Issue 28

ELEMENTS A MAGAZINE FOR SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND

ISSUE 28 - SPRING 2021

LIQUID CRYSTALS

ANCIENT FOOTPRINTS

“Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience.

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

-CARL SAGAN, 1994

Cover image courtesy of Bismikado, A Second View of the Sound

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).

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR It’s springtime! The sun is starting to shine (sometimes) and temperatures are starting to rise above 45 degrees (occasionally,) and we’re… still in Zoom University. Still spitting in tubes twice a week. Still possessing only a fraction of our senses of time and connection to others. This semester has absolutely FLOWN by for me, in part because in many ways it still feels like we’re back in the fall, even back in last spring, when campus shut down and everything changed. It’s been strange, reconciling the fact that the day-today is largely the same with the reality of how much has happened in just one calendar year.

And now we have the change of a set of vaccines that are available like never before. Hopefully by the time you’re reading this you and I and yours and mine will have the added safety of some antibodies that took a herculean effort to produce and distribute. Hopefully we’ll be reading headlines that say anything besides “The U.S. is now in its ____ wave of Covid.” Hopefully we’ll have hugged a friend or family member without fear. It kind of feels naive to hope, after all we’ve been through and in the face of what more we’ll have to trudge through, but as the buds begin to bloom and the birds start to chirp it’s starting to feel a little easier to try, on the best days.

This senior year of mine has really given new meaning to “giving it the old college try.” I have a new value and respect for my effort and the effort of others, for getting up and putting whatever energy you can muster into even just one task for the day. From screen fatigue to soul-sapping midterms and thesis work, being able to try is starting to look more and more like a gift. There’s a lot I’d like to forget about this time in my life, but that new perspective on how much it means to just try is not on the list.

In this issue, I see the themes of reflection and looking forward. We have pieces discussing the effects of pollution and algal treatments, and pondering on how we treat childbirth and plastic waste. We have the results of long-term research projects, and old assignments turned into art. But we also have questions, curiosities, future work to be done. Paths tracing where we’ve been, and probes into where we could go. Let’s dare to hope that we’re heading towards better times, and on the good sunny days, let’s dare to try to make the times better ourselves.

Good health and rest to you,

Lexus Sullivan Editor-in-Chief

STAFF

Art courtesy of Pauline Peterson

Helena Heyer-Grey ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Rachael Stegmaier

Ella Hampson

DESIGN EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Lexus Sullivan EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Anna Dupont

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Anna Edmunds COPY EDITOR

Beatrice Bugos

OUTREACH MANAGER

Zoe Brinner

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 5

In this Issue 7

Living & Learning through Liquid Crystals

Maiya Pacleb

10

Modeling Support for the Democratic Party in

Greta Scheve

California 12

Acorn and Deer Scapula

Bismikado

13

The Impacts of Alum Treatment on Waughop Lake,

Colin Glaze

Pierce County 15

White Supremacy in the Port of Tacoma: An

Anna Dupont

Environmental and Social Perspective 17

Collection of Photography

Diego Seira Silva-Herzog

19

Interview with Dr. Cara Frankenfeld, Director of the

Anna Edmunds

New Masters of Public Health Program 21

DMN… It’s All Connected, Man: How the Default Mode

Sarah Nasson

Network Can Help Us Understand Consciousness 24

Endicott Arm

Belinda Garrow

25

The Perpetual Plastic Puzzle

Kerry Miller

28

View of the Sound

Bismikado

29

Ethicality of Child Birthing Practices: Using Medically

Maiya Pacleb

Justifiable Caesarean Sections 33

Footprints in the Mud: The Search for 23 Million Year

Whitney Worrell

Old Mammal Tracks 35

Block Diagrams

Lexus Sullivan

36

Slater Web Piece Plug

Staff

37

Allium

Staff

38

CosmoNerd

Photography by Bird Hudson

39

Elements Missed Connections

Staff

40

Zoom Bingo

Zoe Brinner

41

Citations

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LIVING & LEARNING THROUGH LIQUID CRYSTALS

BY MAIYA PACLEB

In the first week of March 2020, I submitted my application and proposal for summer research at the university with my mentor Dr. Eric Scharrer. What we didn’t know is that, just about a week later, our world was going to be altered completely. With our world facing the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were doubts about what would constitute our everyday way of living. Soon, us students, along with our professors and faculty, were forced to face the hardships of virtual learning. Little did I know when I applied for summer research that I, as well as billions of people across the world, would have to rely upon the very things that I was studying—liquid crystals.

So, what are liquid crystals (LCs), and why are we dependent on them? Think of your three phases of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. To transition between these phases of matter, you must overcome intermolecular interactions that exist between each molecule to push it into disorder.

The amount of disorder ultimately determines the phase of matter. Between solid and liquid phases exists a discrete phase of matter that only some compounds can achieve, and these are classified as LCs. Because of this intermediate state of order LC molecules possess, they are pliable through application of an electric field. Through this malleable property, LC are able to interact with light differently to reflect visual images. The reorientation, or “switching,” of these molecules through electric manipulation and its interaction with light makes up what we know as Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology. You probably have seen this widely used in computers, phones, calculators, and televisions. Therefore, LCs makeup how we are able to see anything on the screen, and how we have continued to learn (as best we can) virtually through a pandemic.

ABOVE: Phase transition by temperature, going from solid phase to liquid crystal phase to the isotropic (liquid) phase However, this LC technology is far from perfect, and research is pushing to reach an optimized display method that would enhance quality and performance. LCD is primarily made up of single major-director containing LC compounds, called the uniaxial nematic (Nu) phase (1).

This single major-director can be thought of as an axis that is maintained individually in each LC molecule, and further contributes to a large axis of orientation for a collective group of LC molecules. The nematic phase itself is valuable because there is no specific arrangement of the collective group of LC molecules, so the shape of the LC sample is pliable. Additionally, all of these LC molecules happen to be oriented simultaneously in the same direction. The Nu phase inherently provides properties that make it convenient to work with in display applications. Their disadvantage, simply put, is that these Nu compounds, both individually and collectively, have a large axis that only directs the compounds in one direction. To achieve reorientation or switching of this single director axis, it takes a lot more time and energy. So, what we really want is to attain a nematic phase that can switch quickly for display applications,

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taking less energy and providing better visuals. There are more efficient nematic phases of these compounds that can be achieved, namely the biaxial nematic (Nb) phase. The Nb phase contains a minor, shorter, perpendicular director that would allow for faster switching. However, these Nb exhibiting LC compounds consistently prove to be elusive.

The Nb phase, first observed in 1,3,4-oxadiazole core LC compounds, was only accessible at temperatures of over 200℃, which is clearly not suitable for use in our everyday devices (3).

ABOVE: Schematic of Nu and Nb phases, with arrows displaying directors of a group LC molecules (2). The blue arrow represents the major director of the LC molecules in both the Nu and Nb phase. The orange arrow represents the minor, smaller, perpendicular director that is favorable in Nb phases for enhanced display properties.

The purpose of my research was to synthesize and study the phase behavior of three structurally similar nitro-containing 1,3,4-oxadiazole core LCs. The addition of the nitro group (NO2) was important to gaining an understanding of how certain structural elements would alter the interaction of the LC molecules, and possibly allow different phase properties. Then, one element of the structure in each LC derivative, namely the long carbon chains (depicted as R) in the “wings’’ of the compounds, were varied in length. This small structural change would allow our lab to analyze the similarities and differences in the phase behavior that these LC compounds possessed.

Ultimately, this structure-behavior analysis would provide more information about the phase properties of LC derivatives, which could provide LC candidates for improved displays. We were specifically searching for a low temperature nematic phase (Nb if possible), which would be applicable for excelled displays and broader technological application. Although this project was heavy in organic synthesis that seemed straightforward, it was a tedious procedure. The synthetic timeline requires about a month to synthesize one testable, and pure, oxadiazole compound.

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Along with chemical synthesis, we utilized methods like nuclear magnetic spectroscopy (NMR), polarizing microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry to test the integrity of our synthetic efforts. In the end, I created three LC compounds that were stunning and lively under the polarizing microscope.

ABOVE: Structure of nitro-containing 1,3,4-oxadiazole core LC molecule. Distinct sections of the molecule are labelled as oxadiazole core and terminal alkyl “wings.”

The nitro, rooting from the core of the compound, is depicted by NO2. The R on the edge of each “wing” is the structural element that was altered for each synthetic procedure, specifically carbon (alkyl) chains, varied from chain lengths of C5 to C7.

After completing my summer of research and continuing to work with Dr. Scharrer into the still virtual school year, I was fortunate enough to receive a nomination for giving an oral presentation for the physical sciences at the 29th annual Murdock College Science Research (MCSR) Conference. The MCSR Conference encompasses presentations from undergraduate student researchers in various scientific disciplines from private undergraduate institutions within the Pacific Northwest, encompassing Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. Though normally this conference would have constituted traveling, with the pandemic persisting into the fall, it was clear that the conference was going to be limited to a virtual format.

