ISSUE 4 December 2020 Shivanshi Bhatt
INSIDE THIS ISSUE PG. 2 Psilocybin legalities
Saturn, top, and Jupiter, below, are seen after sunset from Shenandoah National Park, Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020, in Luray, Virginia. The two planets are drawing closer to each other in the sky as they head towards a “great conjunction” on December 21, where the two giant planets will appear a tenth of a degree apart.
Credits: NASA/ Bill Ingalls
CAFÉ SCIENTIFIQUE :
Blame and self-driving cars
THE NEWSLETTER
PG. 3
EDITOR’S NOTE: MATHEMATICAL REASONING & COMPUTERS
Dihydrogen Phospate anions COVID-19 & Carbon dioxide levels
PG. 4 The Fine Structure constant A Sun on Earth
PG. 5 COVID-19 mutations and the spike protein Sea Cucumber farming
PG. 6-7 The year’s biggest breakthroughs
Upon writing this month’s newsletter, I had come across a very thought provoking article about mathematical reasoning, and how it has been crafted to a very humane, and niche degree. Mathematical proofs are follow rigour and logic, however the ability to set out, to write a proof, and to comprehend one is a very human skill. It seems that the logic followed by the human brain, and that of automotive tools seem inherently different; so how close are computers to automating these processes? Mathematical proofs are strange, and hard to fully respect if one hasn’t had the right mathematical education. They are abstract, untethered to material experience, a bridge between the ‘imaginary’ world of perfection and numbers, and our physical world. Humans didn’t evolve to do this- and yet we do. Computers are very useful for a plethora of things; in mathematics, one of the key uses is for large calculations, however proofs need something else. Conjecture rises from inductive reasoning, intuition, and a complicated creative-logical process. At this stage, a basic computer still remains a collection of logic gates- on and off switches which store information. There are however a few computerised theorem solvers: Automated theorem provers (ATPs) use brute force methods to crunch through big calculations. Interactive theorem provers (ITPs) act as proof assistants, that can check existing proofs for errors, however none of these add up to reasoning, which is the key need for creating these proofs. This remains a challenge in the field. How much proof-making can actually be automated: Can a computer system generate a conjecture and present it in a way that people can understand it? Shivanshi
PSILOCYBIN GETS LEGAL FRAMEWORK Click here to read the full article Oregon is now the first U.S state to legalise psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, and also become the first jurisdiction in the world to lay out plans for the drug’s therapeutic use. At the U.S federal level, psilocybin still remains a completely prohibited Schedule 1 Drug (no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse) however this may change due to the many positive study results. In a 2016 paper in the journal of Psychopharmacology, neuropharmacologist Roland Griffiths and his team found that 80% of patients with a terminal cancer diagnosis experienced a significant decrease in depressed mood and anxiety’ after psilocybin combined with psychotherapy. Soon after the legalisation in Oregon, Johns Hopkins University researchers published results from the first randomised controlled trial of treating major depressive disorder with synthetic psilocybin, which found that 71% of patients experienced a ‘clinically significant response’, and 54% met the criteria for total ‘remission of depression’. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and other imperial researchers have already planned more psilocybin studies for a range of difficult-to-treat conditions, and are hoping to harness the drug’s ability to ‘unblock’ people by shifting perspectives, catalysing insights and changing problematic and habitual mindsets and behaviours. These include studies on anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, smoking cessation, opiate addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Credit: Tesla
Credit: Medical News Today
BLAME & SELFDRIVING CARS Click here to read the full article With the growing popularity of self-driving cars, the issues regarding legal liability in the case of an accident have become more relevant. Self-driving cars are far from error proof; they are designed like adaptive cruise control, which maintains a certain speed and distance from the car ahead, but do no currently have the capacity to fully replace the driver. In a recent study published in Humanities and Social Science communications, the authors take a look at the issue of overtrusting drivers and the resulting system misuse, from a legal viewpoint. One solution proposed that buyers sign end-user licence agreements, similar to terms and conditions that require when buying new hardware and software. However this is far from ideal, and might not even be safe, as the interface may not provide enough information to the driver, leader to confusion about the nature for agreement and their implications. The main problem is, more end users don’t read EULAs: a 2017 Deloitte study shows that 91% of people agree to them without reading, and rises to 97% in younger people, who are more likely to buy new technology, such as self driving cars. Unlike a software, operating a car had intrinsic and seizable safety risks, whether the driver is human or software. Human drivers need to therefore consent to take responsibility for the outcomes of the software and hardware.
DIHYDROGEN PHOSPHATE ANIONS Click here to read the full article Representation showing dihydrogen phosphates (in green) binding together in solution. Credit: UNSW
COVID-19 AND CO2 EMISSONS Click here to read the full article The global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billions tonnes in 2020, a record drop according to researchers at the university of East Anglia, Exeter, and the Global Carbon project. The fall is considerably larger than previous significant decreases, and in 2020, the fossil CO2 emissions are predicted to be approximately 34 GtCO2 7% lower than in 2019. Emissions from transport account for the largest shape of the global decrease. Those from surface transport, such as cars, fell by approximately half at the peak of the lockdown, and by December 2020, emissions from road transport and aviation were still below their 2019 level.
