Issue 31

ELEMENTS ISSUE 31

A SCIENCE MAGAZINE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND

Everybody Talks

Barriers to Lung Cancer Screening

WINTER 2023

Fusioneers

This magazine was produced on the unceded homelands of the Puyallup and Coast Salish Nations, who have lived on this land and been its stewards since the beginning of time. They continue to do so today. We recognize that this land acknowledgement is one small step towards true allyship, which must be followed by intentional reflection and action centering the Indigenous peoples of this land and beyond.

ELEMENTS | 3

As both guests on this land and science students, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves on the role of science in the discrediting of traditional ways of knowing, the enforcement of a heteronormative white patriarchy, and the systematic erasure and forced removal of the people of this land. We inherit the responsibility of this history, and commit to using our platform to uplift voices historically silenced by science, and to actively fight against the injustices which continue today.

We include information here about the harms specific to our institution to emphasize accountability and combat the common misconception that these issues only occurred elsewhere.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND’S HISTORY OF EUGENICS HTTPS://HISTORYOFEUGENICS.PUGETSOUNDMUSEUM.ORG/

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND’S CONNECTION TO THE CUSHMAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL HTTPS://WWW.PUGETSOUND.EDU/CAMPUS-COMMUNICATIONS/CAMPUSCOMMUNICATIONS-2021-22/STATEMENT-UNIVERSITY-PUGET-SOUNDCONNECTION-CUSHMAN-INDIAN-SCHOOL-8421

ELEMENTS | 4

Letter from the Editor This is my last semester on campus, with lots of questions and unknowns lying ahead. The biggest experiment yet! Doubt is the correct response to the face of uncertainty, yet we’ve been trained, in part by our prevailing scientific culture, to value confidence over being unsure. In moments where things feel wide open, I have to remind myself to enjoy the feeling. Humility creates space for further questions. So does allowing ourselves to embrace the moments when we don’t know and might be wrong.

I still hesitate to identify as a scientist. I will continue to hesitate, even as I move on to obtain a graduate degree and pursue a career in science. So long as the question “can I call myself a scientist?” remains on the table, so too does the larger question: “what does it mean to be a scientist?” There is room to reflect on what responsibilities the title comes with, and what the definition has historically left out. Knowledge is a privilege, and the scientific method shouldn’t end there. Let’s wonder how we can remove barriers to that knowledge and create impact.

On the magazine, we’ve gotten to think about our own definitions of science. Being a part of this team has been incredibly grounding (literally, you’ll find if you read on to CosmoNerd). We’ve fallen deeply in love with the open questions, moving beyond how to why — why does it matter and why do we care? Care is the very heart of science, and it has been poured into this issue. We’ve included works that make us feel, laugh, look again, and look inside ourselves. We don’t claim to have one definition for what science is, but I hope what you find in the following pages will demonstrate what it means to us.

Thank you.

TIA BÖTTGER Editor-in-Chief Tia Böttger, Editor-in-Chief

JULIA VAHEY Copy Editor

DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN Design Editor

KATERINA WEARN Copy Editor

BENNETT FITZGERALD Design Editor

ALEX BUDE

DENIZ KELEMET

Outreach Manager

Content Director

ELEMENTS | 5

The writing of this acknowledgement was very much a collaborative process that, crucially, not only broadened its scope, but also clarified its intent. What began as statements of fact about climate change became, in the next draft, assertions of values, followed by promises of action. It should be taken as just the start of a conversation, because there is much more to do along these lines. I would encourage yaou to think of it as a little like a communal prayer: it’s something the best versions of us dare to believe in.

In fact, I think an acknowledgement that contains an apology, as this one does, has the potential to build community in unique ways. Of course, it’s right and fair to apologize when we have done something wrong (how else can trust be built?). But an acknowledgement that recognizes misdeeds can also lift up unheard voices— it’s the enemy of erasure. And it can invite others to share their values and aspirations too.

- Steven Neshyba

“We deeply regret the extreme hardships that coming generations of people and non-humans will endure as a result of the present-day damage being inflicted on the global climate system. We recognize that this damage is a known consequence of the pervasive exercise of wealth-enabled carbon privilege, perpetuated by the economic and ideological dominance of Western colonialist nations. We recognize that BIPOC/marginalized communities are most vulnerable to the harms of climate change, and do not share the same burden of responsibility. We commit to exercising our individual agency and our collective power now, to build the best possible future and avert the worst consequences of climate damage.”

- Steven Neshbya, Climate Alliance of the South Sound, and Elements Team The University of Puget Sound is currently in a Climate Action Planning process being led by Lexi Brewer, our director of sustainability. The plan will identify the barriers we need to overcome and investments that need to be made to decarbonize our campus. Around 80% of campus is heated using fossil fuels, making up the majority of campus’ greenhouse gas emissions. Geothermal heating and cooling is being explored as a step to reaching net-zero emissions, replacing outdated natural gas systems in our residence halls.

LEARN MORE ABOUT GEOTHERMAL ON OUR CAMPUS Video created by Tia Böttger, Tatum Bunnett, Nicole Mannix, and Ethan Holst. The target decarbonization year of 2025 was an earlier aspirational goal that didn’t have technical analysis to back up its feasibility. The current Climate Action Planning process will determine a new appropriate date.

ELEMENTS | 6

Have an idea to improve sustainability on campus?

Green Fund can provide up to $10,000 for eligible projects.

In this Issue Front Cover Art by Elements Staff 10 | Barriers to Lung Cancer Screening (LCS) AYA HAMLISH

13 | Transmutation: Alchemy and Modern Science KATRINA GIBBS-EGAN

15 | said the archea to the endosymbiont DENIZ KELEMET

16 | Fusioneers IKE KENNEDY

19 | Everybody Talks JULIA VAHEY

21 | Elements Art Gallery 22 | 8th Century Iraq: The Birthplace of Evolutionary Theory DENIZ KELEMET

24 | How to Avoid Becoming a Noodle ANJALI BHATTACHARYA

26 | Bugs of UPS

MAX KETTERER AND NIA CARROLL

28 | Lying Fallow PATCH GLEASON

32 | The Allium 33 | CosmoNerd 34 | Message from Above SAGE MATKIN

ELEMENTS | 7

35 | Advice from a STEM Senior ABBY STEWARD

36 | Find Your Lab Call Sign DENIZ KELEMET

37 | Guide to Being a Responsible Naturalist SYDNEY MAYSMITH AND TIA BÖTTGER

38 | Balderdash

CECELIA DAUL-WULFF AND DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN

40 | Research Bowl Back Cover by Abby Steward

“Can you believe where we just were? Oh, this planet was a good one, and we were good too— as good as the burn of the sun, and the rain’s sting and the smell of living soil— the all-over song of endless solutions signing the air of a changing world that by every calculation ought never to have been.”

-Richard Powers, Bewilderment

The production of Elements Magazine is possible due to the funding of the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound. Printed and bound in Lakewood, WA at Print NW on FSC Certified 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

Contact us: elements@pugetsound.edu @ups.elements on Instagram

ELEMENTS | 8

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.

BY BENNETT FITZGERALD

based on photography by Leah Zarin

ELEMENTS | 9

Barriers to Lung Cancer Screening (LCS)

BY AYA HAMLISH Lung cancer deaths are the leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States for both men and women (1). Cancer screening can greatly reduce mortality by detecting cancer in the early stages when it can be more easily treated, and in some cases prevented or cured (2). Screening for lung cancer is a relatively new type of cancer screening, and is considered one of the most effective ways to reduce lung cancer mortality. However, 94% of people who met the criteria for lung cancer screening did not get screened (3). This results in significant loss of life, and many of those deaths are preventable with screening. The fact that lung cancer screening is underutilized is a serious ethical issue. In order to increase the rate of lung cancer screening, it is important to understand why people are not getting screening and what can be done to address those barriers and save lives.

In the 1970s, the first lung cancer screening (LCS) was performed by using a chest x-ray to test for lung cancer (2). However, studies found that screening with annual chest x-rays had no effect on lung cancer diagnosis, or mortality rates (2). The discovery of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) to test for lung cancer was a major breakthrough.

The National Lung Screening Trial in 2011 showed that LDCT screening improves survival in patients at risk for lung cancer (2). Despite these findings, more than a decade after LDCT was introduced, lung cancer screening rates remain very low, and lung cancer remains the most deadly cancer. In 2021, only 5.8% of adults in the U.S. who met the criteria had received lung cancer screening. This is directly related to higher rates of lung cancer mortality. Seventy percent of lung cancers are diagnosed at stage 3 or stage 4 and the 5 year mortality for lung cancer hasn’t changed for the past 40 years, while survival for other cancers has steadily improved (2).

ELEMENTS | 10

One of the greatest barriers to lung cancer screening (LCS) is lack of awareness and knowledge about screening. The dangers of smoking are well known, and most people understand the link between smoking and lung cancer.

However, while many people may know that they are at risk for lung cancer, they are unaware that they can be screened for it.

A study performed in Indiana in 2018 found that 38% of eligible individuals were unaware of lung cancer screening (4). Studies from other states had similar results; people may know that they are “high risk” or “at risk” for lung cancer but are unaware that there are options for early detection (5). In reality, there are very specific criteria that define who is eligible for lung cancer screening. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which establishes guidelines for medical services such as cancer screening, recommends yearly lung cancer screenings for “adults aged 50 to 80 years who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years” (6). A pack-year is one pack a day, which means a 20 pack-year smoking history could be a pack a day for 20 years, or 2 packs a day for 10 years (6).

