Vol. IV Issue No. 1

DickinsonScienceMagazine

30 Nov. 2017 - Vol. 4 Issue No. 1 1

INTERESTED IN STUDYING SCIENCE ABROAD?

CONSIDER THE UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA IN NORWICH, ENGLAND! FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT PROFESSOR KUSHNER AT KUSHNER@DICKINSON.EDU OR THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL STUDY AT GLOBAL@DICKINSON.EDU 2

CONTENTS

30 Nov. 2017 - Volume 4, Issue Number 1

EDITOR’S CHOICE 5

6

Machine Learning and Underwater Cameras: Exploring the Deep

RESEARCH 24

26 Descending from the Ivory Tower: Citizen Science as a Model for the Future 27

SCIENCE NEWS

8

In Brief

10

World News

12

Hormone Havoc

13

A Breakthrough in Surrogacy?: The Development of an Artificial Womb

TECHNOLOGY

32

Cosmic Cacophony: Using

Gravitational Waves to 33 Probe the Early Universe

Exploring the Neural

Plasticity of Apis mellifera 34 Foraging Behavior Taming of the Wild Yeast

28

What is Glaciovolcanism and Why Should We Care?

30

Identification of β-catenin Interacting Proteins in the 36

Renal Collecting Duct 36

37

14 How Chemistry Impacts

Forensic Drug Investigations 15 Progress in Quantum

Hard Drives: Time Crystals

FEATURES 16

The Fermi Paradox

20 Under the Clockwork Shadow

So You Miss Your Headphone Jack? Just Build Your Own! The Original Storage Device: How Our Own DNA May Replace the USB The E-Bike for Dickinson

OPINION Commercial Mind Control: A Possible Future for AR Climate Change: Reality and Perception No More Celestes Please

ENTERTAINMENT 38

Queer in the Final Frontier

40

Jurassic World Movie Review from a Feminist Earth Scientist

42

Under the Microscope with Catrina Hamilton-Drager

43 Crossword

3

Letter from the Editor

DSM Dickinson Science Magazine Editor-in-Chief Alexis Scott ’19 Managing Editor Jacqueline Hwang ’19

Hello, readers!

This is Vol. 4, Issue 1 of Dickinson Science Magazine, and the theme of this issue is all things space! In light of a series of critical events that have recently occurred beyond our atmosphere, such as the conclusion of Cassini’s mission and the most recent solar eclipse, this issue’s theme is both fascinating and relevant.

Such amazing scientific missions and phenomena happening during our lifetimes have proven to bring people together in unimaginable ways.

Countless people flocked to the path of totality to secure the chance to observe a solar eclipse. Many social media users used their platforms to say a last farewell to Cassini.

Although I was returning from New Jersey at the time, I was able to experience a slight darkening of the sky from the parking lot of a pizza restaurant.

In many ways, we are incredibly lucky to be alive in such a time of growing scientific understanding. The fact that we can observe the universe that exists beyond our own planet in such detail is truly incredible, and the possibility that we will be able to understand even more with time is staggering. The

4

study of astronomy generates a feeling of smallness in a vast universe.

As Carl Sagan said in his book Pale Blue Dot in 1994, “The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there [on Earth]--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

Although this is my first issue as editor-in-chief, I am immensely proud of this issue’s content. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with a publication that actively promotes scientific literacy. I would like to thank everyone who has worked with the magazine throughout this issue for their dedication. I hope that we can continue the trend of delivering science to Dickinsonians with passion and excitement.

— Alexis Scott, ’19

Executive Layout Editor Courtney Gamache ’18 Associate Layout Editor Alice Kuklina ’20 News Editor Eric Palermo ’20 Features Editor Savannah Woods ’21 Research Editor Sarah Dembling ’19 Science & Technology Editor Kendra Beaver ’20 Science & Entertainment Editor Tom Wegman ’19 Opinion Editor Simona Bajgai ’20 Photography Editors Maddie Underhill ’19 Executive Copy Editor Allison Curley ’19 Copy Editors Abigail Brickler ’21 Jordon Cox ’21 Ellie Doblin ’21 Morgan German ’18 Event Coordinator Janice Wiss Faculty Advisor Missy Niblock Email: scinews@dickinson.edu Facebook: https://facebook.com/ DsonScienceMagazine Issuu: http://issuu.com/dickinsonsciencemagazine

“THE NITROGEN IN OUR DNA, THE CALCIUM IN OUR TEETH, THE IRON IN OUR BLOOD, THE CARBON IN OUR APPLE PIES WERE MADE IN THE INTERIORS OF COLLAPSING STARS. WE ARE MADE OF STARSTUFF.”

— CARL SAGAN

MACHINE LEARNING AND

Editor’s Choice

UNDERWATER CAMERAS EXPLORING THE DEEP

By Bryce Haver, ‘20

In recent years numerous advances have been made concerning AI units and machine learning. One major advancement exists in the field of deep sea cameras. The utilization of deep sea cameras to survey fish is beneficial not only because these cameras decrease the amount of human labor (and human error), but also because they “enhance the spatial and temporal resolution of sampling” (Chuang et al., 2017). Through new technology, cameras are now able to better identify and survey fish within local areas. These studies are becoming increasingly important when it comes to monitoring the health of an underwater ecosystem and monitoring the number of fish in fisheries.

Due to the depths of some of the fisheries, the use of trawls (large fishing nets) is necessary to place cameras. However, depending on how rough the surface is or how many obstacles exist in the survey area, it can be impossible to use trawls to install cameras. Therefore, many researchers will choose to use remotely-operated vehicles (ROV) or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV). Both cameras are moving, and while they are better in situations where stationary cameras are not, they do have a few disadvantages. The major disadvantage is that the stationary cameras can use ego-motion technology (through a model called the Gaussian Mixture model) while non-stationary cameras cannot utilize this. Ego-motion technology is basically analyzing what is background by seeing what does not move for a period time. After analyzing what is background, the camera will then count/identify the number of moving objects that are not part of the background. However, once the camera is moving, the Gaussian mixture model, along with other similar models, will fail as the camera will not be able to distinguish the difference between what is and is not background. Other difficulties for AI recognition software include low image quality and a lack of background landmarks, both caused by the environment the camera is in.

To overcome these challenges people

investigated combining object tracking (the way an object moves on camera) with frameby-frame object detection. Through this process, two major techniques came into fruition. Deformable Part Model, or DPM, looks at a “histogram of oriented gradients” [HOG] (Chuang et al., 2017) and identifies an object by seeing where two gradients do not match.

It then forms a border along where they don’t match, until the object is completely inside the border (Girshick). The other type of approach is called kernel-based tracking. Comanciciu et al., 2003 say: “This type of method builds a target model in terms of a color histogram where each pixel is weighted by its spatial distance to the object center.

The mean-shift algorithm is then employed to efficiently find the local maximum of the feature similarity function”.

There are new algorithms that combine both methods, which make object recognition much easier by taking pictorial structures and putting them into kernel-based tracking algorithms. The DPM helps to provide the HOP gradient, which is how the pictorial structure are identified. This new technology is not only beneficial in tracking one fish, but it is beneficial in identifying multiple at the same time (Photo: Chuang et al., 2017).

Meng-Che Chuang, Jenq-Neng Hwang, Jian-Hui Ye, Shih-Chia Huang, Kresimir Williams:Underwater Fish Tracking for Moving Cameras Based on Deformable Multiple Kernels. IEEE Trans. Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems 47(9): 2467-2477 (2017) Ross Girshick, “Deformable Parts Model” UC Berkeley. http://vision.stanford.edu/teaching/ cs231b_spring1213/slides/dpm-slides-ross-girshick.pdf D. Comaniciu, V. Ramesh, and P. Meer, “Kernel-based object tracking,” Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 564-577, 2003.

5

Editor’s Choice

Descending from the Ivory Tower CITIZEN SCIENCE AS A M O DE L F OR T H E F U T U R E

By Allison Curley, ’19, ALLARM Watershed Coordinator Dickinson recently inaugurated its 29th president, Dr. Margee Ensign, who champions civic engagement and “a useful education for the common good.” The sciences are no exception to this philosophy and have an ever-growing potential to work for communities. Science education and scientific literacy are imperative as technology marches ever forward, as the economy evolves, and as we confront the most pressing issues of our time.

As such, science professionals and educators have a responsibility to make their work accessible to a broader public; descend from the ivory tower and bring science to communities.

Citizen science is a mode of conducting scientific research in which researchers and community members outside of the professional scientific community work together to advance the goals of a project. The three main categories of citizen science are termed “contributory”, “collaborative” and “co-created”, respectively defined by increasing degree of participant involvement. The main contribution of volunteers in a contributory project is through the collection of data, which are then used in the study designed by the researchers.

A collaborative approach involves the volun-

6

teers in data collection and in data analysis and distribution. Volunteers are most involved in a co-created project, in which they contribute to designing the study and its objectives, collecting and analyzing data, and disseminating information. An example of an organization that routinely employs co-created citizen science is the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM), located in Dickinson’s Kaufman Hall.

ALLARM is a community-based aquatic citizen science organization. It was started

by Dr. Candie Wilderman in 1986 in response to concern about the effects of acid rain, and has since evolved into a national leader in the volunteer water quality monitoring field under the direction of Julie Vastine (’03). The organization works with communities across Pennsylvania and beyond to implement monitoring studies that reflect the volunteers’ own interests and intentions for their data. Community engagement, however, does not stop in the lab at ALLARM. Education and outreach are central features of the organization’s activities. From educational presentations around Carlisle and in Dickinson classrooms, to encouraging local residents to maintain storm

Editor’s Choice

drains, ALLARM’s staff makes environmental education and engagement accessible to the general public.

One of the perennial obstacles facing the citizen science field is skepticism about data quality. In response to this, ALLARM director Julie Vastine asserts that “all data of known quality have use.” This means that if the mode of data collection produces results of quality appropriate for the end-goal of the project, data gathered with the contribution of citizen scientists is no less useful

Citizen science is a mode of conducting scientific research in which researchers and community members outside of the professional scientific community work together to advance the goals of a project. than data gathered solely by professionals.

