Issue 24

ELEMENTS A MAGAZINE FOR SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND

ISSUE 24 - SPRING 2019

BOTANICAL SCIENCE

SUPERCONDUCTORS

“Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.”

-RICHARD P. FEYNMAN

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Why the hell do we bother with science? It’s messy, it’s frustrating, it’s slow, and I don’t like the funny lines lab goggles leave on my forehead.

I never really saw science as a choice, though. It was just something that happened. Coming up with questions about the world and then finding the answers made me happy as a child, and by the time I knew words like “hypothesis” and “experiment,” it was too late; I was already hooked.

At the end of the day, I think we practice science because it brings us joy. And it’s good that there are crazy people like us who enjoy finding answers because science has the power change the world for the better. You can thank science for velcro and airplanes and pasteurized milk. You can thank science for Prozac and Benadryl and Viagra.

But if you thank science for those things, don’t stop there. Science doesn’t need more fair-weather friends. Don’t thank us for your fancy computer while you ignore climate change research. Don’t drink pasteurized milk if you vilify genetically modified crops. Don’t take a Viagra if you don’t vaccinate your children. If you’re going to believe in science, believe in all of it.

In this issue of Elements, we are pleased to bring you some of the best science writing that the University of Puget Sound has to offer. This issue showcases articles from many branches of science: botany, geology, neuroscience, and erotic poetry, just to name a few. All I ask is that you approach each with an open mind.

Sincerely, Anna Marchand Editor in chief

STAFF Anna Marchand

Emily Nygard

EDITOR IN CHIEF

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Andrew Izzo

Annelise Phelps

Noah Bader-Fourney

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

COPY EDITOR

Finn Dobkin

Allison Shapiro

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

DESIGN EDITOR

Cover illustration courtesy of Emily Nygard

Anneke Fleming

OUTREACH MANAGER

Danvers

SCIENCE EXPERT AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT

The production of Elements magazine is possible due to the funding and support of the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound (ASUPS). We thank Media Board, ASUPS, and, by extension, the student body for making this publication a reality. This magazine was printed by Print NW (Lakewood, WA).

of dia na A).

In this Issue 6

History of the Element - Annelise Phelps

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The Adventure of Studying Log Mat Biofilm in Spirit Lake - Emma Sevier and Kena Fox-Dobbs

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The Orchid, The Moth, and Mr. Darwin - Noah Dillon

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Botanical Drawing: Fan Moss - Sarah Petrillo

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Changing with the Times: Coryphodon’s Climate-Driven Evolution - Theo Lyman

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Ink Caps and Coprine: A Toxic Cocktail - Amelia Cadwell

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Genes + Murder - Anneke Fleming

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Signature Bite - Amber Menchio

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Rethinking Alzheimer’s Disease: β-Amyloid vs Tau - Noah Bader-Fourney

22

Rural-Urban Divide - Finn Dobkin

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Autism: Disease or Diversity? - Morgan White

26

Botanical Drawing: Tree Moss - Anna Graf

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Ceramics and Superconductors - Andrew Izzo

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Allium Haikus

30

Cosmo Nerd

31

Love in the Time of GEO 101 - Rose Pytte

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Innovation in the Field of Aroma-Based Smallpox Treatment - Finn Dobkin Citations

History of the Element

BY ANNELISE PHELPS

Introduction

This semester, in honor of our magazine, Elements, I researched the origins of the term “element” as used in the field of science and traced the development of its definition back through history. As one of the building blocks of fields like chemistry and biology, the element has been an essential part of the sciences, dating back to antiquity. This timeline begins with the ancient Greek scholars and links many of the great minds of science throughout history up to the present day. Although my research covers many significant events in the history of this topic, it is certainly not inclusive of all historical events pertaining to the element.

The four elements

The term “element” was first used by the Greek philosopher Empedocles in the 5th century BCE to divide all matter in the world into four categories: earth, water, air, and fire. He described the “element” as an unchanging substance which can produce change by combining with other elements. The elements interacted with each other to form different kinds of substances via “love,” meaning union with other elements, or “strife,” referring to a division of elements. (1) The addition of “aether” and the assignment of elemental properties

The philosopher Aristotle, who lived in the 4th century BCE and studied under Plato, made multiple changes to Empedocles’ original element theory. First, he used his knowledge of the motion of the heavens to determine that the four elements did not exist outside of our planet because he observed that the physics on earth was different than the laws that governed planetary motion. He believed that earth, water, air, and fire governed the terrestrial sphere, while a new element called “aether” made up the celestial sphere. Aether had significantly different properties than the other four elements and was responsible for the circular motion of the planets. However, the concept of aether was eventually discredited in the 1500s when the non-circular motion of comets was observed, thereby suggesting that the circular force of aether was not the cause of all celestial motion. Though during Aristotle’s time period, the planets were thought to be held up by crystalline spheres made of aether that kept them afloat and in motion around the earth. Aristotle also proposed that each element has a natural motion, which can only be disrupted by an outside force: earth tends to move down toward the center of the planet; water moves down but is more lightweight than earth; and air and fire tend to move upward. These natural tendencies accounted for the motion of all matter on Earth, such as the flow of water over a riverbed or the tendency of a rock to fall toward the ground. This version of element theory was able to adequately account for observations of the natural world and remained dominant for centuries.

The discovery of new elements during the Medieval Period

As the Medieval Period encouraged a societal shift toward more humanistic studies, element theory changed to account for the human experience of elements outside of the typical earth, water, air, and fire. The Swiss physician Paracelsus, who lived from the mid-1400s to the mid-1500s, added three new elements to the original set of four. First, he added salt as an element to account for the distinct taste of certain materials. He also added the element sulfur, an ingredient in gunpowder, because it had unique, recently discovered explosive 6 | ELEMENTS

properties. Finally, Paracelsus determined that mercury should also be considered an element because it was a liquid metal, which shared the properties of both earth and water and thus could not be categorized as one or the other. Consequently, medieval element theory included a total of seven elements: earth, water, air, fire, salt, sulfur, and mercury.

Chemistry and the development of a new element theory

In 1789, French scientist Antoine Lavoisier published his book Elements of Chemistry, which proposed a new definition of the element. The book described an element as a simple substance that cannot be broken down into smaller parts. Lavoisier’s definition of the element offered more specificity, thus allowing scientists to differentiate between compounds and pure substances (2). With his new definition, Lavoisier was able to identify 33 unique elements, including phosphorus, copper, zinc, and other elements that are relevant to chemistry today.

The union of element theory and atomic theory

John Dalton, an English chemist, built on Lavoisier’s new ideas about elements with the proposal of atomic theory in his 1808 publication, A New System of Chemical Philosophy. Dalton proposed that each element had a unique atomic structure and weight. He also determined that elements combine in whole number ratios to form compounds, which is a foundational principle in the study of chemistry today. In addition to his new theory, the chemist suggested the use of a chart with unique symbols for each element, as a method of visually representing and organizing the elements. His idea was a precursor to today’s periodic table of elements.

The modern periodic table of elements Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian chemist in the 19th century, who created an organizational system for elements, which we use today. Although other scientists during the same era also proposed versions of the periodic table of elements, Mendeleev’s was unique because it had the ability to predict the properties of elements not yet discovered. His model organized the 63 known elements by atomic weight and other properties, such as the stoichiometry of their compounds. Despite some changes, including the addition of many new elements, between its initial proposal in 1865 and the current version, the periodic table of elements has maintained its form. (2)

Dalton’s table of elemental symbols, as published in A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808)

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Google Images for Reuse

The standardization of elemental abbreviations

Around the same time as John Dalton’s revolutionary contributions to element theory, a Swedish chemist named Jöns Jakob Berzelius was also studying the elements.

Berzelius sought to develop an alternative method to Dalton’s table of elements. He wanted to create a system of elemental representations that would be easy to print in a scientific text.