Public health services have attempted to address this gap in knowledge through education; however, these efforts have fallen short. The patient-

directed educational materials are often difficult to understand and may be confusing to people who have limited health literacy. For example, one study found that 62% of the educational materials required a high school education, and 23% required a college degree or higher to fully comprehend (5). This points to the importance of creating educational materials that are appropriate for readers of all levels so people know about LCS and can figure out if it is appropriate for them to get screened, or at least know what questions to ask their doctor. Raising awareness and increasing knowledge about LCS can make screening more understandable and accessible to a larger number of people.

Public perceptions of lung cancer and the perceived risk of LDCT screening are also a barrier to screening. This includes fear of being diagnosed with cancer, being blamed for smoking, and the risk of radiation-induced cancer from screening. One study found that “33% of current smokers were afraid to find out whether they had cancer” (7). The fear of a cancer diagnosis prevents people from seeking help, which often results in a late-stage diagnosis that is more difficult to treat. This same reasoning can be seen in the stigma attached to smoking, where people do not seek screening because they fear they will be judged for their smoking habits. A British study of low-income communities found fear and stigma to be common among smokers, with some perceiving unfair treatment from health care workers (5). Finally, there are misconceptions that exposure to radiation

COMPARISON BETWEEN A HEALTHY LUNG AND CANCEROUS LUNG

Adobe Stock Image

during lung cancer screening can cause radiationinduced cancer. While some risk exists, the National Lung Screening Test study found that in the case of high-risk patients, the benefits outweigh the risks of radiation-induced cancer (2). Unfortunately, the lack of information that is accurate and non-judgemental is a significant barrier to LCS. Even when people are aware of lung cancer screening, they may not get screened because they are concerned about the cost and— as with many medical treatments— confused about whether it is covered by health insurance. “Among those who said they were not willing to get screened, lack of insurance coverage was cited by 33% of current smokers and 25% of former smokers” (7). The situation is even worse for people with no insurance, who may not even consider LCS because they do not have money to cover the cost.

Lung health advocates have lobbied to get LCS covered by insurance and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and private insurance companies cover lung cancer screening based on USPSTF guidelines. For example, the Medicare website clearly states, “Medicare Part B covers lung cancer screenings with LDCT once a year if you meet the criteria” (8).

However, there are gaps in insurance coverage, as well as strict eligibility rules. The rules are confusing and patients are justified in their concern about whether or not their insurance covers LCS. Individuals who have no insurance often make the decision to not get screened because they cannot or do not want to pay for it. Patients without insurance who want to be screened must “often rely on patient navigators, stakeholder collaboration, and diverse sources of support for free screening” (5). The lack of government policies that would ensure all people have access to LCS, regardless of their insurance status, directly impacts the lives of individuals at risk for lung cancer, as well as those who care for them when they are diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer.

Barriers to LCS are not just patient issues. Physicians also face barriers that limit their ability to most effectively provide access to screening.

ELEMENTS | 11

One of the most common physician barriers is being unfamiliar with LCS guidelines and support management for abnormal results. In a study performed in 2016, findings showed “43% of Seattle-area primary care physicians and pulmonary providers reported needing more information on eligibility criteria, while 69% correctly determined screening eligibility for at least three of four patient scenarios” (5). It was also reported that less than half (47%) of family physicians in the U.S. were aware that LDCT is recommended by the USPSTF. In addition to patient-directed educational materials, it is important that all physicians have accurate information that can be easily accessed, for example, pocket guides, onsite lectures, and webinar presentations. All of these forms of sharing information were found to be effective to improve physicians’ understanding of LSC guidelines (5). Physicians also need support in managing abnormal results and communicating results to patients. To help providers manage screening-detected findings, it is important for radiologists to be in contact with physicians in order to most effectively interpret screening results and determine how to manage treatment going forward

(5). The key to increasing LCS rates is to provide support to physicians, which will ultimately save lives.

Better public education that is directed at people at all educational levels and in multiple languages can address the lack of awareness, fear, stigma, and other misconceptions, and improve public perceptions of LCS. Government policies that cover the cost of LCS, even for people with no insurance, will make LCS accessible to people without having to worry about the cost. Programs to address logistical barriers like transportation and time off work, or mobile units to bring LCS to rural areas, can also increase access to screening. Finally, we must reduce physician barriers and provide the information and support they need to communicate effectively with their patients. The high rate of lung cancer deaths is alarming, especially because many of those deaths can be prevented. Addressing the barriers to LCS, and reducing the number of people who are diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer, can have a major impact on cancer mortality in the U.S.

AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION (9)

ELEMENTS | 12

Transmutation: Alchemy and Modern Science

BY KATRINA GIBBS-EGAN When we think of alchemy, we often think of a mystical, complicated magic. Many fantasy novels have been built around the core of this view of alchemy, including books many of us grew up with such as The Alchemist series, or even Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Both depict alchemy as an ancient magic, filled with potions and immortals. Although immortality was never found, alchemy is, indeed, very ancient. In fact, in those times alchemy was viewed as science.

Interest in alchemy has been around since the birth of science: long ago, in ancient Greece, Aristotle began to consider the constitution of matter. He decided that all matter was composed of one of four basic types: earth, air, fire, and water. He observed the world around him and noticed that water, when heated, would turn to steam. He saw this as a “transformation” of something made of water into something made of air, and concluded that all matter is made of pairs of elements which can change freely from one element to another in order to form new things (1). A burning stick would turn to ash and smoke: proof for him that fire could turn earth to air and water to earth.

It was not Aristotle who created alchemy, but his ideas on how matter was formed and changed got other thinkers of his time wondering... if things as different as water and air can transform freely between one another, why couldn’t two forms of earth— for instance, lead and gold— be turned into one another (1)? These philosophers believed that such a task would require the help of the “universal

spirit,”— the source, they believed, of all life: a spirit that permeated the world and brought life to stones and rivers and earth— which they would harness from nature and concentrate into a solid object: the philosopher’s stone (1). This was only one of their goals, but it remains to this day the most well-known and mythological of all alchemical pursuits. One version of the myth even proposed that the philosopher’s stone was used to build Noah’s ark (1).

No alchemist ever successfully created the philosopher’s stone, but this did not stop hundreds of alchemists from dedicating their lives to this pursuit.

Yet, practicing alchemy in the ancient world was often dangerous. If an alchemist was believed to have found something significant, others who coveted the secrets of alchemy might go so far as to kill the alchemist in question, either to claim the alchemist’s success for themselves, or to stop what they perceived as a great evil (1). Because of this danger, alchemists began to write their theories and experiments in coded languages “efflorescent with allegor, metaphor, allusion, and analogy” which gave rise to the perception of alchemists as a mystical and prose-filled magical group (1). Their experimental notes took on the appearance of spells.

Although alchemy had a kernel of truth to it, as many great and mystical things do, the alchemists were primarily mistaken. The harnessing of a spirit within a stone, to be used to cure all illness and transmutate elements between one another, is not possible. There is no known, purely chemical, means of changing one element into another. By the time of Soddy and Rutherford’s experiments with radiation in the early 1900s, the pursuit of alchemy had become scientifically disreputable.

Frederick Soddy and Ernest Rutherford, both radiochemists and demonstrators at McGill University in Quebec, had been experimenting with thorium, the 90th element of the periodic table, and found that it was emitting a gas of which they could not explain the origin (2). They tried to find an external source, or locate impurities within the thorium that could be causing the gas, but there were none (2). The gas was not thorium,

ELEMENTS | 13

and yet it was clearly coming from their thorium sample.

Soddy then realized it for what it was: transmutation.

He purportedly said “Rutherford, this is transmutation: the thorium is disintegrating and transmuting itself into argon gas!” (2). Rutherford was very much against this idea; alchemists had a poor reputation, and he was worried that their work would be discredited if they were associated with others who were trying to perform alchemy (2). Their careers could be at stake by declaring such a mystical and ridiculous operation to be, in fact, reality.

Soddy could not be dissuaded. He experimented more and managed to separate a substance from their thorium which contained most of the sample’s radioactivity. He and Rutherford named this new substance thorium-X (2).

The fact that thorium-X could be chemically separated from thorium at all meant that it had to be chemically different from thorium (2). To be chemically distinct, a change in the quantity of protons in thorium’s nucleus must have occurred (3). Rutherford suspected that the rearrangements in the nucleus made the atom unstable, causing it to emit radiation (1); in reality, the particles leaving were what caused the change in the nucleus.

Alpha particles, a form of radiation, are positively charged particles about the size of the proton.

It turned out that these particles actually were protons from the nucleus of the atom which were being ejected from the thorium atoms (2,3). Given that the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom defines which element it is, the fact that protons were leaving the nucleus fundamentally changed which kind of atom it was (3).

Rutherford and Soddy’s thorium-X wasn’t thorium at all— rather, it was actinium (2). Soddy and Rutherford concluded that radioactivity was “a manifestation of subatomic chemical change” (2).

Others in their field at the time, including the Curies, were finding similar phenomena, but they were not coming to the same conclusions. Their radium samples were emitting a gas whose source they could not explain. Rutherford had to travel to France to convince the Curies that radiation was causing a subatomic chemical change (2). He proved that the gas was hydrogen, a completely different element than radium (2).

A lot of this work was done by Glenn Seaborg, a well-known chemist who synthesized the first, very

ELEMENTS | 14

Soddy and Rutherford’s work in proving that elements could transmutate between one another laid the foundation for other incredible work. Others noted that if an element could be transformed into another element by adding or removing protons, perhaps entirely new elements could be created. unstable versions of ten of the heaviest transuranium elements, for which he co-won the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1951 (4). He did this by bombarding uranium atoms with deuterons (5).

Although alpha particles are protons emitted from a nucleus, subtracting a proton from an atom and making it transform into the element one below it in the periodic table, a neutron can split into a proton and an electron— whose charges cancel out—, and emit the electron, effectively adding a proton to the atom (3). This electron from a split neutron is called a deuteron (3). Seaborg used this knowledge of radiation to push the largest known atoms even further, creating new elements that had never before existed (4). Two years before Seaborg’s death, one of the ten elements he was involved in discovering was named after him: Seaborgium (5).