ALLARM watershed monitoring volunteers identify their end-goal for the data during the study design process, whether it be collecting baseline data on their local streams or even informing policy decisions. Given the group’s unique limitations and goals, ALLARM guides them in designing the most appropriate and robust study possible, including a quality assurance plan to ensure that data collection is sound and of high quality. After training, monitors submit water samples to the ALLARM lab twice a year for quality control testing. This entails ALLARM lab coordinators doing a blind test of the sample using the same equipment that

the volunteers used, plus additional sophisticated lab equipment. The results are then compared to the monitors’ data, and they receive either a passing or a failing grade. By their second round of quality control, 100% of ALLARM volunteers pass the test.

A specific example of how citizen science can work for community benefit is ALLARM’s Shale Gas program. Since 2010, ALLARM has partnered with volunteer groups interested in monitoring their local waterways for impacts of hydraulic fracturing of the Marcellus Shale. The organization developed a protocol specific to Shale Gas monitoring and holds workshops with community groups to train them on the instruments and procedures, educate them further about shale gas extraction, and inform them about reporting mechanisms. Recently, ALLARM’s Shale Gas portal (www.allarmwater. org) has gone live, which allows volunteers not only to digitally log their own data and visualize it in different ways, but its open source format allows anyone interested to see the water quality data recorded by ALLARM’s Shale Gas monitors.

Citizen science is a relationship between communities and scientists that empowers both to reach their goals and further science itself. Community engagement and crowd sourcing data can increase researchers’ data pool many times beyond what they may be able to generate themselves.

For projects with a spatial component, large numbers of community members can gather data from a wide geographic area and bring in-depth knowledge about their local area to the table that an outside researcher may not have. In exchange, community members develop new skillsets, increase their scientific literacy, and become more aware of the world around them and the ways that science touches their lives. While community participation in scientific research is not always feasible or necessary for every project, community education about scientific research is never in vain. Productively channeling the interest and enthusiasm of engaged individuals can benefit all scientific disciplines, and such people have the potential to diffuse interest in and support for the sciences throughout their communities.

7

Breakthrough in Surrogacy?

“Dr. Alan Flake and his team have shown success in creating an ‘artificial womb’...”

Taming of the Wild Yeast “We hope to understand the benefits and costs of domestication.”

8

Under the Clockwork Shadow

“The two minutes of totality had been some of the shortest of my life, but they were also undoubtedly the most incredible.”

Commercial Mind Control “The volume of subliminal trickery possible with these technologies paints a dark and deceptive future for consumers everywhere.”

In Brief

an overview of this issue’s content

9

World News

By Anna Peterson, ’21

Life on Mars?

The evidence of habitable conditions on ancient Mars continues to grow. Using their Mars rover’s “ChemCam,” researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently discovered traces of the chemical boron, a crucial ingredient in RNA creation. The boron was found within Mars’ calcium sulfate mineral veins, suggesting its presence in the planet’s groundwater. Though this discovery does not confirm ancient life on Mars, scientists believe its presence positively impacts the likelihood of microbial life.

10

Hubble’s Constant

Lasers & Space Junk

New laser technology developed at MIT may help scientists understand where many types of space junk are orbiting the Earth. Because this debris orbits the planet at speeds close to 17,500 miles per hour, any collision with a spacecraft could be incredibly destructive. By distinguishing differences in polarization between six common satellite materials, including aluminum, black and white paint, and Teflon, researchers are able to determine the composition and location of junk fragments with increased accuracy. By predicting where the space junk will be, scientists can ensure no launching spacecraft will collide with it and thereby increase the safety of new launches as well as the International Space Station.

For over fifteen years, there was only one way to measure Hubble’s constant, the rate of the universe’s expansion.

Now, there are two — and, in a recent study of both methods, one resulted in a rate 8% greater than the other. Scientists now must continue to question what they thought they knew, such as what kinds of radiation were present during the Big Bang or if properties of dark matter have been shifting over time. Researchers plan to use these questions to guide them towards a more complete or completely revised concept of the universe.

Saturn’s Rings

Exoplanet WASP-12b

The Hubble Space Telescope recently observed a dark, superheated exoplanet about 1,400 lightyears away from Earth. The exoplanet, named WASP-12b, falls into the category of “hot Jupiters,” or large gaseous planets orbiting close enough to their stars that they are heated to extreme temperatures. The planet’s orbit is so close to its star that the planet has a fixed day and night side with a temperature difference estimated to be over 2,000°F. Because the day side has such a high temperature — about 4,600°F — most molecules cannot survive. Therefore, light is not reflected back into space; rather, it is transformed directly into heat energy by hydrogen atoms deep in the planet’s atmosphere, giving the exoplanet an appearance “as black as fresh asphalt.”

Before the Cassini spacecraft ended its mission this September, it relayed to scientists on Earth images of Saturn’s rings. First discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, these rings are now thought to be made of ice and fragments of dead moons and broken comets. Due to their varying densities and gravitational differences from the composition of the rings, each ring is shaped slightly differently. Some rings, for example, have cracks through which “shepard” moons pass; others feature “propellers” caused by moonlets.

Astronomers will continue to analyze Cassini’s images in hopes of gaining a better understanding of Saturn’s rings’ composition and organization.

Want to Learn More?

Chu, J. (2017, June 19). Space junk: The cluttered frontier.

Retrieved from http://news.mit. edu/2017/space-junk-shards-teflon-0619 Byrd, D. (2017, September 17).

Astronomers find a pitch-black planet. Retrieved from http:// earthsky.org/space/pitch-blackexoplanet-wasp-12b NASA. (2017, September 20).

Hubble’s Contentious Constant.

Retrieved from https://science. nasa.gov/science-news/news-articles/hubbles-contentious-constant-news Pappas, S. (2017, September 14). What Are Saturn’s Rings?.

Retrieved from https://www. livescience.com/60412-what-aresaturn-rings.html

11

News

Hormone Havoc

By Sadie Signorella, ’18

On August 30, 2017, Science released an article that covered the strangely skewed sex ratio of American crocodiles in Palo Verde National Park of Costa Rica. Researchers from Tennessee Technological University found that the sex ratio of American

crocodiles was surprisingly unbalanced— for every 1 female, there were 3.5 males. To further perplex the scientists, they found that samples of tissue from these crocodiles contained the synthetic hormone 17α-methyltestosterone (MT), a hormone used for varied reasons including fish farming, body building, and hormone replacement therapy.

First, a little bit about American crocodile reproduction. Interestingly, sex is decided in crocodile eggs by the temperature in the nest during incu-

12

bation, instead of an ingrained genetic distinction of chromosomes. Warmer temperatures tend to produce female crocodiles, while cooler temperatures promote male development. Overall, the mean low temperature of Costa Rica has actually increased 2.5°C in less than 20 years, and one would expect this to cause an increase in the number of female crocodiles. However, this was not the case. Believing that MT may be influencing the crocodiles, researches exposed American alligator eggs to MT and incubated them at temperatures that should have only produced female young. Yet, males still hatched and the eggs exposed to the highest concentration of hormone produced 60% males. Scientists think that MT may be leaking into the Palo Verde waters from a nearby tilapia farm. The tilapia farm uses MT supplemented fish food so that its female fish grow bigger, more muscular, and thus more profitable. Researchers think that MT may be escaping into the water, either due to improper disposal practices or by crocodiles feeding on fish laced with MT, that then pass the hormone down to their young. Whatever the case, there is too little data to implicate the tilapia farm.

Scientists think that MT may be leaking into the Palo Verde waters from a nearby tilapia farm.

Hormonal effects are not limited to crocodiles. A similar phenomenon occurred in 2007, when a study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that male fathead minnows experimentally exposed to 17α –ethynylestradiol (EE2) became feminized and had reduced reproductive success.

EE2 is a synthetic estrogen commonly used in birth control pills and that has been detected in municipal water ways. By the conclusion of the experiment, the population of minnows in the lake that contained EE2 levels had completely collapsed.

Since the FDA approval of the birth control pill in 1960, women all over the United States have used this form of hormonal contraception. While the pill has been around for almost 60 years, we are not really sure of all the effects of this synthetic hormone on our environment and our waterways. Much of the synthetic hormone in the pill is not metabolized and thus is excreted through urine and eventually into our waterways.

Our drinking water comes from these same waterways and current water treatment processes may not remove all of these synthetic hormones. Thus, people of all ages are exposed to the influence of these testosterone and estrogen hormones, and there are unpredictable consequences.

References Current Contraceptive Use in the United States, 2006–2010, and Changes In Patterns Of Use Since 1995. National health statistics report. October 2012. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr060.pdf Kidd et al. Collapse of a fish population after exposure to a synthetic estrogen. PNAS. 2007. vol 104, no.

21. doi/10.1073/ pnas.0609568104 Leslie, Mitch. Something is changing the sex of Costa Rican crocodiles. Science. August 2017. doi:10.1126/

News

A BREAKTHROUGH IN SURROGACY?

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARTIFICIAL WOMB

By Yuna Lee, ’21 Recently in Britain, the number of individuals who look for surrogate mothers has been rising.

After the legalization of same-sex marriage the increase of childless couples with genetic problems, cancer, uterine issues, unsuccessful surgeries, STDs, and multiple IVF cycles; and the increase of single people who want to have children who have not yet met their significant other, some view surrogacy as “the ultimate altruism” (Mowbray, 2017). Surrogate mothers take this action seriously, and portray themselves as a chosen individual to give gifts to people who cannot reproduce. With the controversy surrounding surrogacy, however, many would welcome an alternative method for those who cannot reproduce by themselves. Recent advancements have now yielded a possibility that involves no surrogate mother at all.

Dr. Alan Flake and his team have shown success in creating an “artificial womb” (Yuko, 2017). So far, Dr. Flake has only carried out his experiment using premature lambs because, due to ethical issues, human fetus testing has been banned for the next three to five years. Although the artificial womb started with a similar intention as an incubator, it can also supply babies with the necessities that a mother would normally provide.

Because the artificial womb fulfills

the role of a mother’s womb, infants as little as 9 weeks old can go in the artificial womb to fight the uphill battle of a premature baby trying to survive (Yuko, 2017). Every procedure that goes through the artificial womb has to be undertaken carefully, because an infant that is close to its fetus phase is fragile and requires prudent procedures and preparation. Trish Ringley, a nurse with 20 years of experience at the NICU, shared that through her experience, the artificial womb may be a solution for fetuses and babies to survive, however it may take an emotional toll on parents (Yuko, 2017). Although the artificial womb can act as a mother’s womb by providing nutrients and warmth, there is one crucial thing that the artificial womb cannot provide: maternal bonding. It has a long way to go before clinical use, but the advancement of this technology may be the answer to the ethical dilemma of surrogacy.