Thus, in 1814, he proposed a standardized manner of abbreviating the names of elements, using the first one or two letters of their Latin names and adding superscripts to denote the number of atoms. Though, the scientific community eventually altered his chemical notation system with the implementation of subscripts instead of superscripts; this version is the one in use today (3).

Having a Blast at Mount St Helens: The Adventure of Studying Log Mat Biofilm in Spirit Lake

BY EMMA SEVIER AND KENA FOX-DOBBS

Upon first glance, Spirit Lake may look like many other lakes in the Cascades: clear blue water perched in a rugged alpine basin. However, this lake, within the blast zone of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, has a more complex story to tell. The eruption of Mount St. Helens released a landslide of hot volcanic debris that sterilized Spirit Lake and restructured the lake basin. Today, Spirit Lake is considerably shallower and has a greater surface area than the preeruption lake.

The current view of Spirit Lake includes a unique and obvious feature: the floating logs which cover approximately 20% of the lake’s surface. This log mat was derived from trees that were blown down during the eruption - a reminder of the mature forest that once surrounded the lake. While these sun-bleached and weathered logs are essentially skeletons of

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past life, our research has revealed that they still play an important role in the lake ecosystem. The logs themselves are no longer a source of energy or nutrients, but they provide a novel substrate for biofilm (aka periphyton), a form of primary productivity consisting of cyanobacteria, diatoms, and algae. This green slime may not look like much, but we have documented the potential contribution of biofilm to the base of the lake’s food web, including the input of nutrients via atmospheric N₂ fixation.

Studying floating logs is surprisingly challenging; much like at a rodeo, the logs must first be lassoed, corralled, and then ridden… by the end of the field season our research team had developed strong arms and nimble feet! This interdisciplinary team includes us (biogeochemists), an environmental chemist (Jim Gawel, UW-Tacoma), an entomologist

Photo courtesy of Kena Fox-Dobbs

“Studying floating logs is surprisingly challenging; much like at a rodeo, the logs must first be lassoed, corralled, and then ridden… by the end of the field season our research team had developed strong arms and nimble feet!”

Emma Sevier constructing an experimental log in Spirit Lake in June 2018 (Photos coursesy of K. Fox-Dobbs).

(Jeremy Davis, UW-Tacoma), and a limnologist (Avery Shinneman, UW-Bothell). Instead of chasing logs around all summer (and potentially losing deployed instruments), we constructed experimental log mats (100 meters²) that were anchored in place, and we used these to study the log mat micro-ecosystem. Other aspects of our field research included monitoring water chemistry, sampling shallow sediments and collecting sediment cores.

One of the first questions we wanted to answer was how much log mat biofilm was in Spirit Lake. We combined field, laboratory, and satellite imagery approaches to estimate the standing biomass of log mat biofilm in late summer. We determined there was roughly 12,500 kilograms of biofilm (equivalent to 1.5x the weight of an adult Tyrannosaurus rex) fixed to the floating log mat by the end of growing season.

In other words, a lot of biofilm primary productivity was available to the lake’s food web!

Once we had established that biofilm was a substantial component in the lake system, we addressed the issue of atmospheric nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria in the biofilm. To do this, we collected biofilm samples from glass slide racks suspended under the experimental log mats for stable isotope analysis.

Because atmospheric N₂ has a nitrogen isotope value that is distinct from nitrate in the lake water, we were able use the isotopic values of biofilm to determine the relative contributions of each nitrogen source to the biofilm. We found evidence for N₂ fixation, which indicates that log mat biofilm is an input of both organic carbon and nitrogen into the lake system. It is likely that there is a seasonal trend in the strength of this input, since preliminary assemblage analyses of the biofilm community suggest that cyanobacteria increase in abundance later in the summer, potentially once lake nitrate levels have been drawn down to low concentrations by other primary producers earlier in the growth season.

As with most research projects, this one has sparked more questions than answers, and recently we have turned our attention to the lake sediments, which act as integrators and recorders of the lake’s biogeochemical processes. Specifically, we are now working to determine how the sediment organic record has changed through time, and across space in areas of the lake with different patterns of log mat occupancy. Over the past 38 years, the Spirit Lake ecosystem has rapidly evolved from sterile to functional, perhaps with a bit of help from the log mat biofilm!

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THE ORCHID, THE MOTH, AND MR. DARWIN

BY NOAH DILLON Beauty takes many forms throughout nature. Orchids arguably dominate the plant world with their aesthetics, which have charmed many into the realms of botany.

From the botanical illustrator Sarah Ann Drake in the 19th century to the current works of Paul Lange’s exposition “Big Blooms—Orchids, Trailblazers, and Visionaries,” the science and art of the family Orchidaceae displays the mysterious forms of these flowers.

“Orchid fever,” a term popularized by Eric Hansen in his book of the same name, describes an obsession with orchids. This ailment gripped Charles Darwin, who invested an immense amount of energy into studying the pollination of orchids after publishing On the Origin of Species. The pollination of orchids by insects is an example of coevolution, as the deep, intricate relationship between orchids and their insect companion sheds light on evolutionary patterns. Flowers and their pollinators share complementary characteristics that showcase this feat of evolution. Think of the nectar in flowers and the pollen that rubs onto the insects feeding on the nectar. In a complementary manner, the pollinators have their own structures that accommodate their flower feeding frenzy.

Butterflies and moths have specialized appendages, called proboscises, that extend from their heads and act as a straw for them to gather nectar. Darwin set forth on his quest to support his new theory of evolution using the adaptations of structures in orchids and pollinators as evidence.

In Madagascar, a peculiar orchid had a nectar spur (the part of the flower from the opening to the nectar storage) reaching nearly a foot in length. If orchids need pollination, then how does this strange orchid from Madagascar reproduce? Upon hearing this, Darwin enthusiastically predicted that there “must be moths with proboscises capable of extension to a length of between ten and eleven inches!” (1). How much confidence did Darwin put into his orchids? Enough confidence to use them as evidence for what we now refer to in evolutionary biology as natural selection. Darwin published Fertilisation of Orchids in 1862 as his first major publication after Origin

of Species. This orchid from Madagascar would either be an exemplary organism for evolution or an embarrassment for the father of evolution. When Darwin passed away, they found no such moth. Why would Darwin have placed such great certainty in his prediction for a moth with an abnormally long proboscis?

Orchids, like all flowers, require pollination for reproduction. The three avenues for insect pollination in orchids are 1) the flower looks like a mate for a type of insect, and the insect attempts courtship, 2) the flower looks like an adversary to an insect and is attacked on sight, or 3) the flower is providing a free meal of nectar, and an insect happily eats the meal. The result is always a small bit of pollen wiped onto the insect before it moves onto the next flower. For successful pollination, a repeated pollination event involving multiple flowers must occur for the pollen of one plant to fertilize another. It takes at least three to tango as the insect dances with both parental orchids.

What about this moth that Darwin was talking about? If orchids need pollination, then how does this strange orchid from Madagascar reproduce? As predicted, the fabled moth was eventually discovered in 1903. Known as Morgan’s sphinx moth, this insect has the oversized proboscis necessary to obtain the nectar from what is now commonly referred to as Darwin’s orchid. From beyond the grave, Darwin and his faith in his theory held true.

What can we learn from this? While most use the story of Darwin’s orchid and moth as popular support for evolutionary theory, I view it as an example of the finely shaped function of orchid form. Although they did not evolve to seduce us, the orchid has hijacked our senses in ways similar to those of their insect pollinators. The artistic element to orchids captures our attention and imagination.

It is no wonder that the Smithsonian Garden’s annual exhibits are held in venues such as the Hirshhorn and the American Art Museum. The botanical science of orchids is fascinating, but let us never separate the intrinsic beauty of orchids from their artful evolutionary history.

