OYLA Youth Science, October, 2017, preview

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#7 2017

OCTOBER

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COSMIC MECHANICS COSMIC RAYS FASCISM BIG DATA STONE AGE BIOMIMETICS ANIM ATED COVER NZD

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ISSN 2537-7744

OCTOBER 2017

ISSN 2537-7744

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MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE EVOLUTION OF PARACHUTES HOW MICROSCOPE WORKS

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Biomimetics: engineering from Nature p. 27

Table of contents MATH

Mathematical Statistics: the science that knows everything about… everything p. 4

PHYSICS

Cosmic Mechanics: How do we shoot something into space? p. 10

Cosmic Rays: What happens to them when they “crash” into earth? p. 16

BIOLOGY

The Fish In Us All: what do we have in common with all animals on Earth?

Physics would be impossible without these

top 5 constants p. 22

p. 36

TECHNOLOGY

Big Data: Size Does Matter

p. 56

The Evolution of Parachutes: from Leonardo da Vinci to Felix Baumgartner p. 62

Microscopes:

ANTHROPOLOGY

Peep into the Nano-World p. 48

Stone Ages: PSYCHOLOGY

The Anthropology of Fascism: Why do

The history of the birth of human civilisation p. 90

people believe in it? p. 76 SCI-FI

The Incredible and Terrible

Hulk p. 86

GEOGRAPHY LINGUISTICS

How did

languages first appear?

p. 70

The “Blank Spaces” on the Globe

p. 42

M AT H

THE SCIENCE THAT

KNOWS

ALL

PH Y SIC S

Cosmic Mechanics Space exploration is a very complex and expensive undertaking.

From our earliest days, mankind has dreamed of flying to the stars.

But it was not until the 20th century that we were able to realize this dream—the first satellite was built, the first astronaut was sent into space, the first flight apparatuses were sent to the Moon and Venus, and the first space station was sent into orbit.

PHYSICS

Rockets designed for space flight are not just big. They’re huge.

Soyuz, the most widely used space rocket in Russia, weighs over 300 tonnes before takeoff, and measures over 50 metres in height with a diameter of 10 metres. At these dimensions, about 90% of the rocket’s weight consists of just fuel. These monstrous sizes and masses are necessary to bring a 7-tonne cargo into Earth’s orbit (consider that you need to lift this load above Earth’s atmosphere and accelerate it to a speed of almost 8 km/second).

7,9 kilometres per second is known as the first cosmic velocity. If a ship or satellite moves through the lower atmosphere of Earth at this velocity, then it will never fall on it, but simply rotate around it in a circular orbit.

If the speed of a ship is higher than the first cosmic, then its orbit path will be elongated (into the shape of an ellipse). The higher the velocity, the more elongated the orbit. This will be the case up until the point that the ship reaches the second cosmic velocity.

Upon reaching the second cosmic velocity, 11,2 km/s, the ship will fly away from earth into interplanetary space and become a

The Soyuz 5.1 and Soyuz 5.2 rockets (from left to right)

satellite of the Sun. This is the speed necessary to send spacecraft to other planets in our Solar system. All of the vehicles sent to conduct research on Mars, Venus, comets, and asteroids, left the Earth with such speed.

When a vehicle reaches the third cosmic velocity, 16,6 km/s, it leaves the confines of our solar system and flies into interstellar space. This is the velocity at which spacecraft sent to explore distant planets and celestial bodies have been launched: missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. These types of expeditions are extremely expensive and rare: the spacecraft spends a number of years flying to distant planets and must continue to function properly for the duration of the trip and maintain a stable connection with the Earth.

These cosmic velocities have been known for a very long time: even from Newton’s time (the 18th century).

But they were only put into practice when we began to explore space.

fir st c

Speeds May Vary

m os

i

e cv

loc

ity

PH Y SIC S

Air Showers and

Cosmic Rays

17

#7 OCTOBE R2017

When people talk about rays, we usually think about electromagnetic waves. Think of laser beams, beams of light, X-rays, or gamma radiation.

