range of emotions within its users; some claim that the latest model is a definite upgrade while others are choosing to hang on to their older phones and hope that the iPhone 8 designers will “get it right the next time.”

Concerning Apple’s seventh iPhone edition, the most dramatic difference is the lack of a headphone jack (although Apple has been fairly clear from the beginning that this would be expected in their newest model). Despite the negative reviews, the missing headphone jack is a potential benefit to Apple users.

In place of the headphone jack, a second speaker was added to provide a louder and more distinct sound when playing music or watching a video. Another added technological advancement is the pressure-sensitive home button, which vibrates with the rest of the iPhone 7’s lower half. In general, the home button’s pressure sensitivity is promised to work well with the new iOS 10 features

that are made to accommodate 3D touch. In addition, the color gamut, which is a range of colors used in an electronic device, is also said to be enhanced, as it was in the iPad Pro, resulting in more vibrant images.

Regarding the phone’s outer appearance, there was no shape or size alteration from the iPhone 6S. However, Apple added a new phone color to the selection that is called “Jet Black.”

So far, the reviews state that it is more slippery and less scratch resistant than the other colors. Another addition to the “outer” features is increased water resistibility. According to Apple, the iPhone 7 is 100% splash resistant, but still unable to be fully submerged underwater. Several performed tests, however, showed that even if “accidentally” dropped into water, the iPhone 7 will most likely survive and function normally. Additionally, the storage plan was finally increased up to 256 GB, which is a good improvement, considering the fact that additional memory cards cannot be used with iPhones, and photos usually take up a lot of space.

The last and most advanced addition is the camera, or cameras, since designers of the iPhone 7 plus have managed to add a second rear camera. The second camera allows the user to manually zoom without sacrificing the quality of the photo. It should be noted that this feature only works if the user zooms in while taking the picture, and not after the picture is taken. For now, the iPhone 7 Plus has several articles that boldly claim the camera is better than “any phone.” Whether it’s true or not, the iPhone 7 is going to be a strong competitor for Samsung Galaxy 7 and Samsung Note 7.

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Opinion

A SLIPPERY DEVIL

By Alexis Haynie, ’17

Truth, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “the real facts about something.” Wars have been fought over it, lives have been dedicated to the search for it, and Thanksgiving dinners have been ruined over arguments about it. Though they are often deemed antithetical, two fields that are often obsessed with getting close to the truth are science and religion. They have that in common—a quest to know and understand what actually exists.

Liberal arts schools push open-mindedness, questioning, and exploration. We are encouraged in all of our classes to assume nothing and to question everything. But still we so often tend to think of questions in terms of black and white. Religion or science? Creation or evolution? Miracle or medicine? Spiritual morals or legal rights? We like to think of these questions as mutually exclusive. Why limit ourselves to “or?” Perhaps discovering

how something works or came about does not exclude a divine influence. Perhaps past religious tenants need to be rethought and looked at in terms of what we have found out through scientific enquiry.

The conflict between science and religion arises in part because science accepts that nothing can be determined absolutely, while religion says that faith allows us to believe in things we cannot see. By combining these principles, we can derive that no one can absolutely know the whole truth and accepting this does not make us unintelligent or incurious. The more willing we are to admit that fact the more likely we are to be able to take a few steps back and be able to look at the world and the knowledge available to us in more diverse and creative ways. Then perhaps we might be able to get just a little bit closer to that slippery devil, truth.

HUMAN CLONING

By Sara Aden, ’20

When the idea of human cloning first emerged, it was ridiculed and was deemed fictional, or maybe “wishful thinking”.

As technology advances, this dream is becoming a reality for some and a nightmare for others.

The idea of cloning had been castigated, criticized, and trivialized as concerns about its morality are explored. In the wrong hands, it could be devastating, but this also applies to nuclear weapons, power plants, stoves, kitchen knives, and even candles. Its invaluable assistance in the medical field is being unfairly overlooked. “We should not stop progress in science on moral or sentimental grounds” according to Careerride.com.

Picture a scenario. A person enters a hospital to find

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out that they are in dire need of an organ transplant. Instead of finding a matching donor and taking the organ from him/her, this person could just have a sample of his own organ cloned and transplanted with the nonfunctioning copy. This would help save the lives of millions of people and make transplantations a much easier surgery.

Opponents of cloning argue that in the wrong hands, these organs can be used to make a whole other human being, which would be unethical. This also concerns the global population crisis, which is what scientists and environmentalists are extremely anxious about. Despite all of this, cloning is a wonderful discovery and should be appropriately used.