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Photo courtesy of Noah Dillon

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CHANGING WITH THE TIMES: Coryphodon’s Climate-Driven Evolution

BY THEO LYMAN How does an organism change through time? How quickly can an organism adapt to rapid climatic and environmental pressures? These are the types of questions that ecologists ask when facing the precedent of the next mass extinction from anthropogenic climate change. Despite many efforts to prevent threatened animals from going extinct, it is still not easy to predict how an animal can adapt to sudden cataclysmic events. Fortunately, the fossil record provides many examples of extinct organisms that adapted in unique ways to many climatic events in Earth’s history, which is why paleontologists have sought to understand how certain organisms responded to habitat changes over time.

One such example is the evolution of Coryphodon species found in northwestern Wyoming, which was researched by paleontologists Dr. Mark Uhen and Dr. Phil Gingerich in 1995. (1) Around 55 million years ago, there was a climatic event known by scientists as the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which was marked by a threefold negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) in terrestrial and marine records with staggering repercussions around the world (2). Global sea levels rose by 20 meters, causing global wind and water cycles to drastically change and continents to shrink along the coasts. Seasonal precipitation also increased by several inches, which caused severe floods and rainstorms. Furthermore, ocean temperatures increased two-fold from 5 to 10°C, which in turn caused bottom-sea anoxia (the decrease of oxygen isotopes), which was responsible for the disappearance of 35-50% of benthic foram species (extinct microscopic algae). (3) It is likely that Coryphodon would have been affected by the impact of the PETM, but instead of going extinct, like many of its mammalian neighbors that couldn’t adapt quickly enough to changes in their habitat, the fossil record showed that Coryphodon thrived from a single species prior to the event into four species following the PETM. Why did Coryphodon persist while its mammalian brethren perished? For paleontologists like Dr. Mark Uhen and Dr. Paul Gingerich, the answers lie in the animal’s preserved bones and teeth, and the strata from Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins of northwestern Wyoming, where they were originally found.

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Modern reconstruction of Coryphodon by Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) (Wikimedia commons)

Before diving into the science, what is a Coryphodon?

The genus Coryphodon belongs to an extinct herbivorous mammal group known as Pantodonta, which evolved 56.8 to 52 million years ago. About the size of a 800-kg wild boar, Coryphodon was one of the largest-known mammals of its time, which probably served to deter small predators. Its squat, hippo-like legs made it an excellent swimmer, but a slow walker. (4) Coryphodon lived in small social groups predominated by adult males with few adult females and offspring.

Now that we know about the animal, why is Coryphodon so special? The simple answer is that fossilized remains of Coryphodon are abundant in North America, so much so that it has become a useful index fossil (a fossil with a narrow time range and wide spatial distribution that is used in the identification of related geologic formations) for determining the age of sedimentary sequences of the Clarkforkian and Wasatchian land-mammal age. Furthermore, a total of five successive species of Coryphodon were identified within the strata of the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins of northwestern Wyoming. Since the five Coryphodon species were closely spaced in time

throughout the Bighorn Basin, paleontologists were able to trace the animal’s evolution in a 5-million year time frame. The Bighorn and the Clarks Fork Basins are distinct river basins that are subdivided into multiple biozones (sedimentary strata characterized by their fossil content) from the Clarkforkian age (59 to 55 million years ago) to the Wasatchian age (55 to 48.6 million years ago). For clarity, fossils of C. proterus, the oldest of the five Coryphodon species, were found in strata from the Clarkforkian stage, whereas those from C. eocaenus, C. radians, C. armatus, and C. lobatus were, respectively, found in strata from the Wasatchian stage (5).

Since there are five different species of Coryphodon, what are the main differences between them? The answer lies in the size and morphology of their teeth. One of the most distinguishing features of Coryphodon was its enlarged pair of tusks in the upper jaw, which were probably used for rooting up aquatic plants.

(6) The tusks varied in size between adult individuals of opposite sexes, indicating a trait of sexual dimorphism of the genus; large males with larger tusks could have used their tusks and bulk for either display or to fight rival males for smaller females, which have smaller tusks.

As a strict herbivore, Coryphodon had a selenodont tooth structure, and thus molars and premolars with low crowns and crescent-shaped cusps filled its jaws. Coryphodon’s tooth structure shows that the animal was capable of effectively moving its jaws sideways, a perfect mechanism for browsing and grinding tough, fibrous vegetation, such as ferns and woody plant remains, as well as soft vegetation like flowering plants and leaves. (6) Furthermore, the calculated mean area of the molars varied in size between species. This could have been due to temperature changes, for a related study indicated that smaller mammalian molar areas indicate warmer temperatures and relatively larger ones indicate cooler temperatures. (6) Their lower middle third molars were also identified to be morphologically different. Originally, C. proterus and its descendant C. eocaenus had 3 small cusps on their molars, but the random process of natural selection resulted in a change in molar morphology, with C. armatus and its descendants having 2 enlarged cusps on their molars. (1) Why were molars with fewer, larger cusps favored over those with more numerous,

smaller cusps? The change in molar morphology between Coryphodon species could have been a random response to food availability and a shift from a varied diet prior to the PETM to a specialized diet between individual species after the event.

Similarly to how teeth can indicate an animal’s diet and their utility in the animal’s life, the abundance and rich diversity of plant fossils in the Bighorn Basin Paleogene sequence do not only indicate what type of plants certain Coryphodon species would have eaten, but also reflect the different environments the animal once inhabited 55 million years ago (8). The Clarkforkian strata indicated a wide variety of flora from forested floodplains. In contrast, the Wasatchian strata indicated a diversity of plants from more humid, deciduous rainforests. Why was there a distinctive change in plant diversity between the two mammal ages? The PETM could have been the likely culprit, as plant species are highly sensitive to change in temperature, moisture, and soil content.

Furthermore, the change in plant diversity from tough to soft vegetation would have resulted in natural selection favoring Coryphodon species with a specialized diet while adapting to a more humid, moist habitat. (9) The rapid change in food availability also caused a change in Coryphodon species’ body mass over time; the 800-kg C. proterus had downsized into the 340-kg C. eocaenus during the Clarkforkian stage. The smaller species then grew larger into the 600-kg C. radians during the early Wasatchian stage. The larger species later diversified into the smaller 225-kg C. armatus and the larger 700-kg C. lobatus during the late Wasatchian stage. (1) Since an increase in global temperatures occurred during the PETM from 5°C to 10°C, the continuous change of Coryphodon body mass between species through time reflects Bergmann’s rule, which states that an animal’s body mass decreases in warmer temperatures and increases in colder temperatures. (9) Furthermore, the pattern of Coryphodon body-mass change not only correlates with the pattern of Coryphodon molar area change, but also can be attributed to global climate change during the PETM of the Wasatchian-Clarkforkian boundary.

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Images p. 13-14 are Google Images for reuse

From the evidence that we have gathered from the Coryphodon remains, we can make a sound hypothesis regarding the key to Coryphodon’s success. As the PETM caused an environmental shift from floodplains to rainforests dominated by soft plants, the random process of natural selection resulted in Coryphodon evolving a few lucky mutations that allowed it to quickly respond to the PETM’s dramatic environment and climatic change, thereby surviving and diversifying into four successive species with distinctive teeth, diet, and body mass in just 5 million years.

(1) So what can the evolutionary history of Coryphodon tell us about how organisms today can change through time and how quickly they can adapt to rapid natural pressures?

Evolution is the result of natural selection in the midst of extreme ecological pressures that drive individuals of a single species to compete against each other for limited resources and space. This intense competition results in individuals evolving random morphological differences that lead to the emergence of different species as a direct response to those pressures. Coryphodon’s rapid diversification into multiple, morphologically different

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species is therefore evidence of evolution in action.