Alternatively, it may introduce a whole new range of ethical problems to consider.

References Mowbray, N. (2017, Sep 27). To Have and To Hold: The Rise of Surrogacy In Britain. Retrieved from http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/ surrogacy-in-the-uk Yuko, E. (2017, May 8). Weighing the Ethics of Artificial Wombs. Retrieved from https:// www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/health/artificial-wombs-ethics.html

13

News

How Chemistry

Impacts Forensic

Drug Investigations

By Professor Amy Witter, Department of Chemistry Few statistics are as sobering as recent data on opioid use in America. If you missed it — and it is hard to miss — drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, greater than gun deaths, or even car accidents (Katz, 2017).

Opioids and structurally similar chemicals have been used throughout history to get high. Opioids bind to opioid receptors (proteins) and cause a bioactive response; they can be produced naturally by plants (opiates) or synthetically by humans. Opiates, like opium, led to the discovery of other natural products such as heroin and morphine. Their potent pain-killing activity provided the chemical template for the development of drugs like Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin. More recently, synthetic drugs have been manufactured that act like opiates but are not produced from plants. Drugs such as methadone, used to treat heroin addiction, and fentanyl, a synthetic derivative 70 times more potent than heroin, have entered the pharmaceutical limelight.

In Pennsylvania, fentanyl is implicated in over half of all drug overdoses. A grain of carfentanil, a fentanyl derivtive, is enough to kill a person (Figure 1). Cumberland County PA operates one of four forensic laboratories in the state whose mission is to provide forensic services to law enforcement officers. These services include testing of suspected controlled substances and blood, and urine samples. The steps taken of sample collection, sample analysis, and potential sentencing are all part of the chain of custody, a process that ensures sample integrity. Samples are logged into a computerized record keeping system and housed under lock and key until they are further analyzed. In order to identify an unknown chemical, a technique called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

14

Figure 1. Lethal doses of heroin, fentanyl, and carfentanil. Note that street heroin is often mixed with fentanyl but there is no therapeutic dose. Kensington Police Service, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/05/02/fentanyl-carfentanil_n_16397030.html. Accessed 09-30-2017

(GC/MS) is used. The analyst must first convert the unknown substance to a liquid form to introduce it into the GC. This involves an organic extraction step, which many students perform in organic chemistry laboratory. Next, the sample is drawn into a syringe and introduced into a hot (250°C) inlet port where it is vaporized and swept onto the GC column by helium. The column is where mixtures of molecules are separated so they can be detected. Few illicit drugs are pure — in fact, quality control is almost non-existent and most street drugs contain impurities, active ingredients, and solvents left behind from their manufacture. Once the separated molecules elute from the column, they are ionized and guided under vacuum into the mass analyzer, where the ions are essentially weighed to provide a compound’s mass to charge ratio.

The mass of an unknown molecule is called its molecular ion, and is used to help identify the atoms the molecule contains. During ionization, molecules break apart into fragment ions that are also used to characterize the molecule. The combination of GC-MS and other chemical tests are used to shed light on the identities of the unknown samples. This scientific evidence is used in combination with the amount and type of substances found to guide the judicial outcome.

References

1Katz, J. (2017, August 10). Short answers to hard questions about the opioid crisis. New York Times. Retrieved from New York Times.

Progress in

News

Quantum

Hard Drives: Time Crystals

By Savannah Woods, ‘21

When most people hear the word crystal, an image of quartz, amethyst, or maybe even diamond appears in their heads. In the realm of physics however, crystals are defined as any regularly repeating system. In normal 3D space, the repeating patterns might exist in cube-like arrangements of carbon atoms like in diamonds; crystals like these, called space crystals, were previously the only known type.

However, researchers have recently discovered crystals existing in time, rather than space.

Time crystals are regular repeating patterns of electron oscillations over time, rather than patterns in the three spatial dimensions. To create these time crystals, lattices of electrons are arranged in superconductive materials with the help of lasers to orient the electrons’ electromagnetic spin. Here is the exciting, yet intimidating face of the discovery: the behavior of this weird electron time crystal appears to break a fundamental law set forth by general relativity.

More specifically, these time crystals break continuous time

translational symmetry.

All of this universe’s previously understood matter obeys this continuous time translational symmetry, meaning that from one instant to the next, the molecules of matter appear the same. Normal matter at thermal equilibrium has small, random vibrations that are statistically equivalent from one instant to the next. No information can be encoded in this base state for regular matter, as the particles vibrate randomly over any length of time. What makes time crystals so different is that they do not remain statistically equivalent over time.

Rather, oscillations in the magnetic spin of the electrons are the time crystals’ ground state and fluctuations persist independent of outside stimuli.

The most exciting application of these time crystals would be a reliable and stable way to store information in a quantum computer.

Each one of the small motions over time could be used to store a byte of information, analogous to a 1 or a 0. Because the movements exist independent of outside stimuli, the stored information would not decay as easily as the current ideas for quantum hard drives, which use easily disturbed electron spin states to store information. As of now, the lab trials are being peer reviewed and more scientists are looking to recreate results. If researchers can refine their methods and duplicate results, the public can look forward to hard drives being smaller than ever imagined.

References [PBS Space Time]. (2017, Mar 15). Time Crystals! | Space Time Journal Club [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l1KxgHH2Ek Chu, J. (2016, December 20). Scientists detect a quantum crystal of electrons and “watch” it melt. Retrieved from http://news.mit.edu/2016/quantum-crystal-electrons-melt-1220

15

THE FERMI

PARADOX

By Stephanie Klein, ’21

16

17

The year is 2017 and humanity has yet to find extra-terrestrial life. Since the dawn of civilization, humans have looked up and wondered if we could be alone. Despite the plethora of myths, sightings, tall-tales, legends, and searching, no one has ever gathered evidence of life outside of Earth.

Though green-headed, bug-eyed aliens with laser beams have been popularized through film, scientists are hesitant to make any predictions about the appearance of life existing outside of Earth. Within our own solar system, if any life can be found outside our atmosphere it is most likely microscopic organisms that resemble bacteria. Scientists can extrapolate that life needs fewer resources to thrive than previously thought, following the lifestyles of several extremophile species on Earth. Despite predictions of microscopic life on mineral-rich planetary bodies like Saturn’s moon, Titan, we have never directly observed such life, and it is not the focus of the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). No, SETI is looking with high powered radio telescopes for signals sent by life intelligent enough to have created them.

There is a famous equation, the Drake Equation, that provides a rough estimate for how many intelligent civilizations might exist in our universe and in our Milky Way. It begins with the estimated number of stars in our universe from satellite data; there are approximately 1,022-1,024 stars in the observable universe and about 100-400 billion in our Milky Way (Urban, 2014). The next assumption is that, conservatively calculating, 5% of the stars in the universe are the same type as our sun. That suggests that there are 500 billion billion fellow G2V yellow dwarf stars out there waiting for Earth-like planets to orbit them. Now, for this thought experiment, assume that about 22% of sun-like stars have Earth sized planets around them, and a total of 1% of yellow dwarf stars have Earth-sized planets in their habitable zone (Urban 2014). The estimate is now down to 100 billion billion potentially habitable planets. Factor in the idea that only 1% of planets with the environment to support life evolve any type of life at all, and that only 1% of all planets that develop any life evolve intelligent life, and there would be 10 quadrillion intelligent civilizations in the observable universe. If we scale that number down to the size of our Milky Way galaxy, Earth’s galaxy would have 100,000 intelligent species in it (Urban 2014). The Milky Way should be teeming with curious aliens shouting to the heavens, broadcasting about their existence to any other planet willing to listen. The interstellar medium should be deafeningly loud

18

News

with 100,000 different voices. beginning of the planets’ formation and the constant bomSo, why is it so quiet? bardment of asteroids that disrupts the fledging ecosystems.

Where is everyone?

Another proposed filter would be civil destruction, that is, that This is what has come to be known as the Fermi Paradox, life on a planet destroys itself via nuclear warfare or other such named for physicist Enrico Fermi. As of right now, we have no anthropogenic genocide. These filters could explain why we do solution to this paradox, but many groups have put forward not hear anything from the bowels of space. It is proposed by their solution ideas. There are two main types of solutions that this theory that life forms very often, and is a common side-efscientists have hypothesized: we don’t see signs of life because fect of the matter in our universe, but only a small percentage it does not exist, or we don’t see signs of life because we are can make it past certain filters. This would greatly decrease the looking in the wrong places. probability of contacting another intelligent civilization. Addi One solution of the first type is part of a bigger theory tionally, the relative lifetime of advanced life could be so short that is growing in popularity: the simulation theory. It is pro- before complete extinction that two such planets would very posed by some that it is more likely than rarely exist at the same time. not that our entire universe is contained Although there is no formal soluTHERE ARE TWO MAIN within a computer simulation run by tion to this paradox, it is an extraortechnologically god-like future humans. TYPES OF SOLUTIONS dinary example of interdisciplinary Supporters of this theory presume that THAT SCIENTISTS HAVE problem solving in the scientific comtechnology will continue to evolve at an The problem can be approached HYPOTHESIZED: WE DON’T munity. unprecedented rate and that as technolby physicists, biologists, sociologists, ogy improves, there will continue to be SEE SIGNS OF LIFE BEpsychologists, and more. Such a complia desire for virtual reality simulations. CAUSE IT DOES NOT EXIST, cated problem and fundamental human Eventually, the computing power beinquiry has brought many great minds OR WE DON’T SEE SIGNS comes so great that it could simulate entogether. Carl Sagan wrote, “so if it is tire universes. If an extremely advanced OF LIFE BECAUSE WE ARE just us, it’d be an awful waste of space,” version of reality is running these simu- LOOKING IN THE WRONG (Sagan, 1985). At one point or another, lations, they would likely run an incredmost humans have wondered if we could PLACES. ible amount of computer generated repossibly be alone, and this loneliness is alities; therefore, if only one real reality shared by so many people. Even if we are exists and millions of virtual realities exist, then it is far more alone, barreling through the universe on a wet rock, humanity likely that our observable universe is simulated. Whoever is has something to be proud of. Let our pursuit of knowledge running these simulations would likely only focus on simulat- and truth comfort us and form connections between all of us ing Earth, thereby explaining the cosmic quietness. This theo- Earthlings. ry has been supported by several important figures, including Elon Musk.