Not only was I going to be presenting at a regional research conference, but I was going to be doing it through a screen.

It was definitely nerve-racking—how do I know if I am making sense if I can’t see anyone’s reactions? How do I engage the audience when I know none of us would love it more than if we could just step away from the screen?

Knowing I already committed myself to the opportunity, there was nothing I could do but practice and hope for the best when my time came. Dr. Scharrer and I met multiple times a week, in the lab and over Zoom, to work through my presentation, understanding,

and to practice. When the conference day finally arrived, the top presenters for the physical sciences (as there were I was shocked when I was introduced by the pioneer of so many amazing presenters). It was a complete shock, LC research, Peter Collings (fun aside: his book on liquid but I am so thankful for the support that Dr. Scharrer, as crystals was right next to me on my desk when I made the well as the MCSR conference cohort showed me during my connection). As for the presentation, it was a blur. I know time at the conference. For it being my first ever research that I was nervous, sweating, and almost got tripped up on conference, along with the added challenge of it being some of my words, but finishing felt so relieving. I was also virtual, it was completely worth the stress, effort, and time. subjected to various questions from conference attendees, From my experience as an undergraduate researcher ranging from professors to other students, that put my and presenter at the MCSR conference, I learned that it is research knowledge on the spot. After listening to the rest still possible to achieve what you put your mind to, even of the presentations that day, I didn’t think when facing unparalleled circumstances. much about the quality of my presentation “I learned that it is still As for now, currently passing a year of or how I answered questions—rather, I virtual learning, we have consistently possible to achieve felt pleased with having the courage to depended on the research of LCs that make turn on my camera and microphone to up the human connection that some of us what you put your speak. The next day during the awards can access today. Although being a virtual ceremony, I was completely taken aback mind to, even when student is not perfect by any means, I am when my name appeared on the screen thankful that my research has brought me facing unparalleled for the MCSR 2020 John Van Zytveld Award closer to the scientific community and has in the Physical Sciences. This award was pushed me to grow as an individual. I am circumstances..” given to the student researcher who was also very aware that my ability to conduct determined by the conference panelist to research this past summer during a pandemic put me in a give the best oral presentation. What the… No way? First privileged position, and I will never take it for granted. I off, I (naively) didn’t even know that the conference was will forever be grateful for the opportunities that learning judged and gave awards to students (Eric also kept this a about – and though – liquid crystals brought me. secret from me). Second, I did not think that I was even in

ABOVE: Polarizing microscope image of transition of the C5 derivative from liquid (isotropic) phase to nematic phase. The liquid phase is distinguished by the black, whereas the nematic phase appears colorful

Want to see Maiya’s liquid crystals in motion? Check out our special web content!

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Modeling Support for the Democratic Party in California

BY GRETA SCHEVE If someone asked you to explain the American political landscape, your first instinct would probably not be to dive into differential equations. But it turns out that differential equations can be used to model support for political parties, and they can be a useful tool to explain different trends over time. Every place has a unique social and economic environment ultimately shaping the political landscape.

At any given time, a maximum number of people will support a specific political party, also known as the carrying capacity of the party. In this piece, we can treat different socioeconomic characteristics of a population as different variables in order to build an equation for the carrying capacity of the Democratic Party in California. For the model we’ll look at, there are only two variables: the percentage of California voters with a bachelor’s degree or higher and the percentage of California voters who are veterans. While this article looks at the Democratic Party in California from 2000 to 2016, the same process could be applied to any political party over any time period (1).

First, we constructed an equation to represent the carrying capacity of the Democratic Party. Our function will look like

P* = c0 + c1S1 + c2S2 .

In this equation, S1 and S2 are the socioeconomic variables that we previously mentioned. We’ll let S1 be the percentage of California voters with a bachelor’s degree or higher and S2 be the percentage of California voters who are veterans. If the c coefficients have a high value, that means that the corresponding S variable has a bigger impact on the overall support of the Democratic Party in California.

The parameter c0 is the baseline carrying capacity, which means that the support for the party will never fall below this value. The table shows all of the values of each of the variables and coefficients for each general election from 2000 to 2016.

Using the carrying capacity function, we can construct a differential equation that uses the carrying capacity to predict whether support for the Democratic Party will go

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ABOVE: Socioeconomic variables and their coefficients in each election year (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) up or down over time. If support for the party is below the current carrying capacity, support would increase until the carrying capacity is reached. Similarly, if support for the party is above the carrying capacity, the party’s support would decrease until it reached the carrying capacity. We can solve the differential equation to get an equation that will tell us support for the Democratic Party in California at any given time between 2000 and 2016. This is a little harder than it looks, since the political climate is always changing.

Essentially, solving our equation is like trying to reach a target that is constantly changing. We can make this easier to solve by splitting up the time into 4 year increments, which is the time between each general election in California. The graph shows actual and modeled support for the Democratic Party in California over time. The start of the x-axis is the year 2000, and every increase in time by one corresponds to a four year election cycle. The y-axis shows support for the Democratic Party as a percentage, with 1.0 meaning 100 percent of California voters voted for the Democratic candidate.

One of the most important results we can take away from our model and the graph above is whether or not the Democratic Party has reached its carrying capacity. From 2000 to 2008 support for the party increased, suggesting that actual support for the party was below its carrying capacity in California. However, from 2008 to 2012 support for the party decreased, suggesting support was above the party’s carrying capacity. From 2012 to 2016 the slope of the solution curve switched back to being

positive, which means the carrying capacity had not been reached yet. This means that we can probably expect to see more support for the party if we look at data from the 2020 general election. In general, the changing slope of the graph over time suggests that either the carrying capacity has changed considerably over this 16 year period or the Democratic Party is very good at attracting short term support that is not sustainable over the long term. This might be the case if there were certain controversial issues on the ballot during a particular election cycle that caused a lot of people to vote Democratic that normally would not. Interestingly, the Democratic Party appeared to have gained more support than their carrying capacity from 2004 to 2008. This is in part likely due to the historic candidacy of Barack Obama, which turned out record numbers of voters. This trend started to correct itself from 2008 to 2012, but support either dropped lower than the carrying capacity or the carrying capacity increased between 2008 and 2012. This led to an increase in support yet again. One potential explanation for the dip in support in 2012 could be that there was an incumbent democratic president, which may have led to reduced voter turnout. A shifting carrying capacity means that the socioeconomic environment of California is also changing.

that the carrying capacity of the Democratic Party in California increased from 2000 to 2004, and then fell again in 2008.

Additionally, in every year the c1 coefficients are considerably larger than the c2 coefficients, which means it is likely that being a college graduate is a much stronger indicator of support for the Democratic Party in California than being a veteran.

While we’ve only looked at how two socioeconomic variables influence support for the Democratic Party, there are infinitely many different variables that could be factored into the carrying capacity of a political party at any given time. These could include things like income level, which sector someone works in, or their age, to name a few. This model is especially useful because it can be adapted to virtually any political party. Even if differential equations can’t completely explain the changes in the American political landscape over the last 20 years, they can shed a little more light on these important political trends.

Another important result from our model can be seen if we look a little closer at the values of the c coefficients from our carrying capacity function. Looking at the c0 coefficient, we can see that there was a big jump in 2004 and then a jump back down in 2008. The c0 coefficient represents the baseline carrying capacity of the party without taking into account any socioeconomic variables, so this jump supports the conclusion

ABOVE: Modeled and actual support of the Democratic Party in California over four election cycles

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Acorn and Deer Scapula

BY BISMIKADO

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The Impacts of Alum Treatment on Waughop Lake, Pierce County

BY COLIN GLAZE

Some 12 thousand years ago, receding glaciers gouged and carved the Puget Sound landscape as Earth left its latest ice age. Ice blocks left behind during the retreat eventually melted and left depressions in the ground, called kettle lakes for their resemblance to filled pots of water. Waughop Lake, a small body of water located in Fort Steilacoom Park, Lakewood, is one of many of these in kettles in Washington, but it has a very scummy problem.

Waughop is a very peaceful lake, where many people come to walk with friends or to set up fishing stations on the beach to try for trout. Unfortunately, the lake has been struggling with hazardous algal blooms (HABs) for many years, and is therefore unsafe for swimming or drinking (a real worry for pet owners).

HABs are caused by elevated levels of nutrients in the lake.

The lake has no substantial inflows or outflows other than storm water runoff and percolation of groundwater around the lake.

Therefore, problems like elevated nutrients that arise stay in the lake for much longer than other lakes with outflows.While they can form naturally, HABs are often initiated or exaggerated by anthropogenic sources, which is the case at Waughop.