Furthermore, we, along with paleontologists and ecologists alike, should look to Coryphodon as an important model to consider in the context of anthropogenic climate change because diversification through evolution is a possible mechanism to survive climate change. As long as threatened animals can diversify into multiple species through the preservation of their numbers and natural habitat, those animals under threat of extinction will be able to thrive just as Coryphodon did millions of years ago.

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Kena Fox-Dobbs of the Geology department, Anna Marchand, and the CWLT for helping me construct this article. I would not have been able to achieve this literary work without their support.

Ink Caps and Coprine: A Toxic Cocktail

BY AMELIA CADWELL

Well, let’s take a look at those mushrooms.

Coprinopsis atramentaria, or the common ink cap mushroom, is a food forager’s delight here in the Pacific Northwest. With an easily identifiable bullet-like shape and grayish brown wrinkled cap, the common ink cap is found in dense clusters over a wide ecological range throughout North America and Europe (1). Its thin flesh and delicate flavor make ink caps a great addition to many dishes, but, like many widespread ecological species, they have a great variation in color and surface texture, and thus have several look alikes of the non-edible variety, making them a dangerous foraging choice to an inexperienced mycologist (one who studies mushrooms).

The Coprinopsis atramentaria is named after the Latin word for ink, “atramentarius”. As the ink cap reaches maturity, its cap begins to unfurl like a scroll from bell-shaped to flat, and melts into a black pile of inky goo. This mechanism is a common method in the fungal world for dispersing spores for reproduction, but historically, humans have capitalized on this goo as writing ink for parchment, thus leading to its taxonomic classification by French naturalist Pierre Bulliard in the 18th century, who was known to use this “ink” in his writings (2).

In addition to making a great backup ballpoint, the common ink cap has a secret. Though completely non-

toxic when ingested by itself, this mushroom contains an ingredient that turns poisonous only when combined with alcohol. The culprit? A mycotoxin (a poison derived from mushrooms) called coprine.

By itself, coprine is not inherently poisonous. Chemically, it is is a three-carbon ring that is metabolized into glutamic acid (an amino acid) and 1-aminocyclopropane when consumed (3). Aminocyclopropane is the biological substance that inhibits an enzyme in the body called acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase is the enzyme responsible for breaking down and metabolizing alcohol in the bloodstream. When it’s blocked by coprine, acetaldehyde accumulates, and causes the intense reaction to alcohol: a sickness called “Disulfiram Syndrome” in which the unfortunate forager would experience heart palpitations, nausea, vomiting, and tingling limbs. Essentially, coprine completely shuts down the body’s ability to metabolize and break down the active ingredient of alcohol. The greater quantity of coprine ingested and the greater amount of alcohol one drinks, the more intense the response(4).

If you ate the risotto but didn’t touch alcohol for at least one week (the amount of time it takes for the poison to cycle out of the human body), then you would have absolutely no ill effects, even though your body would be flush with aminocyclopropane. But if you drank within that weeklong window, then you would experience the effects of the mycotoxin. Pretty wild stuff.

The effects of consuming these mushrooms in combination with alcohol has been well-known for centuries. In the United Kingdom, Coprinopsis atramentaria is known as “Tippler’s Bane,” in reference to how the mushrooms impact a “tippler” (British slang for one who drinks). It has

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Google Images for reuse

After a nice meal of risotto with asparagus and some freshly foraged mushrooms, you kick back with friends and take a few sips of a glass of wine. Ten minutes later, you’re suffering from nausea, vomiting, agitation, tingling limbs, and severe heart palpitations. Whoa, what’s happening?

Marzi the pug for scale with a cluster of Coprinopsis atramentaria. Photos courtesy of Jeff Budrys from Mycelial Maddness. been only recently, however, that the medical community began trying to make use of these interesting side effects.

The world of applied mycology has given humanity a great deal of helpful solutions in the medical community.

From the discovery of penicillin, to case studies of reishi mushroom extract on treating cancer in-vitro, many medical uses are hidden in the often overlooked world of fungi (5).

Mycologists once tried to see if the enzyme-halting function of coprine could be of some use to the medical community, in particular for the cure of alcoholism via aversion therapy (6). Take an isolated coprine pill, and any alcohol consumed after would make the user absolutely miserable.

However, according to an interview with Professor Mike Beug of Evergreen State College: “Since the effects produced by coprine are so similar to the effects of Antabuse (the drug currently used to deter alcoholics from drinking), many years ago coprine was tested as a potential replacement for Antabuse. However in testing on male beagles, coprine was found to produce testicular damage and so coprine was abandoned as a potential drug for treating alcohol abuse.” (7) Alas, ink caps have not yet proven to be helpful, but rather a Russian roulette of a dinner choice, and a definite miss as an entrée if you happen to be a male beagle. However, in comparison to the effects of other mycotoxins, the poisoning from ink caps is really quite mild. With rest, plenty of fluids, and the avoidance of alcohol for at least a week, an individual will recover quickly and fully from coprine poisoning, like recuperating from a particularly nasty hangover. In the mycological world, this is a lucky and gentle poisoning, especially when compared with the

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A common lookalike of the Ink Cap, Coprinopsis micaceus, or Mica Cap. Photo courtesy of Amelia Cadwell. (apparently delicious) but invasive species of death cap mushroom, Amanita phalloides. The death cap is found in the Pacific Northwest, and just a few mouthfuls can result in complete liver failure within 48 hours. The only known cure is a milk thistle extract, which is currently not FDA approved in the U.S. and must be flown in from Germany when an emergency arises(7). Now that’s a risky dinner.

And potentially a final one.

With wild food foraging on the rise across the United States, proper identification, as well as knowledge about potential interactions is absolutely crucial to safe picking practices (8).There are many Facebook groups and social clubs on mycology and area-specific foraging that, while not reliable as a sole method of identification, are great starting points and usually have very knowledgeable individuals on the lookout to aid with identification however possible.

Though, a good foragers rule of thumb is, if you aren’t 110% sure, don’t eat it!

So, the next time you’re looking for mushrooms for a wild risotto, make sure you have identified all finds correctly through second and third opinions, are aware of any possible interactions, and, if it happens to be inky cap, you’d best avoid the booze!

Image from Pixabay.com

Genes + Murder

BY ANNEKE FLEMING

Content Warning: This article mentions sexual assault and discusses murder.

In March of 1986, 12-year-old Michella Welch was found dead less than two miles from the University of Puget Sound’s campus, in nearby Puget Park of the Proctor district (1). She had been sexually assaulted and died from blunt force trauma to the head. Michella’s murder went unsolved for more than 31 years, until Lakewood resident Gary Charles Hartman was abruptly arrested and charged for her murder and assault last June.

Michella’s murder was one of the first in a large wave of cold cases across the country (including the identification of the Golden State Killer) that have been solved since April 2018, using a revolutionary genetic genealogy analysis technique that utilizes publicly available genetic data and autosomal DNA testing. This technique was originally developed by citizen genealogists who devoted themselves to investigating the Bear Brook murders, a series of cold case murders in Vermont in which four bodies were found dismembered and left inside two barrels in the early 1980s (2). These four bodies remain unidentified, but the serial killer responsible was identified using these techniques.

Autosomal DNA Testing The type of DNA testing used by the Tacoma Police Department to catch Michella’s killer is known as autosomal DNA testing. Rather than testing DNA from just the X and Y sex chromosomes, autosomal DNA tests analyze much more DNA - from the 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes, as well as the sex chromosomes.

It is not yet possible to efficiently and economically sequence an everyday person’s genome in order to establish their identity or relatedness to other people. Instead, companies such as AncestryDNA and 23andMe test more than 700,000 locations in the genome for the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (3). SNPs are small mutations in single base pairs of the DNA sequence. Each person has about 4-5 million SNPs in their genome (4), and a person’s unique SNPs can help distinguish an individual’s genome from another person’s, or to establish relatedness

between two people. SNP analysis generates a lot of data enough to even suggest relatedness between fifth cousins (fifth cousins share great-great-great-great grandparents).