References On the other hand, there are those that believe that Urban, Tim. “The Fermi Paradox.” Wait But Why. May 21, 2014. Accessed October 08, 2017. https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.htm intelligent life does exist outside of Earth but we are not using “Fermi Paradox.” Fermi Paradox. Accessed October 08, 2017. https://www.seti.org/ the right methods to discover it. It may be that other civiliza- seti-institute/project/details/fermi-paradox. tions communicate many orders of magnitude slower or faster “Introduction.” Fermi’s Paradox. October 01, 2017. Accessed October 08, 2017. http:// than humans and when our radio telescopes pick up the sig- fermisparadox.com/Fermi-paradox.htm. nals, us humans interpret it as white noise.

Kurzgesagt. “The Fermi Paradox - Where Are All The Aliens? (1/2).” YouTube. May Arguably the most talked about solution to Fermi’s 06, 2015. Accessed October 08, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNhhvQGparadox involves a concept called “The Great Filter”. A filter in sMEc this case is one of a set of universal challenges that all develop- Sagan, Carl.Contact. Rizzoli, 1985. ing life must pass. An example of a filter might be the chaotic

19

Under the Clockwork Shadow

By Aidan Pidgeon, ’20

20

News

On August 21, 2017 at 9:00 in the morning, I, along with thousands of others, stood sleep-deprived and lacking morning coffee in a dusty, hay-strewn field across the road from the airfield in Madras, OR. People had been streaming in for the past week, from hundreds, or in our case thousands of miles away.

A town whose population is usually just over 6,200 had, for that one day, grown to the size of a small city. Time ticked by slowly. Just as the sun had started to beat down through the clear sky, a chorus of buzzes, beeps, and dings arose from hundreds of phones.

“FIRST CONTACT. GLASSES ON.”

We all looked up. For a moment; despite the hype, the predictions, the math; for a moment, I doubted whether it would happen or not. And then, the tiniest arc of black appeared in front of the top-right limb of the sun’s gentle orange disc. The invisible cogs and gears that govern the motions of the solar system keep time better than the finest Swiss watch, and we had begun to catch a glimpse of them in action.

Cheers rocked the air around me, my own voice adding to the sound.

And then, we waited once again. For the first half-hour, if you were not looking through your solar glasses, it was almost as if nothing were happening. The change was subtle.

“Hey, is it just me, or is it getting chilly?”

It was still a bright, blue-skied sunny day. The light still bore down, but it was getting colder, and darker as well. The world was not shadowy and gray as if it were cloudy, but rather it was like someone was turning down the exposure on all of reality.

The word “eclipse” is rooted in the Greek “ékleipsi,” which in turn descends from a word meaning “abandonment.” (Anderson, 2017) This etymology hints at how eclipses were interpreted throughout antiquity. As for the Greeks, eclipses foretold times of crisis and the falls of kings. Aztec priests predicted that if an eclipse happened on a certain date and was

accompanied by an earthquake, it would spell the end of the world. The ancient Indians saw eclipses as attempts by a vengeful beheaded demigod to devour the sun. In China, it was viewed as a sun-hungry dragon. An early Chinese word for eclipse “shih,” literally meant “to eat.” (Grady, 2017).

As I stood in that field, I couldn’t help but share, at least partially, the dread experienced by our ancestors. The sun was disappearing, and it felt… wrong. I was excited and full of anticipation. I knew what was happening; I had seen the science and the math, but I couldn’t help but be a little caught up in the deeply bi-

Hundreds of aviators flew in to the Madras, OR airfield to watch the eclipse. (Photo: Ethan Pidgeon) zarre sense of foreboding that permeated the air.

By a quarter past ten, things had become incredibly strange. I was startled by how dark it was and I briefly took my solar glasses off during the last of the partial phases of the eclipse. Hearts raced. There was a moment of deafening silence, and then:

“The mountain is gone!”

Mount Jefferson, a peak of over 10,000 feet lying to our west, had disappeared under the shadow of the moon, which was speeding towards us across the arid plain at over 1,000

21

News

miles per hour. The crowd erupted with up- itation. In 1919, Arthur Eddington’s observaroarious emotion as the last slivers of light dis- tions taken during a total eclipse of the light appeared. Phones buzzed once again: from the Hyades star cluster being bent by the

“GLASSES OFF. GLASSES OFF. OB- Sun’s gravity helped prove Einstein’s General SERVE BAILEY’S BEAD EFFECTS. SECOND Theory of Relativity. (How Eclipses Changed CONTACT IN 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… TOTALI- History, 2017).

TY.”

For the Great Amer B a i l e y ’s ican Eclipse, NASA scienbeads are the last tists and volunteers were deglimpses of the ployed all along the path of sun’s light before totality, including in Madras. it is completely Solar observing spacecraft obscured by the normally use a device called moon, caused by a coronagraph, essentially the moon’s craga large disc sitting in front gy surface (Hall, of the telescope, to block 1988). Those last out the sun’s light, but by few rays of light the nature of these devices, shine through valthey must block out the very leys in between inner layers of the corona. lunar mountains, NASA planes with made-toshining like brilorder stabilized telescopes Mount Jefferson from Madras, OR, liant diamonds were also deployed to chase the evening before the Eclipse. (Photo: on a ring. They the moon’s shadow along the Ethan Pidgeon) are a glimpse at path of totality, offering a the amazing semuch longer window of opcrets that are revealed during a solar eclipse. By portunity. studying them closely, we have learned a sur- I cannot imagine how the pilots of prising amount about the natures of our solar those jets managed to maintain their composystem and the universe. sure as those last beads of light vanished from

About 130 BCE, the astronomer Hip- view. I certainly did not. As the hands of the parchus used a total eclipse to calculate the cosmic timekeeper aligned, I fell to the ground distance from the Earth to the Moon. Edmund in awe. The utter blackness blocking out the Halley’s prediction of the eclipse of May 3, 1715 sunlight was incomprehensible. This was not helped prove Newton’s Law of Universal Grav- simply light being absorbed by a dark material,

A composite image of the eclipse from Madras, OR. (Photo retrieved from NASA Goddard on Facebook, credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

22

The ‘diamond ring effect,’ seen at third contact, the end of totality. (Photo: Ethan Pidgeon)

but the absence of any light in the first place. clockwork of gravity and velocity pulling the Meanwhile, the ghostly corona, the atmosphere moon out of its perfect alignment with the sun. of the sun, was stunning. Its wispy threads We put our glasses on to defend our retinas extended beyond the now shared limb of the against the returning light. The two minutes sun and moon by at least three times. Sunlight of totality had been some of the shortest of my shone through the life, but they were also atmosphere at low undoubtedly the most angles from outside incredible. of the shadow, cast I am already making ing the warm glow plans for the eclipse in of sunset around the 2024, which will pass entire horizon. Stars from southwest to northcame out; Venus was east, cutting across Mexvisible high overico, Texas, the mid-west, head, and Regulus, a sliver of Pennsylvania, the brightest star in upstate New York, Ontarthe constellation Leo, io, and Québec. The next shone bright right time the gears tick into next to the sun and place, I sincerely hope moon (the path takthat you will be someen by its light being where to see it as well. imperceptibly bent by A closer look at the eclipse. (Photo: References the mass of the forEthan Pidgeon) NPR, Skunkbear, How Eclipses mer.) There does not Changed History, youtube.com, 201. https://www.youtube.com/ exist a way in English, watch?v=tTxz_d2q7Js French, Mandarin, Esperanto, Klingon, or even unstructured, emotional grunts, to explain how Grady, Constance When the Dragon Ate the Sun: how ancient people interpreted eclipses, Vox.com, 2017. https://www.vox.

I felt during totality. It was the most viscerally com/culture/2017/8/18/16078886/total-solar-eclipse-folklore magnificent experience imaginable; it was the Anderson, Ross, Kings Beware the Eclipse Looms, The Atlangreatest spectacle that nature can offer. Almost tic, 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/ kings-beware-the-eclipse-looms/536385/ as soon as it began, though:

“THIRD CONTACT IN 5… 4… 3… Hall, Ann There Goes the Sun, Scientific American Magazine, 1998. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/baileys-beads/ 2… 1… GLASSES ON. GLASSES ON.”

The Bailey’s beads reappeared, the

23

Research

Taming of the Wild Yeast

By Assistant Professor Dana J. Wohlbach, Department of Biology

Imagine it is the late 16th century. You are an enterprising monk working at a European monastery, making fermented beverages from different grains because water is not safe to drink. You make a particularly tasty batch and decide to reuse the mash to see if the next batch is just as good. Unknowingly, you have just begun the process of evolving yeast for their beer making ability, over 100 years before microbes were even discovered!

Evolution is driven by the accumulation of beneficial mutations and the removal of deleterious ones from a population. In a population, evolution can occur through natural and/or artificial (human) selection. Most domestic species have evolved through artificial selection and are well-adapted to a human-influenced environment, but are no longer optimized for life in a wild, or natural, environment. Domestic cats and dogs are a notable exception in that they have evolved naturally. Many studies have examined the ultimate phenotypic consequences of domestication in livestock, crops, and even microbes, but the

24

trajectory of genomic changes that lead to the physiological outcomes of domestication is only beginning to emerge.

Several different populations of domesticated yeast have been identified across the globe: from beer, wine, and sakÊ strains, to baking and even laboratory strains. Several recent studies support the idea that human interactions, like the one described above, have led to this domestication. If these yeast populations diverged from each other simply because they were physically separated, they should be well-adapted to living in the wild. They should have the ability to survive many different types of environmental stresses, such as temperature and pH changes or fluctuations in nutrient availability — the types of stresses that a yeast living in the wild might experience. However, if they have been domesticated, the yeast should be less fit because they have adapted to being specifically cared for by humans: to being maintained at a constant temperature and given adequate supply of nutrients.