However, in physics, there are “rays” that have nothing to do with light or to electromagnetism at all. A simple example: radioactivity. Yes, this often takes the form of gamma radiation, but there are also alpha and beta “rays”, which are, respectively, a stream of helium and a stream of electrons. The same applies to cosmic rays, which were discovered just over a century ago.

PH Y SIC S

Old Faithful Constants in Physics S

cience requires precision. But for achievements of precision, scientists must literally “hold” heaps of information in their head. To simplify this task, they began to use immense tables with frequently-used information (for example, the Periodic Table of chemical elements, the multiplication table) and conditional rules (the famous “right-hand rule” in physics). And also, constants — some constant values, which were long ago calculated and are used like connecting numbers in different equations. Their values don’t change with changing conditions and calculations. Let’s talk about these numbers in physics and learn what equations they were used in to see if they really made those equations easier.

T ECHNOLOG Y

Heading Lead

Biomimetics

Look around you! We are surrounded by plants and animals that swim, fly, jump, drill, grind, shoot, dig, chew, sing, build, and so on, and so on. For each of these actions, Mother Nature came up with specialised tools. What do you think, can we borrow some of them from her?

Humans, strangely enough, are a creature entirely unadapted to life. We have no fangs, no claws, no readily-developed muscles, and not even a decent skin that would prevent us from catching a cold in the winter.

Instead of all that, we have a brain, thanks to which we not only survive, but also, as we say, dominate this planet. Without false modesty, we call ourselves the “Crown of Creation.” Humans, as a rule, rather than adapting to the world around us, try to change the world to suit our needs. At the

same time, humans made many discoveries thanks to our observation of other animals, from primitive tools based on animals’ teeth, to the world’s first flying machines. uch later, human civilisation defined an entire movement in science, which studies the natural mechanisms to use for human benefit iomimetics (from the Latin bios, or life; and “mimesis,” imitation). Through the use of biomimetics, many puzzles in medicine, architecture, transportation, and energy have been solved.

M EG A PI XEL

The Robber Fly The Robber or Assassin Fly (lat. Asilidae) is an insect the predatory branch of the Fly order found on all zoogeographical regions on Earth, excluding Antarctica. Their name “Assassin Fly” is due to their unique hunting abilities. Thanks to the structure of their rear wings, which can move both horizontally and vertically, these flies attack and kill their prey with astonishing accuracy.

During flight, their wings “register” the position of the body in space, allowing them to make dizzying manoeuvres through the air. They also

have highly poisonous saliva which causes their victims to die instantly.

A Robber Fly’s typical meal is composed of smaller flying insects: midges, mosquitoes, and hoverflies. Having settled on a potential victim, the Robber Fly soars into the air and catches it with its spike-covered legs. Then, they use their prickly mouth apparatus to bite between the head and neck of the prey, injecting a paralyzing poison into the victim. After this, the hunter sucks all of the juices from the insect, leaving nothing but a dried exoskeleton behind.

YO U S E F A L H A B S H I

100X magnification

3X magnification

A Robber Fly with large prey, a grasshopper.

BIOLOG Y

And also amoebas, sponges, and even dinosaurs.

All of these animals are inside you.

You don’t believe me? Let’s explore why!

#7 OCTOBE R2017

39

G EOG R A PH Y

There. The footprints of invisible beasts wind along mysterious paths. Where the Big Master blooms endlessly, where the Inaccessible Rail plucks worms from the ground, where the descendents of dinosaurs swim, where a truly golden fish has been found, and where tribes live entirely separate lives from the kind that you and I know. Our story is about the unstudied corners of the Earth.

T ECHNOLOG Y

ZOOM into the

NANOWORLD

55

#7 OCTO BE R2017

magnification

X700

A scanning electron microscope (S ) uses a focused stream of electrons to “feel,” and thereby scan, the surface of an ob ect. The electrons emitted by the microscope interact with those on the surface atoms of the sample, providing topographical and compositional information. The electron beam operates in a raster scanning pattern (horizontally across the sample, and then diagonally in a descending pattern), and the interactions measured during this scan reproduce an image. The S can provide an image with a resolution of over 1 nanometre. The images produced are black and white, but they are often colourized in post production.