The way that autosomal DNA testing has been used to identify murderers across the country is similar to the way many adoptees have used genetic genealogy to find their birth parents - with a few important twists. Each individual has thousands of distant cousins. As explained

by Jason Moon of New Hampshire Public Radio, in “a really simple family tree where each set of parents has just 2 or 3 kids… you have 4,700 fifth cousins” (5). If the SNP analyses of both your and one of your fifth cousins’ genomes can be compared side-by-side (as they are by companies like 23andMe), then they can be identified as being related to you as a fifth cousin. Once possible distant relatives have been identified, these matches can be cross-referenced with public records and family trees to identify an adoptee’s birth family.

The major difference between identifying an adoptee’s birth family and identifying a criminal using this method is that the adoptee is a willing supplier of genetic information (and samples). They want to be identified. DNA samples from crime scenes can’t be sent directly to companies like 23andMe for two reasons: 1) The DNA samples are often degraded and not large enough to be run through the company’s machines (consumers who buy a 23andMe test provide a couple of milliliters of spit in a test tube, a standard often unattainable with crime scene samples), and 2) the privacy policies set by these companies establish that they will not cooperate with or share information with third parties (including law enforcement) except in the case of a valid court order. AncestryDNA reported that

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from 2015 through 2017, it received no valid legal requests for genetic information. A 23andMe spokesperson said that the company “has never given customer information to law enforcement” (6).

If Tacoma law enforcement agencies don’t have access to data from consumer genetic genealogy companies, how did they use autosomal DNA testing to identify Welch’s killer?

After all, the genetic information of potential relatives is needed to test for relatedness among people in the first place. Enter GEDmatch.com. GEDmatch does not perform DNA analysis itself, but users can upload raw DNA data from consumer genetic testing companies (like 23andMe) to compare with each other (7). If just one of your thousands of distant cousins uploads their data onto GEDmatch, that data can be used to help identify you from a DNA sample.

As Science Magazine reports, the possibility that one of your relatives has uploaded their information is becoming increasingly likely: GEDmatch likely only encompasses about 0.5% of the U.S. adult population, but millions of Americans are using DNA ancestry testing services. Once the GEDmatch figure rises to 2%, more than 90% of people of European descent will have a third cousin or closer relative on GEDmatch and could be found in this way (8).

In the case of Gary C. Hartman, who murdered Michella Welch in Tacoma, old DNA swabs from the crime scene were analyzed and uploaded to GEDmatch.com to search for relatives of the killer. A “significant match” was found, and the police were able to cross-reference this DNA information with public records to identify suspects (9).

What is so revolutionary about this method - how is it different?

Although the use of DNA evidence in criminal investigations has increased exponentially over the last few decades, until recently, police departments have been very limited in how they are able to use DNA samples. Typically, when police collect DNA samples from crime scenes - for example, in the form of saliva, blood, or semen - they enter them into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database. CODIS is highly regulated and constrained by privacy laws. CODIS only contains genetic information from people who have been arrested, detained, or charged with a violent crime. It also only contains the base pair information of “13 Core STR Loci,” which is an extremely small portion of the information encoded in human DNA. STRs, or short tandem repeats, are units of nucleotides that are repeated adjacent to each other on a DNA strand. STRs vary quite a bit from person to person, and thus can only

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“The power and high resolution of autosomal DNA testing brings up ethical questions about data ownership and privacy... If just one of your thousands of distant cousins uploads their data onto GEDmatch, that data can be used to help identify you from a DNA sample.”

be used to show parent/child or sibling relationships (9).

The Tacoma Police Department had been unable to identify Welch’s killer through the FBI’s CODIS database (9).

Another genetic test often used by police departments are paternity and maternity tests, which establish whether two individuals are related as parent and child based on information found in the X or Y chromosomes or mitochondrial DNA. Unlike these tests, the raw data extracted by companies such as Ancestry.com evaluates all 46 chromosomes for genetic variation. While paternity and maternity tests can only definitively establish genetic relations between parents and their children, raw data analyses of autosomal DNA can predict much more distant relatedness.

The power and high resolution of autosomal DNA testing brings up ethical questions about data ownership and privacy. These issues are important for people to consider as they voluntarily undergo genetic testing, and regarding what they decide to do with their genetic data. When one person uploads their genetic information onto GEDmatch, they are essentially making the decision to allow law enforcement to use it to help identify criminals that may happen to be one of their thousands of distant cousins.

However, the public safety benefits of genetic genealogy are powerful, as we have seen in Tacoma and around the country as many high-profile cases have been solved in the past year.

SIGNATURE BITE

BY AMBER MENCHIO You’re on a jury about to decide the fate of a man who has been accused of murder. The only hard evidence to tie him to the crime is a bite mark left behind on the victim’s body that allegedly matches that of the accused. According to the jurors, that bite mark is as good as a confession. But is it?

Enter the forensic odontologist (a.k.a the forensic dentist). Forensic odontology handles complicated tasks like victim identification and bite mark analysis in legal proceedings, but when these experts enter the courtroom, their testimony may not hold water like that of a fingerprint analyst. The credibility of bite mark identification faces debate in both the realms of science and law and must be approached with skepticism because of its lack of scientific merit and “potentially prejudicial aspects” (1).

For identification of a corpse, forensic odontology is an accepted method; however, in instances of bite mark identification like in our hypothetical case, it is not as widely accepted (2). So how exactly does bite mark analysis work and why is its credibility questioned? To use our hypothetical murder case, the forensic dentist gathers the necessary evidence to begin comparison of sample bites, impressions, dental casts, and photographs of our defendant’s dentition (arrangement of the teeth) (2).

When comparing a bite mark with our defendant’s dentition, the forensic dentist will take measurements of the size, shape, and position of the individual teeth. The dentist will then compare the bite mark to the defendant’s teeth using overlays of the defendant’s dentition. An overlay may be created by hand, by tracing the defendant’s dental cast, creating a wax impression, by xerographic image,

or by computer generation (the most accurate method).

Despite the uniqueness of one person’s dentition, their bite mark does not reliably represent their teeth, and this is the entry point for criticism of bite mark analysis (2). While a person’s teeth are as unique as their fingerprints, many factors can alter the bite mark they leave behind (2).

For starters, the bite mark’s shape and clarity on human skin can change in as little as 10 to 20 minutes, making photography of the bite mark at the soonest possible moment crucial. Even with quick photography, potential distortions arising from color change and from transforming a 3D image to a 2D image can pose problems (1). Time is not on the forensic dentist’s side, nor is the medium of human skin. A bite mark’s appearance can change based on several factors when left on human skin.

One factor is location. Bite marks left on curved areas of the body are prone to more distortion than those left on flatter surfaces, and bite marks on victims are often left on the stomach or buttocks. A bite mark can also become altered by hemorrhage (bleeding) and post-injury edema (swelling) resulting from the bite itself. Beyond alterations in the bite mark, the attacker’s teeth can also change – intentionally or as a result of dental work, trauma, or periodontal disease, making a reliable match to a bite mark left at a crime scene even more difficult (1).

Given the difficulties of making an accurate identification based on a bite mark alone, this type of evidence should be interpreted very skeptically, if at all, and only considered reliable when more direct evidence can be presented to implicate the accused in the crime.

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RETHINKING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: β-AMYLOID VS. TAU

BY NOAH BADER-FOURNEY

For those with loved ones diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the cause of the disease can seem almost irrelevant; the grief and shared misery forced onto family and friends can be overwhelmingly abject. But the hard reality is that every sixty-five seconds, someone in the United States develops the disease, meaning the need to elucidate its biological mechanisms is imperative (1). As efforts to reveal its mechanisms continue, researchers have identified a protein which may be responsible for driving AD progression in patients.