Scientists at UNSW Sydney, together with collaborators from Western Sydney University and The Netherlands were surprised to find that dihydrogen phosphate anions (vital inorganic ions for cellular activity) bind together with other dihydrogen phosphate anions, despite being negatively charged. Their research found that these negatively charged anions can bond together, even in dilute solutions, where hydrogen bonds are thought to be extremely weak; in this case the bonds are surprisingly strong, strong enough to overcome the like-charge repulsion and strong enough to hold the anion clusters together, even when dissolved in hydrogen-bonding solvents that were expected to tear them apart. Associate Professor Jon Beves from UNSW’s School of Chemistry says the new understanding could also go some way in explaining the structure of biological membranes, or how RNA and DNA are attracted to each other in solution, since these interactions all involve phosphate groups. Being able to control the movement of these molecules in solution by using light raises some interesting ideas about how this could be applied in biological or environmental situations.
. Five years on from the UN Paris climate agreement, the international team behind the annual carbon update say growth in carbon dioxide emissions had begun to falter, with emissions increasing more slowly in recent years, which could be partly in response to the spread of the climate policy. However researchers warn that it is too early to say how much emissions will rebound by 2021 and beyond, as the long-term trend in global fossil emissions will be largely influenced by actions to stimulate the global economy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The emission decrease appears more pronounced in the US (-12%) and in EU27 countries (-11%) where COVID-19 restrictions accelerated previous reductions in emissions from coal use. It appears least pronounced in China (-1.7%), where the effect of the pandemic restrictions occurred on top of rising emissions.
Change in global daily fossil CO2 emissions by sector (MtCO2 d^-1). Credit: Nature.com
THE FINE STRUCTURE CONSTANT Click here to read the full article The fine structure constant is a value that has no dimensions or units- it a pure number that shapes the universe to an astonishing degree, a “magic number that comes to us with no understanding”, as physicist Richard Feynman described it. Numerically, the fine structure constant comes very close to the ratio 1/137, and commonly appears in formulae governing light and matter. This constant is everywhere as it characterises the strength of the electromagnetic force, which affects all charged particles. As 1/137 is very small, electromagnetism is weak and as a consequence, charged particles form airy atoms whose electrons orbit at a distance and can easily hop away, enabling chemical bonds. On the other hand , it is perfectly big enough: Physicists have argued that if it were slightly bigger, say 1/138, stars wouldn’t have been able to create carbon, and life as we know it wouldn’t exist. Due to its importance, physicists want to measure it as precisely as possible, as it allows them to rest their theories of the interrelationships between the elementary particles. Any discrepancy between ultra-precise measurements of related quantities could point to novel particles or effects not accounted for by the standard equations. Recently, a team of four physicists at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris reported the most precise measurement yet of the finestructure constant. The team measured the constant’s value to the 11th decimal place: 1/137.035999206. With a margin of error of just 81 parts per trillion, the new measurement is nearly three times more precise than the previous best in 2018.
THE SUN ON EARTH Click here to read the full article A Korean ‘artificial sun’ has set the new world record of maintaining a high temperature plasma for 20 seconds with an ion temperature over 100 million degrees celsius, which was one of the core conditions of nuclear fusion in the KSTAR Plasma Campaign. In order to create fusion reactions that occur in the sun on Earth, Hydrogen Isotopes must be placed inside a fusion device like KSTAR to create a plasma state in which ions and electrons are separated, and ions must be heated and maintained at high temperatures. So far, there have been other fusion devices that have briefly managed plasma at temperatures of 100 millions degrees or higher, however none of them broke the barrier of maintaining the operation for 10 seconds or longer; it is the operational limit of normal-conducting device and it was difficult to maintain a stable plasma state in the fusions device at such high temperatures for a long time. The success of the KSTAR experiment in the long, high temperature operation by overcoming some drawbacks of the ITB modes brings us a step closer to the development of technologies for realisations of nuclear fusion energy. The KSTAR began operating the device last August and plans to continue, conducting a total of 110 plasma experiments that include high performance plasma operation and plasma disruption mitigation experiments, which are joint research experiments with domestic and overseas research organisations. The final goal of the KSTAR is to succeed in a continuous operation of 300 seconds with an ion temperature higher than 100 millions degrees by 3025.