BELOW: “Waughop Lake” by B.D.’s World, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (1)

ABOVE: Example of an algal bloom.

The history of Waughop Lake has been bumpy and, until recently, it was treated less like a lake and more like a waste lagoon. From 1870 until 1965 there was a hog farm located near the lake, and many of the buildings still remain. During this period of time, all animal and human waste from the farm was dumped directly into the lake, and there was even a slaughterhouse over one corner of the lake with a grated floor to allow blood and other animal products to fall easily into the water. While this practice has since been discontinued, the negative impact of humans on the lake has not stopped there. In more recent years, it was discovered that a sewage pipe from the nearby Pierce College had broken and the waste from the campus was running directly into the lake. Together, these events have thrown the nutrient levels in the lake out of balance and have fueled the HABs, which seem to get larger and larger each year.

In the summer of 2020, the City of Lakewood hired a company to apply a treatment of aluminum sulfate (alum) to the lake in the hopes of stopping the algal blooms. Alum works by binding the aluminum to free phosphorus in the lake. With the phosphorus bound to the aluminum, it is no longer free to fuel the algal blooms and thus the alum cuts off the HAB cycle. In order to do this effectively, 21,477 gallons of aluminum sulfate were

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added to the lake. This is a lot of alum, which means a lot of sulfur.

Once the aluminum in the alum binds with the phosphorus in the lake, the sulfur, having no other purpose, is left free in the lake. Since there is no outflow from Waughop, there is no way for the excess sulfur to leave the system.

The data collected about sulfur, on the other hand, were very interesting.

We found that after the addition of the alum, sulfur concentrations increased by over fifteen times in the pore water, and by over 60 times in the water column.

This large increase in sulfur has appeared to have had very negative effects on the lake, including the disappearance of all the lakebed plants. A GoPro video taken of the lakebed ABOVE: “Farm at Fort Steilacoom Park” by Jett Brooks, licensed revealed that there were no under CC BY 2.0 (2) longer plants in sight, and the bottom of the lake looked completely bare. regular lakewater samples from before

Over the summer of 2020, Professor Jeff Tepper and I spent just under ten weeks monitoring the lake. For comparison, we collected and after the alum application at one and two meter depths. Other field methods included profiling the water column with an Insitu sonde (a device that can transmit data such as temperature and pH from underwater), taking onsite sulfide concentrations with a portable spectrophotometer, and coring samples of the lake sediment. In the lab we extracted pore water from the cores at two centimeter intervals and analyzed them for elemental composition.

Specifically we looked for aluminum, iron, copper, and of course, sulfur. We also analyzed the samples for phosphorus, but the method we utilized is not very accurate for recording phosphorus levels, so those data are inconclusive.

ABOVE: Levels of sulfide in Waughop pore water with depth. Note that after alum treatment (orange line) sulfide levels in the shallow lake bed subsurface spiked well above the threshold at which plants can survive.

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That being said, the idea that this destruction is an effect of the sulfur is only speculation, as we did not collect more specific data on the effects of sulfur on plant life. Due to these findings, this upcoming summer Jeff and I will be conducting more follow up research at Waughop to determine what exactly has happened to the sulfur, and how it affects the lake. Hopefully this continued research will shed some light on the full effects of alum treatment, and help revive this little lake so that everyone, including pets, can enjoy it.

ABOVE: Sulfur concentrations in Waughop lake water over time. Levels increased significantly post-alum treatment.

I

f you’re driving on I-5 past the Port of Tacoma at night, you’ll see that it makes up many of the city lights that are part of the Tacoma skyline. If you ever smell the “Tacoma Aroma,” you’re experiencing the environmental effects of the Port’s industrial activity.

As students at UPS, we live and study on land taken from the Puyallup Tribe, who lived off of the shoreline and surrounding forests of the South Puget Sound. Industrial development inhibited Native uses of the land such as fishing and destroyed an important estuarine habitat.

The Port was declared a Superfund site in the 1980s after incredibly toxic levels of pollutants were found in marine life and the environment. However, Indigenous-led resistance spurred many environmental policy changes in the Port, and the Puyallup Tribe is a leading voice in environmental politics today. The Northwest Detention Center, a private detention facility operated by ICE, is also located in the Port. The inhumane detaining of immigrants on polluted and stolen land highlights the complexity of the industrial development of the Port. Only a few miles

from our campus, the Port of Tacoma has undergone a dramatic environmental transformation as a result of settler colonialism and white supremacy. When we are given the opportunity to learn at Puget Sound, it is critical to understand the history of Tacoma and how it affects our community now.

Pre-white settlement, the tide flats surrounding the confluence of the Puyallup River and Commencement Bay formed a habitat extremely important to marine and terrestrial life. As an estuary (where a freshwater source meets the ocean), the tide flats supported mergansers (a riparian indicator species), beavers (a keystone species), and prodigious runs of salmon (1). In the surrounding lands, old-growth forests were capable of supporting elk, an indicator species of forest health. The waterfront and

BELOW: Aerial photo of the Port of Tacoma, with the University of Puget Sound (upper mark) and Northwest Detention Center (lower mark) indicated. Photographed

by Derrick Coetzee, July 2012

White Supremacy in the Port of Tacoma: An Environmental and Social Perspective

BY ANNA DUPONT

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surrounding lands were home to the Puyallup and Nisqually Tribes, who fished on the bay (1). White settlements such as Fort Nisqually were constructed in the early 1800s, and industrial development of the tide flats began when a sawmill was constructed on Commencement Bay in the 1850s (1). At the end of 1854, Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens negotiated the 1854 Treaty of Medicine Creek with local tribes including the Puyallup and Nisqually (2). This treaty ceded significant amounts of Native lands and rights to the government, but did guarantee their right to fish on their ancestral lands (3). Through further legislative manipulation, the US government forcibly removed Indians from prime real estate on the bay, which was then extensively dredged and remodeled for the needs of international maritime trade.

The effects of pollution and physical disturbance to the estuary began to affect the health of wildlife, and logging eradicated the old-growth stands around the tide flats.

Although the Puyallup tribe suffered from the loss of land sovereignty, they continued to advocate for the protection of the remaining tide flats. In the 20th century, fish-ins were a form of Native resistance to being legally banned from fishing on their usual lands. Puyallup, Nisqually, and Muckleshoot Tribe members were arrested and beaten by wardens, but continued to practice their right to fish on the bay. After decades of protest, they reaffirmed their right to fish in the 1974 Boldt Decision, in which Judge Boldt ruled that the tribes had a right to fishing grounds promised to them in the Treaty of Medicine Creek (1). The Puyallup Tribe won other suits against the state and federal governments for the breaching of treaties and demanded restoration efforts on the tide flats, which were unbelievably polluted by the 1970s, and used settlement funds to create social programs for their tribe (1). Commencement Bay was declared an EPA Superfund site in 1981 due to severe industrial pollution, including arsenic and lead, PCBs, and a benzene plume (1). While cleanup efforts proved somewhat effective, there are still above-average levels of heavy metal pollution in the South Puget Sound, highly concentrated in the North End of Tacoma and south Vashon Island. In recent years, the Puyallup Tribe has continued to lead the way for environmental justice in the Port of Tacoma, including working

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ABOVE: Birdseye view of Tacoma, 1892. with the #NoLNG253 movement to protest the construction of a Liquefied Natural Gas complex on Commencement Bay. The Northwest Detention Center opened in 2004 in the Port of Tacoma under US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but is privately contracted to the GEO Group.

There is a long history of human rights violations at the facility, where detainees are held indefinitely in terrible conditions. From an environmental justice perspective, detainees are also living on land so polluted it is not residentially zoned (3). When correctional facilities are located near Superfund or other polluted sites, they disproportionately harm the health of queer people and people of color, who are most targeted by the criminal justice system (4).The tide flats in the Port are also at significantly higher flood risk than the rest of Tacoma in the case of an earthquake (5). While Washington State has since passed legislation preventing new correctional and detention facilities from being constructed in the Port, they still refuse to actually shut down the detention center.

The abolitionist collective La Resistencia has organized to demand a complete shutdown of the NWDC and the release of all detainees. They lead extremely important work and are one of many local initiatives to improve the future of the Port of Tacoma. Despite its violent history of white supremacist pollution, La Resistencia, the Puyallup Tribe, and other types of social collectives are bringing justice to the development of the Port of Tacoma.

LEFT: Resources to learn more & get involved.