Aside from creating new elements, Seaborg used transmutation to create radioactive versions of elements that had already existed (5) . The radioactivity given off by some of these radioactive elements are now used to treat cancer (5).

In the end, it turns out that, although many aspects of alchemy are still, as of yet, impossible, the transmutation of one element into another is not. In many ways, magic and science are deeply interconnected. As Arthur C. Clarke said, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from science” (6), and so the magic of yesterday becomes the scientific reality of today.

said the archea to the endosymbiont a poem for two voices

BY DENIZ KELEMET Our flagella interlocked From across the primordial pond.

It was love at first glycoprotein recognition.

Our flagella interlocked From across the primordial pond.

Then you tried to eat me (“phagocytosis” my ass)

Force of habit?

The move-in process was…slow

Darling, I forgive you.

A few billion years! Arduous evolutionary processes;

You know, it’s not easy work, becoming one.

Anyways, we’ve hit our stride now

You know, it’s not easy work, becoming one.

Distinct, but inseparable

Complementarily vulnerable, Needs so entwined I love you as I care for myself I keep us safe; immunize, phagocytose

I love myself as I care for you I keep us strong; metabolize, photosynthesize

Oh, the sacrifices I’ve made for you,

Oh, the sacrifices I’ve made for you,

But hey baby, that’s love: coexistence

But hey baby, that’s coexistence: love

And I’m grateful To not be…prokaryotic, For this love—

And I’m grateful For this love— So sweet, the sun on my skin is our food

So vital as to become synonymous with life itself.

ELEMENTS | 15

Fusioneers

BY IKE KENNEDY

How do you spend your weekend? While most students use their weekends for studying, relaxing, and leisurely activities, there’s an intriguing twist in the routine for some UPS Physics students.

These young physicists dedicate their weekends to conducting fusion research! But where, you might ask? The answer lies behind a rather inconspicuous bookshelf, in the garage of none other than retired Microsoft Senior IT Systems Manager, Carl Greninger. If you’re raising an eyebrow at the garage setup, don’t be too quick to judge. In Federal Way, behind a bookshelf that swings open, you’ll find the remarkable Northwest Nuclear Laboratories (NWNL). It’s not your typical retiree’s garage— this state-of-the-art biochemistry and nuclear research laboratory boasts high-tech equipment like a scanning electron microscope and a nuclear fusion device.

Myself and other UPS Physics student volunteers at NWNL are what’s often referred to as ‘Fusioneers’ in the fusion research community. Our dedicated team engages in research and engineering projects related to nuclear fusion. “The work is on par with what you’d find in major research institutions worldwide” (1). The reactors at NWNL have been meticulously designed, built, and operated by volunteers since 2010; the reactor design and the resultant fusion research provides the centerpiece of the Northwest Nuclear experience.

You may be wondering what fusion actually is.

Not to be confused with fission, fusion is the spectacular act of slamming two lighter atomic nuclei together to create an explosion of energy. Fusion produces heavier atomic nuclei and high energy subatomic particles called neutrons. When nuclei get cluttered, they throw out neutrons to become more stable; neutrons in this

ELEMENTS | 16

context can be thought of like nuclei taking out the trash. On the other hand, fission produces lighter nuclei and neutrons by bombarding heavy nuclei with neutrons. Fission releases massive amounts of energy but has a bit of a radioactive hangover. Unlike fission, fusion releases energy without producing long-lived radioactive waste, making it a very attractive energy source.

Fusion is a cosmic dance happening all over the universe. Atoms fuse on unimaginable scales in the blazing cores of stars while gravity does the heavy lifting. Gravity creates an atmosphere of immensely high pressure and millions of degrees centigrade. Under these conditions atoms enter a plasma state where they can then fuse. Plasma is the phenomenon which

FUSIONEERS MOVIE POSTER

Created by Carl to get NWNL volunteers and UPS physics students excited for fusion research.

occurs when temperatures are so hot that atoms become ionized where electrons are ripped from their nuclei.

One way to create fusion on earth is the fusing of special atoms called isotopes. Isotopes are atoms that have a different number of neutrons in their nuclei than their most stable elemental state. The highest energy produced by fusion reaction is fusing isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium. Whereas hydrogen is most abundant and stable with no neutrons in their nuclei, deuterium carries one neutron, and tritium, two. The fusion of these two isotopes releases a neutron and creates a helium nucleus. Deuterium makes up only 0.0153% of hydrogen and can be found in water, and tritium can only be made by impacting neutrons into lithium (2). The abundance of these fuel sources on Earth supports the idea of fusion potentially being a great alternative to other fuel limited energy sources, such as fossil fuels.

NEW FUSION REACTOR

To make fusion a practical energy source scientists and fusioneers are diligently working towards reactor designs to create a reactor that generates more energy than it consumes. This is what’s known in fusion as net energy gain. Several different styles of reactor designs all have components that revolve around the plasma gas: how to heat it, how to contain it, how to shape it, how to control it, etc. One example is the popular Donut-shaped Tokamak reactors that use magnetic confinement of hot plasma to fuse atoms.

Another example is the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which first achieved a net energy gain in a fusion experiment using lasers. A reactor design to successfully commercialize fusion still has yet to be created— some believe it is impossible. However, we are still learning the science behind novel plasma.

With fellow UPS Physics students, NWNL investigations have been directed towards developing a reactor design oriented around a single ring plasma (SRP) ion oscillator. The SRP was first observed in

Using inertial electromagnetic confinement (IEC), i.e., ion oscillator. Reactor leverages SRP phenomena extracted from the original reactor design.

ELEMENTS | 17

2017 at NWNL, with the first iteration involving 5 Titanium Yamaha Yoke Washers from a motorcycle and a water hose clamp connected to a steel roll pin all contained within a stainless steel conflat chamber.

The procedure for creating the plasma beam consisted of pulling a strong vacuum, grounding the chamber, leaking hydrogen gas into the chamber, and giving the electrode ring a scary amount of power. Overall, the plasma passed through the center of the electrode ring creating a figure 8 shape with lobes corresponding to the conflats and directly in-line with the beam. Using a neutron counter, we can directly calculate the efficiency of our design by counting the number of neutrons that pass through a square centimeter. However, it was quickly discovered that the chamber had some shortcomings. One of these flaws was that the electrode ring quickly heated up after reaching power levels of fusing hydrogen, and began ejecting titanium ions into the plasma stream. This would pollute the plasma and, much like a circuit, would “short out” the plasma. The titanium ions of course do not fuse like the hydrogen isotopes and resultant neutron counts decrease substantially. This phenomenon is what’s known as thermionic emission. Another one of these issues was that the large fixed chamber dimensions made the apparatus difficult to iterate upon and you couldn’t see the whole plasma beam.

To improve on design and increase plasma density, NWNL extracted the SRP phenomenon and

“We created a stack design for the main chamber, a fusion sandwich if you will.”

ORIGINAL FUSION REACTOR

With titanium ring electrode within a stainless steel conflat vacuum chamber.

ELEMENTS | 18

developed it in a new version of the reactor.

The stack consists of a grounded titanium plate, a glass cylinder, a charged titanium plate with a hole in the center, and another glass cylinder, and grounded plate. This clever symmetrical design allows increased manipulation of the apparatus, as we can change parts of the stack much more affordably and easily. A host of iterations of the reactor could now inexpensively be explored for research: hole diameter, distance between electrode and ground, volume of chamber, etc. To remedy the heat induced thermionic emission, we insulated the chamber stack in a mineral oil filled fish tank and further cooled the oil with an industrial chiller.

NWNL and its volunteers are still hard at work on iterating the stack SRP. Though it is far from achieving net gain energy, it allows a structured platform for research in which remarkable phenomena

As it stands, prospective applications for a fusion reactor like this could most certainly be a neutron production device used for irradiation experiments, or a cost effective way to develop rare medical isotopes. and discoveries are waiting to be made.

In creating a new fusion reactor, we were faced with several design challenges along the way. The process of idea conception to product development was a thrilling adventure, marked by moments of inspired ingenuity and problem-solving. Each hurdle we encountered, from fine-tuning plates to heat management, presented an opportunity to learn and innovate. As we ventured deeper into the world of fusion, the single ring plasma design emerged as a breakthrough, offering not just adaptability but also a cost-effective approach to refining our reactor. With every iteration, we inch closer to achieving our fusion dreams. In this quest for clean, sustainable energy, our journey is far from over, but the NWNL team remains unwavering in their dedication to making fusion a reality.

Everybody Talks

BY JULIA VAHEY ILLUSTRATED BY BENNETT FITZGERALD

Across kingdoms of life, from humans to plants to bacteria, organisms must continuously adapt to their environment. This requires communication between and across species to respond to dynamic surroundings, and the formation of social structures to survive. Sociality and communication are evolutionary traits far from unique to humans.

While Indigenous ways of knowing have long recognized non-human forms of communication, the implications of communication and shared knowledge between non-human beings are newer to Western science, which has much to learn. Understanding the “culture” of different organisms as well as patterns of biological communication is important to conservation biology, as it may give scientists new insights into how species are able adapt to climate change and human development.

“Whats ur name bby girl” Not only do dolphins use echolocation to sense the sea around them, they also use their whistles as a form of verbal language. In bottlenose dolphin pods, each dolphin has its own unique name, known as a signature whistle.

Even when researchers simulated dolphin calls through synthetic whistles that were computerized and lacked the familiar voice features dolphins are used to, they could still recognize and respond to the names of family members (1).

While we don’t have bottlenose dolphins here in the Sound, orcas are a local example of socially intelligent marine mammals. Orcas are complex social mammals, and each pod has its own distinct language and behaviors.

