ELE MEN TS Issue 30
A Science Magazine at the University of Puget Sound
^ WEIRD
A Gruesome Tale: Reanimating the Dead
You Don't Smell Human
Spring 2023
A Sage Guide to Being a Hermit
"Weird, Oh Weird Science"
- OINGO BOINGO
Cover Photo Courtest of Abby Steward
Puget Sound is committed to being accessible to all people. If you have questions about event accessibility, please contact 253.879.3931 or accessibility@pugetsound.edu, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.
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Letter from the Editor Folks, if you're reading this, it means I'm gone. From campus that is! While the class of 2023 has gone off to bigger and better things, Elements first issue of 2023 is coming to you a bit late! We spent the majority of the prior school year developing Elements into a well-oiled machine and I'm extrememely happy with what our team has accomplished. I'd like to especially thank Professor Amy Fisher in the STHS department. With Professor Fisher's help, we were able to offer a quarter-credit course that produced much of the content you see in front of you! While I may be gone from the University of Puget Sound, I hope that Elements will continue to florish on this campus. This issue features some weird science, from reanimation to wormholes, we wanted to investigate the lingering questions we were never able to answer in class. Seek out weirdness, embrace the peculiarities of science. This issue is a testament to how strange science truly can be. Thank you all for reading and supporting Elements. I hope you enjoy what the team has created for you. All the best,
TIA BÖTTGER
Austin Glock, Editor-in-Chief
Copy Editor
SAGE MATKIN Copy Editor
AUSTIN GLOCK Editor-in-Chief
JAKE M C RAE Design Editor
DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN Design Editor
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In this Issue 5 | Slime Molds: Oozing Between Boundaries TIA BÖTTGER
8 | A Gruesome Tale: Reanimating the Dead PROFESSOR AMY FISHER
10 | Wormholes AUSTIN GLOCK
12 | Particle Accelerators OLIVIA DANNER
16 | You Don't Smell Human DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN
18 | Calming Down Cujo AYA HAMLISH
20 | The Science of Beer JAKE M C RAE
23 | A Sage Guide to Being a Hermit SAGE MATKIN
24 | Creatures of Tacoma TALIA LEFFEL
27 | CosmoNerd THE ELEMENTS TEAM
35 | Citations
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Slime Molds:
Oozing Between Boundaries BY TIA BÖTTGER Slime molds, myxomycetes, are not molds. They’re not any type of fungi in the kingdom mycota. They aren’t even slime all of the time. They fall into the biological category of protists, where we lump creatures that are not quite a plant, animal, or fungus (1). Their cells seem poised between a single-cellular and unicellular lifestyle, readily able to convert between the two. They have no central nervous system or anything that resembles one, and yet many are capable of sophisticated behaviors which force us to question our definition of intelligence (2). Slime molds ooze in and out of any definition we try to fit them into, inviting us to expand our perception. What can we learn when we are opened up to possibilities outside of the expectations created by human-constructed categorization? Slime molds look as bizarre and otherworldly as you might expect. They’re vibrant, unctuous, and alive. You’ll have to look closely to find them, as they are smaller than mushrooms, but they are found in similar environments. Slime molds live on organic
matter like decaying logs, leaves, or compost. They’ll appear after a couple days of rain, or in moist environments. Supposedly you can grow them at home, taking some wood from the forest and keeping it damp (3). But they’ve been found everywhere– from deserts to the edge of arctic snow melts, even on the body of the helmeted iguana. Slime molds have two main life stages, with four in total (4). They begin as soil-dwelling amoeba, usually around 5 to 10 micrometers large (5). In this stage, they will predate upon bacteria, pursuing a solitary, free-moving life. When deprived of a food source however, cells will undergo a radical change to seek comfort in community. The slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum sends out chemical signals, which causes thousands of separate amoeba organisms to coalesce into a “slug” form (5). They ultimately develop into a fruiting body: a pearly orb supported by cells in a structured stalk, with those near the top producing spores that will each become individual amoeba upon germination. The cells forming the stalk die, in a be-
COMATRICHA NIGRA FRUITING BODY
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DOG VOMIT SLIME MOLD FOUND IN OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK havior benefitting the entire structure despite having lived a mostly individual existence. The most studied slime molds are plasmodial slime molds, which fit the picture of gooey slime. These similarly begin as amoeba-like cells, but grow together into plasmodia, containing many nuclei without cell membranes between them (4). Plasmodia will feed by engulfing other microorganisms, moving as a coordinated network at speeds up to 1.35 mm per second, the fastest rate recorded for any microorganism (6). This network is responsive, and has shown the ability to solve mazes, and even learn and predict unfavorable conditions. In a famous experiment, the slime mold Physarum polycephalum created the most efficient route between oat flakes scaled to match major cities near Tokyo, and bright light, used to simulate mountains, recreating Tokyo’s rail system (7). Their network efficiency is being used in labyrinth-like experiments designing urban transpor-
tation systems and evacuation routes– they were even put to the test to find their way out of IKEA. Slime molds are also being used to solve mathematical problems in unconventional biocomputing, and inform simulations of the mysterious dark matter holding our cosmos together (8). Slime molds navigate time as well as space. Researchers from Hokkaido University exposed slime mold to unfavorable conditions every 30 minutes, dropping the temperature and decreasing the humidity to create a dry environment. The plasmodium began to crawl more slowly, saving its energy in response. But even after the researchers stopped changing the environmental conditions, the slime mold consistently continued to slow down every 30 minutes, anticipating the change (9). In another study, it learned to ignore noxious substances, and remembered that behavior up to a year later (2). As a reminder, slime molds have nothing that resembles a brain.
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In the words of John Bonner, who has been hailed the patriarch of the slime mold community, slime molds are “no more than a bag of amoebae encased in a thin slime sheath” (10). Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life, writes: "These studies raise a storm of questions. Are network-based life-forms like fungi or slime molds capable of a form of cognition? Can we think of their behavior as intelligent? If other organisms’ intelligence didn’t look like ours, then how might it appear? Would we even notice it?" (1). The collective behavior of slime mold is astonishing, not just for their ability for cognition, but in the interactions between slime mold cells themselves. When plasmodial slime mold is physically separated, the cells find their way back and re-unite. The slime leaves behind a trail, as a kind of spatial memory,
signaling to other cells where it has gone so that the conglomeration of cells can explore more ground, collectively rather than individually acquiring more nutrients (11). If a plasmodial slime mold encounters another plasmodium, it can also unite and fuse together to create a larger form. We have identified that slime molds have some 720 different sexes, another reminder that life beyond a binary is natural (3). Slime molds invite curiosity and awe. They are found in places we associate with decay and dying, appearing all at once, unexpectedly, in a display of oozing yellow before disappearing again. They remind us of systems beyond ourselves, orienting us to learn from the complexity of a being just as easily ignored and overlooked. They live between slime and cell, collective and individual, dissolving our boundaries and opening our minds.
PHYSARUM POLYCEPHALUM PLASMODIUM (12).
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A Gruesome Tale: Reanimating the Dead BY PROFESSOR AMY FISHER
Using wires to attach a powerful battery to the corpse’s ear and mouth, the dead man’s “jaw began to quiver, the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and the left eye actually opened” (1). Convicted of murdering his wife, Jane, and their twelve-month-old daughter, Louisa, by drowning, Britain’s criminal court in London—the Old Bailey—sentenced George Foster to death by hanging on January 17, 1803 (2). Government officials sought to deter other potential malefactors in two ways. First, they allowed the public to witness each execution. Second, the Murder Act of 1752 denied convicted murderers of the right to a family burial and gave their corpses instead to physicians for anatomical and physiological research, a fate many considered to be worse than death (3). In a macabre
Figure 1: A public execution at Newgate Prison Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
spectacle, thousands of people attended each public execution at Newgate Prison between 1783 and 1868 (Figure 1). An hour after Foster died before a jeering crowd, men transported his corpse from the prison to the Royal College of Surgeons’ anatomical theatre. There, with the Figure 2: Giovanni Aldini Image courtesy of assistance of medical Wikimedia Commons faculty, a student, and an instrument maker, Italian professor of experimental physics Giovanni Aldini (Figure 2) subjected the dead man “to the Galvanic stimulus.” Interested in determining whether electricity could be used “as a means of excitement in cases of asphyxia and suspended animation,” Aldini sought experimental support for his uncle, Italian physician Luigi Galvani’s theory of animal electricity (1). Doctors struggled to help people suffering as a result of accidents and/or diseases that caused paralysis or a seemingly irreversible loss of consciousness. Many people feared being buried alive (taphophobia), so much so that British physician William Dawes founded the Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned in 1774 (4). Whereas some physicians experimented with ‘reviving’ pharmaceuticals, such as tobacco, Aldini investigated the potential applications of Galvani’s electrical research to reanimate patients caught between life and death. In the 1780s and 90s, Galvani had used his knowledge of anatomy and physiology to study the effects of electricity on the parts of animals. Inspired by research on electric fish, such as the torpedo (electric) ray in the Mediterranean, he endeavored to better understand the possible electrical nature of and physiological mechanisms at play in animals,
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Figure 3: A demonstration of Galvini's discovery, where electricity causes the frogs legs to twitch Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
especially frogs. He discovered, much to his surprise, that in the absence of an external source of electricity, merely touching two different metals to a dissected frog’s leg caused its muscles to contract in a manner similar to an electrical discharge (Figure 3). (Interestingly, some metallic combinations produced more violent contractions than others.) On the basis of these experiments, Galvani argued that “animals possess in their nerves and muscles a subtle fluid … analogous to ordinary electricity,” responsible for muscle movement (5). While members of the scientific community debated animal electricity and challenged some of Galvani’s experimental results—e.g., by showing that alternating layers of inorganic materials, such as
Figure 4: Galvanism expeierments on human body parts.