Collection of Photography

BY DIEGO SEIRA SILVA-HERZOG

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INTERVIEW WITH DR. CARA FRANKENFELD,

Director of the new Masters of Public Health Program

BY ANNA EDMUNDS

There is no doubt public health has risen to the forefront of our minds amidst the coronavirus pandemic, persistent inequalities in health care, and the growing environmental threats. These challenges require an interdisciplinary approach prioritizing the well-being of entire communities and drawing upon the expertise of diverse thinkers. The University of Puget Sound recently announced a new Master’s of Public Health Program to rise to these challenges. Elements Magazine had the opportunity to engage in the following conversation with Dr. Cara Frankenfeld, the director of this new program officially launching in the Fall of 2021.

What was your and the university’s motivation for launching a public health program?

The university developed the MPH program with goals of aligning with existing community- and service-centered graduate programs on campus, responding to student interest for public health-related curricular content, and meeting a regional need for quality public health care through well-trained professionals.

and social influences contribute to health and health inequities in populations; compare causes of morbidity and mortality across economically and geographically different world regions; develop culturally appropriate strategies to improve health and minimize disparities in populations; synthesize data and literature to identify health disparities in populations; and, demonstrate high-quality writing for public health-related audiences.

What are some characteristics of this program prospective students should be aware of? What could a student expect?

What are the characteristics of a successful candidate for this program? Are you seeking specific undergraduate backgrounds?

The program aligns with Puget Sound’s institutional mission and philosophies about fostering critical thinking, apt expression, social justice, and community engagement.

Students can expect to have the opportunity to engage with faculty experts in public health in small classroom settings and will complete experiential learning in the form of an internship that aligns with each students’ career goals.

What makes this program unique from other public health programs? Are there aspects you are particularly excited about?

The Puget Sound program has particular focus on social justice, and students who graduate from the program are expected to be able to: evaluate how environmental

Public health focuses on influencing health at a population level, and people who like to think about population-level and systems-level solutions to problems will be successful. Successful students can also enjoy working with diverse populations and can integrate information across a variety of fields, such as math, science, sociology, communication, and ethics. Successful students can come from a variety of undergraduate backgrounds. Some students find it helpful to have taken courses in human biology or physiology and statistics at the undergraduate level, but these are not required for admission to the Puget Sound program.

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How is the field of public health similar and different from many other sciences?

Public health is focused on influencing health at the population level, which is different from clinical fields in which a professional is often working with a single individual at a time. Public health often requires an interdisciplinary approach in order to be successful.

For example, successful programs to reduce opiate use in communities often require successful collaboration across public health professionals, medical professionals, social services, and law enforcement.

Public health has been at the front of many of our minds this year. What are some ways the program or the field has shifted as a result of the pandemic?

The need for good communicators in public health has been highlighted in the past year. It is important to be able to develop clear messages that can be easily understood across a variety of audiences. The importance of systemlevel or policy-level interventions for public health has also been highlighted. For example, we can see that geographic regions that implemented stronger and swifter lockdown strategies with additional financial and social support to their citizens to stay home have been much better able to contain COVID19. The importance of cultural competence and interprofessional collaboration has also been highlighted. If people cannot pay their rent or put food on the table because their job has been lost, their top priority is getting a job, not infection control. Addressing this is an interdisciplinary challenge. COVID19 has also highlighted the stark realities of racial and social inequities in health.

What are some of your primary mechanisms for collecting data and conducting research? How does public health data affect the decisions being made around us? What are some of the many ways this research matters?

Data to inform public health is collected in a variety of ways. There are existing systems for data collection such as vital statistics to collect data on births and deaths, registries such as cancer registries, notifiable disease reporting for particular infectious diseases, and on-going surveys of health. Researchers can also develop new studies to test particular hypotheses. Data is used to inform decisions about policies or programs. For example, public health officials make recommendations about policies or guidelines about business openings and social interactions during a pandemic based on data about spread, incidence, and mortality of the disease. Politicians and policy

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makers then use these recommendations, along with recommendations from other parties, when implementing policies.

How do the fields of public and environmental health inform each other?

Environmental health is considered a subfield of public health, and is described as a discipline that looks at different factors in the environment and tries to understand the role of these environmental factors in the health of individuals and populations.

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 21

DMN… IT’S ALL CONNECTED, MAN:

How the default mode network can help us understand consciousness

BY SARAH NASSON Your brain activity never really stops. Unless you’re they are aware of themselves as engaging in (as opposed dead, that is. But even as ‘at rest’ activity declines in certain to consciousness, which occurs outside of our awareness regions, there are areas belonging to resting state networks and understanding). However, the awareness involved in in which activity actually increases. One of these networks metacognition lends itself to the ability to study ‘higheris the default mode network (DMN), comprised of three order’ states, which allows researchers to examine bigger major cortical brain regions: the dorsal medial prefrontal questions concerning mechanisms underlying conscious cortex (DMPC), ventral medial prefrontal awareness. This research highlighting cortex (VMPC), and the posterior cingulate “As the name “network” significant roles of the DMN in altered cortex (PCC). In 1997, researchers looking states of consciousness ultimately implies at the brain activity of people engaged suggests, the harmony that digging deeper into the mechanisms in goal-directed tasks were surprised underlying functional outcomes of its of the independent to find a decrease in the activity of this activity may give us a better understanding constellation of regions when attention nodes, or specific brain of the cognitive symptoms in a number of was shifted from these tasks to selfpsychopathologies. In turn, we may better referential thought. This characteristic regions, making up the understand the mechanisms underlying organization of the brain’s ongoing, effective treatments for them, particularly DMN is critical to its intrinsic activity was given its name in a alternative approaches like psychedelics.

2001 article by Raichle and colleagues: “A neural function.”

As the name “network” suggests, Default Mode of Brain Function”(1). the harmony of the independent nodes, Since 2001, research surrounding the DMN has skyrocketed in neurophysiology, cell biology, functional connectivity processes, the relationship between the DMN and disease states, mind-wandering, and self-referential processing among a multitude of other applications to psychology and behavior. Regardless of the subject matter, functions associated with the DMN’s activity always appear to revolve around some aspect of consciousness. Its activity has been linked to future-thinking and mind-wandering, self-referential judgments and metacognitive awareness, introspection and autobiographical memory (2,3,4). These functions also support a link between the DMN and metacognition, a process of thinking about one’s own cognition which

PREVIOUS PAGE: Art by Sarah Nasson 22 | ELEMENTS

or specific brain regions, making up the DMN is critical to its neural function. The coupled activity of these nodes is often described in terms of functional connectivity, or the temporal correlation of changes in the activity of a specific region (6). As such, deficits in the functions linked to DMN activity occur in contexts where the coupling of activity of DMN nodes or those of networks the DMN connects to is altered. For example, DMN dysfunction has been implicated in a number of psychological disorders including depression, ADHD, and schizophrenia. The failure of other brain networks to suppress the DMN during task performance has been correlated to metacognitive deficits observed in schizophrenia symptomatology as well as deficits in task performance in individuals with ADHD (3,5). Similarly, asynchronous activation of DMN nodes has

also been associated with rumination in individuals with depression (2).

Because the DMN is related to both psychopathologies and metacognition/ consciousness, understanding this link could open doors to alternative or novel treatments for conditions like mood disorders. It is no surprise then that alternative methods for treating psychopathologies like depression include meditation and psychedelics, the effects of which are also closely tied to DMN function. Associations of DMN nodes with one’s subjective sense of self has led to its characterization as “the neurobiological seat of the ego”, a title reinforced by evidence demonstrating its effective modulation by psychedelics like psilocybin and ketamine (4).

Ego dissolution is analogous to “ego death”, the experience of distortions to one’s subjective sense of “self ” or “ego”, in an experimental context (6). Research has found that under the influence of psilocybin, ego dissolution is correlated with decreased functional connectivity of the DMN, but also that the day after psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, connectivity of the DMN was actually enhanced (7, 8).

ABOVE: Artist’s rendition of the neural network.

In light of the DMN’s association with introspection, the suggestion that these results might correspond to a restructuring of one’s perspective, beliefs, view of the world, and even life narrative to in turn facilitate self-actualization appears substantiated. In this sense, while mainstream treatments for mood disorders such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) used as pharmaceutical antidepressants emphasize a mechanism of rebalancing neurotransmitters, psychedelics may offer the opportunity to figuratively and literally restructure your mind. The benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices are also tied to the promotion of metacognitive awareness (9).

The DMN and its functional connections with areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) considered ‘higher order’, such as the anterior and dorsolateral PFC, have been found to be altered by these mindfulness-based practices. This suggests that an interplay between the mind-wandering associated with DMN activity and metacognitive awareness associated with higher order PFC regions, such as that of internal states of the body, might be engaged by such practices (10).

By continuing to uncover neurobiological facets of the DMN that appear to differ among states of consciousness, from those induced by psychedelics to those that characterize episodes of mood disorder symptoms, the use of alternative methods to target pathologies featuring altered DMN function may garner more support.