Four clans of orcas live off of Washington and British Columbia, and despite living near each other, each speak distinctly different languages. These orcas also pass down habits within clans and pods, influencing their lifestyle, behavior, and diet (2). Behavioral biologists classify orcas as having culture, with complex social structures, behavioral patterns, and even trends.

One orca trend in the Puget Sound, which researchers nicknamed the “dead-salmon carrying” fad, caught onto three different pods in the summer of 1987 after a female was observed carrying around a dead salmon (3). Orca residents of the Salish Sea are known for being especially goofy, wagging their tails, and having greeting ceremonies that resemble mosh pits (2). Ok party animals!

“Passing gas” If you take a walk through the woods, you can’t use your ears to hear what trees are saying to each other, but you might be able to use your nose.

That’s because the language that trees ‘speak’ uses chemicals in the air. Trees send out gaseous chemicals to respond to challenges they face in their environment, a complex and diverse system that’s tailored to the unique stresses each tree encounters (4). These gaseous chemicals serve primarily as messages to other plants, alerting other trees of injury and warning about pesky herbivores. However, gaseous chemical signaling has also evolutionarily developed to allow communication across kingdoms of life. The chemical messages trees send out can signal to other species, attracting beneficial

ELEMENTS | 19

pollinators to assist in their reproduction and “calling in” reinforcements when they’re under attack in the form of specific predators of the local insect species that eat them. This signaling is so powerful that predators of herbivorous insects have evolved to rely more on the chemical signals from trees than on their prey to hunt (5). Parasitoid wasps use plant-produced chemical blends to find caterpillar prey, for example. These gaseous communications are so complex however, consisting of between 20-200 chemicals, that researchers have been unable to identify any one compound that attracts predators (5).

network carries plant defense molecules, genetic information, and phytohormones that regulate fungalplant symbioses and influence plant behaviors (6).

One study likened the electrical signals sent in fungal networks to words that form sentences, with language structures resembling the English language (7). While fungal language structure is interesting food for thought, scientists l don’t yet know how to interpret these signals, and it remains disputed whether they play a primary role in fungal communication.

“You can’t sit with us” Complex social bacteria such as Myxobacteria can come together and form larger structures for the collective good of the colony. Sometimes, certain cells will try and cheat the system and reap the benefits of these structures without putting in the necessary sacrifices. When cheaters get caught by the rest of the colony, they can be socially exiled. These Myxobacteria kick out cheater cells by creating new ‘dialects’ and changing the genetic language they speak in, signaling out cheaters and kicking them to the curb.

“The mycorrhizal connection” Fungi are composed of much more than the fruiting bodies which we see above ground, with vast root-like mycorrhizae composing the majority of these organisms. Their vast branching mycorrhizal networks known as mycelium have gotten lots of hype, being called the “wood wide web,” a term coined by the work of Suzanne Simard, for the way in which they connect forests. These networks form a symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi, stretching out under the forest floor. Some researchers argue that mycorrhizal networks are like underground highways, facilitating communication between fungi. The mycorrhizal networks found in forests show a similar topology to neural networks in the human brain, leading some scientists to argue for the existence of plant cognition and neuron-like systems in plants. The fungal ‘highway’

ELEMENTS | 20

“The microscopic electric slide” While it can be easy to think of bacteria and other single-celled microbes as simplistic and static creatures, bacteria are constantly responding to and engaging with their environments. Bacteria signal to other single-celled organisms using a form of biological linguistic communication, with structural motifs (DNA) that combine to form messages (genes), with a shared goal and meaning (understanding the environment and group survival).

Bacterial colonies with millions of individual cells can communicate and form a collective intelligence, with each cell having its own role in the colony (8). These cells don’t even have to be the same species to talk and work together. For example, in the bacterial colonies that make up dental plaque, each species develops its own expertise, while communicating with the broader bacterial society (so to speak) to coordinate work. So far, researchers have detected between 34-72 different bacterial species in the average human’s mouth, living in a community-based lifestyle and helping each other degrade the complex molecules in our food (9). Bacteria communicate using quorum sensing, where they diffuse small molecules into the nearby environment to indicate the presence and density of bacterial colonies. Once bacteria detect nearby quorum molecules, they partake in another form of ‘communication:’ gene transfer allows them to share antibiotic resistance and drug-degrading genes.

Elements Art Gallery A collection of scientific artwork by the students of the University of Puget Sound

THE RED SEA

by Sophie Jensen

A FAIRY’S UMBRELLA

by Maggie Smith

BEHOLD! MOLD

by Tia Böttger

TEA BAG

by Kayleigh Scott

MOON

by Adrian Donohue

ELEMENTS | 21

8th Century Iraq:

The Birthplace of Evolutionary Theory

BY DENIZ KELEMET “Charles Darwin, the father of evolution!”

It’s a phrase that has been drilled into STEM students since middle school. But our reverence of the man invisibilizes not only his problematic contribution to Western imperialism, but also the work of others who theorized evolution and natural selection a thousand years before our beloved Englishman.

Abu Uthman Amr Bin Bahr Al-Fukaymi Al-Basri, or Al-Jahiz, was a zoologist born in 776 in modern day Iraq (1). In addition to his extensive work in philosophy, literature, and the Arabic language, he is believed to be one of the first scholars to have proposed evolution. AlJahiz devoted years of careful observation to classifying animals by their behaviors and physical characteristics.

In his work “Kitab al Hayawan” (The Book of Animals),

Al-Jahiz outlines three mechanisms of evolution: “struggle for existence, transformation of species into each other, and environmental factors” (2).

Al-Jahiz describes the struggle for existence as a species’ innate desire for permanence. Transformation of species is therefore a consequence of this “war for life” wherein animals are able to develop “new characteristics which help them to survive environmental conditions”. Expanding upon this point, Al-Jahiz describes the effect of environment on a species in remarking how abiotic factors such as climate and shelter may impact an animal’s biology. Those familiar with these concepts will likely equate these mechanisms with what we, today, call natural selection, evolution,

ELEMENTS | 22

ILLUSTRATION FROM “THE BOOK OF ANIMALS” and phenotypic plasticity. Al-Jahiz’ work went on to influence many other Muslim scholars of his day, including ad-Damiri, al- Biruni, Ibn Tufail and Ibn Khaldun (3), and eventually European naturalists who are credited with “discovering” evolution today.

There is extensive evidence to suggest that Darwin and his peers came in direct contact with the work of Al-Jahiz and his fellow Muslim philosophers; their works were commonly translated from Arabic into Latin, French, German, and English, and are referenced in European literature throughout the 18th and 19th

centuries (2). In fact, John William Draper, a renowned scientist and contemporary of Darwin, went so far as to acknowledge the European appropriation of these studies in stating “I have to deplore the systematic manner in which the literature of Europe has contrived to put out of sight our scientific obligations to the Muhammadans … Injustice founded on religious rancor and national conceit cannot be perpetuated forever” (1).

Despite the clearly far-reaching influence of Al-Jahiz’ foundational work, it has been excluded from the narrative of Western science, and we are often led to believe that the “dark ages” of science prevailed until the scientific revolution, which was supposedly led by thinkers in Western Europe. Ernst Mayr, perhaps one of the most celebrated evolutionary biologists of the 20th century states “The Arabs, so far I can determine, made no important contributions to biology” (1). Obviously rooted in a position of deep seated prejudice, Mayr’s exclusion of Arab scholars from the scientific institution likely stems from the long-held Western perception of Islam as a fundamentally “anti-science” religion. Yet the painful irony of this thought process is apparent— the depiction of Islamic societies as anti-science or education, while simultaneously relying upon their uncredited scholarly works to form the basis of what can later be deemed “empirical knowledge” only by Western institutions themselves. It is important to assert here that some historical scholars have recognized and studied the evolutionary work of Muslim scholars— one such example is Stott’s work in “Darwin’s Ghosts”.

However, this recognition and larger acceptance is still neglected within the field of biology.

ILLUSTRATION OF AL JAHIZ

Thus, until eurocentrism and the blatant erasure of non-European schools of thought can be decoupled from the current model of science education, the field of biology will never overcome its problematic roots.

The story of Al-Jahiz is part of a larger pattern exposing the colonial systems and values that have historically governed over the sanctity of empirical knowledge, and continue to dictate what is taught today. Indeed, absent from the classic STEM education is any mention of theorization beyond Western Europe or the United States. Discussion of the role of science in Imperialism is limited to its material contribution; the development of new medicines, weapons, and means of transportation enabled the colonization of the African continent— the “tools of empire” (4). Failure to acknowledge the colonial extraction of knowledge only further perpetuates the ultimate paradox of Western science— an institution built on the knowledge of colonially exploited cultures, while simultaneously denying credit and access to those same peoples.

ELEMENTS | 23

How to Avoid Becoming a Noodle

BY ANJALI BHATTACHARYA

Have you ever thought about black holes and just really really wanted to go inside of one? Are you worried that you might turn into a piece of pasta if you try?

Spaghettification is a phenomenon that occurs in the extreme gravitational environments near massive objects like black holes. It results in an object, or even an unfortunate Puget Sound astronaut, being stretched out into an elongated shape, much like a strand of spaghetti. Let’s delve into the science of spaghettification, and how to avoid death by noodle.

Black Holes

We start our look at the intersection of science and pasta with black holes. Black holes are formed as a result of the gravitational collapse of massive stars, and they exhibit gravitational fields so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape their clutches once they cross a boundary known as the event horizon. The event horizon is the point of no return, beyond which escape is impossible, an object is drawn toward the black hole’s singularity. A singularity is a point of infinite density at the center of the black hole where the laws of physics break down. To understand spaghettification, we must begin by exploring the gravitational forces that govern black holes (1).