Evidence suggests that many of the do-

mesticated populations of yeast (beer yeast in (the closest known relative of S. cerevisiae). particular) have become less fit compared to Importantly, these wild strains were isolated their wild counterparts. Interestingly many of from completely natural habitats – soil, plants, these strains show similar patterns of adap- and insects – and have never experienced any tation: as they become better at growing and laboratory conditions. fermenting in their respective human-assisted Our experimental strategy, dubbed “The conditions, they lose the broad stress resistance Taming of the Wild Yeast” is relatively simthat is present in their wild counterparts. The ple. We grow these wild strains overnight in events that lead to the domestication of these liquid media containing glucose as the sugar yeast populations occurred over hundreds, or source. Each morning, every culture is diluteven thousands of years. Although we can ex- ed and transferred to fresh media. In this way, amine the current state of the genome of these our cultures experience a continual pattern of populations, we have no information on how growth to saturation (when all the available those genomes changed throughout their evo- sugar in the media has been consumed and lution to get to their current state. cells no longer divide) before they are transResearch in my lab is ferred to fresh media. We Evolution is driven have been maintaining this focused on microbial evolutionary genomics: we use for over 700 by the accumulation of experiment information from genome generations, and have besequences to understand beneficial mutations gun to observe signs of dohow organisms evolve, mestication in our popuand the removal of through both natural and lations: the evolved strains human-influenced mechhave begun to optimize deleterious ones from anisms. One project in their growth rate for our the lab is focused on yeast a population. conditions and now grow domestication events like faster than their original those described above. In wild progenitor strains. this project, we hope to understand the ben- At the same time, these strains have lost the efits and costs of domestication. Is domesti- ability to survive some stress conditions, incation driven mainly by the accumulation of cluding high ethanol, high temperature, and beneficial mutations or by the purging of del- high osmolarity. We are very excited to begin eterious mutations? Are traits lost because of sequencing these strains to identify the genetrelaxation of evolutionary constraint, or be- ic changes that have occurred. We hope that cause of positive selection for that loss? How what we learn can be applied more broadly to many different paths to domestication exist? help us understand general principles of evoTo begin to address these questions, my lution and population dynamics, and to help lab is experimentally evolving a series of wild us understand how humans are changing the yeast populations. We have isolated new wild species in our environments, both consciously strains from two sister species of yeast, Saccha- and unconsciously. romyces cerevisiae (the common baking and brewing yeast) and Saccharomyces paradoxus

25

COSMIC CACOPHONY USING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES TO PROBE THE EARLY UNIVERSE

By Alaina Einsig, ‘19 In 1916, Einstein published a work that rocked This summer, I learned the mathematical basis the worlds of physics, mathematics, and astronomy: of the gravitational wave equation (which turns out to the general theory of relativity. In it he predicted the be a slightly more advanced version of an equation we existence of gravitational waves, which are disruptions studied my sophomore year in physics). I also learned and ripples in the fabric of space and time. If space- how to model the behavior of these waves in a program time has distortions, thought Einstein, would they be called Python, which allowed me to visually represent able to move and shift like the surface of a pond? Ac- what the equation was describing and predict the becording to the math, the answer is yes. A hundred years havior of these elusive phenomena. Meanwhile, Dr. later, in 2016, the famous LIGO experiment proved the Kosowsky worked on his proposal for the new graviexistence of these waves. tational wave detector, LISA. LISA, or the Laser InterGravitational waves ferometer Space Antenna, will were the basis of my reessentially be the LIGO expersearch in the Summer Uniment in space. However, bedergraduate Research Felcause it will escape the tremlowship (SURF) program ors and noise produced by the at the University of PittsEarth’s surface, this floating burgh this summer. With satellite will be much better the guidance of Dr. Arthur equipped to detect subtle gravKosowsky and Dr. Brian itational waves like those proBatell, we set out to analyze duced billions of years ago in a specific kind of gravitathe early universe. tional wave that hadn’t been The project, though fasdetected, only predicted. So cinating by itself, has profound far, the researchers at LIGO implications for the study of have seen gravitational astronomy and cosmology. So waves caused by events infar, astronomy is only possiFrom left to right: Dr. Brian Batell, volving massive collisions, ble because of the existence Alaina Einsig (’19), and Dr. Arthur such as black holes and, of light. Whether it is radio Kosowsky more recently, dense neuwaves, visible light, or x-ray tron stars. But what is the radiation, without photons, biggest cosmic event that has ever occurred? The Big astronomers would be jobless. Light also dictates how Bang, of course. Dr. Kosowsky and other scientists far back in time telescopes are able to see, and the first agree that the huge growth spurt that the universe un- light was released a whopping 300,000 years after the derwent soon after the Big Bang was powerful enough Big Bang. Gravitational waves, however, are not dictatto produce gravitational waves still detectable to this ed by light. With them, cosmologists can detect events day. But first, there needs to be a detector capable of beyond that 300,000-year barrier, and can see right seeing them. into the heart of the beginning of the universe.

26

Research

Exploring the Neural Plasticity of Apis mellifera Foraging Behavior

By Meredith Johnson, ’18

This past summer I was awarded a place in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnerships for International Research Experience (PIRE) program to study the neural plasticity of honey bee (Apis mellifera) foraging behavior. I spent one month at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) field station and a second month at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in Avignon, France.

My fellow researchers and I studied two species of Apis mellifera: A.m. ligustica (the Italian honey bee) and A.m. mellifera (the German honey bee). We expected the two species to differ in plasticity of foraging behavior. Pollinators often consider work versus reward, as some species devote significant energy to obtaining high volumes or concentrations of nectar in a few sources, whereas others visit as many sources as possible despite differing volumes and concentrations.

Another important concept to understand is bee vision. Honey bees perceive wavelengths from 300 to 600 nm, which includes ultraviolet light.

This signals to the insect that a flower contains nectar and pollen. Interestingly, there are bees that routinely visit certain colors over others, regardless of the volume or concentration. We denote these individuals as “constant”.

The bees that change flower colors as the circumstances (typically volume and concentration) change are considered to be “plastic” in that they exhibit plasticity of foraging behavior.

Using a synthetic flower patch of three different colors — pink, white, and blue — we tested the plasticity and constancy of A. m. ligustica and A. m. mellifera. Individuals from one hive at a time were trained to visit the flower patch and completed four phases: a control phase in which each color contained the same volume, and three subsequent phases where pink, white, and blue contained a higher volume than the other two colors. Upon completion, each honey bee was captured for brain dissection and genetic analysis.

Ultimately, A.m. ligustica, the southern bee, was found to be a more

The process of training individuals from a single hive to feed from synthetic flowers

A trained Apis mellifera mellifera visiting a synthetic, yellow flower plastic bee than A.m. mellifera, the northern bee. A.m. ligustica exhibited a greater ability to change preferred color to maximize the volume collected and minimize risk associated with foraging. Genetic analysis of learning and memory, reward, and serotonin receptor genes is the next step to determining the neural mechanisms of foraging behavior.

Behavioral experimentation is vital to understanding the relationship between behavior and gene expression, as the engineering of Apis mellifera learning, memory, and reward genes is on the vanguard of combating imminent pollinator decline. Both Apis mellifera and native bees play an essential and irreplaceable role in plant pollination. For this reason, I look forward to pursuing pollinator research in my future career.

27

What is Glaciovolcanism and Why Should We Care?

By Professor Ben Edwards, Department of Earth Sciences Volcanoes are found in many parts of our solar system: Earth, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and the moon. Most people who live in the United States have heard of the famous ones in Hawaii (Kilauea and Mauna Loa), or Washington State (Mount St. Helens). Around the globe, many people have volcanoes as relatively near neighbors, and so they know that when a volcano erupts, it can be a dramatic, frightening, and even deadly event.

Volcanoes also are the sources of many materials that we use every day, like copper, gold, and silver, and they supply clean, green, geothermal energy in places like Iceland and New Zealand, and even recreational opportunities (skiing at Mt. Rainier, WA; Mt. Etna, Italy; Villarrica, CH). When a volcano that is covered by snow or ice is active, we refer to is as a ‘glaciovolcano’, and the eruptions are referred to as ‘glaciovolcanic’. These types of eruptions are particularly dangerous because they can create hazards to local residents like floods and phreatomagmatic explosions, in addition to the better known volcanic hazards (e.g., lava flows, hot ash flows, ash falls). But glaciovolcanoes are also particularly important for creating records of their eruption environments. A volcano that erupted beneath a glacier two million

28

years ago (or two Ma in geoscience parlance) will produce unique rocks that can be identified much later, long after the glacier itself has vanished. In these cases, the volcanic deposits may be the only record that a glacier ever existed in that particular spot.

Much of my research with Dickinson undergraduates over the past 15 summers has involved going to find such ancient deposits. When we find them, we use the deposits to help reconstruct how Earth’s climate has changed during the ‘Ice Ages’, which are referred to as the Quaternary Period or the Pleistocene Epoch. In order for us to understand how we are changing Earth’s climate today, we need to understand very clearly how climate would be changing without the interference of anthropogenic contributions to the atmosphere.

My research investigates glaciovolcanism in four different ways: studies of active eruptions, studies of ancient deposits, analogue experiments, and numerical modeling. Some of the most exciting work is when we get to watch a glaciovolcanic eruption, or at least arrive on the seen while the lava is still hot! We did this in 2010, just after the end of the infamous Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland. Over the span of three years I took three

Research

different Earth Sciences majors to Iceland, where we hiked and flew in helicopters to sample two of Earth’s youngest lava flows, and document what happens when they flow over snow and under ice.

By documenting the fresh textures and fractures on the lava surfaces we can help other scientists better recognize similar features in older lavas that are no longer surrounded by ice.