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Endicott Arm

BY BELINDA GARROW

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The Perpetual Plastic Puzzle

BY KERRY MILLER

GRAPHICS BY TERRA PLUMB

Picture it – it is Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, and you have finally put the finishing touches on your Jacobson’s Catalyst report for organic chem, so you decide to take a nice, peaceful stroll down Owen’s Beach. The birds are singing, the Sound smells fresh – everything is as it should be. But then, out of the blue, it happens. An assault on your senses. The peace is shattered. A plastic water bottle on the beach? A discarded Chaco tangled in the seaweed? A vape pen laying smashed under a rock? What is going on?

molecules with repeating units called monomers (Fig. 1).

As seen in table 1, each of these common plastics have a different monomer, and that change is enough to give each plastic its own set of properties. But whatever their differences, for the most part they are pretty similar: they don’t dissolve in water, they are bendy, and all of them can be melted down and reshaped for recycling purposes.

However, melting down the plastic degrades its purity, and each piece of plastic can only be recycled so many times before it is too unstable to be used. Because of this, scientists have been looking for alternate ways of degrading existing plastics since the late 70s (2). There are now hundreds of new ways of recycling plastics, all with their pros and cons, and the research into them being used on an industrial scale continues.

Fig. 1: Structure of a polymer.

We have learned about the environmental harm that comes with littering since we were kids, and know that the solution lies in ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’, but with plastics, things aren’t all that simple. Most plastic made since the 1950s still exists today, polluting rivers and oceans and mucking up beaches and forests. Only about 10% of the plastic produced every year ends up getting recycled due to both chemical and economic difficulties (1). Luckily, scientists have been working hard the last few decades to come up with some solutions to this puzzle, and hopefully soon, we will be able to walk on the beach with no plastic in sight.

What is Plastic?

Have you ever picked up a plastic bottle and seen the recycle symbol on it with a number inside? Those numbers can tell you which type of plastic you have! There are 6 plastics that are most commonly used in consumer products (number 7 means “other”), and these six are most responsible for creating the bulk of the plastic waste in landfills and the ocean. But what is a plastic exactly?

Plastics are polymers. A polymer is a long chain of

Part 1: Re-ref ining Plastic is made from crude oil products, specifically naphtha (a mix of small carbon molecules). Depending on which hydrocarbon is used, a different plastic will form. In theory, another way of recycling plastic is to turn it back into these small hydrocarbons (polyethylene to ethene instead of ethene to polyethylene). There are a few ways this has been accomplished, the two most common are incinerating the plastic and converting the resulting gasses back into the starting reagents, or heating and pressurizing the plastic until the chains broke apart (4, 5). This takes an immense amount of energy and requires gas capture – a notoriously difficult process to perfect.

A plastic chain is very chemically stable and does not like to react with other chemicals, and a lot of heat is needed to break that stability. But if the plastic is simply burned (oxidizing the carbon-carbon bonds in the backbone), the resulting products will be CO2 and CO (along with solid carbon and water), which we do not want to be releasing.

If these gasses are captured, they can be converted to methanol and methyl chloride, which can be converted back into ethylene, but not very easily (Fig. 2). Breaking the chains with heat and pressure is not much better – so much heat has to be used (Fig. 3). Both of these processes

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Table 1: Although very similar, these common plastics vary slightly in some important qualities (3). are so expensive, and creating new plastic is pretty cheap.

Even if these processes were more efficient, there would be no economic incentive to use them. This area of research has not seen much progress, with more research devoted to inventing a plastic that could be recycled cyclically for far cheaper than any currently existing plastic (6).

Part 2: Biological degradation Hundreds of biological organisms have shown potential in their ability to degrade various types of plastic.

Plastic degrading bacteria make up the bulk of this research,

Figure 2: Cyclic recycling of polyethylene using incineration. All those catalysts and heat becomes expensive! Due to this (and the complexity of the process leading to loss of material) this is pretty much a theoretical process and is not used industrially (5, 7, 8, 9) 26 | ELEMENTS

but a number of fungi, insects, worms, and amoeba have also been observed eating away at plastics (10). Each species uses a slightly different pathway, and each plastic reacts slightly differently in different environments, making these organisms highly specific in the plastic they consume.

This specificity means that biological degradation of plastics is generally not thought to be feasible on an industrial scale, since most recycled plastics are mixed.

However, if the plastic degrading enzymes in these organisms are isolated, there is a chance that the process could be recreated outside the organism on a large scale, making this sort of research highly valuable to the recycling industry.

Most bacteria generally use the same process to degrade plastics, which is actually very similar to how humans break down fats! Because breaking the main chain into smaller carbon molecules is generally the most difficult part of plastic degradation, identifying the enzymes used for this process is usually the purpose of studying these organisms (10).

One of the more promising studies is that of the bacterium Ideonella Sakaiensis, identified in soil samples

Figure 3: Cyclic recycling of polyethylene using depolymerization. This process is more common than the incineration method, but because it is impossible to control where the polymer chain will break, much of the product is lost as random hydrocarbons that cannot reform plastic without additional steps and reagents. (4,5)

near landfills in Japan in 2016 (2). This bacterium uses a metabolic pathway very similar to many other species of bacteria, but given its location, seems to have evolved to be far more efficient at plastic metabolism than other related species. Since plastic is not a naturally occurring substance, it is likely that these bacteria adapted to the high abundance of plastic in their soil until they were able to live and grow on it as a sole energy source, while other bacteria are used to using smaller, more easily degraded carbon molecules. Ideonella Sakaiensis is specific to PET, one of the most common single use plastics. Due to its structure (containing more oxygen than other plastics), PET has seen more luck with biodegradability than most other plastics.

The two enzymes isolated from I. Sakaiensis are both hydrolases (Fig. 4). This combination of enzymes (PETase and MHETase) is the only process identified for any plastic that yields nearly full degradation outside of the bacteria, and is being investigated as a method for mass degradation of PET.

Part 3: Repurposing Because, like everything else, recycling is a business, economic feasibility is just as important to the recycling process as the science that makes it happen. That is why more and more, we see plastic repurposing a lot more often than biological degradation. One of the more exciting propositions helps fix two environmental issues at once: plastic pollution and sand harvesting. Although it seems like it is everywhere, sand is not a renewable resource, and the harvesting of sand can sometimes destroy the environment it came from – lots of things live in sand! Most sand harvested is used in the concrete industry, but only sand from river beds and the ocean can be used (11). These sand particles are jagged and are essential for holding the concrete together. Unfortunately, this sand is also where many sand-dwelling creatures live! To help reduce on the amount of sand needed as aggregate, waste plastic and microplastic particles have been proposed as an alternative.

However, if the strength of the concrete is compromised by the plastic, it can’t be used. Since plastic is generally valued for its flexibility and low melting point, this is an issue.

In 2017, researchers at MIT came up with a clever idea to fix this issue (12). The rigidity of a plastic can be increased by increasing crystallinity and cross linking in the plastic. Plastics are generally not highly crystalline due to the extremely high molecular mass of a single strand. Crystallinity can be increased by shortening the

Figure 4: How I. Sakaiensis is able to degrade PET. When it is hungry (all the time), the bacterium secretes 2 enzymes: PETase and MHETase. After some cool hydrolysis and oxidation reactions, two small and tasty molecules are created (TPA and EG) which are then eaten by the bacterium. After processing these for energy, the bacterium excretes them as carbon dioxide and other small organic molecules (bacteria poop).

Hooray! No more plastic! (2, 10) strand, which is a bit of an issue (carbon-carbon bonds are strong!). Degree of crosslinking is basically the amount of bonds between strands. Luckily, both crystallinity and crosslinking can be increased with one process: subject the plastic to gamma radiation. High levels of radiation can form free radicals in the plastic chains, which leads to excessive crosslinking and shorter strands.

When tested against normal strength concrete, this gamma radiated plastic-concrete was still not as strong or heat resistant, but fared much better than concrete with untreated plastic. Although there is still a long way to go with this research, there is clearly some promise. This study only worked with one type of plastic (PET again), and it would be interesting to see how results would vary with PE family plastics. One idea would be to try crosslinking with polysilane (basically a one-dimensional strand of sand). Since it is unknown if the binding of the sand to the cement is mechanical (the growth of interlocking crystals) or chemical (covalent bonding to the sand), perhaps introducing the chemical that makes up sand would yield better results. Sounds like a fun project to me!