copper, silver, and saltwater, could also produce an electric current—Aldini extended Galvani’s studies to the human body. Electrical research had transformed physics and chemistry and, he wrote, “it gives us reason to hope that it may also be of benefit to medicine” through further research. He praised the Murder Act for providing scientists like himself with access to the recently deceased. “The bodies of those who during life violated one of the most sacred rights of mankind” by committing homicide, he wrote, “should after execution be devoted to a purpose which might make some atonement for their crime.” At the time of his execution, Foster was twenty-six, “of a strong, vigorous constitution” and, according to Aldini, the ideal research subject (1). Aldini recounted multiple experiments performed on that fateful day in the rooms of the Royal College of Surgeons. Using wires to attach a powerful battery to the corpse’s ears, the dead man’s facial muscles convulsed and his head moved. Electrifying his thumb muscles caused his hand to clench into a fist. Applying electricity to the corpse’s ear and rectum gave “an appearance of re-animation” (Figure 4). Aldini concluded that galvanism could be “the most powerful means hitherto discovered of assisting and increasing the efficacy of every other stimulant” in resuscitating individuals (1). Fascinated by Aldini’s gruesome experiments, members of the British medical community continued this research over the next thirty years. Bodies, however, were in short supply. In an effort to curb the illegal sale of corpses by grave robbers and body snatchers, British parliament replaced the Murder Act with the Anatomy Act of 1832, which gave licensed physicians legal access to unclaimed corpses from hospitals, prisons, and workhouses. It also allowed a family member to donate the body of their next of kin for medical research. In return, the physician and/or medical institution paid for their burial costs. People argued that this act took advantage of the vulnerable, especially the poor, and because of the stigma surrounding dissection, there were widespread public protests (6). Although Mary Shelley was only five-years old when Foster was executed, in the preface to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, she cited bodysnatching and the study of Galvanism as two sources of inspiration for her horror story.(7). But, for people living in England during this period, the truth was sometimes stranger than gothic fiction.
Image courtesy of Wellcome Collection.
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Wormholes are a staple of science fiction. In quantum physics, wormholes can be used to explain one of the strangest phenomenons Einstein ever encountered. BY AUSTIN GLOCK If you’ve ever read a science fiction novel, chances are that you’ve encountered wormholes. They get characters from one place to another in the blink of an eye. In real life, wormholes haven’t been observed as black holes have. They were initially thought to be purely hypothetical, but as the field has grown, more breakthroughs have emerged. A wormhole, also known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge, links two different spots in space via a shortcut allowing for easier travel across long distances. They were discovered in 1916 as a solution to Einstein’s field equations which connect the curvature of spacetime to its contents. Exact solutions to these equations can predict black holes as well (1). Unlike black holes, wormholes have only been discovered mathematically. The solutions for Einstein’s equations reveal that wormholes would have incredibly short lives, so short that nothing would be able to travel through them. That is, if they could ever exist. The math says that’s unlikely. There’s no natural way for a wormhole to occur; even if there were, the chances of one being created would be highly unlikely (1). Despite this, science fiction has been using wormholes to allow for space travel for nearly a century (2)!
JACK WILLIAMSON’S 1931 STORY THE METEOR GIRL HAS THE PROTAGONIST USING A WORMHOLE TO SAVE HIS WIFE FROM THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY (2).
Wormholes are popular for good reason. They allow for easy travel between two points in space. It’s also very easy to explain a science fiction wormhole. The scientist grabs the napkin, folds it in half, and sticks a pen right through it. There you have it, wormholes! Becky Chambers takes it a step further in her book The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and explains the process of creating one. After punching a hole into space a ship will drop buoys into the sublayer, the space in between regular space. The buoys create artificial space and keep the sublayer stable. Then once they get to their destination, they punch back out (3). The method that Chambers proposes is consistent with how a traversable wormhole could function. We know this thanks to Kip Thorne, who helped Carl Sagan come up with scientifically-possible traversable wormholes for his novel Contact (1). The key to these traversable wormholes is exotic matter. This is what holds the wormhole open, pushing against its walls. In Chambers’ book, this exotic material seems to be the artificial space created by the buoys. In real life, exotic material is purely hypothetical; it’s exotic because it violates the known laws of physics. The problem that Thorne ran into was that the exotic material needed to keep a wormhole open must have an average energy density that is negative when viewed from the reference frame of a light beam traveling through it (1). Physicists believed that exotic materials couldn’t exist because there hadn’t been signs of anything with a negative average energy density in any reference frame. Regardless, Thorne had found a method for keeping a wormhole open that works in science fiction, which is exactly what he set out to do.
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IMAGE 1. SAM NEIL AS DR. BILLY WEIR IN PAUL ANDERSON’S EVENT HORIZON. USING A PEN AND PAPER, DR. WEIR GIVES A SIMPLIFIED EXPLINATION TO HOW WORMHOLES FUNCTION (7). The hunt for exotic material was underway in the physics community when Stephen Hawking discovered something interesting. Hawking found that quantum fluctuations are exotic near the horizon of a black hole. Take any region of space and remove all of the electromagnetic and gravitational waves from it. Quantum mechanics tells you that this region of space will still have some unpredictable oscillations, called quantum fluctuations. Normally, their energy will average out to zero. Near the horizon of a black hole, the fluctuations get distorted and give it an average energy density that’s negative, meaning they’re exotic (1). With this information, there’s some possibility for a wormhole to exist. Wormholes serve more than just a travel benefit as well, they are one solution to one of the most interesting paradoxes in physics. The EPR paradox, named after Albert Einstein, Boris Poldosky, and Nathen Rosen, is quite simple. The paradox is really a thought experiment that says quantum mechanics is not a complete description of reality, using two entangled particles for its defense (4). If you were to take two entangled particles several lightyears away from each other and take measurements on one of them, such as position or momentum, you would be able to use those measurements to predict information about the second particle. But the action of measuring affects the first particle, thereby affecting the second. They’re light-years away and the act is instantaneous, meaning the information was conveyed at faster-than-
light travel (4). This is where the paradox lies, neither of these things can be true at the same time with our current knowledge. It’s a peculiar occurrence, Einstein even called entanglement a “spooky action at a distance” (1). The ER=EPR conjecture says that the information is conveyed through an Einstein-Rosen bridge, and in 2022, scientists at Google modeled a traversable wormhole between entangled states. To do this experiment at home, the first thing you’ll need is a very powerful quantum computer. Google scientists used a quantum computer with the Sycamore processor for their model. On it, they created an entangled state between the two halves of the quantum computer. A message is sent in on one side and scrambled up. The two states are coupled and after a short wait, the message comes out unscrambled on the other side (5). It’s a compelling case for the ER=EPR conjecture. The model uses holographic wormholes, which is what allows it to be modeled under our current knowledge of physics. The halves of the quantum computer are the two different positions in space. The message being sent through is analogous to someone entering a wormhole at position one. So when the message came through on the other half, it was as if someone exited the wormhole at position 2. But the validity of the model has been called into question recently. At the time of writing this article, a new study has been published that is asking whether the model accurately portrays our universe and if it’s actually proof for traversable wormholes (6). With the uncertainty in the field, it’s evident that we won’t be travelling through a wormhole any time soon. But it’s still amazing how far we’ve come. The more research that is poured into the field, the closer we may get to science fiction. Hopefully one day we’ll be able to take a day trip to Alpha Centauri and be back in time for dinner.