Opinon

Take Me to Church

By Professor Witter, Professor of Chemistry

On most Sundays you will find me at “church”, which, metaphorically speaking, means I’m out in the woods walking with my dogs. Sometimes I’m alone and sometimes I’ve got company, but I always experience a sense of peace that only comes when I’m outside. For me, nature provides the spiritual solace that others seek through different means. So it was with great sadness that I read Tom Friedman’s recent editorial in the New York Times that said that “nature words” were being dropped from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Words like acorn, dandelion, otter, fern, pasture,

and willow were being replaced with blog, MP3 player, and voice mail. This may not strike you as a big deal, since language evolves, right? To me, however, it symbolizes the further loss of human connection with nature, and with that it becomes easier to turn a blind eye when we warehouse our land, pave over our open spaces, dieselize our air, and plasticize our water. It’s not just climate change we need to focus on either, although it plays a role, as the eminent biologist (and former Priestley winner) E.O. Wilson warns that species are going extinct “1,000 times faster than before the global spread of humanity.” As soul-crushing as our current situation is, Wilson has a plan, laid out in his new book called Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, to protect half the global surface. By doing this, Wilson argues, we could preserve around 85% of Earth’s current biodiversity. For me, walking lightly on this Earth is a personal imperative, and one that I believe we need to engender as a new national ethos.

pdfcrowd.com

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Crossword Puzzle

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THE SIXTH EXTINCTION B O O K

R E V I E W

By Connor Liu ’18

Elizabeth Kolbert has shocked the world with her groundbreaking new book The Sixth Extinction. Using scientific data from the past few decades and a thrilling historical narrative, Kolbert reveals the catastrophe that has been happening under our very noses, making it clear to all of her readers that humans have ourselves become a catastrophe. We are in the middle of a mass extinction. During the four billion years of history of life on earth there have been numerous extinction events. Kolbert highlights the two most popular: the End Permian extinction and the Late Cretaceous extinction that wiped out all of the non-avian dinosaurs.

Most extinctions happen gradually over a long period of time, a result of natural selection that eliminates a species through superior genetic traits. “Natural” extinctions usually happen so slowly, at a rate of about one species per year, that it is statistically improbable to witness one in your lifetime. Today, we are witnessing a rate of extinction 10,000 times higher than the norm.

Species disappear every day, and are going largely unnoticed by the public eye. That ignorance is why Kolbert’s book is so important. Not only has she brought global attention to this biological crisis, she has brought attention to the cause of this new mass extinction: us. Kolbert traveled across the globe to gather her data, tagging along with scientists who are experts in their various fields. Habitat loss, climate change, and ocean acidification caused

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by human activity have brought many species to the brink of extinction.

What makes Kolbert’s writing so enjoyable is her ability to bring her readers back in time. Kolbert crafts a worthy drama chronicling the story of how we got to where we are: from the discovery of the first fossils, the discovery of the extinction phenomena, and the discovery of the cretaceous extinction. Her writing takes readers on a narrative ride through twists and turns of discovery and competing hypotheses and in doing so combines a history of science with dramatic flair that makes her book a riveting read.

Elizabeth Kolbert does not implore humanity to work together to stop destroying the planet. In fact, Kolbert largely steers clear of taking any sort of “stance” on these issues, instead sticking to cold hard facts and the communication of scientific evidence.

She is a journalist, not an activist, and lets her facts do the talking.

In The Sixth Extinction she explores our species role in the grand scheme of life, and that bringing about this sixth extinction will unfortunately prove to be our lasting legacy. In her final chapter she states “It doesn’t matter whether people care or don’t care.

What matters is that people change the world”.

Sci & Entertainment

silent running M O V I E

R E V I E W

By Lena Friedman ’19

The first shot of Silent Running, directed by Douglas Trumball, opens on flowers petals covered with dew. A snail makes its slow progress up a branch. Somewhere else in the forest, a small frog rests on a rock and croaks. A turtle sitting in a creek turns to look directly at the camera. However, this display of biodiversity is misleading—the forest pictured is inside a large glass dome in orbit around Saturn.