Conclusions From worms eating plastic bags to melting water bottles to plastic sand to reverse plastic, the number of ways plastic can be gotten rid of is rising every day. While none of them are perfect yet, the research continues to grow and

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the answer seems closer every day. Just last August, while the rest of us were hunkering down getting ready for the start of another Zoom semester, a group of pioneering chemists unveiled the newest addition to the growing list of ‘infinitely recyclable’ plastics: PBTL. With high rigidity, thermal resistance, and 100% recyclability, PBTL shows great promise in becoming a suitable plastic alternative in the near future (6). Theoretically, these totally recyclable polymers like PBTL would drastically reduce the need to continuously produce and throw away plastics. So do not fret! Even in the middle of a global pandemic with the

earth warming, animals dying, and plastic threatening to suffocate us all, science will come to the rescue! So, next time you find yourself confronted by that lone Chaco in the seaweed, or that sad water bottle in the sand, don’t pout, throw it out! Who knows? Maybe that crushed vape pen sitting in a landfill will help to evolve an incredible vapepen-eating bacterium that will save the world one day. At the very least, your post-Jacobsen lab report walk will be a tiny bit more pretty.

A View of the Sound 28 | ELEMENTS

BY BISMIKADO

Ethicality of Child Birthing Practices:

Using Medically Justif iable Caesarean Sections

BY MAIYA PACLEB UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 29

T

he World Health Organization (WHO) has declared and defended that the cesarean section operation (CS) rate should not exceed 15% (1). WHO’s 15% rate explicitly includes those parents who are foreseen to require rapid and skilled medical intervention due to possible complications during childbirth (2). However, with a current rate of 31.9%, CSs are the most frequently performed surgical procedure in the United States (3). CSs are used for non-medical reasons, either due to practitioner misuse or misguided patient choice, leading to the current consistent and highly undesirable rate, despite the practice being condemned by the medical field (4). In this piece, I argue that non-medically justifiable or ‘excess’ CSs root from the technomedical model that has medicalized childbirth, instigating an unnecessary threat to parental and fetal health. To use CSs ethically, the medical field must shift from its technomedical model and implement humanistic methods to respect the parents’ child birthing experience and well-being, considering a CS only when it is medically justifiable to use one.

Historically, the technomedical model of medicine has depicted women’s bodies and the process of childbirth as a defective, dangerous, and untrustworthy bodily process (5). Rather than a natural function of the human female body, the historically-male dominated medical profession of obstetrics depicts childbirth as an unruly and uncontrollable event (6). The CS’s development and purpose is to be a technological medical intervention to combat the possible and immediate danger or complication for the birthing parent or child during delivery (7). Some argue that CSs empower a parent’s autonomy because it gives those with pre-determined birthing complications or traumatic birthing experiences a choice in receiving a CS to provide them with a more manageable outcome.

Medicalizing childbirth causes obstetricians to employ their medical knowledge and institutional dominance to unreasonably use a CS without any medical implications, and rather for purposes of ease and convenience (e.g., when labor is taking longer than expected/desired) (8).

One must consider that the birthing process poses an incidence where a physician is an active participant in the decision-making process and can use their expertise to convince the parent to choose a cesarean (2, 5). Further, the medical depiction of childbirth as uncontrollable and dangerous is ingrained into a society that has set standards on parents’ responsibility for their child’s outcome (9).

LEFT: Tools and method used to close a cesarean incision. From “Le guide des accoucheurs” [The guide for birth attendants] by Jacques Mesnard, 1753 30 | ELEMENTS

ABOVE: C-section performed in New Ulm, Minnesota.

Photographed by Flip Schulke for the EPA, August 1974 The parents are conditioned to engage in measures deemed ‘best’ by the medical field to control their future child’s health during childbirth, directly constraining the birthing parent’s autonomous decision (6, 9). The influence of technomedical authority on societal standards and parental perspective of child birthing leads to medically unjustifiable CSs that are performed to make the birthing process more convenient and benefit the obstetrician’s efficiency of practice, rather than respecting the birthing parent’s autonomy.

Ideally, hospitals are developed systems that focus on risk-averse practices to improve patient safety.

When dealing with childbirth, however, the overriding medicalized conceptions of this process push obstetricians to approach it as a dangerous process that requires medical intervention by its very nature. The medicalization of childbirth has led to the idea that CSs—because they are controlled by the physician—are safer for the patient, making it the medically superior birthing method (2).

This perception has translated into future parents taking advantage of CSs because of the procedure’s convenience for planning as well as concerns about vaginal delivery complications (10). However, the CS should not be regarded as a safer birthing route. It is major abdominal surgery.

For those who do not have the complications that mandate the use of an emergency CS, delivery through CS can dramatically increase the likelihood of both parental and fetal mortality. Studies have shown that any rate of CSs

maleficence. The objectification of patients and lack of understanding over the child birthing experience shows that physicians have forgotten that they are trying to produce the best possible outcome for the parent’s health as well as the child’s. Electing to use a CS with the lack of medical incidence means that the physician is actively choosing to threaten the parent’s health with various short and long-term dangers. Through the practice of excess CS, the medical field has lost its purpose of serving the patient and prioritizing their health, proving to be harmful to the child birthing experience and outcome.

ABOVE: Iroquois woman giving birth in a standing position, which increases space in the pelvis and decreases the risk of fetal heart rate abnormalities. From “Histoire des accouchements chez tous les peuples” [History of Childbirth in All Peoples] by Gustave Joseph Witkowski, 1887 over 10% directly impacts parental and neonatal mortality and morbidity (11). To the birthing parent, a CS presents complications like the infection of the uterus, pelvis, and bladder, postpartum hemorrhage, or anesthetic reactions (7). There are also potential complications for the child when performing a CS, like an increased risk of respiratory problems, trouble breastfeeding, and a greater chance of being admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (7, 10).

For a procedure that is supposed to produce a safer and more effective birthing option, the CS poses significant dangers to the parent and child enduring the procedure and therefore should not be used unnecessarily.

Additionally, the CS sustains long-term reproductive detriments for parents like increasing the likeliness of complications in future pregnancies, as well as increasing the emotional difficulties of postpartum depression and a negative conception of childbirth (12). Using CSs for medically unjustifiable reasons prioritizes the short-term efficacy of childbirth rather than the birthing parent’s long-term health. The performance of excess CSs shows the deviation of the medical practice from the Hippocratic oath to do no harm and, therefore, choosing to act with

The ethical practice of CSs requires alternative birthing care models that are safe and effective in promoting non-interventionist approaches that remove the tolerance for surgical interventions in the physiological birthing process. The medical field must step back from its natural tendency to think that the more predictable or more controllable outcome is the safer outcome (5). To do this, the medical field must rationalize CS with backing from education and research that can better inform the physician about the medical necessity of the procedure. It is essential to adopt the concept of childbirth as a normal physiological process that is often described by birthing parents as empowering when done without medical intervention (12).

If obstetricians become more educated on this research, it would allow them to approach childbirth with a more positive perspective. Furthermore, educational emphasis should be given on preventing medical bias of low-income and minority parents, as they are at a disproportionate risk for experiencing more interventions during delivery and experiencing poorer birthing outcomes overall (11).

Obstetricians must understand the culturally relevant societal stigmas that exist in vulnerable patients during childbirth to ensure a positive effect and outcome.

The parent and family must also be educated about the risks of CSs and the situations in which it is appropriate to use the delivery method to respect the patient’s autonomous choice in their child birthing experience.

To adhere to the doctrine of informed consent for the procedure, the patients have the right to understand their diagnosis and prognosis, their proposed treatment and its risks and benefits, and their treatment options (5). Unless it is a dire medical emergency, the parent must be informed and consent to a CS if they can and decide without undue influence from others (5). With the implementation of the CS’s ethical practice, the physician must be educated to recognize childbirth’s natural process and not intervene without justifiable medical reasoning and the parent’s informed consent.

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Reforming the patient-physician interaction to prioritize the relationship and partner-oriented decision making is essential to upholding the parent’s autonomy and justice during childbirth. Adopting a humanistic approach does more than produce a more pleasant labor experience, it is also the key to a positive birthing outcome (5). To further support physicians in performing ethical child birthing practices, wide-spread implementation of midwives should be adopted. This would allow for a consistent and knowledgeable advocate for the parent throughout the entire labor and delivery. Midwives receive education about the process of childbirth and non-interventional practices that can alleviate labor sensations. Midwife-attended births are associated with improved birthing outcomes, specifically for parents who are minorities or vulnerable, resulting in fewer cesarean interventions and improving parent satisfaction (11). With the presence of midwives, the parent has another resource that can keep the physician accountable and ensure that the use of a CS is medically

necessary and ethically sound. Shifting the medical field’s perception of childbirth and establishing a humanistic standard of care with the support of midwives, the use of CS would be for medically necessary situations that prioritize the well-being of the parent.

The use of excess or medically unnecessary CSs is unethical because it violates the birthing parent’s autonomy and poses a substantial threat to their health and well-being.

The medical field must become more expansive in its scope of education with regard to the process of childbirth, and it must clarify the clinical gray area that permits medically unjustifiable CSs. The medical field should use a more humanistic approach to supporting parents during labor by promoting patient-physician collaboration and midwifery practices to combat the injustice it poses toward the parent and implement an ethical practice of CSs. Only when a CS is medically necessary should it be viewed as the most appropriate and ethically admissible decision.