Pathologically, Alzheimer’s Disease has two major hallmarks: the formation of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and the presence of a hyperphosphorylated protein called tau (2). Traditionally, Alzheimer’s research and therapies have been targeted towards preventing the accumulation and formation of the β-amyloid plaques, as it was believed their presence was the primary catalyst for driving the progression of the disease (3). However, new research suggests that our efforts should focus on the hyperphosphorylation of tau, and the development of therapies to reverse this hyperphosphorylation.

The Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis & its Limitations Mentioned previously, Alzheimer’s Disease is traditionally associated with the deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques in the brain which, in theory, catalyze the “amyloid cascade” (3). The Aβ plaques are comprised of β-amyloid protein which has clumped together to form plaques: typically depositing themselves between neurons (3). For the amyloid cascade, What follows next is a myriad of effects, including the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein and subsequent formation of paired helical filaments (PHFs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). And it is the formation of PHFs and NFTs which are responsible for driving memory and cognitive impairments (9).

There are limitations to this theory, however. One study found that upon post-mortem analysis (less than 8 hours

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post-mortem), some AD patients failed to show evidence of β-amyloid plaque accumulation (4). Additionally, not only were researchers able to demonstrate that the accumulation of Aβ plaques had no effect on memory—specifically the ability of mice to navigate a water maze—a separate study found the presence of these plaques in otherwise cognitively normal people (5)(6). Perhaps its most striking limitation is the finding that the accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), rather than Aβ plaques, is directly correlated to cognitive decline in AD patients (6). And what do NFTs have in common, you ask? Hyperphosphorylated tau.

The Tau Hypothesis While the amyloid hypothesis dominated and fueled scientific research into AD for years, novel research suggests that the hyperphosphorylation of tau is the pathological driver for Alzheimer’s Disease (7). While the exact mechanism is not understood, we do know the following about tau’s role in AD pathology: hyperphosphorylation of tau has a negative impact on its affinity to bind and stabilize microtubules and causes the self-aggregation of tau into paired helical filaments (PHFs) (8)(9)(10). The formed PHFs then become NFTs (neurofibrillary tangles) and begin

“To put it simply, our brain span should match our lifespan.”

-Meryl Comer

Figure 1. Shown are the hyper effects of hyperphosphorylated tau on microtubule binding affinity “in vivo” (Google Images for reuse)

to impact memory and cognitive function (2). In fact, the self-assembly of tau into PHFs was found to be positively correlated to the degree of phosphorylation (9).

So, how does tau find itself in this state of hyperphosphorylation anyway?

The phosphorylation state of tau is ultimately dependent on a number of kinases and phosphatases; however, the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), and its inhibitors, I1PP2A and I2PP2A, have been shown to be significant influencers of the phosphorylation state of tau.

In one study, parasagittal brain homogenates were taken from 5- and 12-month-old mice who expressed a dominant mutant form of the catalytic subunit, Cα, in PP2A. As a result, researchers measured a reduction in phosphatase activity by 34%. Subsequent staining of the homogenates with antibodies revealed hyperphosphorylation of Serine 202 and Threonine 205. Why is that important? These sites are critical for inducing self-aggregation of tau and formation of paired helical filaments (PHFs) (7).

Another study focused on the role which inhibitors of PP2A, I1PP2A and I2PP2A, have on tau’s phosphorylation state.

Researchers found that upregulation of these inhibitors was

sufficient to inhibit PP2A and induce hyperphosphorylation of tau.

Ready for the kicker? Two studies have found that PP2A activity is downregulated (by 40%) while the activity of I1PP2A and I2PP2A is upregulated (25% and 10% respectively) in brains of AD patients (11) (12). What does this mean? It means that we have stumbled upon an entirely new domain of possible Alzheimer’s treatments.

The research presented here has the potential to impact the field of Alzheimer’s therapies permanently. The hard reality is that current therapies are only marginally successful at slowing the disease’s progression; let alone offering a cure.

While current therapies target the reduction of β-amyloid plaques, their efficacy is limited and thus the demand for new and improved treatment options for patients with AD is significant. Given the clear role hyperphosphorylated tau plays in the formation of PHFs and NFTs, development of therapies which inhibit or reverse this phosphorylation is crucial.

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RURAL-URBAN DIVIDE

BY FINN DOBKIN When William Howard Taft spoke to a crowd of farmers in 1908, stating, “the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the country,� the rural America of his day stood in stark contrast to that of today. Characterized by its backwardness and other fallacious stereotypes, the vast expanse that is rural America has long stood as the backdrop to the American mainstream. Now, however, it is moving from its former status as an extraneous consideration to the forefront of the national dialogue on healthcare.

By nearly every metric, there has been a divergence in health standards between rural and urban America. For one, the gap in life expectancy has been increasing between the two populations since 1981. In fact, the last Census showed that urban populations can expect to live a full two years more than their rural counterparts.

This gap is evidenced by 2013 data from the Center for Disease Control which shows that out of eight common chronic diseases, prevalence rates were universally higher in rural communities.

While epidemiologists and demographers have had little difficulty diagnosing this problem, policymakers have been fruitless in their efforts to correct it. The confluence of negative social and economic circumstances has put strain on rural health systems. For example, a Commonwealth Fund report found that the physician-to-population ratio of rural areas was 25.4% lower than that of urban areas.

Researchers believe that this significant difference has been brought on by the concentration of poverty in the postrecession era, as well as an uninsured rate 22.8% greater than urban areas. As a result, hospital closures have run rampant, with the average rural resident travelling 63.4% greater distance to access medical care.

While the importance of these economic and social conditions are not to be downplayed, they only tell one side of the story. The other adversary in this tale can be traced to more structural factors, which have long been rooted in rural communities and their economies. These structural factors, which include chemical intensive agriculture, pollution-emitting factories, and poor enforcement of environmental regulations and statutes.

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Fracking has had devastating consequences on rural communities. (photo courtesy of Wikicommons) Of these structural factors, fracking for natural gas has garnered substantial attention in recent years. Fracking, which involves injecting a pressurized fluid consisting of sand, water, and chemicals into rock formations, allows natural gas developers to access natural gas formations that were previously inaccessible. These operations tend to be centralized in rural areas because of their space requirements and lower land prices.

Proponents of this practice argue that the economic benefits for the surrounding community outweigh any potential costs of the process. However, there has been a multitude of studies indicating that there are severe health consequences to the extraction process. A recent study of fracking communities in rural Colorado looked at 124,000 births between 1996 to 2009. It found that newborns living within 10 miles of fracking sites had a 30% greater chance of experiencing congenital heart defects. There were similar issues with newborns living near the Marcellus Shale in Western Pennsylvania. A study from Johns Hopkins University showed that there was a strong association between proximity to natural gas operations near the shale and preterm birth.

Study after study shows that natural gas operations have resulted in everything from water contamination to respiratory disease, to seismic activity. Due to the geographic nature of fracking, rural communities disproportionately become victims of these harmful consequences. Fracking, however, is one of many factors compromising rural America’s quality of health.

Agriculture has long been a staple of rural American identity. Despite its continual role in rural economies, agricultural techniques have not remained static over time.

Instead, agro-industrialization has changed farming from

Chemicals that leach out of superfund sites can enter the estuaries that provide water to rural communities. Photo courtesy of the Office of Response and Restoration a subsistence affair run by single families all the way to a large-scale corporate operation, complete with expensive machinery and potent chemicals.

The chemical intensive nature of modern agriculture has lead to concern about the health effects of many common fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.