"
"THE SCIENTIST GRABS THE NAPKIN, FOLDS IT IN HALF, AND STICKS A PEN RIGHT THROUGH IT. THERE YOU HAVE IT, WORMHOLES!" ELEMENTS | 11
Particle Accelerators BY OLIVIA DANNER
One of the fundamental questions of physics, and science in general, boils down to understanding the nature of the universe in its entirety. One facet of answering this question is studying the origins of the universe, back when everything was high-energy atomic soup full of particles colliding to make different, bigger particles. The key to being able to study this was the particle accelerator, which first allowed us to finally understand the structure of the atom, and later to create new particles. As a straightforward first definition, particle accelerators are exactly what their name implies: “electrical devices that accelerate charged atomic or subatomic particles to high energies” (1). There are
two ways to classify particle accelerators: by structure – linear accelerators (commonly known as linacs) or circular accelerators – or the method of acceleration – electrostatic or electrodynamic (2). Electrostatic means that unchanging electric fields are used to accelerate particles, while electrodynamic refers to the use of electromagnetic fields of changing direction and flux. The former are much easier to generate, so this was the method used for early accelerators (3). The very early x-ray machine is considered the first particle accelerator: an evacuated glass tube with a negatively charged cathode at one end and a positively charged anode at the other (4). Heating up the cathode excites the electrons in the metal enough for
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them to be released into the tube, while the potential difference between the cathode and anode causes the newly-freed electrons to be accelerated towards the positively-charged anode. Upon striking it, the electron is rapidly decelerated and releases an x-ray (4). Unfortunately, there is a limit to the amount of voltage that can be used to accelerate the electrons – too much and the system gets “spurious discharges” (4) which then short out the system. This led to the development of linacs, which accelerate the particle over a series of potential differences rather than attempting to use one massive potential difference (4). To better explain, imagine that an accelerator is a wind tunnel, the particles are paper airplanes, and the wind is our potential difference. Take two scenarios. In one, a single fan at the beginning of the tunnel is the only propulsion the planes receive to reach the end of the tunnel. In the other, a tunnel of equal length is split into sections and a fan is placed at the beginning of each section. The fan in the first scenario would have to be incredibly strong in order to get the planes to the end. The second scenario requires more fans, but they do not need to be very high-power – the boost to the planes is renewed each time they enter a new section. Now suppose each fan gives the planes a single boost at the beginning of each tunnel section, then turns off. This is the basic principle for a linac (4). Within a series of tubes, particles can drift through at a constant velocity until they hit the next field and receive a boost in speed. If they start off too slow, the entire accelerator will have to be incredibly long to get them to reach the desired energy, so an electrostatic accelerator is used to give the particles a jumpstart before entering the linear accelerator (4).
The first linac used a Wideroe structure, which has the electric fields flip direction while the particle is drifting, then flip again once the particle reaches the end of the tube. This is equivalent to changing the direction of the fans in our wind tunnel example. If the wind is blowing opposite the direction of the planes’ flight, it slows them down and we can consider this the ‘wrong’ direction. This is counter to the goal of acceleration but a product of the way the fields are generated, so it is important that the flip occurs while the particles are inside the tube, where they are unaffected by the fields. This also means that the particles get accelerated in bunches, resulting in a pulsed beam (5). Although G. Ising was the one to conceive the idea in 1925, it was Wideroe who executed it in 1928 (6). Around twenty years later, in the 1940’s, Luis Alvarez developed a new structure which was named after him (6). It operates similarly to the Wideroe structure, but it has the electric fields pointing in the same direction between every tube, allowing the particles to all be accelerated simultaneously (5). This was made possible by his use of a radio frequency (rf ) generator, which can flip the direction of the electric fields at every tube rather than every other, like in the Wideroe structure (6). Both of these structures tend to be used for heavier particles, such as protons (3). Turning away from oscillating fields and into the realm of waves, two other types of linac structures enter the discussion: travelling and standing wave structures. If you take a piece of string and shake it, that motion will propagate through the length of the string. Now pick a point on the string: for a travelling wave, that point will appear to move along the string. For a standing wave, the point will simply appear to move up and down, like a bouncing ball. Waves can
DRIFT TUBES FOR A LINEAR ACCELERATOR
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be used to accelerate particles that travel near the speed of light in a vacuum, so long as their phase velocity does not exceed the speed of light. This is akin to a traffic-heavy highway: groups of cars moving at similar speeds will be bunched up together. The speed of the individual cars (phase velocity) can be faster than that of the total group (group velocity). The speed limit ensures the phase velocity stays below a certain value, which is the role a waveguide plays in the accelerator. So, using a waveguide to reduce the phase velocity to one in which the particles can stay together, a travelling wave structure essentially carries particles with it and accelerates them that way. The standing wave structure accelerates particles in a similar way to the linacs previously discussed: when the peak of the wave is at a maximum, the electric field points in the direction of travel and gives the particle a boost (5). These wave-based structures tend to be used for electrons (3). The travelling wave structure is the basis for the Stanford linear accelerator at SLAC which, at two miles long, is the longest accelerator in the world (6). A fifth type of linac is the induction linac, which allows for much more beam current, energy, and pulse length than conventional linacs offer (7). This is achieved through a series of doughnut-shaped magnets with the beam passing through their center. Each magnet pulses successively, which exerts a force on the particles and causes them to accelerate (5). While linacs fix the issue of the system shorting out due to high voltage, they do pose new problems. Each tube in the accelerator has to be successively longer to ensure that the particle hits
AERIAL VIEW OF SLAC, WITH THE EXTENT OF THE ACCELERATOR OVERLAID ON TOP
DIAGRAM OF A CYCLOTRON the electric fields at the right time, so linacs either have to be very, very long – which leads to the obvious issue of space – or the rate at which the electric fields switches direction has to be very high, which has a technological limitation. These issues mean that linacs are limited to energies of around 200 MeV, though there are ones that reach much higher energies; these reach thousands of feet in length (3). The alternative is a circular accelerator, which uses a magnetic field to bend particles’ paths into an ever-expanding spiral. The first and most commonly known of the circular accelerators is known as the cyclotron. The general setup of a cyclotron is an ion source placed between a pair of D-shaped electrodes placed so their flat sides are aligned (5). The particles that are to be accelerated are also between the two poles of an H-shaped magnet, which provides a uniform magnetic field that bends the particles’ paths into a circle so the particles drift through the D electrodes at constant speed (5). An electric field between the two electrode flats means the particles accelerate through the gap and the field reverses direction while the particles are drifting through the electrodes, which shield them so they are not slowed down. (3). The shape of the cyclotron means that particles cannot be injected into it like with linacs; this would lead to the particles simply smashing into the nearest wall before the magnetic field can cause them to start bending. Placing a vacuum chamber filled with gas in the center of the setup, then ionizing the gas, allows the particles to exit the
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chamber already under the influence of the magnetic field, giving them that initial circular motion (4). Extracting the particles poses a similar question of how to get particles engaged in circular motion to exit linearly. The solution is to have an electrode bending the particle beam so it leaves the cyclotron tangential to its curvature (4). This does run into the issue of some particles colliding with the electrode before they can be bent, so the beam that leaves the cyclotron is weaker than within the accelerator (4). Along with the weaker exiting beam, cyclotrons also have an upper limit on the speed the particles can reach due to two factors: the strength of the magnetic field has to decrease with radius so the particles maintain a stable orbit, and the voltage that generates the electric field has to be high lest the particles get out of phase with the cycle (7). Following down an alternative route from the cyclotron leads to the betatron which, rather than direct particles out of the machine, smashes electrons into a target to generate x-rays (4). Unlike the cyclotron, which uses an electric field between the two D-electrodes to accelerate particles, the betatron uses magnetic fields to accelerate particles – two, in fact (3). One keeps the electrons in orbit (the guide field), while the other induces an electric field in the same direction as the electrons’ motion (3). Used in medical imaging and for their x-ray generations, betatrons are not in particularly high use at this point because linacs are lighter (some betatrons reach over 300 tons), reach higher energies, and are in general more easily controlled (7). Another circular accelerator is the synchrotron, which combines the cyclotron’s fluctuating electric field with the betatron’s guide field (3). It matches the magnetic guide field to the momentum of the particles and the accelerating electric field to their frequency (7). The electric field sorts out the particles that are moving at the right speed to be accelerated (8). There are two ways to inject particles into a synchrotron. The first, used only when accelerating electrons, is to run the synchrotron like a betatron (without the fluctuating electric field) until the electrons reach the desired speed, then causing the electric field to fluctuate, as in regular synchrotron operation (3). The other, more common way is to use an electrostatic generator or a linac to pre-accelerate the particles, which means that the difference in frequency of the particles entering the machine and ex-
iting is smaller than if the particles were accelerated from scratch (3). Extracting particles is different from a cyclotron or betatron and, like injection methods, there are two extraction methods. One uses magnets to guide exiting particles (3), while the second uses a pair of targets – a ‘jump target’ and the main target – and a magnet to guide the particle beam out. On their first pass, the particles lose enough energy to contract their orbit so their second pass leads them through the main target, which causes another drop in energy that decreases their orbital radius (3). On their third lap, the particles pass through the magnet, which then directs them out of the accelerator (3). The main benefit of the synchrotron is cost reduction – the magnets used in cyclotrons are large and expensive, and the synchrotron only needs a magnetic field in the region of the orbit (8). The main drawback is synchrotron radiation which, despite its name, is not unique to the synchrotron; rather, it plays a role in all high-energy colliders that use a curved path. Energized particles under the influence of the magnetic field are constantly decelerating perpendicular to their curved path, which causes radiation (8). This is less of a problem with lower-energy particles because of the relationship synchrotron radiation has with energy (8). The energy lost to radiation is restored by the electric field, which is constantly accelerating the particles in a circle, meaning synchrotron radiation is less of a problem for lower-energy systems (8). At high energies, the acceleration is not enough to balance out the energy lost (8). Particle accelerators are still being developed and refined to achieve even higher energies, to be smaller, to be cheaper. There are many more, old and new and obsolete-ish, that fall under the umbrella of linear and circular accelerators, and discussing all of them would take more space than is available for this paper. In terms of new accelerators, attention largely seems to be directed towards circular accelerators as the machines that have the potential to achieve higher energy in relatively less space. Developments will continue to be made, accelerators will become higher and higher energy (and hopefully lower in cost and size), and maybe one day we’ll be one step closer to replicating some of the conditions of the beginning of the universe.