ABOVE: Midwives attending to a new mother and child in Ancient Greece. From “Histoire des accouchements chez tous les peuples” [History of Childbirth in All Peoples] by Gustave Joseph Witkowski, 1887 32 | ELEMENTS

Footprints in the Mud: The Search for 23 Million Year Old Mammal Tracks

BY WHITNEY WORRELL ABOVE: The original trackway sample My path to trace fossil research started when I decided to write a summer research proposal last year. I have always wanted to do paleontology, that part was easy, but the geology department didn’t have any active paleontology research that I could take part in. Thankfully, my advisor, Professor Kena Fox-Dobbs, helped me create a project to satisfy my “must include fossils” requirement. Kena showed me a specimen that had been in our teaching collection since 1964, a nondescript chunk of sandstone, on the top of which is a tiny, yet very clear, set of footprints. On the back of the specimen is “Benham Creek” and some coordinates.

The original finder of the specimen was a student at UPS in the early 1960’s who had found it on the ground during his own summer research, noted its location, and gave it to the department where it had not been investigated furtheruntil now.

I was lucky to have my research project funded, and I set out to study this mysterious trackway in sandstone.

I can remember standing there for the first time realizing the seemingly impossible task I had agreed too: try and find more of these miniscule footprint fossils in this area, where Mount Saint Helens had famously erupted and then there was a landslide, among the many other things that had occured in the area in the past 23 million years. The coordinates were to a spot on the side of Forest Road 25 in the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest, just northeast of Mount Saint Helens. According to other research and geologic maps, the rocks in the area are about 23 million years old.

The site is a road cut, a portion of rock that had been cut away to make a road through the area, and heavily forested. My first visit to the site was daunting; I had been optimistic about the research, there was a lot of exposed rock, but there was also a turbulent river, with numerous downed trees from a landslide ten years prior.

Fortunately, I had a wonderful support team for the field work portion of my research. The department had hired a student, Audrey, to help where needed, and I was lucky to have her with me for the entire week I was going to be in the field. Additionally, my mom, Betty, and my dog, Molly, joined us at the campsite for good company. Kena and another research student would join us the next day. Audrey and I had a lot to accomplish in the first couple of days at the site before the others arrived.

To begin, we took measurements of the site, broke it up into 7 sections and measured the thicknesses of the layers of rock in each section. The layers of the site were not horizontal; they dipped in such a way that we could measure layers on top of other layers simply by walking to the next section over. The first day, Audrey and I gathered samples to bring back to the lab and classify the sedimentology -which includes the grain size and other observations about the rocks themselves- noted the thickness of layers, and broke open just about every rock we could find looking for signs of fossils. We found fossil leaves and wood fragments that day. It was exciting despite the fact that they were not the elusive footprints.

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The second day, we decided that we needed to gain access to a small ledge about ten feet off the ground at the far end of the site to measure the layers and try to find more fossils. Audrey hiked up and around the outcrop and secured a rope above the ledge, then came back and was able to stand on the ledge secured by the rope. We worked on the area, broke open rocks and found numerous fossils of plant material, including cedar branchlets, leaves, and a single tiny hemlock cone. This seemed to be where we needed to be, I felt that this was going to be the place. I noticed that at the very top of this section there seemed to be defined layers, and I asked Audrey to ABOVE: Audrey pointing out the location of trackway extractions break them off carefully and pass them down. With a rock hammer and a chisel, the including the new pieces of fossil trackway, numerous layers were removed and inspected. Not long after, Audrey plant fossils, and various samples of rocks to study the stopped and with cautious optimism said, “I think you need sedimentology of the site. We brought it back to the Geology to see this.”

Department at UPS, where the real work was just beginning.

At this point I had not written off the possibility of actually finding the footprints, but I was aware that it was a very real needle-in-the-haystack situation. I also tried to avoid just seeing what I wanted to see, to avoid misidentification of some random shapes as a trackway.

Audrey gently passed the chunk of sandstone down to me, I inspected it, and immediately we both knew we had found it. We tried to remain objective and wait to compare them to the original specimen, but we knew it was real. We found the actual layer in situ, untouched and intact for 23 million years. Carefully, we removed what we could of the trackway layer, and ended up with seven new pieces of fossil trackway, which included portions of the layer the animal had walked on and the layer that filled it in and made a cast of the footprints. With cautious confidence we returned to our campsite and showed our finds to Betty, who excitedly suggested that we celebrate, but we remained reserved and waited for Kena’s arrival on the following day.

Our findings were confirmed to be genuine, and we enthusiastically headed out to finish gathering specimens from the site. We collected over a hundred samples,

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For the remainder of the summer, I prepared samples for analysis on petrographic microscopes, made silicone molds and resin casts of the trackway fossils, identified plant fossils, and tried to figure out who those tiny footprints belonged to. I met with a rodent paleontologist at the University of Oregon and it was determined that our track maker was a small rodent, not too dissimilar to a mouse. I have since moved on to writing a thesis on the Benham Creek site, which includes a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of this site’s animal and plant diversity, as well as the sedimentology and stratigraphy, or rock layers, of the site. After graduation in May, I will focus on graduate school applications, where I hope to earn a PhD in paleontology. This work has been able to shed light on an under studied time period in the Pacific Northwest, and could have larger implications for what we know about the animal and plant diversity in the area 23 million years ago.

Block Diagrams

BY LEXUS SULLIVAN

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WHAT DOES A SCIENTIST LOOK LIKE? WHO PARTICIPATES IN SCIENCE? Hear docents f rom the Slater Museum discuss how our views of science and scientists have changed over time on our website!

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WELCOME TO

THE ALLIUM Basalt and Bingo!

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COSMOPOLITAN usts r h t r Ove ack B e h in t on m m o Arc: C es new k mista rtners a field p make

“She likes kink bands but I’m not into foliations!”

How a volcanologist and metamorphic petrologist make it work

Ass Out at the Outcrop: 10 Tips for a Hot Rock Summer | ELEMENTS 38 | 38 ELEMENTS

NERD

Nau or G ghty Tak neiss? bed e our orie ding qui ntatio z! n

@elementsmissedconnections

BY STAFF

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ZOOM

B

I

N

G

O

Someone is has a conversation with someone else off-camera

Not knowing which way you should raise your hand

Prof is using the classroom projector to show images that you can’t see

Someone has to remind the prof to record

Professor mutes themself

“Are there any questions?” *ignores chat*

Prof has the class Zoom link in a weird place

Multiple people unmic at once

Prof uses a “Professor, blackboard your screen and you isn’t sharing” can't read it

Free!

Random conversations in the class chat

Prof holds a rock (or any specimen) up to the camera

“YoUR coNnECtiOn Is unSTaBle”

Unusual zoom background

Professor reiterates preference for cameras on

Someone scarfs down a whole meal on camera

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Funny Silent profile breakout picture room Pet clearly distracts someone

Someone’s camera is on but they haven’t been in class for at least 15 minutes

Prof is on Pronouns a different in name zoom link Prof joins breakout room while u complain about class

Someone is unmuted

CITATIONS (Living and Learning Through Liquid Crystals) 1. Freiser MJ. 1970. Ordered States of a Nematic Liquid. Phys Rev Lett. 24: 1041.

2. Scharrer E. 2017. RUI: Investigations of the cybotactic nematic phase in bent-core liquid crystals. National Science Foundation. Award No.:1709148.

3. Madsen LA, Dingemans TJ, Nakata M, Samulski ET. 2004.

Thermotropic Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals. Phys Rev Lett. 92(14):145505.

(Waughop Lake) 1. “Waughop Lake” by B.D.’s world, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bdsworld/14339473153/ 2. “Farm at Fort Steilacoom Park” by Jett Brooks, licensed under CC BY 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ revjett/7146242099.

(Support for the Democratic Party) 1. Nielsen, François. “The Flemish Movement in Belgium After World War II: A Dynamic Analysis.” American Sociological Review 45, no. 1 (1980): 76-94. Accessed December 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095244.

2. California Secretary of State. (2020). Statewide Election Results. Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https://www.sos. ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results 3. Myers, D., Pitkin, J., Park, J. (2005, February). Full 2005 Report: California Demographic Features. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://cpb-use1.wpmucdn.com/ sites.usc.edu/dist/6/210/files/2018/08/2005Myers−Pitkin− ParkCA − Demographic − Futures − Projections − 2030 − 1ix789z.pdf 4. Stoops, N. (2004, June). Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https:// www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p20-550.pdf 5. US Census Bureau. (2001). Profile of Selected Social Characteristics: 2000. Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=0400000US06 6. US Census Bureau.

(2011).

Selected Social Characteristics in the United States.