One particularly exciting example came on my last sabbatical, when I got to spend almost six weeks in the far eastern part of Russia documenting lava flows tunneling beneath three to four meters of snow during the Tolbachik eruption. Much of my work is on older, non-presently erupting volcanoes in British Columbia, Canada, and in Iceland. At these ancient volcanoes our goals are to look at the remnant deposits and reconstruct the sequence of events that happened thousands of years ago at the volcano. With careful reconstructions and some lab work, we can usually reconstruct minimum thicknesses of the ice that surrounded the volcano when it formed. We also take almost yearly trips to the Syracuse Lava Lab, where I have been involved in running experiments that involve pouring reconstituted basaltic lava over snow and ice, and into water. Because we

can control the lava and design the experimental setup, these experiments have given us important new insights into the rates at which lava can melt ice, and how lava transfers heat across boundary zones into underlying snow and ice. Finally, we use a variety of computer models and equations to model different aspects of glaciovolcanism. We can use sophisticated, thermodynamically-based software to investigate how much ice was on top of a volcano when it erupted. We also use a variety of software packages to model the heat transfer from individual pillow lavas into the water and ice surrounding the lava (some of this work has been done with physics students and professors).

These three different branches of research allow me to get into the field almost every summer and to continue to work towards helping produce a better understanding of longer-term variations in Earth’s climate. I have recently been turning my eyes towards modern day climate change, using the understanding that I have developed over the past 25 years of heat transfer in natural systems to investigate glacial recession in South America, British Columbia, and Iceland with students, and to help them better understand some of the field techniques used today to document Arctic and alpine climate change.

1 see https://vimeo.com/19260895 - this video has been viewed more than 5.1M times!

29

Research

Identification of β-catenin Interacting Proteins in the Renal Collecting Duct

By Jacqueline Hwang, ‘19

30

Research

The kidney functions to main- derstand this mechanism, we focused teresting transcription factor, Taf1 tain salt-water homeostasis by regulat- on identifying proteins that interact (TATA-binding protein-associated ing the opening and closing of water with β-catenin and may be involved in factor) that may be responsible for channels, known as aquaporins, that vasopressin-responsive transcription- initiating transcription through its are embedded in the collecting duct of al regulation of AQP2 in native rat inbinding to β-catenin. It is a comthe nephron. The discovery of aquapo- ner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) ponent of the transcriptional initirins in 1992 revolutionized scientific cells. ation complex TFIID and increases understanding of water-balance disorTo do so, chromatin immuders, such as edema and hyper/hypona- noprecipitation (ChIP) and liquid in the nuclear extract fraction by tremia. Although the exact molecular chromatography / mass spectrom- 68% in the presence of vasopressin. mechanism remains unknown, aqua- etry were used for samples treated This finding may explain how vasopressin causes a global increase in porins are regulated by the peptide horwith and without vasopressin. After mone, vasopressin. The Epithelial Systranscriptional initiation in mouse large scale data analysis using three tems Biology Laboratory (ESBL) at the collecting duct cells. Future studies NIH has been pioneering new methods different algorithms, we identified will carry out the same ChIP proand experiments, in attempt to tocol but identify the speidentify how vasopressin and cific DNA segments that β-Catenin Interacting Proteins aquaporins induce regulatoβ-catenin binds to using ry biochemical changes. An Located in Nucleus next-generation DNA se(Pickering et al. Physiol Genomics 2015) experiment led by Dr. Laura Located in Adherens Junctions quencing (ChIP-Seq).

Schenk in 2012 discovered (Gene Ontology) More information on Etl4 that in the collecting duct, Mdh2 this project can be found in the Lama1 Hnrnpm Ctnnb1 vasopressin causes changes in Ccdc130 Hspd1 Ahnak published article: Hwang JR, Plekha6 Tns3 Jup the protein β-catenin. SpecifiAkr1b1 Lgr4 Ppl Sptbn2 Chou CL, Medvar B, Knepper Lrba Cenpj Ctnna1 cally, it increases phosphorylaTpi1 Alpk1 Ctnnd1 MA, Jung HJ. Identification of Tdrd3 Krt76 Cdh1 tion of β-catenin at Serine 552 Hist1h4b Taf1 Vcl β-catenin-interacting proteins Hspb1 H1f0 Epb41l1 and the translocation of β-catFat1 H2afz Pkp2 in nuclear fractions of native Pithd1 Krt19 Plec enin into the nucleus.

Krt28 rat collecting duct cells. Am β-catenin is a multiJ Physiol Renal Physiol 313: functional protein known to F30–F46, 2017. doi:10.1152/ Green indicates proteins that translocated into nucleus regulate cell signaling, cell in response to vasopressin in prior studies ajprenal.00054.2017. adhesion, and gene transcrip(Schenk et al. JASN, 2012) tion. When used for gene tranReferences Schenk LK, Bolger SJ, Luginbuhl K, Gonscription, β-catenin is brought zales PA, Rinschen MM, Yu MJ, Hoffert JD, Pisitkun into the nucleus from the cytosol, pre- 43 β-catenin interacting proteins, of T, Knepper MA. Quantitative proteomics identifies sumably after binding to other transnuclear proteins in collecting which 25 are found in the nucleus vasopressin-responsive duct cells. J Am Soc Nephrol 23: 1008–1018, 2012. port proteins. Another study conductand 13 are known to have roles in doi:10.1681/ASN.2011070738 ed by Dr. Hyun Jun Jung showed that HJ, Kim SY, Choi HJ, Park EJ, Lim JS, Frøkiaer a dysfunction of β-catenin decreases the adherens junctions. Of these 13 Jung J, Nielsen S, Kwon TH. Tankyrase-mediated -catenproteins, five were found to transloAquaporin-2 (AQP2) gene transcripin activity regulates vasopressin- induced AQP2 extion. Building upon the results of these cate into the nucleus in response to pression in kidney collecting duct mpkCCDc14 cells.

Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 308: F473–F486, 2015. studies, my experiment—conducted at vasopressin. Several of these β-cat- doi:10.1152/ajprenal. 00052.2014.

ESBL under the guidance of Dr. Mark enin interacting proteins have mul- Sandoval PC, Claxton JS, Lee JW, Saeed F, Hoffert JD, Knepper, Dr. Hyun Jun Jung, and Dr. tiple binding domains consistent Knepper MA. Systems-level analysis reveals selective Chung-Lin Chou—hypothesized that with roles in protein scaffolding, regulation of Aqp2 gene expres- sion by vasopressin.

Sci Rep 6: 34863, 2016. doi:10.1038/srep34863. β-catenin may play a role in vasopres- such as the ARM domain and the sin-mediated transcriptional regulation SPEC domain. of Aquaporin-2 (AQP2). In order to un-

There was one particularly in-

31

Technology

SO YOU MISS YOUR HEADPHONE JACK?

Just Build Your Own!

By Thomas Davey, ‘20

With the releases of the new iPhone 8 and X, the Apple regulars are already marking their calendars to wait in line at their local Apple Store for their pre-ordered smartphones. This new wave of amazing technology put into these two new phones is extraordinary to say the least, but are they really what everyone wants? For Scotty Allen, a blogger and Youtuber, the new features of the iPhones are not enough. He wants to challenge the way people look at technology by innovating his phone to be just the right fit for his wants and needs; for example, he built and added a headphone jack to an iPhone 7, and he also made his own iPhone 6S out of spare parts (Allen, 2017). He goes on to say, “I hope that one day we’ll truly feel like we own our devices… to upgrade them and to add whatever features we can dream up” (Allen, 2017). He proves that technology is advancing to the point where small computers can be built on someone’s living room table rather than across the world, and that it is possible to fine tune already advanced technology to make it better. In addition to making personal devices perfect to their users, more widespread work like Allen’s would void the market of remarkably expensive technology, making it a more accessible commodity. A new age of technology is coming that is not defined by how big your pocket is, but how creative the user can be, opening the door for innovators and dreamers.

Ref e Alle rence s par n, Sco t t ing s.com ty. Str -ba / a ck- how-i nge P the -iph -made arts. A one -my pril 1 -he adp own-i 2th an hon pho d e-ja ne-i Septe n ckm in-c -chin ber 6 hin a/ h th, 2 a/ . t Acc tps://s 017. h esse tran t d O gep tps://s t a cto ber rts.co range3, 2 m/b ring 017 .

-

32

THE ORIGINAL INTERNAL STORAGE DEVICE

How Our Own DNA May Replace the USB

Technology

By Joe Detrano, ‘19

Thanks to the internet and a couple of other relatively recent technologies, humanity has begun to record and store data at an unimaginable rate. In fact, according to a recent trend analysis study, our digital footprint will increase tenfold by 2025 and will only continue to rise faster from there (Seagate Technology LLC). Worse still, our data usage is quickly outpacing our ability to store it. Luckily, computer architect Luis Ceze and his team at the University of Washington believe that DNA may be the data storage fix we have been looking for.

The storage potential for DNA is, by today’s standards, absolutely massive.

So massive, in fact, that a team at Harvard has managed to fit 700 terabytes in one gram (Church 1628). That is 2,100 times as effective as a modern USB storage device (SanDisk Cruiser 8GB, 2017)! A storage possibility such as this one has attracted many dedicated teams hoping to crack the organic code, including the aforementioned Harvard team as well as teams in Columbia University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

But DNA is one tough nut to crack. Whereas modern data storage uses a binary series of 1’s and 0’s, DNA is made up of a series of smaller molecules known as nucleotides, which are usually referred to as A, C, T, and G. However, Ceze has conceived a way to painlessly transfer to this newer format. He suggests that researchers could simply treat the nucleotides as sequences of 0’s and 1’s - for example, 00 might be A, 01 might be C, 11 might be T and 10 might be G (Ceze, 2017). In addition to the conquering of this obstacle, Ceze is hopeful for the creation of labs and equipment to allow researchers to create and decode their very own data-storing DNA (Ceze, 2017).

Ceze’s team has made significant advancements in adapting DNA to store digital data, but they face significant challenges moving forward. For example, Ceze mentions in his article that the process of receiving data stored on DNA is painstakingly slow: “...today’s DNA synthesis lets us write a few hundred bytes per second...A modern hard drive can write hundreds of millions of bytes per second. An average iPhone photo would take hours to load” (Ceze, 2017). Despite this, Ceze is confident that this is merely due to DNA storage’s presence as a new and experimental technology. He claims that all technologies are improving rapidly and hopes his research will eventually reach everyday consumers.

New technologies are being developed everyday, with very few Kowalski, Kathiann. “DNA Can Now Store Images, Video and Other Types of of them taking into account their data usage. Virtual Reality headData.” Science News for Students, Society for Science and the Public, 2 Mar. 2017, sets and other recent technologies are sold as individual consumer www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/dna-can-now-store-images-video-andother-types-data. products yet require tremendous quantities of digital memory.