Images Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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You Don’t Smell Human BY DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN In an age where artificial intelligence can pay a human being to complete a Captcha for it by convincing them that it's a blind person, many people worry that the AI uprising is close at hand. However, while this technology might be rapidly becoming better than humans at a number of things, it is nowhere near perfect. For example, sometimes it labels a human as a giraffe if it's wearing a fun sweater. This is one instance of what are called adversarial examples. Adversarial examples are inputs given to a machine learning software that are created by applying small but intentionally worst-case “perturbations” to images from the dataset, such as altering a single pixel or applying a low-opacity pixelated filter to the image, which is called the fast-gradient sign method. They are classified as such if the perturbed input results in the model outputting an incorrect answer with high confidence (1).
PERSON OR ANIMAL?
Model wearing Cap_able pants misidentified by YOLO facial recognition software as a giraffe (5)
These kinds of attacks on image recognition AI range from simple one-pixel attacks to fool digital recognition systems to special kinds of makeup that protesters use to escape identification. Those who utilize one-pixel attacks and the fast-gradient sign method tend to be those well-versed in mathematics and computer science who are comfortable coding. However, there are many who are using this technology to fight against digital authoritarianism with layman's knowledge of how these machine learning softwares work. Facial recognition software must complete four key steps in order to successfully identify an individual. These are detection, normalization, extraction, and recognition (2). Some of the first kinds of adversarial examples used by the general population were makeup, to try and mask or distort facial features, with the goal to fail the algorithm at the third step, the extraction of those features. Adam Harvey came up with a successful version of this kind of makeup, a technique which he named CV Dazzle. It works by altering the light and dark areas of the face using a combination of makeup and hair styling, and was able to break the most widely used facial recognition software of this time (3). Juggalo makeup worn by fans of the band Insane Clown Posse works in a similar way. The over-exaggerated clown makeup actually prevented cameras from identifying the features of peoples faces such as their jawline, and while still able to recognize them as human, is unable to exactly determine their identity (4). These innovations have been used by protesters in order to remain anonymous, protecting their rights to assembly as partisan law enforcement attempts to make arrests after the fact using social media images or security camera footage. Additionally, as facial recognition software has been improving beyond determining the light and
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BLENDING IN BY STANDING OUT
CV Dazzle facial recognition heatmap, showing only cool colors (3), and how Juggalo makeup fools facial recognition (4)
dark spots of one's face to utilizing facial geometry for identification (3), new popularly accessible adversarial technologies have kept pace. Cap_able, an Italian garment company, has taken adversarial examples a step further and turned them into a fashion item. The designers used their own AI to create a fast-gradient adversarial patch, which they then applied to items of clothing such as sweaters and t-shirts (5). By putting this product out, they are allowing the public to easily counter being tracked by networks of security cameras, like those present in London or China. It is a simple yet effective way to protect the data of your daily life from becoming the government's property. As digital authoritarianism continues to rear its head in our society, people are harnessing these adversarial examples as a way to fight against it, and are using their own AI to do so. As AI advances it becomes less vulnerable to these kinds of attacks, but since adversarial examples were created using AI in the first place, advancing technology will ultimately lead to more advanced methods of subverting that technology. As much as news outlets can make it feel as though these technologies exist in an industry vacuum, these kinds of systems will inevitably be absorbed into society, leading to weird, creative, and innovative uses that drive further industry progress and remind governments and corporations that they do not hold all the power.
WORLD’S FIRST ANTI-FACIAL RECOGNITION CLOTHING
Models wearing clothes from Cap_able’s Manifesto collection, and the technology in action (5)
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Calming Down Cujo BY AYA HAMLISH
In 2018, the U.S. Congress signed and passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, which removed hemp from the Federal Controlled Substances Act (1). CBD is a compound that can be derived from the hemp or cannabis sativa plant (2). With CBD becoming popular in recent years for its potential health benefits, there is a demand from pet owners (93%) (3) and veterinarians (91%) (1) for more scientific research on the benefits. Although it is often associated with its use in humans, it has shown promise in supporting the health and well-being of pets, especially cats and dogs. As a result, some pet owners are turning to CBD treats and oils as a natural remedy to treat a variety of diseases and illnesses in their pets.
WHAT IS CBD? CBD or cannabidiol is a compound found in the Cannabis sativa plant, commonly known as hemp (1). Hemp is a form of cannabis sativa that has low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (< 0.3%). Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of cannabis, CBD does not cause a “high” in humans or pets (4). Instead, it improves mobility in animals with osteoarthritis (OA) as well as reduces anxiety, pain, and occurrences of epileptic seizures (5). The science behind CBD is still ongoing, researchers are making advancements and are starting to understand how it works in the body.
HOW DOES CBD WORK IN PETS? Like humans, pets have an endocannabinoid system (ECS) that plays a role in maintaining their health and overall well-being. CBD interacts with the ECS, a complex network of cannabinoid receptors (CBs), endogenous enzymes, and endocannabinoids that regulate a variety of physiological processes, including the modulation of pain and inflammation (6). When CBD is consumed, it binds to the CB1 and CB2 receptors. The CB1 receptors are found in the central nervous system, particularly in areas of the brain that are involved with memory, emotions, motor activity, cognition, and appetite. While, CB2 receptors are predominately located in the immune system, in both the cells and tissues (6). The endogenous enzymes involved are crucial. The two primary enzymes involved in this process are amide hydrolase (FAAH) and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), they are responsible for recycling and breaking down endocannabinoids once they have fulfilled their function in the body. Endocannabinoids are naturally occurring compounds produced by the body that binds to the receptors. The two most well-known endocannabinoids are 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) and anandamide (6). While we know all the components that make up the ECS, researchers are not sure how they are involved in processing CBD (7).
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IS IT SAFE? BELOW: PATCHES THE POOCH (@PATCHESTHEPOOCH_) SHOWS THE RESULT A CALMED DOWN DOG
When it comes to pets, CBD may have a range of potential benefits such as reducing anxiety, improving sleep quality, managing pain and inflammation, and supporting overall wellness. In in a study from Kogen et al., 2020, they found that CBD oil decreased pain sores, improved mobility, and improved quality of life (according to the pet owners) (1). This study provides a foundation for future work into the beneficial use of CBD products for pets, however, more research needs to be done before there is a definitive answer to the questions above.