Retrieved December 10, 2020, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/ table?q=california+social+characteristics​ (White Supremacy in the Port of Tacoma) 1. Ballantine, A. (2017). The river mouth speaks: Water quality as storyteller in decolonization of the Port of Tacoma. Water History, 9(1), 45–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-016-01795 2. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (2014). Medicine Creek Treaty 1854. Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations.

3. 3. Ybarra, M. (2021). Site Fight! Toward the Abolition of Immigrant Detention on Tacoma’s Tar Pits (and Everywhere Else). Antipode, 53(1), 36–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/ anti.12610 4. 4. Ashby, H., Vazin, J., & Pellow, D. (2020). Superfund Sites and Juvenile Detention: Proximity Analysis in the Western

5.

United States. Environmental Justice, 13(3), 65–74. https:// doi.org/10.1089/env.2019.0029 5. Walsh, T., Arcas, D., Venturato, A., Titov, V., Mofjeld, H., Chamberlin, C., & González, F. (2009). Tsunami Hazard Map of Tacoma, Washington: Model Results for Seattle Fault and Tacoma Fault Earthquake Tsunamis. Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources & NOAA Center for Tsunami Research. https://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/ ger_ofr2009-9_tsunami_hazard_tacoma.pdf

(DMN) 1. Raichle ME. 2015. The brain’s default mode network. Ann Rev Neurosci. 38: 433-447.

2. Zhou H, Chen X, Shen Y, Li L, Chen N, Zhu Z, Castellanos FX, Yan C. 2020. Rumination and the default mode network: Meta-analysis of brain imaging studies and implications for depression. NeuroImage. 206.

3. Jia W, Zhu H, Ni Y, Su J, Xu R, Jia H, Wan X. 2019. Disruptions of frontoparietal control network and default mode network linking the metacognitive deficits with clinical symptoms in schizophrenia. Hum Brain Mapp. 41: 1445-1458.

4. Wheeler SW, Dyer NL. 2020. A systematic review of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for mental health: An evaluation of the current wave of research and suggestions for the future. American Psychological Association. 7(3): 279-315.

5. Silberstein RB, Pipingas A, Farrow M, Levy F, Stough CK. 2016. Dopaminergic modulation of default mode network brain functional connectivity in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Brain and Behavior, 6(12): 1-12.

6. Nour MM, Evans L, Nutt D, Carhart-Harris RL. 2016.

Ego-dissolution and psychedelics: Validation of the egodissolution inventory (EDI). Front Hum Neurosci. 10: 269.

7. Lebedev AV, Lövdén M, Rosenthal G, Feilding A, Nutt DJ, Carhart-Harris RL. 2015. Finding the self by losing the self: Neural correlates of ego-dissolution under psilocybin. Hum Brain Mapp. 36: 3137–3153.

8. Carhart-Harris RL, Roseman L, Bolstridge M, Demetriou L, Pannekoek JN, Wall MB, Nutt DJ. 2017. Psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression: FMRI-measured brain mechanisms. Scientific Reports. 7.

9. Schmalzl L, Powers C, Blom EH. 2015. Neurophysiological and neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the effects of yoga-based practices: Towards a comprehensive theoretical framework. Front Hum Neurosci. 9: 235.

10. Ives-Deliperi VL, Solms M, Meintjes EM. 2011. The neural substrates of mindfulness: an fMRI investigation. Soc. Neurosci. 6: 231–242.

(Perpetual Plastic Puzzle) 1. American Chemical Society. April 3, 2017. “Ridding the Oceans of Plastics by Turning the Waste into Valuable Fuel.”

EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_ releases/2017-04/acs-rto030717.php.

2. Bpf. 2014. “A History of Plastics”. https://www.bpf.co.uk/ plastipedia/plastics_history/Default.aspx.

3. Brown, Sally, and Hanson, Susan. 2019. “Don’t Squander

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Sand - save It for Sea-level Rise.” Nature (London) 572(7769): 312.

4. C.T. Au, K.D. Chen, H.X. Dai, Y.W. Liu, J.Z. Luo, C.F. Ng. 1998.

“Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane to Ethene over BaOand BaBr2-Modified Ho2O3Catalysts”, Journal of Catalysis.

179(1): 300-308, ISSN 0021-9517, https://doi.org/10.1006/ jcat.1998.2227. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0021951798922278) 5. Marlin, Dana S., Emeric Sarron, and Ómar Sigurbjörnsson.

September 7, 2018. “Process Advantages of Direct CO2 to Methanol Synthesis.” Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/ articles/10.3389/fchem.2018.00446/full.

6. Mohanan, Nisha, Montazer, Zahra, Sharma, Parveen K, and Levin, David B. “Microbial and Enzymatic Degradation of Synthetic Plastics.” Frontiers in Microbiology 11 (2020): 580709.

7. Schaefer, C., Kupwade-Patil, K., Ortega, M., Soriano, C., Buyukozturk, O., White, A., & Short, M. 2017, October 09. Irradiated recycled plastic as a concrete additive for improved chemo-mechanical properties and lower carbon footprint. Retrieved from https://www.osti.gov/servlets/ purl/1481413 8. Shi, Changxia, McGraw, Michael L, Li, Zi-Chen, Cavallo, Luigi, Falivene, Laura, and Chen, Eugene Y.-X. 2020. “Highperformance Pan-tactic Polythioesters with Intrinsic Crystallinity and Chemical Recyclability.” Science Advances.

6(34): Eabc0495.

9. Sun, Y, S.M. Campbell, J.H. Lunsford, G.E. Lewis, D. Palke, L.M. Tau. 1993. “The Catalytic Conversion of Methyl Chloride to Ethylene and Propylene over Phosphorus-Modified MgZSM-5 Zeolites”, Journal of Catalysis. 143(1):32-44, ISSN 00219517, https://doi.org/10.1006/jcat.1993.1251. (http://www. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021951783712510 10. Thiounn, Timmy, and Rhett C. Smith. 2020. “Advances and Approaches for Chemical Recycling of Plastic Waste.”

Journal of Polymer Science. 58(10): 1347–64. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1002/pol.20190261.

11. Yoshida, Shosuke, Hiraga, Kazumi, Takehana, Toshihiko, Taniguchi, Ikuo, Yamaji, Hironao, Maeda, Yasuhito, Toyohara, Kiyotsuna, Miyamoto, Kenji, Kimura, Yoshiharu, and Oda, Kohei. 2016. “A Bacterium That Degrades and Assimilates Poly(ethylene Terephthalate).” Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 351(6278): 1196-199.

12. Zassa, Della, Micol & Favero, M. & Canu, Paolo. 2010. “Twosteps selective thermal depolymerization of polyethylene.

1: Feasibility and effect of devolatilization heating policy”.

Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis - Jw ANAL APPL PYROL. 87. 248-255. 10.1016/j.jaap.2010.01.003.

(Caesarean Sections) 1. Gibbons, L, Belizán, J, Lauer, J, Betrán, A, Merialdi, M, and Althabe, F. 2010. The Global Numbers and Costs of Additionally Needed and Unnecessary Caesarean Sections Performed per Year: Overuse as a Barrier to Universal Coverage. World Health Report 2010. 30: 1-32.

2. Johanson, R, Newburn, M and Macfarlane, A. 2002. Has the Medicalisation of Childbirth Gone Too Far? British Medical

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Journal. 324.

Martin, J. A., Hamilton, B. E., Osterman, M. J., & Driscoll, A. K. 2018. Births: Final Data for 2018. National Vital Statistics Reports 27: 1-47.

4. United Health Foundation. 2020. Low-Risk Cesarean Delivery.

5. Davis-Floyd, R. 2001. The technocratic, humanistic, and holistic paradigms of childbirth. International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.

75(1): S5-S23.

6. Carter, Shannon K. 2010. Beyond Control: Body and Self in Women’s Childbearing Narratives. Sociology of Health & Illness, 32(7):993–1009.

7. Mayo Clinic. 2020. Cesarean Section.

8. McClelland, W., Oster, E. 2019 Oct 17. Why the CS Rate Is So High. The Atlantic.

9. Mattingly, Susan S. 1992. The Maternal-Fetal Dyad Exploring the Two-Patient Obstetric Model. The Hastings Center Report. 22(1):13–18.

10. Turner, C. E., H. 2008. Vaginal Delivery Compared with Elective Caesarean Section: the Views of Pregnant Women and Clinicians. BJOG : an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 115(12), 1494–1502.

11. Benatar, Sarah, et al. 2013. Midwifery Care at a Freestanding Birth Center: A Safe and Effective Alternative to Conventional Maternity Care. Health Services Research. 48(5): 1750-1768.

12. Lavender, Tina et al. 2012. Caesarean section for nonmedical reasons at term. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. 3.

3.

Back cover art courtesy of Pauline Peterson

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