Groundwater contamination has been especially pervasive in rural households. While urban areas receive 100% of their water through filtered municipal sources, only 30% of rural areas use that same water supply. The rest of the water comes from private wells, which do not go through the same treatment process. This leaves well users more susceptible to groundwater contamination, unless they spend the thousands of dollars on installing their own filtration system. As a result, 2.4% of rural domestic wells have nitrate concentrations above recommended advisory levels. In Iowa, that number has reached as high as 18%.

From a public health perspective, excessive nitrate levels are a major threat, particularly for newborns and infants.

Multiple studies have shown a relationship between high nitrate concentration and an increased prevalence of babies with methemoglobinemia, a disease which reduces one’s ability to carry oxygen in their blood.

Equally problematic is the continued use of Atrazine, the second most common herbicide in America. The chemical, which has been banned in Europe, has been found in trace amounts in 94% of USDA water samples. Both laboratory tests and epidemiological studies have shown that this common chemical is a major health hazard. A University of Washington, Seattle study reviewed 3,606 birth records, showing that birth defects were more common amongst

infants who resided within 25 kilometers of areas of high atrazine concentration. Another study from the Indiana University School of Medicine showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between proximity to agricultural crops and an increase in limb deformities and neural-developmental defects amongst infants.

The case against industrial agriculture has been spelled out for America. The health effects of the chemical intensive practice are dire, and there is simply not enough invested in the enforcement of water quality provisions to prevent chemical residue from leaching into rural groundwater supply.

As this story has been told, industrial agriculture is just one chapter in a long tale of rural America’s subservience to the rest of the nation. The estimated 23 billion pounds of fracking chemicals, the 10% of Appalachian forest destroyed through mountaintop removal and the consequent release of dangerous chemicals trapped in the mountains, as well as the 60 million hogs in concentrated feed lots creating waste that leaches into groundwater, are all antagonists in this centuries old narrative of what political activist Michael Harrington describes as how this group is “slipping out of the very experience and consciousness of the nation.”

The nearly 60 million Americans that call rural America their home are the victims in this tale. The broad gap in medical outcomes is more than enough to prove the inequities between themselves and their urban peers.

Going forward, how policymakers solve this problem will determine whether the rural-urban gap in healthcare in America can be bridged.

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Autism: Disease or Diversity?

BY MORGAN WHITE

The terms “neurotypicality” and “neurodiversity” have been hot topics in the clinical psychiatric community, but what do they mean, and why are they being put in contrast with each other? Neurotypicality does not have a specified set of traits. It simply entails that you have not been diagnosed with an intellectual or developmental “challenge” (1). People who are neurotypical are considered to have the “standard” psychological and physiological composition.

They are said to set expectations for aspects such as behavior, social interaction, and physical development (1). Many people who have traits that differ from these norms have created the Neurodiversity Movement, which challenges the notion of neurotypicality altogether. Those who are a part of this movement believe that conditions such as autism, A.D.H.D./A.D.D., and dyslexia should not be considered disorders, such as those lying on the extreme end of neurotypical (NT) spectrum, but rather alternative forms of wiring with their own benefits and drawbacks (5).

Members of this movement are generally opposed to the development of a cure for autism because, as many argue, autism has become a part of the human condition through helping people find a community of others with their same neurological condition (2). Though the reclassification of autism as a form of neurodiversity instead of a disease may help some, especially those with higher levels of functioning, those with lower levels of functioning may actually be hindered by this because they may be denied the resources they need to maintain a normal quality of life.

impacting the entire family or the child’s future, they need to put their children through intensive behavioral therapy (4). The notion of autism as a disease indicates that there is a cure that can purge our society of this condition (3).

Many NT individuals, especially NT parents who have children with autism, have not embraced the concept of neurodiversity (13). They often feel that autism is an “unfortunate fate,” as the disorder is seen as an unwanted large-scale spread of pathology in bodies and minds. (3).

Others argue that refusing to treat autism as a disorder can negatively impact the number of treatment options. Some parents believe that, to avoid the behavior of their child

that certain behaviors can be more

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Though the majority of the support for the neurodiversity model has come from the autistic community, some people with autism see it as a disorder because of its potential to cause significant limitations to one’s mental and physical abilities (13, 1). Others want to be accepted for who they are and the ways in which their behaviors differ from the norm.

They assert that they would benefit more from learning to use their autistic strengths to cope with their autistic impairments rather than pretending that the impairments can be “removed” by treatments such as applied behavioral analysis (A.B.A.), which they see as almost abusive methods of “training” children to repress their natural form of expression. Instead, advocates of neurodiversity claim that certain behaviors can be more easily-modulated if people made more of an effort to understand the cause of the behavior. The Neurodiversity Movement considers social traits, such as difficulty grasping humor or understanding facial cues, to require more effort on the part of society as a whole; it asks people to be more understanding and tolerant of the behaviors rather than trying to change the behaviors into ones that are more socially acceptable (4).

“...advocates of neurodiversity claim easily-modulated if people made more of an effort to understand the cause of the behavior.”

Illustration courtesy of Juliana Perdomo In order to begin to address the whether autism should be defined in terms of neurotypicality or neurodiversity, one must first understand the clinical standpoint on what a disorder is and how it differs from normal human functioning. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) takes into account a variety of factors in determining whether or not to classify something as a disorder. These factors include whether it reflects an underlying psychobiological cause (rather than being socially constructed) and whether the consequences significantly impact the quality of life of the individual.

Additionally, something classified as a disorder must not be solely a response to common stressors, losses, or a particular cultural event (6).

Autism is often seen as a singular spectrum of severity divided into two different categories: high- and lowfunctioning (8). The severity of the condition is generally dependent on measures of cognitive abilities, such as IQ or verbal ability (8).The writers of DSM-V have determined that autism is diagnosed by a variety of factors including persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction in multiple contexts and restricted, repetitive behavior patterns, interests, or activities. More specific symptoms associated with autism include being non-verbal (occurring in an estimated one-third of people with autism); tending to avoid eye contact; lack of expected facial, bodily, or other nonverbal expression; and self-injurious behaviors

such as head-banging, arm-biting, and skin-scratching (occurring in an estimated twenty-eight percent of children) (11, 12). People with autism are also reported as having an impairment in “theory of mind,� defined as the ability of the NT to attribute mental states to themselves, which is said to imply that people with autism do not develop a capacity for intellectual or emotional empathy (12).

These symptoms must present themselves during an early developmental period and must not be better explained by intellectual disabilities or global developmental delay (11).

People with low-functioning autism have been reported to have a greater number of more severe symptoms as well as a lower IQ compared to those with higher-functioning autism (9). It has been reported that those with highfunctioning autism tend to have normal non-verbal ability, stronger confrontation naming and written language skills but worse self-organization of connected speech, poor pragmatic and impaired socialization, and inadequate language comprehension skills compared to NT children (10). Because of the amount of resources needed by those with low-functioning autism, it would be a disadvantage for them if low-functioning autism were not labeled as a disorder. Therefore, the neurodiversity movement should narrow their lens to focus specifically on getting high-functioning autism recategorized into a form of neurodiversity at this time.

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 25

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CERAMICS AND SUPERCONDUCTORS

BY ANDREW IZZO Photos courtesy of Adam Duell A small pile of dark red clay shavings builds up next to senior Adam Duell as he talks to me. “A superconductor is any material that allows electrons to freely move through it,” he begins, continuing to hollow out the interior of a bowl he’s working on.

In other words, superconductors are materials that have zero electrical resistance and expel magnetic fields when cooled below a critical temperature (1). Superconductors are used in everything from super fast circuits to highspeed maglev trains (2).

After developing the idea last semester, Duell started doing research on superconductors with senior Tom Daligault and Dr. Greg Elliott of the Physics department. Duell stumbled across a video of someone making superconductors in a lab, using a procedure written for high school students in the 1980s.

“I told Tom about it and said ‘Hey, did you know you can just make superconductors?’” As it turns out, Daligault knew of physics professor, Dr. Elliott, an experimental physicist who was in between research projects and might be interested.