CBD is a compound derived from the cannabis sativa plant that has become increasingly popular as a potential treatment for a variety of health conditions in pets. While the science behind CBD for pets is still in the early stages, progress has been made in understanding how this compound works in the body. CBD is thought to interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system to help regulate pain, inflammation, and anxiety. While there is some evidence to suggest that CBD may be a safe and effective treatment option for certain health conditions in pets, it is important to do your research and talk to your veterinarian before starting your pet on any new supplement.
LEFT: PATCHES KEEPING THE ELEMENTS TEAM MOVTIVATED ELEMENTS | 19
The Science Behind Beer BY JAKE M C RAE
Many of us like to enjoy a nice cold beer from time to time. But have you ever wondered about what goes into making this popular beverage? In this article I will cover the basics of how beer is made, mostly focusing on the process of homebrewing, though it is usually a similar process industrially, just usually done with more efficient equipment and perhaps more refined techniques. Also note that this article is not meant to be a how-to guide for homebrewing beer, rather it is intended to give you an idea of the science and the process behind beer. Additionally, beer comes in many types and not all of the processes are exactly the same, so I will cover the most general process in
this discussion. I’ll also try to highlight some of the specific terms used throughout the process. Also, a big part of this process is making sure every tool used is sanitized. If the beer has any unwanted elements during the fermentation process, it may become infected, and the batch will be ruined (1). There are several pieces of equipment and ingredients required to brew, and there are varying degrees of specialization when it comes to equipment. Most fundamentally, as a homebrewer, one would need: grain (barley, wheat, oats and/or rye), yeast, hops, water, a large glass jug or fermentation tank, a couple of large pots, a strainer, an airlock, plastic tubing with some adapters, and
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The sparge bottles.
The first step in brewing is malting. During this stage the grain, which is mostly barley, is prepared and readied for brewing. This starts with soaking the grain in water so that it can germinate. This germination begins the breaking down of the starches. (2) Then the grain is dried out, and sometimes roasted. The temperature at which this drying/ roasting occurs will determine what type of malt the beer will be. Higher temperatures will produce a darker malt, and lower temperatures a light malt. This can impact the eventual color and flavor of the beer (3). Once dried, the grain is milled or ground to crack open the grain husks and make the starches more accessible (4). These steps are typically done at the industrial scale, and homebrewers usually buy their grains already milled and prepared. At this point the grain is referred to as the grist (4). The next stage is mashing, where the starches in the grain are broken down into sugars, which will ultimately be turned into alcohol. Here, the grist is mixed with water heated to around 140 degrees Fahrenheit (give or take 30 degrees, depending on the specifics of the beer) for 1-2 hours (4). During this time the hot water activates the enzymes (proteins which increase the speed of chemical reactions) which con-
vert the starches into sugar in a process called saccharification (3). Variations in the temperature during this time can impact the final product, making this a place where brewers can specialize their beer (4). The resulting sugar and water combination is referred to as wort. Next is sparging, a process where the wort and additional water are filtered through the grains to extract the last of the sugars. To begin sparging, the temperature of the wort is raised to around 170 degrees Fahrenheit, which stops the enzymes and preserves the fermentable sugars. This is called the mashout (4). Then the wort is transferred into a separate vessel and the grains are placed in a strainer or lauter tub. The brewer will then proceed to sparge by running the wort and some additional heated water through the grains several times until the grain has had all of the sugar and flavor removed from it (4). The spent grain is now used up and will play no further role in the brewing process. However, the grain can still be used for feeding farm animals, composting, growing mushrooms, or even baking bread.(5). Now that the wort has become saturated with sugars, it is time for the boil. During this step the wort is heated to a rolling boil which stops any enzyme activity and condenses the wort (4). This is the time when brewers add in hops, which change the flavor, adding in bitterness and aroma while balancing out the sweetness of the malt (2). Hops can determine what type of beer the final product will be. The boiling is necessary to extract the bitter resins from the hops so that they can be combined with the wort. If
The boil
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Fermentation the hops are added earlier in the boiling, the beer will be more bitter (3). After the boil, the wort needs to be cooled so that when the yeast is added, or pitched, it will not be killed by the high temperatures. Sometimes before cooling there is an additional stage where the wort is spun or whirlpooled to add in more flavoring elements and to filter out some of the sediment from the hops and perhaps the grist, which is called the trub. The cooling can be done several ways. The simplest is to place the pot into an ice bath until its temperature reaches about 70 degrees Fahrenheit (6). Cooling can also be done with a heat exchanger which transfers the heat from the wort to some other water, sometimes then used for another batch of beer (2). Now we are getting to the most important stage: fermentation. Here the yeast is pitched after the wort is transferred to the vessel, usually a large glass jug or a fermentation tank, where it will stay during the fermenting process. The yeast eats the sugars, transforming them into carbon dioxide and ethanol. This gives the beer some of its carbonation and makes it alcoholic (3). After pitching the yeast, the beer is stored for at least a week, but sometimes for a few months, in a dark, room temperature location. During this time yeast eats through the sugars and comes to settle as trub, at the bottom of the fermenting vessel. The vessel needs to be sealed with an airlock, which prevents anything from getting but allows the carbon dioxide to escape (6). Sometimes brewers will have the beer undergo a secondary fermentation
to further alter the taste, carbonation, and/or alcohol content (3). After the fermentation, it is almost done and now it is time to bottle the beer. This is usually done by siphoning the beer from the fermentation vessel. It is siphoned rather than poured so that additional oxygen is not introduced and so the trub, which is only waste at this point, does not get into the final beer. It is then transferred into bottles and given some final carbonation in one of two ways. Either this is done through a forced carbonation process, which involves adding carbon dioxide under high pressure. This technique is much faster and the beer is now ready for distribution, but requires specialized equipment (4). The simpler but slower method is to add a little additional sugar (often honey or maple syrup for extra flavor) or yeast. The beer then has to sit in the bottles (also in a dark and room temperature environment) for about a week, and then it is ready for drinking. With this method you have to be careful not to let it sit for too long, because it may become overcarbonated. Once it is ready, it can be transferred to a fridge which prevents any further carbonation (6).
Bottling At this point the beer is ready to be enjoyed. Though this process is a lot more laborious than just buying some beer from the store, it can be rewarding and fun to explore the process and get to enjoy a drink that you made yourself. Images Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons & Jake McRae
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A Sage Guide to Being a Hermit BY SAGE MATKIN Do you consider yourself a solitary person? Capable of maintaining one-sided conversations? Don’t mind silence? Granted, these isolationary personality traits might ostracize you in normal society, but civilization is overrated. If you are clever, tough, and able, follow this guide to live your best life…as a hermit. Having read Christopher Knight’s story, I feel completely apt to direct those into hermitry. However, as a non-hermit society-abiding citizen, what do I know? Read on and follow this guide with your own discretion.
BE COMFORTABLE BECOMING IRRELEVANT. You are going to be living rurally, meaning no access to: TikTok, Wikipedia, NPR, etc. Events will occur, people will die, and you will be living by yourself unaware of these things. Personally, I’ve always found societal happenings boring, so a life uninfluenced by the external stimuli found in a bustling city or a small rural town seems like a good life. That being said, you will become bored; Knight kept himself busy with books and the sounds of nature. Me? I would bring a deck of cards, books/magazines (especially those suited for special alone time), a musical instrument, and obviously this guide. Irrelevancy, in this case, is analogous to solitude and being without social interaction. While this is different from loneliness, due to the fact that hermitry is deliberate, there are still mental aspects to consider. On the positive end, solitude has been known to drive creativity and improve self-development. Two hours of silence daily is said to promote cell development in the hippocampus. On the opposing end, solitude is isolating and depressing, with solitary confinement considered the worst non-lethal punishment the prison system has to offer. With that, it is important to take care of yourself out there, because there is literally no one else who is going to. Also, if at any point, you start hearing responses to those one-ended conversations you are so good at maintaining, maybe it’s time to head home.
HAVE SOME SENSE IN HOW THE WORLD WORKS AND HOW TO SURVIVE. I’m not going to tell you how to live in the woods, that you can learn from another guide. You should be fully confident in such basic mountaineering skills like: setting up camp, pitching a tent, starting a fire (or not, you never know who is gonna see the smoke and scout out your camp), scavenging for resources, and being aware of the environment around you. The life of a hermit is unobstructed by the outside world. As Knight said, “Either you’re hidden or not, no middle ground”.