GEOS

by Sophie Jensen

Gravitational Force

The gravitational forces experienced near a black hole are governed by Newton’s law of universal gravitation, a fundamental equation in physics, which describes the gravitational attraction between two objects and is expressed as follows:

ELEMENTS | 24

This equation tells us that the gravitational force (F) between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses (M and m) and inversely proportional to the square of the distance (R) separating them. In the context of black holes, M represents its mass, m represents the astronaut’s mass, and R denotes the distance between the astronaut and the black hole.

Tidal Acceleration

Tidal forces are the key players in the process of spaghettification. These forces arise due to the variation in gravitational attraction across an extended object, like a person or a spaceship, caused by the difference in the gravitational force acting on different parts of the object. Picture yourself falling feet-first into a black hole.

The force of gravity at your feet becomes so different than the force of gravity at your head that your feet are stretched, and your body elongates, turning you into, as some deranged scientists like to think of it, a piece of spaghetti. As the object gets closer to the event horizon of a black hole, tidal forces come into play (3). The tidal acceleration (at ) is described by the following equation:

So, can we get through?

To illustrate spaghettification, let’s consider a hypothetical scenario involving a Puget Sound student descending toward Sagittarius A, our galaxy’s black hole.

For the sake of simplicity, we will neglect any relativistic effects of black holes in our considerations.

Hypothetical

A logger of mass m is falling toward a black hole with a mass M at a distance R from the black hole’s center. The logger’s height (the length L in the tidal force equation) is approximately 2 meters.

What these equations tell us is that the center of the logger would be pulled towards the black hole with a force (F) of about 1.83x1017 Newtons (that’s 1.83 with 17 zeros after it). Such a large gravitational force results in enough of a difference acting on the logger’s legs as compared to their head, that they will be accelerating apart from each other with a magnitude of 1.83x1010 m/ s2. For context, the fastest accelerating cars in the world cannot accelerate any faster than about 15 m/s2. And as the distance between the logger (or whatever’s left of them) and the event horizon becomes 0, the force acting upon the logger’s body will increase until it is essentially infinity. The body is stretched unimaginably, turning the logger into spaghetti. Or maybe a really long twig.

Sawdust? Anyhow, the logger is not entering the black hole alive.

So, case closed, no entering a black hole? Not quite! Some astrophysicists argue that spaghettification can be avoided (4). If the black hole’s size is large enough, the change in effect of the gravitational force between a person’s head and feet is not substantial enough to cause a stretching effect on the body. Thus, our hypothetical logger would feel a large amount of force, but the difference on different parts of their body wouldn’t be enough to stretch them. To enter a black hole without feeling the effects of spaghettification, simply find a bigger black hole to enter! An important note: This will help you cross the event horizon, after which you will not be able to leave the black hole.

We can not guarantee your survival with the disks of condensed matter you will find passing through once you enter. Good luck!

Assumptions

- Astronaut’s mass (m): 80 kg - Black hole’s mass (M): 8.57259 × 1036 kg - Distance to the black hole (R): 5 × 105 meters (far enough from the event horizon to begin with)

Calculations

1. Gravitational force: Using Newton’s law of universal gravitation to calculate the gravitational force acting on the logger by the black hole at the given distance (R).

N 2. Tidal acceleration:

PEAK

by Sophie Jensen

ELEMENTS | 25

Bugs of UPS

1

4 MAX KETTERER

1. Cryptoid Centipede found next to the sidewalk in front of Trimble 2. Weevil found in the plants next to Benefactor Memorial

2

3. Spider found by the bench on the sidewalk to Thomson 4. Crane Fly found on the door outside of Schneebeck 5. Harvestman Spider found next to the sidewalk outside of the President’s Forest 6. Red-cross Shield Bug found on a rock in the President’s Forest Camera: Fujifilm X-T30 Lens: Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO Settings: f/8, ISO 100

3

ELEMENTS | 26

DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN

Helisoma Trivolvis snail embryos, 5 days old, raised in pond water in Prof. Ramakrishnan’s lab. Photographed on Leica M50 microscope.

DUT

5

H2O

Scan above for videos of these snails rotating in their eggs to get a better view of their shapes

6

Helisoma Trivolvis snail embryos, 5 days old, raised in Dutasteride, leading to a banana shaped shell.

NIA CARROLL

Oak eggar caterpillar infected with baculovirus. Mixed media painting.

ELEMENTS | 27

Lying Fallow

BY PATCH GLEASON

Lie fallow - to remain uncultivated, unused, unproductive, etc. for a long time Beginning always with the rusted can, overturned, halfway eaten through by decades of lying here in the sun and then in the rain. Tattered filtrate sunshine of a tenthousandth morning rests within it on meager tufts of grass, all growing close on the gritty silt surface of the soil. At its corrugated margins, the outline along which it meets the woven, tangled blades, upward reaching, on which it rests, the metal rests cold in the shade that keeps the dew close upon it.

To reside is to create waste: to practice the rite of accumulation and dispersal that binds living things to one another, to sun and the tempered strata of the earth and to the bending air above. It is an alchemy that quickens the sap in the trees and for which algae bloom in ecstatic choking clouds, all joining in countless cycles. Speaking of the land, ecologist Aldo Leopold says it is “not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals,” and that on it, “food chains are the living channels which conduct energy upward and death and decay return it to the soil,” (1).

LYING FALLOW Lying fallow describes the state of a field that is not being used to grow crops. It is an in-between state, one that is expected to be bordered before and after by years of cultivation and productivity. Fallowing has been a part of agriculture nearly since its beginning, as humans uprooted some plants and selected others that we found useful, and eventually began cultivating crops ourselves. It is a proscriptive cycling of crops that mimics the ebbs and flows of energy that occur in nature. In normally functioning ecosystems, elements like nitrogen and phosphorus, the vital but scarce limiting nutrients that underpin organic life, are fixed by a few plants and microbes into the soil and water. On land, legumes, alders, and a handful of other plants all host communities of bacteria in their roots that pull inert N2 from the air and convert it into usable nitrates that plants can use to fuel their

ELEMENTS | 28

growth. Eventually, the nitrogen they’ve scavenged this way is spread throughout the rest of their ecosystem as they are consumed by herbivores or when they die and are broken down into the soil. This process is the primary source of nitrogen in terrestrial environments, where other inputs like rainfall (and lightning, whose brief energy also splits N2 into nitrates!) supply only a miniscule portion of the life-giving resource. This is where the power of crop rotation lies: farmers learned as early as 6000BCE that alternating nitrogen-hungry crops like wheat or barley with those that fix nitrogen, like beans, alfalfa, or clover, replenishes farmland that would otherwise be depleted in a matter of years. It has been a cornerstone of agriculture since then, and only found an alternative in 1909 with the discovery of the Haber-Bosch process, a fossil-fuel intensive reaction that breaks up atmospheric N2 into useful nitrogen compounds (2). The massive scale of modern industrial agriculture would not be possible without these synthetic nitrates and the resources they provide to crops, and since the discovery of a way to synthesize nitrates, crop rotation has faded out of use: the complications and costs of changing the equipment and seed for fields that are often less productive than highyield corn or wheat is simply not worth the effort.

REST AND WORK Fallowing finds use outside of the field, though.

In its capacity to restore it finds analogues throughout both human and natural cycles, both dominated by a need for alternation of work and rest: the Biblical sabbath that informs the modern work week; sleep itself; holidays— for humans, stepping back and marking times of rest and times of work illustrates and strengthens the practice of both. Here, outside of the tropics, periods of unproductivity are mandated by seasons that shrink available resources to a trickle in the winter, when the birds of the sea and worms of the crawl must huddle and hoard to survive. Scarcity is a constant for all of us: whether it is of basic chemical compounds, or resources like time, care, energy, or somehow in this most prosperous of countries necessities like food or shelter, we are constantly subject to the exigencies of need. How to temper the work we do to that end with consistent and intentional rest is to lie fallow, and as a skill and habit it begins to fade for us as well as it did for our crops. Rediscovering that which lies fallow around us can be a waypoint for returning to it.

When I was young, I spent much of my time in the expanse of woods that filled the back-yard interstices of my suburban neighborhood. I was lucky to live in a house at the end of a incongruous densely-wooded

reach of suburb, where I could walk to a creek down the steep, ivy-choked slope from my backdoor and follow it as it snaked between the properties of my neighbors for 10 or 20 minutes until it ended in a muddy, shallow pond overlooked by the forbidding house of the farthest-down-the-road neighbor, a woman of legendary scariness in the neighborhood kids’ bestiary.

The boundary of her property, at the end of the only gravel road in the otherwise neatly blacktopped 60s and 70s era subdivisions, was punctuated with lopsided, mossy filmed NO TRESPASSING signs that struck fear into the hearts of my elementary school contingent. It was rumored she had a shotgun and few reservations with using it, and stories of a WWII era bomber fuselage lying in her yard reinforced the forbidding aura of her and her house (I later discovered that she was a completely normal little old lady— no shotguns, no bloodthirst). In spite of our dread, my brother and I often found ourselves scrambling around the slopes of her property, adjoined as it was to the creekbed that was the wellspring of our recreation. This land was once farmland, before it was developed, and its implements remained here, rusting and rotting.

The woods, illicit exploration and shattered scummy jars, turning over strips of sheet metal and brick outlines of old houses.

Trash sites with no plastic are at least 50 years old.

The old pumphouse by the creek, inside of which there is a jar of some ancient imperishable ooze.

Coils of plastic tubing spill from an expanse of ivy in the ground, falling into the creekbed and the clear, cold flow.

Walking on the narrow margin between water and the dense understory plants around it, the leaves and branch-ends that reach towards the rivulet spread their droplets along the measured cotton of the clothes I wear. They are near the waterfall; disjoined rock that water crawls over in glinting threads and slips down the slimy blackened basement rock, slowed and held by the braided algae hanging down from the rock. If I stand carelessly, I am visible to the house up the slope.