Ceze, Luis, and Strauss, Karin. “Storing Data in DNA Brings Nature into the DigiHopefully, the efforts of Ceze and his team will prove fruittal Universe.” The Conversation, The Conversation US, 25 Sept. 2017, theconversation.com/storing-data-in-dna-brings-nature-into-the-digital-universe-78226 ful and DNA will lift advancing technology over the data “New Approaches for A New Data Age.” Seagate.com, Seagate Technology LLC, storage hurdle. But if they fail to crack nature’s code in 2016, www.seagate.com/our-story/data-age-2025/. time, the inevitable storage bottleneck could bring inChurch, George M, et al. “Next-Generation Digital Information Storage in DNA.” numerable projects and advancements to a nearly Science Xpress, vol. 337, no. 6102, 28 Sept. 2012, pp. 1628–1629., doi:10.1126/ science.1226355. insurmountable halt.

“SanDisk Cruzer 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive.” Amazon, Amazon, www.amazon. com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Flash-Drive-SDCZ36-008G-A11/dp/B001T9CTRS.

33

The E-Bike for Dickinson

By Rachel Krewson, ’20 If there is one concept every Dickin35th for worst air quality in the U.S. due to sonian is well versed in, it is the admirable heavy pollution (Vaughn, 2015). Participant engagement of sustainability throughout the Gavin Wood shares that “the E-Bike is for community. The Electric Bike (E-Bike) is an everyone in the Carlisle area without a car to exciting new project on Dickinson’s campus be able to travel efficiently without increasing aimed to further improve CO2 emissions.” By reducsustainability options at ing car travel across camthe college, and evenpus and around Carlisle, tually, the Carlisle area.

E-Bikes are one solution This past week, Physics to decreasing the release Professor Hans Pfister of the most abundant and along with students harmful greenhouse gas, Tom Powars, Ming-Hua carbon dioxide, into the Chang, Anja Prandtner, atmosphere that contributes Andrew Healey, Gavin to anthropogenic climate Wood, and Muhammad change (U.S. EP, 2016).

Soban Ali worked to Further, the E-Bike does build the first prototype not emit other harmful E-Bike Prototype, Dickinson of an electric-powered pollutants produced by cars College – Tome Plasma Lab. bicycle with rechargeable such as particulate matPersonal photograph by author. lithium-ion batteries ter, hydrocarbons, sulfur 2017. to provide alternative dioxide, carbon monoxide, opportunities for users nitrogen oxides, and chlorofluto reduce their ecological footprint, while orocarbons (King, n.d.). Student Tom Powars simultaneously reducing local commuting believes that “E-Bikes could emphasize and expenses. frontline Dickinson’s sustainability initiative.”

In 2015, Cumberland County was rated The E-Bike is not only environmentally

34

Technology

friendly, but also makes sense economicalcurrent bikes by adding an electric hub moly. The cost to use an E-Bike is significantly tor (a motor that resides inside one wheel), a lower than a car. According to Professor lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack, a conPfister’s calculations, traveling five miles on trol unit, a pedal rotation sensor, and handthe proposed E-Bike will only use about a brakes with electric switches. Adjustments nickel’s worth of electrical energy to trek five to the hand-brakes, front wheel, and fork miles, whereas the U.S. government’s mileage are needed to fit the new parts. Although an compensation for a car is around $0.53 per electric motor is added to one wheel, the bike driven mile (“Cost Rates”). Additionally, the retains its functionality as a regular bicycle. annual upkeep cost for an E-Bike is negligible The E-Bike project is a student-faulty when compared to that of a car. collaboration, which transfers learning Although E-Bikes use more energy than experiences from physics courses involvnormal bicycles, they encourage the lessing mechanics, electricity, magnetism, and abled to ride electronics to real bikes and world applications. allow riders

References to move Vaughn, Joshua. “Cumberfarther and land County Air Quality Sinks to 35th Worst in faster. The Nation, According to New practicalReport.” The Sentinel, ity of the Lee Enterprises, 29 Apr. 2015, cumberlink.com/ E-Bike at news/local/cumberlandDickinson Taking Charge, Dickinson College – Tome Plasma Lab. county-air-quality-sinkshas led to to-th-worst-in-nation/ Personal photograph by author. 2017. article_a9d0699e-db0cfast action 531e-97c9-f6dc359a0d56.

by Professor html.

Pfister and piqued student interest. ContribU.S. EPA. “Climate Change Indicators: U.S. Greenhouse Gas utor Andrew Healey “knew [he] had to get Emissions.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, Aug. involved with the project” when he found out 2016, www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions.

Professor Pfister’s passions aligned with his King, Jennifer. “How Does Car Pollution Affect the Environinterest in renewable energy. A grant appliment & Ozone Layer?” cation was approved from the Center of SusSFGate, SFGate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/car-pollutainability Education and the team met with tion-affect-environment-ozone-layer-79358.html. members of The Idea Fund and The Handle“Cost Rates & Useful Info.” Cost Rates & Useful Info | Dickinson College, Dickinson College, 7 Apr. 2014, http://www. bar to discuss the progression of the project dickinson.edu/info/20276/corporate_foundation_and_govas participants work to build prototypes. ernment_support/2303/cost_rates_and_useful_info.

The team’s plan involves modifying

Engagement, Dickinson College – Tome Plasma Lab. Personal photograph by Muhammad Soban Ali. 2017.

Learning, Dickinson College – Tome Plasma Lab. Personal photograph by author. 2017.

35

Opinion

COMMERCIAL MIND CONTROL

A Possible Future for AR

By Joseph Detrano, ’20

Augmented Reality (AR), a technology popularized by the worldwide phenomenon Pokémon Go, uses a camera, a graphics engine and a series of location and depth sensors to create the illusion of a virtual object existing in a physical space. Despite its currently limited use, a 2016 study estimates AR software will be pulling in a staggering $35 billion in revenue by 2025 (Bellini, 2016).

A recent study on the effect of Pokémon Go has shown an increase in attention-concentration and better social relationships among adolescents at the end of an 8-week observation period (Ruiz-Ariza, n.d.). Another report from Geneva states the successful removal of a salivary gland tumor with the use of AR (Scolozzi, 2017).

Many companies are already seeking to capitalize on the AR market. The IKEA app that facilitates interior design with virtual furniture is just one of many examples (Alto, 2017).

While this reality-shifting technology might initially appear very positive for consumers, it holds a near-limitless potential for commercial manipulation. A gambling cooperation might employ technology similar to IKEA’s virtual furniture (Akesson, 2016), placing blackjack tables and slot ma-

chines around every corner and preventing potential addicts from simply walking away.

Businesses might distort colors or images to make the inside of their store look more interesting than the outside world. Images on billboards might fly off the screen and follow prospective customers. While it would always be possible to remove the AR headgear, this may be inconvenient if AR becomes as integrated into society as modern smartphones and tablets. The volume of subliminal trickery possible with these technologies paints a dark and deceptive future for consumers everywhere.

References ÅKESSON, Therese. “Virtual Reality - into the Magic.” Ikea, Inter Ikea Systems, 2017, www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/this-isikea/ikea-highlights/Virtual-reality/index.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.

Alto, Palo. “A Seamless, Luxurious and Undeniably Beautiful Fusion of Digital and Real Life Shopping Experiences.”

Memomi, Feb. 2017, memorymirror.com/about/.

Bellini, Heather, et al. “Virtual and Augmented Reality.”

Profiles in Innovation, Jan. 2016, p. 16.

Ruiz-Ariza, Alberto, et al. “Effect of Augmented Reality Pokémon GO on Cognitive Performance and Emotional Intelligence in Adolescent Young.” Computers & Education, vol. 116, 01 Jan. 2018, pp 49-63. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2017.09.002.

Scolozzi, P and B Bijlenga. “Removal of Recurrent Intraorbital Tumour Using a System of Augmented Reality.” The British Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, 13 Sept.

2017. doi:10.1016/j.bjoms.2017.08.360.

Climate Change: Reality and Perception

By Bianca Kapur, ’20

For most of my life, I have lived in the Indian coastal city of Kolkata. My tropical upbringing ensured my love summer: a season dedicated to leisure, shorts and fresh fruit juices. Due to its position on the globe, India is blessed with a lot of sunshine, which is not always a good thing. This summer, temperatures soared to an unimaginable average of 103 – 107 °F. It was truly unimaginable, especially for my fortunate friends in the West, when they received my ten-second snapchats with the 110°F filter. “Oh, I can’t believe what that must be like!”, “I’d die instantly” and “Poor you” were some common responses to these snaps.

Pity is a unanimous reaction di36

rected towards those directly affected by the rise in Earth’s temperatures. Global warming may have started to show its impacts primarily in the tropical regions.

However, every single human being, irrespective of his/her ethnicity, race or religion, is already starting to experience the effects of rising global temperatures in one way or another. The horrific “hurricane season” is just one specimen of what climate change can result in. I fail to understand how, despite meteorological and research-based scientific evidence in support of the risks posed by climate change, there are individuals of authority and power questioning the credibility of this phenomenon. Seventy-eight percent

(Liu, n.d.) of the scientific community agrees that “man-made” climate change is a reality. But there are still the remaining 22% of skeptics whose opinion weighs hugely in the balance depicting the “climate change debate”.

This discrepancy between evidence and belief must be addressed before imprudent political and economic decisions force the appalling realities of climate change galvanize the world. As Dr. Richard Alley put it, “We could either learn before we burn, or burn and never learn” Liu, Xinsheng, et al. “Scientists’ Views and Positions on Global Warming and Climate Change: A Content Analysis of Congressional Testimonies.” Climatic Change, vol.

131, no. 4, n.d., pp. 487-503.

Opinion

No More Celestes Please

By Professor Robert Boyle, Department of Physics & Astronomy

On September 15th, I was with my NASA/ Goddard colleagues at the McMath-Pierce Telescope on Kitt Peak, recording a feature in Saturn’s infrared spectrum. We were observing Saturn at the end of the Cassini era, to make one last comparison between ground-based and space-based observations. The next morning, after Saturn had dipped below the horizon, the Cassini spacecraft would be intentionally crashed into Saturn’s atmosphere, marking the end of a tour that started in 2004.