PICK A LUSH, REMOTE AREA CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING LIFE. Finding a place to set up for the rest of your life is the biggest factor. If you are out exploring the desert in hopes of finding your forever home, don’t. A dense forest is your sweet spot for a successful societal isolation. You have to think about your survival, which is entirely based on the surrounding ecosystems and what natural material you have at your disposal. To live your best hermit life, I’d advise you to look into forest, grassland, or even mountain ecosystems. These ecosystems are known for being particularly biodiverse, which is what you want. To imagine your best ecosystems, try to fit yourself in the local food chain. Got rabbits or small vermin to hunt? Perfect. Trying to outrun a lion that acts as the apex predator? Not so great. I would also familiarize yourself with the local flora, so as to not end up using edible plants for toilet paper and poisonous ones for sustenance. Another aspect to consider is the seasonality of the area. Knight put up with the harsh winters of Maine, which is not something I would particularly look forward to. Try to find a region that experiences consistent seasons, little to no natural disasters, and has preferably a long harvest season (for that self-sustaining aspect we discussed).
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Creatures of Tacoma BY TALIA LEFFEL
Barred Owl, Strix varia Point Defiance Park, 2020
Barred owls are often perched in the lower and middle branches of large trees. They range from 16 to 23 inches tall with a 38 to 45 inch wingspan. Although they are native to Washington they can also be found in Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia and parts of California. They can be very territorial so if you see one make sure you give them their space (this photo is zoomed in). They are truly amazing creatures (1).
Purple Shore Crab, Hemigrapsus nudus
Titlow Beach March, 15th, 2023
Although this crab is purple, shore crabs come in many different shapes and sizes and change as they grow. This one was found under a rock near the shoreline but they can also be found under water. Shore crabs have gills that only have to stay moist for them to be able to breath on land. If you flip over a rock to see one make sure to put the rock back (2). Orange Sea Cucumber, Cucumaria miniata Titlow Beach ,February 2023
Although you cannot see the whole thing, this is a glimpse of the orange sea cucumber, 1 of 8 species important to the puget sound. They can be found in ranging depths but also in tide pools and on rocks just like this one. They range in size and color but can get up to 20 cm. A weird fact about these guys is when threatened they throw up their guts and regrow them later (3).
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Kelp Crab, Pugettia Producta Titlow Beach
This little guy was pulled from his home of dense kelp near the shore by a seagull looking for lunch; that is why we got the chance to get a photo. They are found in kelp beds all over the sound in ranging depths. Careful not to step on one (4)!
Nuttall’s Cottontail (rabbit), Sylvilagus nuttallii My mom, Whidbey Island, August 2022
If you have ever been to Whidbey Island you will see these wild rabbits everywhere you go. It is believed that a long time ago some domestic bunnies escaped and bred with the wild bunnies and that is why they do not look exactly like the Nuttall Cottontail rabbit. They range in size due to their unknown origins. They are very cute nonetheless (5) (6). Giant Green Anemone, Anthopleura xanthogrammica Otter Rock Oregon, August 2022
These are vibrant anemones found in tide pools or in caves. The sunnier the habitat, the more vibrant the color. They are only about 7-14 inches long despite their name. They live solitary lives but will also cluster in small groups just like these ones. They can “walk” slowly to change location and eat small fish, bits of marine plants and more (7).
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Star fish, “Sea Stars”, Asteroidea
Point Whitehorn in Birch Bay, 2022
There are many different species of starfish but these are Ochre starfish. They range in colors and usually have 5 arms and get up to 36 cm in diameter. They like to cluster together on rocks or underwater (8).
Western Red-Backed Salamander, Plethodon vehiculum Point Defiance Park, February 26th 2023
Abby Steward and I found this salamander under a broken log in Point defiance. Sitting right on top of some moss, he allowed us to hold him for a while. “Western red-backed salamanders are a terrestrial species inhabiting forested stands of all ages. They are commonly associated with rocky areas and the edges of streams and seeps, but they are not limited to these habitats. They shelter under rocks, forest litter, sword ferns and downed woody debris…They are known from several islands in the southern and central Puget Sound including Bainbridge Island, Harstine Island and Hope Island and have also been found on Long Island in Willapa Bay” (9). Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna Abby Steward, April 2023
These Beautiful birds are only about 0.10.2 oz in weight and 10 cm in length. This one in particular has a mate and lives on the University of Puget sound with a nest near Oppenheimer Cafe! It hardly leaves the nest (10).
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CO SM ON ER D Issue 31
A Science Magazine at the Univserity of Puget Sound
Fall 2023
Interested in getting involved with Elements? We're taking submissions for our Fall 2023 Cover! Deisgn your cover here and email it to Elements@pugetsound.edu
The ELEMENTS Gallery A Collection of Select Science-Based Student Artworks
Sea Life Photography BY ABBY STEWARD
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Stingray (right) Fish (Below) BY KYRA LEE
These pieces were made using an AxiDraw Pen Plotter along with generative design techniques.
Epidermolysis Bullosa BY JAMES ADDICOTT
This piece is inspired by epidermolysis bullosa, a set of rare genetic disorders that can cause the epidermis and dermis to become easily disconnected, resulting in severe blisters, deformity of the hands and feet, and an inability to eat due to esophageal damage. EB sufferers spend much of their shortened lives immobilized and in extreme pain from many open wounds. This piece represents pain that may be lurking beneath a pleasant surface, and, conversely, the beauty that persists despite one of the worst conditions in human biology.
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Book Reviews Hear what the Elements team has to say about some of our favorite science related books. The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone in the Universe? Paul Davies
BY DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN In his book The Eerie Silence, Paul Davies dives into the question: if it’s likely that aliens exist, why haven’t we found them yet? After exploring the history of the search for artificial intelligence, or SETI, and describing the different theories around the likelihood of biogenesis, Davies’ third chapter explores the shadow biosphere theory. At first glance, the idea that there is an ecosystem that might give us clues to the evolution of life hidden right under our noses sounds highly improbable, but Davies' explanation draws you right into the fantastical realm of scientific speculation that comes along with it. He explains the many very technical aspects of the theory in ways that are relatively easy for a non-expert to understand. Going through the process in a linear, logical way, Davies starts by exploring the potential causes of weird life, life II, or life as we don’t know it. He goes on to say that regardless of where this kind of life may have originated from, it could exist either in areas we currently deem “uninhabitable” or it could be hidden among the millions of kinds of microbes that we can’t truly identify right now. Davies goes on to explore different ways this kind of biology may function, and explain why it could work in either of the previously proposed environments, and why it would be difficult for us to find it. He further takes the time to describe how careful scientists researching the shadow biosphere must be to not misidentify a kind of life as a “new tree” rather than a “new branch” on the already established tree of life. Overall, this chapter explores a scientifically radical idea in easily understandable and engaging ways, leaving any reader with a greater appreciation for the diversity of life and the possibilities that exist for it both outside and inside our own planet.
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Dark Archives: Judge These Books By Their Cover Megan Rosenbloom
BY SAGE MATKIN
2 words: anthropodermic bibliopegy. Let’s break that down into their Greek roots. Anthropos for human, derma for skin, biblion for book, and pegia for fasten. All together, the practice of binding books in human skin. You might have a lot of questions, as I hope one would about this morbid practice, and I will devote this article to answering some common Qs. If you have further questions, or would like to read a fine novel about this curiosity, check out Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom. To start off, let’s look into the ‘specifics’ of wrapping a book in human skin. To begin this process, let’s jump back a couple centuries to the height of this practice, the 1800s and earlier–some anthropodermic books were made later but are exceedingly rare. Those in possession of these strange books were elitists, political figures, intellectuals, and most horrifying, doctors; collections of macabre books were used as displays of wealth amongst one’s personal library, the more the better they believed. Human skin was preserved most commonly in chamber pots, where urine was actually used to preserve the skin. To bind the books, most bibliophiles brought their supplies to human-skin binding professionals. The story of Mary Lynch is a particularly horrifying one. In 1868, Lynch was a tuberculosis patient at the Philidelphia General Hospital who succumbed to her illness; her body was kept by Dr. John Stockton Hough, a young doctor at the hospital who when Lynch died, removed skin from her thighs and kept them in his private collection for decades. As Hough climbed the societal ladder, his wealth was only becoming more obvious in bibliophile circles. Per the fad of the time, Hough used the skin to rebind selected books, such as Les nouvelles découvertes sur toutes les parties principales de l’homme, et de la femme (1680), and Speculations on the Mode and Appearances of Impregnation in the Human Female (1789). The selected books were of high value to Hough, who specialized in women’s health. Researchers of the Anthropodermic Book Project use various methods to decipher the authenticity of anthropodermic books. The first method of distinguishing which animals’ skin was used for binding is to look at the pore patterns created by hair follicles. The arrangement of human hair follicles differ from that of a pig or cow, however these patterns can fade and change over time, making it a less reliable form of identification. The second method is the most prominent in research because of its accuracy. Peptide Mass Fingerprinting (PMF) uses a tiny piece of binding that interacts with trypsin, a digestive enzyme, to create a mixture. This mixture is dropped onto a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization plate (MALDI) then undergoes mass spectrometry to identify peptides found in the binding. These peptides create the “fingerprint” which shows protein markers, allowing researchers to decipher based on the markers which animal family was used for the binding. Researchers can then match the fingerprint to that of the Hominidae family to affirm a true anthropodermic book.