Square aperture to shallow cistern, crouching in the nadir of the land. Muck and leaves settled and broken-off pipe in its shady maw, all beyond the read of a child’s arm; but not for lack of craning towards the still surface of the water, prostrate upon the concrete sill. The structure hides.

Inside it is everything beyond reach: a crayfish, bigger than

any seen before; a fish lost away from the pond below a depth of mud equal to so many of our heights. We have fear for it; it is the one part of the creek that we cannot turn over, move around, look inside. Lodged in the continuum of the land, sloped, steep, here, and yet completely apart from it. Placed there for a purpose, forgotten, unused, and year-by-year separating from the fabric of the rest of the woods even as it is taken over by the black lodes and roots of the land around; by the time we grew old enough to range back and forth in the woods, it was so eroded already that it pulled everything around into its horizon, flexing and twisting the crumbling damp dirt and ferns and shade-sheltered saplings, and us too, into a place a little shifted from that we normally lived in.

The well is something that remained. It stood out among the rotting logs and creekbed routes, all classified according to a logic of liftability and childish indices of creature-habitability.

It was purpose-crafted in a landscape elsewhere gone to seed in the gentle neglect of an old suburb, and outlined a now-past world that had once taken up the space we played in. It gave to the woods a double-life and filled it in our imaginations with foreign implements and strange motives set apart from the needs of the rain-hungry frogs and shy, gleaming salamanders who sheltered in the valley along with us. The neglect and shift in use of the land that left these remnants for us to find, that scraped and pitted the concrete down to mossy crumbled skeletons, transformed not only those structures but the entirety of the landscape that surrounded them. It whispered a strange story, situating us as predecessors to a fading past.

The enrichment of the land’s history is a function that is stitched together with the thread of dormancy, the same that feeds the fallow field. Things sit still, decaying and fracturing into the worlds around them, diffusing over time, fading, assimilating, built over. But the stories in the landscape persist in veins and ghosts that color the places we inhabit. To grow in narrative, and help to place us as inhabitants of a contingent present, they must be a little forgotten— sometimes in an intentional way, fallowing and resting

ELEMENTS | 29

so that the future will be richer; and at other times, truly forgotten, taken out of the transformative logics of use and utility and returned to the myriad intents of the land and its residents.

Places have a particular power to remind, to hold the artifacts of others’ lives and show us some little fragments of them. In the half-lit corners and deadend alleys, seeking out landscapes that hold memory can be an antidote to the omnipresent mandates of consumption-oriented life: a reassurance that some things do last, and, perhaps, offer places to persist yourself in spite of the demands of life and work. Take a moment to see what rots and grows in the disuse around you, and, maybe, rot and grow a little yourself, in its manner.

The world is full of water this morning.

I woke up in the night and locked my window. The wind has scattered leaves and old petioles across the flooded street corners. The wind blew over fences, tore up signs, lay down the long-clinging yellow scraps of autumn in graded drifts atop the roads and yards, gathering the fruits of decay. If they had not fallen on asphalt, they would be the beginning of next year’s soil.

Water pooled on the iron horizontal of a gate.

Reflections on the window, oblique sun. The road stays wet.

I am reminded of Georgia in the fall; the weight of the rain there; its thickness outside and the shelter of structures; waiting for torrents under awnings with groceries and the rest of the store, someone running out and her kid’s shoe falling. Dismay, the rush to cars by twos and threes that her trip incites.

The sound of it sheathing the ground and the canopy and the flat warm asphalt in gleaming laminations, and the end, 10 minutes later. The sun and evaporation.

Steam twisting off low bushes and sudden blinding lots reflecting the new sun.

Strip malls in little jungles; paved over suburbs and full spreading oaks and tulip poplars crowding the interstices.

Everything is close and quick and heat and thick, thick air, the crouching noisy life that waits with stillness in the shaded stretches ‘til it has to move. The grasshopper clings to bobbing stem to start its clicking buzzing flight unto

ELEMENTS | 30

the next near spray of grass to shelter and to grasp. Constant growing song of spiny hidden insects, cicadas singing in the tops of trees.

The way the land is full. Falling back onto itself in branches and crawling codices, rustling labyrinths of green and black. It knits unto itself anew another jagged pattern, adding always, growing always. The cup runneth over.

The water mirrors, joining common edges.

Sometimes, times are stitched with the same thread. You do not know it until you find its other end, lying at the edge of the floor among the dust and little things that sit and gather.

It is hard for humans to lie fallow.

The land can take the year off and still have its job– leave a yard alone for a few weeks and all kinds of thrifty weeds and creatures will have found it and lived in it again– not so much for us.

Hell, in so many jobs, even a single day off is a luxury granted only upon insistence of law and the reality of exhaustion, untenable as it is to productivity.

Finding moments of rest is complicated, and a cost to time that is too often scarce. Luckily, such moments are things that stick around— if you look for them, they’ll be there, in the way that spiders stay in corners.

This one might be a little longer-legged than the last; maybe you (perniciously) swept the web away the other month, and still, spider’ll be there, woven into the rafters with some wispy, dusty, barely-there string.

It takes a little looking, but fallowing’s there: it’s got a few neighbors, and if you ask them they’ll usually help you find some.

Aimlessness is one of these. It lives in the pockets of air in resting soil, where worms crawl through, rodents make their hollow burrows, and nests of birds are formed in the tangled grass. Where purpose is absent, all the other living and nonliving things of the world begin to return to do their own work. To rid oneself of a task for the moment allows for noticing in ways that are difficult normally, when attention is diverted to a thousand different things, and grants a contingency to things that happen outside of the restraints of intent. It is hard to evaluate things

that are absent without making undedicated space available— but when there is space, the accidental can jump in, and, sometimes, bring joy and rest. As the accidental in music, so can coincidence work to ornament the mundane. In his essay “On the Successful Day,” Peter Handke uses the language of dwelling to describe this process: a part of his accounting of the breadth of the day offer that “to dwell, to sit, to look up, to excel in uselessness” can shape one’s time to fit a little better with the world around one and to “speak,” as he says, “in cadence with the day,” (2). Although a challenge to manage in a world perpetually full of tasks and abundant of distractions, there’s always a handful of moments in between that can be put to (aimless) use, and always the grace of fallow moments to find. The cracks in the pavement are where things grow.

“...in my mind, now at the end, I know not whether I mean the Thought for the Fancy– or the Fancy for the Thought, or why the book trails off to playing, rather than standing strong on unanswering fact. But this is always is it not? The Riddle of Life.”

“Postscript,” from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, W.E.B. Du Bois (3).

URBAN MYTHOLOGIES: APPROACHING RECIPROCITY LIMITS

by Belinda Garrow

Inspired by the concepts of urban conservation, this piece aims to challenge the Western political and cultural separation of humans from nature. Given rapid rates of urbanization and population growth, 70% of people are projected to live in cities by 2050. Yet, the current model for urban living is unsustainable for both humans, who experience significant inequities (in infrastructure, healthcare, access to green spaces and nutrition, etc), and for local plants and animals, whose habitats have steadily been encroached upon by dominating human presence.

This piece challenges us to view humanity as an integral part of the natural environment–not as conquering survivalists, but as parts of a whole. Perhaps this cognitive shift will be the first necessary step to forging a sustainable and equitable future for all living beings.

ELEMENTS | 31

WELCOME TO

THE ALLIUM Dive into some sillier science!

WHITE SHARK CAFE

by Bennett Fitzgerald

ELEMENTS | 32

Message from Above

BY SAGE MATKIN

ELEMENTS | 34

Yeah, it wasn’t my ideal upbringing, but I’m not one to make a mountain out of a molehill.

I’d rather make a hill out of moles.

That’s a little prey humor for you.

I’d rather make a hill out of moles. That’s a little prey humor for you. When I finally took the leap and left the wooden box, (which I later learned was man-made, coined with the name “nest-box”), I didn’t know where I was going. I picked a direction— southeast if I remember correctly— and flew until I couldn’t anymore.

I rested in dark, hidden corners during the day; hunting and exploring at night. Ah, the people I saw, sites I flew over, events I witnessed— that was life. I wasn’t like my siblings, who stayed close to our parents’ nest. I bet you they’re still within 5 miles of our original nest.

You and I, at this moment, are exactly 194 miles from that nest. I haven’t seen my siblings nor my parents since leaving. I still pick at newspapers, still read the billboards, and still observe the pedestrian bipeds from above. I found my spot of recluse and I’ve stayed. Which leads me back to my original question: Why are you here?

BY CAL WAICHLER

Looking at you, a human, looking at me, a barn owl, makes my eyes go as wide and circular as my face.

How did you get here? How could you have found me up in the rafters? I stay hidden, just as my mother did. I fly only at night, just as my father did. You’re a human. A deeply suspicious-looking, unwanted human— and yet, you’re someone to talk to (or at). But you’re looking at me like you can understand me. Oh great stars above, it cannot be. How you taunt me with your-so-called gift of evolution, yet it still does not hear me.

Oh hominid, how I wish you did understand me. How I wish to share my thoughts and take my place amongst the conscious beings of the world. From the newspapers I’ve ripped up to form my own nest, to the billboards I’ve soared past, the human world is where I’d find power, money, fun, and oh so much more. Tell me (you won’t, we can’t communicate with one another) what is a hamburger like? Or, how do you not fall asleep in church with the droning-on and the dim lighting? Or, why do you still travel on wheels, when flying must be within your technological reach?

I have a million questions and yet you’re the one standing there stupefied. Oh well, I haven’t had a conversation in so long I don’t even care if it’s unreciprocated. I’ll tell my story, even if it falls on deaf humanoid ears— which protrude weirdly from your head if you ask me.