We had all participated in the Cassini mission, in one way or another. But my colleague had helped build the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), Celeste, that was on board the spacecraft, making its last observations after 20 years of flawless operation.

All space missions have to end, but the Cassini mission was terminated not because of some critical system failure, but through a plan: “planetary protection” was the ostensible reasoning. Cassini could have eventually failed and crashed into one of Saturn’s moons that have been suggested to be possible abodes of esoteric life forms; terrestrial microbes could “pollute” one of them and fool investigators in the distant future into thinking they had discovered a second instance of life in the universe. However, a part of Cassini, the Huygen’s space probe, had already

landed on Titan’s surface at the start of Cassini’s tour. And Cassini had been sterilized just like the spacecraft we routinely land on Mars.

Of course that was not the real reason for Cassini’s planned death. To convince NASA (and Congress) to extend the duration of the Cassini mission one last time, to finish about one half of a Saturn ‘year’, Cassini scientists had to propose a definite end to the mission with no chance of a reprieve. Cassini was ultimately the victim of limited federal funding for research and development.

In the mid 1960’s, non-defense R&D was about 6 cents of each federal dollar spent. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, it has fallen to about 1.6 cents. I do not have figures for spending by other governments, but South Korea, Israel, Japan and several EU nations outspend the US economy overall. Science funding agencies are increasingly making decisions based on budget rather than good science. As a nation, we have been eating our seed corn, living off past spending on R&D and investing less in our future. If we do not reverse the trend, the harvest of scientific riches that has been the foundation of our prosperity and security will wither away.

Crossword Key Across: 4-ALLARM 5-B-catenin 7-Sagan 9-Opiates 10-Galileo 11-Cassini 12-Citizen Science 13-Saccharomyces cerevisiae 14-Fermi Paradox

Down 1-Augmented reality 2-Boron 3-Glaciovolcanism 5-Bailey’s Beads 6-Drake Equation 8-NBC

37

Queer in the Final Frontier

By Lena Friedman ‘19

38

Sci & Entertainment

On September 8th, 1966, the first episode of Star Trek aired on NBC, introducing the world to a future of exploration and shockingly progressive representation. This tradition continued on September 24, 2017 with the release of Star Trek: Discovery.

Even back to its 1966 origins, the show has maintained a highly progressive standard for casting and scripting. The Original Series saw the first televised interracial kiss between Captain Jim Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and had a Russian officer as part of the main bridge crew during a period of high US-Russian tensions.

Embedded in this history of progressive writing is a strong connection to the LGBTQ+ community, which has only grown stronger over the years as the censorship bans for such content were lifted.

Star Trek is well-known for making use of the science fiction tradition of allegory. Queer narratives began explicitly showing up in this way beginning in Star Trek: The Next Generation, such as in an episode that depicts a member of a traditionally genderqueer race who is ostracized for wanting to present as female. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the taboo that prevents Lt. Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) from reconnecting with her wife from a previous lifetime is a direct allegory to the treatment of lesbian couples in current society, while even more recently Star Trek: Enterprise introduced a storyline that directly addressed the AIDS crisis and the failings of medical research and humanitarian duty that went with it.

In the last few years, queer representation has branched out from plot lines to core characters.

The 2016 movie Star Trek: Beyond showed Lt. Sulu (John Cho), originally played by gay actor George Takei, with his husband and daughter. Additionally, the new show Star Trek: Discovery introduces two queer characters as part of the primary cast, Lt. Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz).

This explicit representation builds on everything that Star Trek has established in canon as well as in its fan community. The Original Series would not have been able to introduce a queer character or even produce a queer-coded story—an outright reference to the LGBTQ+ community would likely have resulted in the episode being forcibly withdrawn. Despite this, Star Trek had an astoundingly large impact on the community—some even identify it as the origins of an organized queer fan group.

This was primarily seen through the wave of underground fan-created content, which was circulated on a queer black market that forms the basis for nearly all of today’s current fan interactions with shows and media, both in and outside of the LGBTQ+ community.

As Discovery leads Star Trek into a new era, it also takes the show’s tradition of progressive writing and a vision for a better and more inclusive future with it. Star Trek continues to be a beacon and touchstone of history not only for the LGBTQ+ community but for many other marginalized communities as well, pushing us forward, to “boldly go where no one has gone before.”

39

Jurassic World Movie Review from a Feminist Earth Scientist

By Ivy Gilbert ‘18

Released in 2015, Jurassic World still manages to get on my nerves. I may have initially cheered along with CGI dinosaur fights, and sure, maybe I cried when the theme song started playing. However, my relationship with childhood nostalgia could not get in the way of the blaring problems within this movie. Sexist animal behaviorists, unbelievably selfish female businesswomen, greed-driven scientists, and genetically modified monsters; Jurassic World managed to not only reopen the park, but also to reopen problematic cinematic clichĂŠs.

The movie starts twenty-two years on Isla Nublar after the events of Jurassic Park with the creation of a bigger, flashier, and publically open Jurassic World. The park boasts a larger menagerie of dinosaurs, and flying and marine reptiles than its predecessor, but its internal concept is still the same: animal theme park. Running the park is the operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), a workaholic who is too busy to take notice of her visiting nephews.

While Claire is making deals with Verizon and other large endorsers, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is on the island working on training raptors.

40

The plot takes off when the new genetically modified mega monster, the Indominus rex, escapes from its enclosure on a homicidal killing spree and the two characters have to try to save the day. A classic clichĂŠ thriller plot

The first time the iconic musical score is played in this movie is not over the presence of extinct creatures, instead, it is over the panning scene of the expansive park and the overwhelming amount of visitors. The park is bustling, viciously successful. The music in this scene establishes for the audience that this is a movie about the dangers consumption and capitalism, not about the dangers of messing with the non-human world. The genetically modified organism is referred to throughout the movie as an asset, and questions of scientific corruption are brought into question. The movie attempts to grapple with the difficulties of the privatization of genetic information, as the animals that are on the island have no rights and are seen as merely objects of consumption. This idea is furthered in the over the top SeaWorld reference with the mosasaur acting as the Shamu for the island.

But apart from a few characters protesting how wrong this view is, there is never any complex dealings with the subject.

Sci & Entertainment

The science in the movie is questionable. Where are the feathers on the Velociraptors or the T. rex? When the film was being written it was more accepted in the paleontological community that non-avian dinosaurs had feathers. Also, the locomotion of the mosasaurs is depicted to be whale like, when it is understood to have swam like a crocodile. The only explanation? All the animals in the park are genetically modified, and to keep the creatures scarier, they selected out the feathers? Or, the filmmakers forgot to familiarize themselves with recent science news.

What the film does get right is the importance of Natural History. There is a moment when the nephews are in a museum/ visitors center and interactive information booths and holographs of the animals are shown being used by children. Imagine if the Smithsonian had interactive holographs of raptors. Now, that seems like a better place to spare no expense.

As a whole, Jurassic World tried to address important questions in the scientific community, but sadly in its overdone attempt to mix science fiction, thriller, and nostalgia, the result is a confused movie. If you want a good dinosaur thriller, please, just watch the original.

41

Sci & Entertainment

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

with Catrina Hamilton-Drager

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

Professor Catrina Hamilton-Drager is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College, earned her M.S. from Arizona State University, and received a Ph.D. from Wesleyan University. She joined the faculty at Dickinson College in 2006. This semester, Professor Hamilton-Drager is teaching a first-year seminar titled “Are We Alone in the Solar System?”

Madeleine Gardner, ’18: At what point did you decide to become a scientist?

evolves. Can they get closer to each other? Is it a stable orbit? What happens as they go through their life processes?

Professor Catrina Hamilton-Drager: I was little; I was probably about five. It was a summer night and I asked my mom if I could go out and play on the swings. It was just about dusk and she was doing the dishes, so she could watch me out the window. I got swinging on my swings, and all of a sudden, I really realized what was above me.

I got off the swing and lay on the ground because I was just watching the stars. My mom freaked out because she thought I was hurt and had fallen off the swing, and she came running out. I just said, “Mom — look!” She got down on the ground and lay with me. From that moment on, my mom and dad did whatever they could, whether it be buying me magazines or taking me to places that would teach me about astronomy. When I was finally a junior in college, I found what I wanted to do, and that was teach.

MG: What role do students play in helping with your research?

MG: What is the premise of your current research at Dickinson?

CHD: I am looking at young stars that are in the process of forming, and how fast those stars are rotating. Stars in those clusters that are rotating slowly are probably stars that potentially have the building-blocks of planetary material around them. One of our big questions is- how do planets form? We can look at stars of varying ages: from Earth, to a point where [planets] start to fuse hydrogen in their core, and we can get a timeframe for how long it takes a planet to form. Recently, I’ve been trying to move into a new direction, where I’m looking at two stars that are in orbit about themselves. We ask questions like how do they evolve? Stars don’t stay the same size. Our sun, for example, is a little smaller than it was when it was younger. As soon as it starts to run out of fuel, it will start to expand, and eventually it will expand to the size of Mars’ orbit. Millions of years from now, it will engulf the Earth.

The question then is what happens to binary stars as one 42

CHD: One of the things I love to do is work with students and teach them how to use our telescope. The Physics and Astronomy Department also has a relationship with NURO, which stands for the National Undergraduate Research Observatory. Every Fall pause and during the January break, we take students to Flagstaff, Arizona. Generally they are taking research for their senior research, but sometimes it’s data for my research. Students get involved in taking the data, and making the observations. They then reduce the data and analyze the data. In fact, I just had a paper accepted (to the Astronomical Journal) and it has eight students who are coauthors with me. It’s quite rewarding because this was research that I started when I first got here in 2006, so all of these students are students that I’ve had over the years. This particular project has been something that they made their senior theses, and they got Honors working on this. We’re finally going to publication.

MG: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

CHD: I like to spend time with my family. My daughter is 10 and she’s doing Girls On The Run. Its a program for third, fourth, and fifth grade girls, teaching them about self-esteem, empathy, and how not to use negative words to describe yourself or others. They’re training for a 5K, and I like to run too, so I’m gonna be her running buddy in her 5K. MG: Do you have a favorite Quarry pastry or drink?

CHD: Anything that is gluten free! Any of those muffins are my favorite.

Sci & Entertainment

43

44