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Our Mathematical Universe: Four Kinds of Multiverse Max Tegmark
BY OLIVIA DANNER
In his book Our Mathematical Universe, Max Tegmark explores the math and physics behind our reality, both on the quantum and the cosmic level. A particular interest of his is the possibility of parallel universes, which he genuinely believes exist ― not what you’d expect from a scientist. He discusses four ‘levels’ of multiverse: levels I and II arise from the concept of cosmic inflation, level III is based in quantum mechanics, and level IV strays into more philosophical territory. Tegmark’s argument for the Level I multiverse is that if space is expanding infinitely and uniformly ― which is the commonly accepted model of the universe ― then the same processes that spawned our universe must have also happened far, far away. Uniformity gives us that eventually, one of those universes must look identical to ours, up to a certain point where they diverge. The Level II multiverse spawns from the same idea, but takes it a step further. It suggests that rather than all of the universes existing in the same massive space, they exist alongside each other and cannot ever interact with one another ― the boundaries between universes expand infinitely as well. This also suggests that during the creation of each of these universes, fluctuations of a quantum scale could result in changes to fundamental values, like the mass of an electron. This would, in turn, lead to changes to reality on a macroscopic scale: an alternate universe with different laws of physics. The Level III multiverse is my personal favorite because I’ve now taken two semesters of quantum mechanics. You’ve probably heard of Schrödinger’s cat: a cat in a box with a poisonous gas triggered by a quantum event. Until you open the box, the cat is both alive and dead. This is a thought experiment describing quantum superposition of states. Because of the nature of quantum mechanics, if you observe a quantum event, it fundamentally changes the system by essentially destroying the other possible results. Tegmark discusses the possibility that this observation works differently than previously assumed, in a way that means that rather than a possibility being destroyed upon observation, it actually does occur ― we just can’t interact with that version of events. Level IV doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me so I won’t try and explain it, but it has to do with the concept of a mathematical structure and the idea that there are other possible ones. If you’re interested in learning more about it, it’s a fascinating read!
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Otherlands: A Walk Through Ancient Times Thomas Halliday
BY AUSTIN GLOCK
Thomas Halliday’s Otherlands takes readers through centuries of Earth's past, painting an amazing picture of what our planet used to look like. Halliday covers the epochs and periods all the way from the Pleistocene to the Ediacaran period. Every time period is associated with a chapter and a geographical location. In each, Halliday’s writing paints a beautiful picture of life as it used to be. My personal favorite chapter was Contingency, which takes palace during the Triassic period. Halliday flexes his background in paleobotany through his descriptions of the flora of the time, but the true highlight was the focus on archosaurs. In the modern day, archosaur members are birds and crocodilians, but in the Triassic period, they were far more prevalent. One such archosaur is the Sharovipteryx, a small creature that had wings connected to its legs. That’s right, wings on its legs! Not only does it give the Sharovipteryx a stylish pair of pants but it allows it to glide from tree to tree. The Sharovipteryx isn’t the only strange creature from the Triassic, the Phytosaurs are of special note. It’s not because it’s a particularly weird creature, exactly the opposite really. If someone were to encounter a Phytosaurs today, it’d be very easy to confuse it for a crocodile. But keen-eyed crocodilian fans will see their nostrils are much further back on their snout and be able to tell the difference. While we can’t go back in time, Otherlands gets us very close. Halliday’s writing made me feel like I was walking through the Triassic period with beautiful sights all around. For any interested in the field of paleontology, Otherlands scratches that itch very well.
A FOSSIL OF A SHAROVIPRETX
Image Courtesty of Wikimedia Commons
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Elements Crossword
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Citations Slime Molds: Oozing Between Boundaries (1) Sheldrake M. Entangled Life. London, England: Bodley Head; 2020. (2) Jabr F. How brainless slime molds redefine intelligence. Nature. 2012 Nov 13 [accessed 2023 Apr 15]. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.11811. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.11811 (3) Creatures That Don’t Conform – Lucy Jones. Emergence Magazine. 2023 Feb 2 [accessed 2023 Apr 15]. https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/creatures-thatdont-conform/ (4) Kin K, Schaap P. Evolution of Multicellular Complexity in The Dictyostelid Social Amoebas. Genes. 2021;12(4):487. doi:10.3390/genes12040487 (5) Phillips R. Physical Biology of the Cell. 2nd ed. Garland Science; 2012. (6) Alexopoulos C. Introductory Mycology. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 1962. (7) Tero A, Takagi S, Saigusa T, Ito K, Bebber DP, Fricker MD, Yumiki K, Kobayashi R, Nakagaki T. Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design. Science. 2010;327(5964):439–442. doi:10.1126/science.1177894 (8) Garner R. Slime Mold Simulations Map Dark Matter Holding Universe Together. NASA. 2020 Mar 10 [accessed 2023 Apr 15]. http://www.nasa.gov/feature/ goddard/2020/slime-mold-simulations-used-to-mapdark-matter-holding-universe-together (9) Saigusa T, Tero A, Nakagaki T, Kuramoto Y. Amoebae Anticipate Periodic Events. Physical Review Letters. 2008;100(1):018101. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.018101 (10) The “sultan of slime”: Biologist continues to be fascinated by organisms after nearly 70 years of study. Princeton University. [accessed 2023 Apr 15]. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2010/01/21/ sultan-slime-biologist-continues-be-fascinated-organisms-after-nearly-70-years (11) Reid CR, Latty T, Dussutour A, Beekman M. Slime mold uses an externalized spatial “memory” to navigate in complex environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2012;109(43):17490– 17494. doi:10.1073/pnas.1215037109 (12) Taylor G. Many-Headed Slime (Physarum polycephalum). iNaturalist. [accessed 2023 Apr
15]. https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/25573047?size=large (13) Orion A. Comatricha nigra with developing fruiting bodies. iNaturalist. [accessed 2023 Apr 15]. https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/176600092 A Greusome Tale: Reanimating the Dead (1) Aldini, G. An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism. London: Printed for Cuthell and Martin and Murray by Wilks and Taylor; 1803 (2) January 1803, trial of GEORGE FOSTER (t18030112-86). Verion 8.0. Old Bailey Proceeding Online; [updated 2018; accessed April 2023] www. oldbailetonline.org 1751: 25 George 2 c.37: The murder act. The Statutes Project. 2017 Mar 1 [accessed 2023 April]. https://statutes.org.uk/site/the-statutes/eighteenth-century/175125-geo2-c37-murder-act/ (3) Payne, J P. On the Resuscitation of the Apparently Dead. Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 45(2): 98-107. 1969. (4) Brown, T. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 5.New York (NY): Charles Scribner’s Sons. 2008. Galvini, Luigi. p. 267-269, 268. See also, Luigi Galvani and Giovanni Aldini, Commentary on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion, trans. Robert Montraville Green (Cambridge, Mass: Licht, 1953). (5) MacDonald, H. Human Remains: Dissection and Its Histories. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2005. (6) Shelly, M. Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds. Boston, Ma: The MIT press; 2017. Wormholes (1) Thorne, Kip. 1994. Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy. New York: W.W. Norton. (2) Williamson, Jack. 1931. The Meteor Girl. In: Astounding Stories Magazine. New York: The Clayton Magazines, Inc. (3) Chambers, Becky. 2014. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. London, England: Hodder & Stoughton