I don’t remember much, only waking up rumpass naked, feather-less, and strangely long-legged(1).

I took in our nest, carefully made with hay, twigs, and mother’s spit. I looked around at my older siblings, who must’ve hatched earlier than I, and at the whole eggs at the edge of the nest— awaiting their turn. I saw mother, large and all-seeing and the symbol of security. Father might’ve been there too, but who can say for sure— I can’t recall that first day very well.

From there, life was minimal. I must’ve twittered till the sun shined. I chirped when father returned with the daily spoils. I chirped even louder when mother started leaving us to hunt. There was something missing.

My siblings were content to stand around and wait for food, but the second I’d start discussing my take on the latest Science publication, they’d just stare. Imagine a learning environment filled with one star pupil and 6 beady, blank, unassuming eyes.

Advice from a STEM Senior Tia Böttger, Physics and EPDM Major Joke around with your professors more than you think you should.

They just want to be friendly.

Also be able to develop a personalized way of studying.

BY ABBY STEWARD

Ask physics professors to take you on field trips — to see Bernie’s bat cave, the seismograph trap room, the railing above the TH177 lecture hall, the inner workings of the pendulum, the observatory on the roof etc. (tell them it’s for science!)

Anonymous Biochemistry Major

Anonymous Biology and EPDM Major My #1 piece of advice for those long labs is don’t forget your goofy side! If you don’t turn lab class into a standup comedy set, what are you even doing?

Yeah, being this funny sometimes comes at the cost of doing serious research or getting that grade you want, but comedy comes first and being a student comes second. Kidding, but don’t forget to laugh when you make mistakes (we all do!). It makes STEM way more fun when you don’t take yourself so seriously :)

Always maintain perspective! You can earn a 0% on an exam and still pass the class...take it from me ;)

Julia Vahey, Biology Major

ELEMENTS | 35

Find Your Lab Call Sign Never leave your labmate hanging!

1. Do you complete assigned pre-lab textbook reading?

Textbook? Waste of money, I haven’t entered the bookstore in 3 years (1) Read it? I wrote the damn thing (2) I mean sure, I skimmed some of the chapters (4) Cover to cover, annotated every paragraph (3)

2. Do you print/review the procedure before attending lab?

No need to review the procedure for an experiment you’ve already conducted flawlessly countless times (2) Of course, and on the back you’ll find by color coordinated lab flow complete with time estimates (3) I find the concept of a lab “procedure” to be really limiting… (1) Um…of course! Where was that posted?? Canvas? (4)

3. How thorough is your typical lab clean up?

Incredibly thorough, making sure to match the reference pic I took at the beginning of lab (3) Perfect. Can’t say the same for my peers though, that’s why I always stay late (2) …could someone show me where to put all this broken glass? (4) Mmm, my bench tends to clean itself…(1)

4. Are you the first or last to leave lab?

Frankly that doesn’t concern me, I’ll stay as long as it takes to complete the lab objectives (3) If I haven’t left early to escort my labmate to CHWS for chemical burns, then I’m usually the first to blow that popsicle stand (1) Yeah, I’ve been known to stay an hour or 3 over our allotted meeting time (4) First to finish, last to leave (2)

Results Iceman: Cool. Calculated. You live and die by the lab manual, and your percent yield shows it.

Goose: Minimal efforts yield subpar results. And much like Goose, some of your experiments have been known to end in fiery disaster.

Commander: This isn’t your first time around the block, old timer. Maybe it’s time to hang up the lab coat?

ELEMENTS | 36

Key 1-4: Maverick 5-8: Commander 9-12: Iceman 13-16: Goose

Maverick: The hero of the lab, and the bane of your professor’s existence; your antics are legendary. But they might just be crazy enough…

Guide to Being a Responsible Naturalist A PSO x Elements collaboration Plan ahead and prepare Let life take you by the moment. Your only responsibility is to vibe with the outdoors, ride the wave man! Nothing will ever go wrong. Why would you need a rain jacket in the Pacific Northwest anyways?

Walk on durable surfaces Want to be one with nature? You must experience every texture. The trail is a mere suggestion, and you’re not like other girls. Squish your toes in the mud and banana slugs. Don’t you want to know what it feels like to walk on an ant hill?

Minimize campfire impacts Raging wildfires and climate change? Never heard of her.

If you’re not summoning every woodland spirit with your giant bonfire, are you even outdoorsy?

Respect wildlife Don’t forget to assert your dominance over every bear, cougar, moose, and wasp you encounter. Even if no one in your life respects you, the animals definitely will.

Be considerate of other visitors You didn’t come to the outdoors to see other people, you came to get away from them! So your only real choice is to plan elaborate pranks (we’re talking parent trap level) on anyone who crosses paths with you.

PHOTOS BY LUCY GRUIDL

Dispose of waste properly Being outdoors is all about putting yourself out there… and we mean all of yourself. If you find any animal poop, the only reasonable reaction is to claim your territory in response by leaving a ripe nugget of your own right next to it.

Take only pictures, leave what you find What’s better than being in the outdoors? Bringing the outdoors home with you! We recommend slowly transforming your room into a temperate rainforest by filling your pockets with dirt and pine needles.

ELEMENTS | 37

Balderdash

What really happens during research at UPS? A: Particle Talk Scope. It uses a round lens that holds the same magnification level as an atomic microscope, inviting us to see particles, where they are posed in front of the white page and are interviewed on their existence. This is where alpha and beta particles were originally discovered talking shit about each other behind their back, and where the biggest controversy of physics arose: photons were asked if they were a particle or a wave. Sources are still waiting on their response.

B: Optics bench with doubly concave lens. We use these optics benches to determine what types of images are produced by different optical devices.

The trick here is that the concave lens alone cannot produce a real image on the screen -- kind of a cruel experiment to give to introductory physics students.

A: This research trio is monitoring live footage of microorganisms using a microscope in crab-infested waters. After a few hours of equipment malfunction and hindrance from the environment with every step, the group headed back with no data to show for their efforts.

B: This research trio monitors live footage of microorganisms that will eventually grow to be river monsters, encouraging a Jeremy Wade River Monsters reboot. While not many fish were seen, plenty if not too many (??) crabs were observed. Is everything really evolving to be a crab?

C: This research trio monitors species diversity and abundance in a local lake to scientifically determine its suitability for water sports.

A: This researcher examines the effects of illegal tree climbing on local moss and epiphyte populations.

B: This student propels herself up a tree using rope ascension to peek at little mosses and ask about their day C: This student surveys the softness of moss from the canopy to the trunk of very tall trees to determine the best place to stay the night.

Key B, A, B, A, C, B

ELEMENTS | 38

A: Eddy Current Pendulum. At the end of the pendulum arm is an aluminum plate (which does not respond appreciably to static magnetic fields). The arm would swing freely back and forth were it not for the fact that the aluminum passes through a strong magnetic field. When the metal passes through the field, circular “eddy” currents are produced, converting the kinetic energy of the pendulum into electrical (and then thermal energy). The result is that the pendulum quickly comes to rest without passing through to the other side.

B: Gravitropimeter. This instrument is used in the lab to determine the gravitational pull of an object. Researchers hang objects on the top of the metal bar, showing the value of the fundamental interaction with the instrument and the magnitude of the object. Measuring the gravitational pull of instruments and objects is essential for conducting basic experiments and measuring controls.

While this instrument isn’t the flashiest of devices it’s a cornerstone of conducting sound physics experiments.

A: This researcher is using a laser to determine if plastic or animal-skin drum heads are more prone to burning. One material was reported to smell significantly worse than the other during this testing.

B: This researcher is using a laser to map the heat distributions of different drum beats.

Testing did create significant disturbance.

C: This researcher is using a laser to observe the different frequencies and modal patterns of drums. Tracking the movement of these frequencies provides insight into the physical and acoustic properties of a drum.

A: This seemingly unassuming cart tucked away in physics storage is a relic left over from a series of experiments conducted in extreme secrecy.

The cables you see are in fact carefully aligned and arranged, creating an elaborate web which captures interdimensional particles and entangles them in a device hidden behind the lead shielding. It was believed that once the quantum entangled particles were released, they could be uniquely controlled from within the apparatus, allowing for unprecedented access to other dimensions. The shielding was never removed however, and the particles remain contained, waiting for a curious student to peer behind the shielding and discover the results of the experiment once and for all.

B: IEC Plasma Chamber. Beneath the lead shielding there is an evacuated chamber that contains a small amount of deuterium gas. Inside the chamber, electrodes produce a ~100 kilovolt electric field which strips the electrons from the nuclei, producing a plasma. In the plasma, nuclei have a chance to collide and fuse. Fusing only occurs when the strong nuclear force from collision is stronger than nuclei electrical repulsion.

ELEMENTS | 39

Research Bowl Why care about student research? It’s shaping your future!

Your peers in STEM want you to know why their research matters! Jargon-filled presentations at research symposia can be intimidating, so we’ve asked these students to summarize their projects in simple and straightforward blurbs. Read about their findings below and vote on the project that resonates most with you!

Creating a More Inclusive and Diverse UPS Biology Curricula Cecelia Daul-Wulff While we are more familiar with aspects of biology such as scientific methods and conservation efforts, as well as its role within medicine and agriculture, little is known (among students) about the complicated origins of biology or its influence on social institutions in the present-day. Legacies of colonialism within biology have made it largely inaccessible to BIPOC and other marginalized individuals. Despite this, BIPOC individuals have both been steadfast in their contributions and initiatives towards restorative efforts and increasing inclusivity, as well as in their persistence within STEM spaces. Diversity of perspectives within the field of biology helps to better science and creating a sense of belonging helps to maintain retention.

Intentional efforts towards recruitment and retention of BIPOC and other marginalized students can be achieved by diversifying biology curricula and by acknowledging structural and institutional barriers these students face.