In the world of Silent Running, the Earth has been stripped of all vegetation and exists as a flat, uniform world. In a final attempt at preservation, all of Earth’s remaining vegetation is loaded onto large spacecraft and sent off. One of the men sent to care for the plants is Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), a crewmember on the Valley Forge, whose devotion to the project makes up for his somewhat dubious ecological knowledge. Lowell is the only one who truly believes that the project’s goal—reforestation—will actually come to fruition. Aided by three drones he nicknames Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Lowell does his best to take care of the Valley Forge’s forests. However, the crew receives orders to blow up their forests with nuclear charges and return to Earth. As the pressure to destroy the domes mounts, Lowell is forced to choose between his human companions and the last plants.

Bruce Dern’s performance carries the film, especially during extended sequences in which Lowell is the only character on-screen. The script seems slow at times, but the film’s creative use of physical effects captures the audience’s attention. The droids Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who are portrayed by actors

in suits walking on their hands, are a great example of this. In addition, the twenty-six-foot model of the Valley Forge and other practical effects used during filming are very progressive for their time.

The movie makes several very accurate predictions in regards to biodiversity and our current methods of preservation. Facilities like the El Valle Conservation Center and any zoo which holds endangered species are like the Valley Forge, as resident scientists work to maintain final species populations.

There are a number of extinct-inthe-wild species whose status relies solely on human care in such places, such as the Panamanian golden frog, the black soft-shelled turtle, and the Hawaiian crow.

In the world of Silent Running, it seems that Lowell is the only one who still believes in the dream of reforestation. The story today is rather more hopeful; there have been several successful cases where species have been reintroduced into their natural habitat, such as with the California condor. Silent Running serves as an example of what could happen if humans decide that biodiversity is not worth preserving.

This movie is worth watching. It can feel slow at times, but is entertaining and asks a question that becomes more relevant with every passing year and every organism that goes extinct—what would you do to protect the last forest of Earth?

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Sci & Entertainment

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

with Laura Watson

VISITING PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

Professor Laura Watson is a visiting Assistant Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department. She grew up in the United Kingdom and earned her degree in Astrophysics from the University College of London in 2009, and a PhD in Astrophysics from the Imperial College of London in 2015. She will be teaching at Dickinson for the 2016-2017 school year and is currently teaching Physics for the Life Sciences and Introduction to Astrophysics.

Madeleine Gardner: What have you investigated through your research?

Dr. Laura Watson: The official title of my thesis is “Signatures of Cosmic Topology in the Polarised Cosmic Microwave Background.” I was analyzing remnant radiation from the Big Bang to look for evidence of the shape of the universe. The idea is that if you travel far enough in one direction, you will eventually come back to where you started, like when we realized that the Earth is spherical and, if you keep going, you won’t fall off the Earth, but you’ll return to the same point. This idea can be applied to the universe, in terms of how the sides are connected.

MG: Why did you decide to teach at Dickinson?

LW: I started looking in the U.S. [for a teaching position] because in the U.K. it’s a lot harder to focus on teaching unless you’ve been in academia doing research for a long time. I wanted to be able to have a teaching focus from the beginning. Dickinson in particular has a history of working on physics education research. An example of this is the Workshop Physics program, which is for the majors. Students in the program learn through labs; they don’t have lectures. Classes are all labbased, but done in a way that students learn the theory at the same time.

MG: How have you had to adjust your teaching style to fit Dickinson-style education?

LW: I’m used to being at big research universities. The difference is that we don’t have liberal arts colleges in the U.K. The small

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classes [here] are more interactive than lecture. I have taught in the equivalent of high school, and I think it’s quite a challenge to translate those techniques that I used in the classroom to higher [college] level material.

MG: What was hardest to get used to in the United States?

LW: I felt at home straightaway. Everyone at the college and in the area has been really welcoming. One challenge that I wasn’t expecting has to do with money, and issues like Social Security. [In the U.K.] we think of the cost of living as being less in the United States, but I’m finding lots of hidden costs: tips are expected everywhere, healthy food is a lot more expensive, being charged by ATMs. The U.K. has the National Health Service, so when you need health care, you don’t have to pay for it. A lot of the expenses probably balance out, but the extra costs were unexpected.

MG: What advice do you have for students studying abroad, and especially students going to England?

LW: It’s more typical to have huge classes and it can be rare to have any personal interaction with the instructor, so it’s really important to form study groups so that you’re not working through material on your own. It can seem like the instructor is unapproachable, but it is quite often worth dropping him or her an email and speaking to them if you can. Try to be as proactive as possible. Be outgoing and make the most of opportunities to meet people. ­— Madeleine Gardner ’t18

Sci & Entertainment

XWORD

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