Shortly after coming up with the idea, the pair of soon-tobe research partners were walking the halls of Thompson and crossed paths with Dr. Elliott. After a brief explanation of their project, Dr. Elliott and the new research team set up a meeting for the following week.

“Currently, the project is just to make the superconductor,” says Duell. Once the superconductor is made and tested, there are many different directions that could be taken.

The pair are creating the superconductor using slightly different base chemicals, but are still confident that their finished product will work as planned.

The goal of the project is to create a high-temperature superconductor, meaning that it will operate above extremely cold temperatures. That being said, the temperature needed to make this superconductor work is still so cold that it needs to be cooled with liquid nitrogen.

The superconductors that Duell and Daligault are making are actually ceramic, though the definition of ceramic is quite broad. Most people have images of ancient pottery

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Senior Adam Duell carving a bowl from clay. Photo courtesy of Andrew James Izzo. and fancy dishes when they think of ceramic, though something qualifies as “ceramic” if it is made from a nonmetallic, inorganic material (3).

The actual process of creating the superconductors isn’t something that requires decades of laboratory experience.

It primarily consists of grinding the correct ratio of starting materials into a fine powder, then baking them. “It’s also called the ‘Shake and Bake,’” Duell adds affectionately. The baking process is very similar to what happens in a pottery kiln, and at 950°C, it’s well within what the average nonsuperconducting ceramic can handle.

Duell has always been interested in pushing the envelope of ceramics; the bowl he’s working on is actually made from brick instead of a more traditional clay. “It’s purely because I like bricks,” Duell says, “I like the way they look and feel, and the different textures that they can show.” The test tiles that he made could have been chipped off the side of Thompson. Moving into superconducting ceramics seems almost like fate.

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The ceramic superconductor that is being made actually begins as a powder. The baking process turns it into a solid chunk of material. After several rounds of firing, the superconductor will be finished. Due to the nature of the material, the finished product won’t be malleable, meaning that it can’t be shaped in any way. “You can use it in fixed objects,” Duell elaborates, “like in a ring or something similar.”

The pile of shavings has doubled in size as Duell has been working on his bowl, pondering the future of superconductivity. “Graphite can be used as a superconductor,” Duell says, “and you can make a graphite clay.” Achieving superconductivity with new materials is a very careful balance of dozens of factors. But who knows?

The field of superconductors is ever-expanding, and ceramicists are brimming with creativity.

Mitochondria: A Powerhouse, or a Friend?

To my cells, She’s both.

-Izzo

Mol biology A study in coffee and sleep Life is a balance -Anneke

The Thompson Printer Do not believe it can help It will betray you -Izzo

It’s raining today.

Nothing will stop the Field Lab I am very wet -Izzo

My chemistry class Four days, each week, one full hour Deprived me of life -Finn

WELCOME TO

THE ALLIUM (HAIKU EDITION!)

Oh no, not again My reaction boiled dry What shall I tell Luc -Noah

A pipette, in lab After many long, long hours A new microphone -Anneke

Pipette, small and blue You squeak - but I still love you My thumb is so strong -Anneke Science, I love you But not enough to take labs.

STS it is!

-Annelise

A Lab? Or My Home?

So many hours in here I don’t know anymore -Izzo

What are drying salts Eric Scharrer - a liquid, How can it be dry?

-Anneke

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COSMOPOLITAN NERD HOT TIP: Flirt with your crush by filling up their beakers to 69 milliliters!

t s e b r sm u Yo ani T YE org Ca alk n yo a- u sp lia r? ot an

Is he actually that big or is it just your 30 | ELEMENTS microscope?

Sum almo mer is st he re, so sh your ow off BUN s Burn en ers

a t e g o t w n i Ho d o b g n i K 1 C 0 1 O R O E G r o f e m ti

LOVE IN THE TIME OF GE0 101

BY ROSE PYTTE

I love you like garnet pyroxene amphibole biotite muscovite quartz in that order, baby ‘cause your melting temp is high ‘cause you’re strong and subtle ‘cause you stick things out.

And if you were the mantle then I’d be the dike that cuts through your layers complementing your sills in all my perpendicularity spilling out way above.

And ever since we met you’ve gotten to me plutonically

― deep

― down

― in my magma chambers you drew up my hot rock melting mantle and crust sending fracture injections up up until my happiness spurted out a low-viscosity kind of spray ― Basalt.

At times, I even rose provoked by your oceanic subduction under my continental crust ―tectonic― to form a stratovolcano explosive with viscous lava blowing off my top with a boom of ash pyroclastics became a caldera.

But then it rained and you were some of that rain which cooly filled my introverted top.

Okay, too many metaphors-but honestly, how else could I tell you this?

How else could I tell you that you are the reliable flashcard to my unreliable geology knowledge that you are the procrastination to my Monday night that you are the beautiful little eruption in the often barren batholith of my week, ‘cause that’s exactly what I mean.

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 31

Innovation in the Field of Aroma-Based Smallpox Treatment

BY FINN DOBKIN

Researchers from the Institute for Alternative Healing (IAH) recently released a paper studying the effectiveness of alternative vaccines. In the paper, they found that the most effective treatment against smallpox is not in fact the ACAM2000 vaccine. Instead, the results show that lavender essential oil, when administered via aromatherapy, is 90% more effective at treating the disease.

The study, which involved over 19 participants (a record for an alternative medicine study), was funded with a $400 grant raised through GoFundMe and Craigslist. Stationed out of lead researcher Dr. Harold R. Smithers’ basement, study participants were infected with the virus and studied over a three-day period. The control group was given the standard ACAM2000 vaccine, which was microwaved prior to the study in order to ensure the vaccine’s effectiveness.

The group given the lavender essential oils received a virally-inert strain of the virus in order to ensure the safety of the participants.

Summarizing the team’s findings, Dr. Smithers stated that “the pleasant smell of lavender triggers receptors in the limbic system of the brain. These receptors are responsible for controlling your emotions. When triggered, the responding decrease in stress eliminates the smallpox virus.” Graduate Research Assistant Laura Thompson agrees. Having spent the last two years of her Ecospirituality Ph.D. research focusing on the intersection of herbal medicine and spiritual wellness, Thompson said, “Aromatherapy is to the 21st century as Penicillin was to the 20th century.”

Excitement about the findings has not been isolated to leading holistic healing institutions and utopian communes.

New Zealand-based Metaphysical Health Research Center

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(MHRC) shared in the excitement of the findings, claiming “the metaphysical possibilities for augmenting the natural cycles of the body through aromatherapy will without a doubt maximize the qi of the user.” Qi-based therapies are not new, but taking the best parts of Eastern medicine and applying them to solve the West’s problems is currently the cutting edge of this research.

Though the findings have been labeled as “revolutionary” by the lead alternative healing researchers, the National Health Minds Institute (NHMI) insists that people must use these results with caution. Citing a 2003 study from the Council for Holistic Wellness Services (CHWS), NHMI insists that peppermint essential oil may be a more effective treatment for smallpox. Nevertheless, scientists from the NHMI and CHWS alike both hold praise for the work of IAH for advancing the message of the dangers of Western biomedicine and the promise of essential oils as the medicine of the future.

While Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval is still pending, researchers are confident that the treatment will be available within the next year. “I am confident that, particularly under the current presidential administration, alternative, low-cost treatments such as aromatherapy will not only gain approval from the FDA but will also significantly lower healthcare costs for everyday Americans,” Dr. Smithers announced at the annual Alternative Health Conference (sponsored by Pfizer), “We don’t need fancy MRI equipment or wacky vaccines to obtain the same health benefits that we can get from herbal treatments. This is why American healthcare is so expensive.”

Images p. 31-32 from pixabay.com

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Back cover photo courtesy of Noah Dillon

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