Finally, by acknowledging the ways in which biology has been harmful, we can better understand how to intentionally heal and prevent further harm.

Towards Uncovering the Function of Mystery Nuclear Protein FBIP Julia Vahey My summer research is in the realm of plant genetics! Our lab studies the genes that plants ‘turn on’ in response to stress, with the goal of understanding how plants will react and adapt to future stressors

caused by climate change. I studied a protein (called FBIP) that we know interacts with these stress-response genes, but the effects of the interaction are unknown.

With my research, we hope to determine the effects of stress on plants, and learn more about how plants react, in real time, to threats like drought and soil salinity (since under climate change, soil becomes increasingly salty).

Exploring Moss Communities on Big Leaf Maple Trees!

Abby Steward

This summer, I explored the vibrant and robust communities living on Big Leaf Maple Trees in Olympic National Park. We’re talking about bryophytes bitch!

Better known as mosses, these ‘small but mighty’ organisms have not been widely researched in the scientific community. They have such large stories to tell, but no one to share them with. Myself, my peers and my advisor visited the forest and took extensive notes about the mosses on many sizes of trees: which species we saw, where on each tree they were found. We did this on trees of many ages, so that we could examine how communities change as a tree grows old. People do not know moss’s function in ecosystems– what a shame!

As logging rises and climate change looms, we must learn as much as possible about our ecosystems so that we may best care for the land we gratefully exist on.

Exploring the Effects of Hormone Inhibitors on Snails

Characterizing Cirrus Cloud Ice Crystal Roughness

Mika Lopez and Dominique Langevin

My research partner and I have been treating pond snails with Dutasteride, a compound that prevents the production of a functional form of testosterone.

In humans, this drug is used to treat effects of too much testosterone such as balding. In these snails, it changes their shells from a normal coil shape to an open banana shape! We are looking to see if there is a critical period for these snails to be treated with the DUT in order to create this shape. This would tell us which developmental pathways (brain development, shell development, or something different) are being affected, and shine a light onto the inner workings of invertebrate hormone systems.

Tia Böttger

This summer I looked at ice crystals like the ones that form wispy cirrus clouds high up in the sky, covering about 30% of the Earth’s surface. Due to their high altitude, cirrus clouds may be present above the puffy mass of stratus clouds composed of liquid water we are used to seeing on a gray day in the Pacific Northwest. This makes icy cirrus clouds Earth’s first line of defense for any incoming solar radiation, yet they remain one of the greatest areas of uncertainty in global climate models. Ice crystals develop microscale roughness over time which affects their optical properties, and therefore how much light they are reflecting and their contribution to Earth’s overall albedo (the amount of sunlight reflected rather than absorbed by the Earth). Our work focused on characterizing this roughness quantitatively so we can better understand how roughness patterns depend upon pressure and temperature conditions, and ultimately what the scattering properties of ice crystals in a particular cirrus cloud may be on a given day, helping climate scientists reduce uncertainty in climate models.

VOTE HERE:

ELEMENTS | 41

Citations Barriers to Lung Cancer Screening (1) Siegel R.L., Kimberly D.M., Ahmedin J. 2019. Cancer Statistics 2019. Wiley Online Library. acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/ caac.21551.

(2) Finigan J.H., Jeffery A.K. 2013. Lung Cancer Screening: Past, Present and Future. Clinics in Chest Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine. pubmed. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23993809/.

(3) [ALA] American Lung Association. 2022. New Report: Critically Low Lung Cancer Screening Rates Reveal Opportunity to Save More Lives. www.lung. org/media/press-releases/state-of-lung-cancer-2022 (4) Carter-Harris L., Slaven J.E., Monahan PO, Shedd-Steele Rivienne, Hanna N, Rawl MR. 2018.

Understanding Lung Cancer Screening Behavior: Racial, Gender, and Geographic Differences among Indiana Long-Term Smokers. Preventive Medicine Reports vol. 10 49-54. U.S. National Library of Medicine. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC5852404/.

(5) Wang G.X., Baggett T.P., Pandharipande P.V., Park E.R., Percac-Lima S., Shepard J.O., Fintelmann FJ, Flores EJ. 2019. Barriers to Lung Cancer Screening Engagement from the Patient and Provider Perspective. Radiology 290:2, 278-287. https://doi. org/10.1148/radiol.2018180212 (6) USPSTF] U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. 2021. Lung Cancer: Screening. https:// www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/ recommendation/lung-cancer-screening (7) Delmerico J, Hyland A, Celestino P, Reid M, Cummings KM. 2014. Patient Willingness and Barriers to Receiving a CT Scan for Lung Cancer Screening (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 84(3), 307–309.https://doi. org/10.1016/j.lungcan.2014.03.003.

(8) Medicare. 2022. Lung Cancer Screening. https://www.medicareinteractive.org/get-answers/ medicare-covered-services/preventive-services/lungcancer-screenings (9) [ALA] American Lung Association. 2022. State of Lung Cancer: Key Findings. www.lung.org /research/state-of-lung-cancer/key-findings.

ELEMENTS | 42

Transmutation: Alchemy and Modern Science (1) Holmyard, E.J. 1968. Alchemy. In: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books. p. 15-24 (2) Malley, M.C. 2011. Radioactivity: a history of a mysterious science. In: New York, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 51-66 (3) Tro, N.J. 2020. Chemistry: a molecular approach, 5th edition. In: New York: Pearson Education Inc. (4) Seaborg, G.T. 1951. The Transuranium Elements: present status. In: Sweden: Nobel Lecture (5) Watson W. 2017. Edwin McMillan and Glenn Seaborg, Discoverers of New Elements and Isotopes.

US Department of Energy: Office of Scientific and Technical Information.

(6) Clarke, A.C. 1962. Profiles of the Future: an inquiry into the limits of the possible. In: New York: Harper & Row; Indigo Fusioneers (1) Greninger, C. “What We Do.” Northwest Nuclear Laboratories. Accessed November 10, 2023. https://www.nwnlabs.org/what-we-do.

(2) Verlini, G. “Nuclear Fusion Basics.” IAEA, October 7, 2010. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/ news/nuclear-fusion-basics Everybody Talks (1) Janik V.M., Sayigh L.S., Wells R.S. Signature whistle shape conveys identity information to bottlenose dolphins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2006;103(21):8293–8297. doi:10.1073/pnas.0509918103 (2) Magazine S. Understanding Orca Culture.

Smithsonian Magazine. [accessed 2023 Nov 11]. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ understanding-orca-culture-12494696/ (3) Whitehead H., Rendell L., Osborne R.W., Würsig B. Culture and conservation of non-humans with reference to whales and dolphins: review and new directions. Biological Conservation.

2004;120(3):427–437. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2004.03.017 (4) Holopainen J. Multiple functions of inducible plant volatiles. Trends in Plant Science.

2004;9(11):529–533. doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2004.09.006 (5) Dicke M., Van Loon JJA. Multitrophic effects of herbivore‐induced plant volatiles in an evolutionary context. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 2000;97(3):237–249. doi:10.1046/j.15707458.2000.00736.x (6) Simard S.W. Mycorrhizal Networks Facilitate Tree Communication, Learning, and Memory.

In: Baluska F, Gagliano M, Witzany G, editors.

Memory and Learning in Plants. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2018. p. 191–213. (Signaling and Communication in Plants). http://link.springer. com/10.1007/978-3-319-75596-0_10. doi:10.1007/978-3319-75596-0_10 (7) Adamatzky A. Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity. Royal Society Open Science. 2022;9(4):211926. doi:10.1098/rsos.211926 (8) Jacob EB, Becker I, Shapira Y, Levine H. Bacterial linguistic communication and social intelligence. Trends in Microbiology. 2004;12(8):366– 372. doi:10.1016/j.tim.2004.06.006 (9) Marsh PD, Moter A, Devine DA. Dental plaque biofilms: communities, conflict and control: Plaque biofilms and communities. Periodontology 2000.

2011;55(1):16–35. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0757.2009.00339.x

(3) Ask Astro: Why are small black holes more dangerous than big ones? Astronomy Magazine.

2023 Feb 14 [accessed 2023 Nov 17]. https://www. astronomy.com/science/ask-astro-why-are-smallblack-holes-more-dangerous-than-big-ones/ (4) What happens if you fall into a black hole?

Rmg.co.uk. [accessed 2023 Nov 17]. https://www.rmg. co.uk/stories/topics/what-happens-if-you-fall-blackhole Lying Fallow (1) Leopold, A. 1949. A Sand County Almanac.

New York (NY): Oxford University Press.

(2) Handke, P. 1994. The Jukebox and Other Essays on Storytelling. New York (NY): Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

(3) Du Bois, W.E.B. 1969. Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. New York (NY): Schocken Books.

8th Century Iraq: The Birthplace of Evolutionary Theory (1) Bayrakdar, M. 1985. Al-Jahiz and the Rise of Biological Evolution. Ankara University.

(2) Malik, A. H., J. M. Ziermann, and R. Diogo.

2018. An untold story in biology: the historical continuity of evolutionary ideas of Muslim scholars from the 8th century to Darwin’s time. Journal of Biological Education 52:3–17.

(3) Seth, S. 2009. Putting knowledge in its place: science, colonialism, and the postcolonial.

Postcolonial Studies 12:373–388.

(4) Shah, D. M. S. 2017. Pre-Darwinian Muslim Scholars’ Views on Evolution. Government College University, Lahore. 3-17

How to Avoid Becoming a Noodle (1) Mattson B. Imagine the universe! Nasa.gov. [accessed 2023 Nov 17]. https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/ science/objects/black_holes1.html (2) Gravitational Acceleration. Theory. [accessed 2023 Nov 17]. https://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/mod_tech/ node55.html

ELEMENTS | 43