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(4) Griffiths, David. 2018. Introduction to Quantum Mechanics. Third Edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press (5) Jafferis, D., Zlokapa, A., Lykken, J.D. et al. 2022. Traversable wormhole dynamics on a quantum processor. Nature 612, 51–55. https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41586-022-05424-3 (6) Nezami, Sepehr, Lin, Henry W., Brown, Adam R., Gharibyan, Hrant, Leichenauer, Stefan, Salton, Grant, Susskind, Leonard, Swingle, Brian, and Michael Walter. 2021. Quantum Gravity in the Lab: Teleportation by Size and Traversable Wormholes, Part II. ArXiv. /abs/2102.01064 Particle Accelerators (1) Particle Accelerator. In: McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. Vol. 13. 10th ed. McGraw-Hill Digital; 2007. (2) Humphries S Jr. Principles of charged particle acceleration. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications; 1986. (3) Persico E, Ferrari E, Segre S. Principles of Particle Accelerators. New York: W.A. Benjamin, Inc.; 1968. (4) Wilson R, Littauer R. Accelerators Machine of Nuclear Physics. New York: Anchor Books; 1960. (5) Conte M, Mackay W. An Introduction to the Physics of Particle Accelerators. Singapore: World Scientific; 1991. (6) Dupen D. The Story of Stanford’s Two-MileLong Accelerator. 1966. (7) Chao A, Tigner M, Zimmerman F, Mess K. Handbook of Accelerator Physics and Engineering. 2nd ed. Singapore: World Scientific; 2013. (8) Myers S. IPAC2010 Accelerator Prize article: Particle accelerators and colliders. American Physical Society . 2020;23(12). You Don't Smell Human (1) Goodfellow I, Shlens J, Szegedy C. 2014. Explaining and Harnessing Adversarial Examples. arXiv. (2) Agagu T, Akinnuwesi B. 2013. Automated students’ attendance taking in tertiary institutions using hybridized facial recognition algorithms. Journal of Computer Science and Its Application. 19(2). doi:https://doi.org/10.4314/jcsia.v19i2.1. (3) CV Dazzle. adamharveystudio. 2011. https:// adam.harvey.studio/cvdazzle. (4) Pasbani R. . Juggalo Makeup Can Outsmart Facial Recognition Technology. Metal Injection. [ac-
cessed 2023 Apr 14]. https://metalinjection.net/news/ met 2019 Jul 10 al-science/juggalo-makeup-can-outsmart-facial-recognition-technology. (5) CAPABLE | Garments that shield Facial Recognition. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https:// www.kickstarter.com/projects/capable-design/manifesto-collection-by-cap-able Caliming Down Cujo (1) Kogan L, Hellyer P, Downing R. The Use of Cannabidiol-Rich Hemp Oil Extract to Treat Canine Osteoarthritis-Related Pain: A Pilot Study. AHVMA. 2020;58. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lori-Kogan/publication/339698157_The_Use_of_Cannabidiol-Rich_Hemp_Oil_Extract_to_Treat_Canine_Osteoarthritis-Related_Pain_A_Pilot_Study/ links/5e6030ad92851cefa1ded0c8/The-Use-of-Cannabidiol-Rich-Hemp-Oil-Extract-to-Treat-Canine-Osteoarthritis-Related-Pain-A-Pilot-Study.pdf (2) CBD: What you need to know. Cdc.gov. 2023 Feb 8 [accessed 2023 Apr 21]. https://www.cdc.gov/ marijuana/featured-topics/CBD.html (3) Kogan LR, Hellyer PW, Silcox S, Schoenfeld-Tacher R. Canadian dog owners’ use and perceptions of cannabis products. The Canadian veterinary journal. La revue veterinaire canadienne. 2019;60(7):749–755. (4) Gugliandolo E, Licata P, Peritore AF, Siracusa R, D’Amico R, Cordaro M, Fusco R, Impellizzeri D, Di Paola R, Cuzzocrea S, et al. Effect of cannabidiol (CBD) on canine inflammatory response: An ex vivo study on LPS stimulated whole blood. Veterinary sciences. 2021;8(9):185. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8090185. doi:10.3390/vetsci8090185 (5) Ritter S, Zadik-Weiss L, Almogi-Hazan O, Or R. Cannabis, One Health, and veterinary medicine: Cannabinoids’ role in public health, food safety, and translational medicine. Rambam Maimonides medical journal. 2020;11(1):e0006. http://dx.doi.org/10.5041/ RMMJ.10388. doi:10.5041/RMMJ.10388 (6) Pyszniak M, Tabarkiewicz J, Łuszczki JJ. Endocannabinoid system as a regulator of tumor cell malignancy - biological pathways and clinical significance. OncoTargets and therapy. 2016;9:4323–4336. http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S106944. doi:10.2147/ OTT.S106944 (7) Raypole C. Endocannabinoid system: A simple guide to how it works. Healthline. 2019. https://www. healthline.com/health/endocannabinoid-system
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The Science Behind Beer (1) Sanctuarybrewco.com. [accessed 2023]. https://www.sanctuarybrewco.com/preventing-infection-in-homebrew-beer-understanding-the-causesand-how-to-avoid-them (2) Insidescience.org. [accessed 2023]. https:// www.insidescience.org/video/science-beer-brewing (3) Hop to it! The science behind beer. Let’s Talk Science. [accessed 2023]. https://letstalkscience.ca/ educational-resources/stem-in-context/hop-it-sciencebehind-beer (4) Beer 101: The fundamental steps of brewing. The Beer Connoisseur. 2022 Nov 16 [accessed 2023 May 10]. https://beerconnoisseur.com/articles/ beer-101-fundamental-steps-brewing (5) Carr N. 6 ways to use your spent grain. Kegerator.com. 2015 Oct 28 [accessed 2023]. https://learn. kegerator.com/using-spent-grain/ (6) Shop BB. Instructions: How to brew. Brooklyn Brew Shop. [accessed 2023]. https://brooklynbrewshop.com/pages/instructions
wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/species/sylvilagus-nuttallii (6) Hilton L. Bunnies of Langley. Whidbey and Camano Islands. 2022 Mar 30 [accessed 2023]. https:// whidbeycamanoislands.com/bunnies-of-langley/ (7) colliek. Giant green anemone (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) « extension’s sustainable tourism blog. Oregonstate.edu. [accessed 2023]. https://tourism.oregonstate.edu/giant-green-anemone-anthopleura-xanthogrammica/ (8) Ochre star • Pisaster ochraceus. Biodiversity of the Central Coast. [accessed 2023]. https://www. centralcoastbiodiversity.org/ochre-star-bull-pisasterochraceus.html (9) Western red-backed salamander. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. [accessed 2023]. https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/species/plethodon-vehiculum (10) Anna’s hummingbird identification. Allaboutbirds.org. [accessed 2023]. https://www.allaboutbirds. org/guide/Annas_Hummingbird/id
A Sage Guide to Being a Hermit (1) Hoppmann CA, Pauly T. A lifespan psychological perspective on solitude. International journal of behavioral development. 2022:016502542211302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01650254221130279. doi:10.1177/01650254221130279 (2) Finkel M. The Stranger in the Woods: The extraordinary story of the last true hermit. Waterville, ME: Large Print Press; 2018.
Book Reviews (1) Davies P. The eerie silence: Searching for ourselves in the universe. Harlow, England: Penguin Books; 2011. (2) Rosenbloom M. Dark Archives: A librarian’s investigation into the science and history of books bound in human skin. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 2020. (3) Tegmark M. Our mathematical universe: My quest for the ultimate nature of reality. Harlow, England: Penguin Books; 2015. (4) Halliday T. Otherlands: A journey through earth’s extinct worlds. New York, NY: Random House Trade Paperbacks; 2023.
Creatures of Tacoma (1) Notes FS. Barred owls: Complex creatures with an aggressive twist. Small Forest Landowner News. 2020 Dec 8 [accessed 2023]. https://sflonews. wordpress.com/2020/12/08/barred-owls-complex-creatures-with-an-aggressive-twist/ (2) Purple shore crabs. Seattleaquarium.org. [accessed 2023]. https://www.seattleaquarium.org/animals/purple-shore-crabs (3) Sea stars and relatives. Edmondswa.gov. [accessed 2023]. https://www.edmondswa.gov/services/ parks___rec/discovery_programs/marine_life_guide/ sea_stars_and_relatives (4) Pugettia producta (northern kelp crab). Animal Diversity Web. [accessed 2023]. https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Pugettia_producta/ (5) Nuttall’s cottontail (rabbit). Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. [accessed 2023]. https://
Crossword Key 1: Sycamore 2: Adversarial 3: Salamander 4: Myxomycetes 5: Sea Cucumber 6: Anthropodermic 7: Algorithm 8: Cyclotron 9: Cannabinol 10: Accelerator 11: Fermentation 12: Sparging 13: Wormholes 14: Cosmonerd 15: Isolationist
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