Woodworm The larva of a common furniture beetle, Anobium punctatum, emerging from a hole, captured in a coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM). Species of beetles that consume wood are commonly known as “woodworms.” Some woodworms lay their eggs in wood, and their larvae can cause huge structural deterioration to buildings.

T ECHNOLOG Y

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY, FOLLOWING A COUPLE OF DECADES OF INCREASED COMPUTERISATION, THE AMOUNT OF DATA ACCUMULATED BARELY EXCEEDED 5 MILLION GIGABYTES.

BY 2008, THE VOLUME OF DATA IN THE WORLD HAD GROWN BY ALMOST 40 TIMES, PRIMARILY DUE TO THE WIDENING DISTRIBUTION OF MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGIES.

AND NOWADAYS, THE GLOBAL AMOUNT OF DATA HAS REACHED 7 ZETTABYTES* * 1 zettabyte is one trillion gigabytes!

T ECHNOLOG Y

Starched linen with a width and length of 12 cubits would allow a person to jump from any height without risking his life -- the great Leonardo Da Vinci believed this in 1495. It’s true that his designs did not go beyond the drafting stage. The first of these dangerous jumps with parachute prototypes would not take place for another century.

69

#7 OCTOBE R2017

Meanwhile on Earth, Felix Baumgartner and Alan Eustace went down in history as the first people to ever reach the speed of sound during a vertical fall.

In 2012 and 2014, respectively, they used gas-filled balloons to reach a height of 40 kilometres and jumped toward Earth in a spacesuit equipped with a parachute. People observing from Earth even report hearing the characteristic sonic boom when Felix and Alan switched to supersonic speed in their fall. Just imagine what kind of durable parachute canopy you would need to stop a freefall at over 1300 km/hr!

Alan Eustace

Felix aumgartner

Robert Alan ustace, the Senior V of Knowledge at oogle, has also worked on a stratospheric ump pro ect, called Stratospheric xplorer or Strat x, since 2 11 with the aragon Space evelopment Corporation. oogle itself did not take part in the pro ect. ustace stated that the purpose of the experiment was to develop technologies, including a specialized spacesuit, which would provide indispensable assistance in future studies of the stratosphere.

Before your great future conquering the skies, we’d like to offer you a small engineering experiment on how to prepare a simple mini-parachute. Bend the corners of a square-shaped piece of paper into right angles, and fix strings to them. The length of your parachutes “lines” should all be the same, or your canopy will encounter some complications during flight. That is basically it! All you need to do after that is attach a small weight to the lines, and try out the parachute! This experiment can also be the basis of a small study. Arm yourself with a ruler and scale, and compare the descent times of chutes with different diameters and cargos. Who knows? This might be your first step toward becoming an engineer!

LIN G UIS T IC S

The Science of Trees and Branches If you’ve ever tried to draw out your family tree, then you know that it can be quite complicated to figure out all of the different relationships. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to make a similar tree, but for another family — that of language?

Haire!

Hello!

Hary om!

P S YCHOLOG Y

FASCISM

77

#7 OCTOBE R2017

lessons in submission

It happened in 1967 in a typical American high school. Ron Jones, a history teacher, decided to conduct an intriguing experiment. He told his students that their class would, for one week, take part in a game with very strict rules: they would stand at attention, chant choral songs, and chase out the “undesirables.” In the end, even students from other classes joined in on the game. In the 1930’s and 40’s, a similar “game” called Fascism captured almost all the countries of Europe.

Y

ou, of course, probably have some idea of what Fascism is already. It is any political movement, ideology, or plain old dictatorial form of government based on extreme nationalist convictions.

This is exactly what happened in Germany in the 1930’s when Adolf Hitler came to power, attacking numerous countries in Europe and the Soviet Union. He promoted the idea that the German people, referring to them as the so-called “Aryan race,” was the master race of all humankind — the most noble, creative, and intelligent people on earth.

Aryan race The pseudoscientific term “Aryan race” implies that the “best” races living on Earth are European, with light hair, blue eyes, and thin, symmetrical facial features.

Today, scientists have debunked this idea, proving that there is no “best” race; all people on Earth have approximately equal intelligence and abilities.

The rest, especially Jewish people, were considered “second rank” people by Hitler and his associates. In their view, these “lower” humans were meant to only serve the “higher” Aryans or to simply die. To realize this vision, the Fascists established hundreds of concentration camps, where hundreds of thousands of people were forced into hard labour or deliberately killed.

All of this was done with the silent consent and approval of millions of German civilians — absolutely ordinary people.

How did it happen? Researchers are still trying to understand it to this day, and have come to a number of paradoxical conclusions.

S CI - FI

FANTASY AS YOU LIKE IT!

87

#7 OC TO BE R2017

IS HE

MAN OR

MONSTER OR...

IS HE

BOTH? In history books, the opposition between the US and the USSR is known as the Cold War. It lasted from the end of World War II until the collapse of the USSR. Throughout those 46 years, people lived in fear of the outbreak of nuclear war. This fear had a powerful impact on people’s lives, including on the art produced at the time. Films, books, and songs play a role in teaching us how to live and who to be afraid of, and the world of comic books is no exception. The appearance of

many superheroes at that time was directly related to the Cold War, the fear of radiation, and the monsters generated by it.

A particularly striking example of this phenomenon was the creation of one of the most beloved and controversial superheroes of the Marvel Universe - the giant green Hulk, who, incidentally, was not always green. But rst things rst.

A N T HROP OLOG Y

THE STONE AGES At one point in time, everything was made of stone: axes, spears, arrowheads, tables, chairs, and computers. Just kidding. In the Stone Age, there weren’t any computers yet. This is true. But there were beds made of cobblestone, boats like Robinson Crusoe’s, and even “stone newspapers.”

Stone Age Culture Fossilized The “Stone Age” was far longer than a century—it lasted for almost two million six-hundred-thousand years! At that time, the Earth wasn’t roamed by people as we know them today, but by our ancestors, Australopithecus (they already knew how to make very basic tools). Their time of existence was known as the Stone Age, which ended only some 8–6 thousand years ago. Some! Is this small, you may ask? By historical standards, this is just a moment in time. However, in some places, the “stone age” has not yet come to an end, such as in many aboriginal communities in New Guinea, or in the impenetrable jungles surrounding the Amazon River (in central South America).

This is simply because these peoples have lived apart from modernity, and, so, have not learned how to make guns, watches, or electric light bulbs. Not to mention tablet computers, cell phones, or cars. Some of them still make stone axes and bamboo spears. Many of them have never seen instruments made of iron or bronze, let alone plastic. However, at this point, you can probably count the number

of tribes that live in this way on one hand, because there is almost nowhere on Earth that has not come into contact with representatives of modern civilization. This means that even the most obscure tribes have some knowledge of “sticks” that can kill from a great distance with fire (guns), comfortable clothing made of cloth, and matches for everyday use.

Still, in most parts of the Earth, the Stone Age ended about 8–6 thousand years ago.

Though it is true that this did not happen all at once, universally. In fact, it really only occurred in places where people quickly learned how to use copper, then bronze, and then iron (by the way, it is for this reason that the Stone Age is followed by the progressively shorter, but no less significant, opper, ron e, and Iron Ages).

Furthermore, the word “Stone,” which characterizes this time period, does not at all mean that ancient people were taught to exclusively love and cherish rocks and pebbles above all else. They also made objects from the bones and horns of animals, wood, and later from clay. But, of course, stone was the material primarily used in those days. It’s like a noun in a sentence: trong and long-lasting.