KSTAR. Credit: National Research Council of Science & Technology
X-rays steam off the sun, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory SDO, taken but NASA NuSTAR. The field of view covers the west limb of the sun. Credit: NASA
COVID-19 AND THE SPIKE PROTEIN Click here to read the full article The new variant of COVID-19 has brought about interest in the spike protein, as it included particular changes which makes it more concerning than the other changes to the virus observed before. The new changes may affect the biochemistry of the spike, therefore affecting how transmissible the virus is. The spike protein is also the basis of the current vaccines, but what exactly is it, and why is it so important? In the world of parasites, many bacterial or fungal pathogens can survive on their own, without a host cell to infect, however this is not the case for viruses; they have to get inside cells in order to replicate and spread to other cells. Our cells have evolved to ward off such intrusions. One of the major defence that cellular life has is its outer counting, which is composed of a fatty layer that holds in all the enzymes, proteins and DNA that make up a cell. Due to the biochemical nature of fats, the outer surface is highly negatively charged and repellent. Like cellular life, coronaviruses are surrounded by a fatty membrane known as an envelope. In order to gain entry to the inside of the cell, enveloped viruses use proteins, or glycoproteins, to fuse their own membrane to that of cells’,and take over the cell. The spike protein is composed of a linear chain of 1,273 amino acids, studded with 23 sugar molecules. Three separate spike molecules tend to bind together to form a functional ‘trimeric’ unit; there are estimated to be roughly 26 spike trimmers per virus. Given how crucial the spike protein is to the virus, many antiviral vaccines or drugs are targeted to viral glycoproteins. For example, the vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna give instructions to our immune system to make our own version of the spike protein, which happens shortly following immunisation. Production of the spike protein inside our cells then starts the process of protective antibody and T cell production. One of the most concerning features of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is how it moves, or changes with time during the evolution of the virus. Encoded within the viral genome, the protein can mutate and change its biochemical properties as the virus develops. Most mutations will not be beneficial, however some may cause changes that give the new version of the virus a selective advantage by making it more transmissible or infectious. This is why new mutations that alter how the spike protein functions are of particular concern, as they may impact how we control the spread of the virus.
SEA CUCUMBERS Click here to read the full article ,written by Sofia Perez Holothuria Scabra, more commonly known as the sea cucumbers, are very interesting and versatile creatures; they play a vital role in the coral reef ecosystem, despite their odd and monotonous appearance. Their digestive system is a very important filtration system which serves to prevent algal blooms, improve the growth of subtropical sea grass beds, and buffer reefs from the effects of ocean acidification. Locally, these creatures are more commonly recognised for their positive effect on human health. Their skin contains a chemical called fucosylated glycosaminoglycan, which can be used to treat arthritis, prevent blood clots and much more. For these reasons they are often used in traditional Chinese medicine and are even considered a delicacy among the high class. However due to China’s recent economic bloom, the demand for sea cucumbers is rising rapidly, too fast to keep up with traditional fishing methods. This has led to unethical and desperate fishing of sea cucumbers, which has a detrimental effect on marine ecosystems. However a solution still exists: sea cucumber aquaculture farms. These offer a more sustainable options for fishers, consumers and the environment.
Credit: National Geographic
A YEAR OF SCIENCE: BEST BREAKTHROUGHS OF 2020 THE BLACK HOLE INFORMATION PARADOX Read more here In a series of papers, theoretical physicists have come vey close to resolving the black hole information paradox, a topic which has been unsolved for nearly 50 years. Information, they say now with confidence, does escape a black hole. If you jump into one, you wouldn’t be gone for good; instead, particle by particle, the information needed to reconstitute your body will reemerge . Most physicists believed that it would , as that was the upshot of string theory. However new calculations, though inspired by string theory, stand on their own. This is a peculiar contradiction to gravity; according to general relativity, the gravity of a black hole is so intense that nothing can escape it. The more sophisticated understanding of black holes developed by Stephen Hawking in the 70s didn’t question this principe, however they sought to describe matter in and around black holes using quantum theory, but they continued to describe gravity using Einstein’s classical theory, an approach referred to as semiclassical. Although there is still much dispute, everyone agrees on one thing: space-time itself seems to fall apart at a black hole, implying that space-time is not the root of reality, but an emergent structure from something deeper.
An artist’s drawing of a black hole names Cygnus X-1. It formed when a large star caved in. This black hole pulls in matter from the blue star beside it. Credits: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
THE COMPUTING POWER OF THE BRAIN Read more here
Most applications of deep learning use “convolutional” neural networks, in which the nodes of each layer are clustered, the clusters overlap and each cluster feeds data to multiple nodes (orange and green) of the next layer. Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MT
The brain is often described as an organic computer, but that description is not true to the detailed process. Digital computers make use of transistors, on and off switches that store bits of information. In a human brain, the analogous components are the 100 billion neurones, which contrastingly are anything but simple. Researchers are just beginning to understand that even the dendritic arms of neurones seem capable of processing information, which means that every neurone might be more likely to be like a small computer itself. However, the analogy to computers does have its uses: Artificial neural networks capable of deep learning tackle problems of perceptions, and work in organisational structures remarkably similar to that of the living brain Both types of systems seem to converge on the same computational solutions, which may mean that deep networks could be increasingly useful tools for deciphering the brain’s secrets.
ROOM-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTIVITY Read more here A team of physicists in New York have discovered a material that conducts electricity with perfect efficiency at room temperature. The hydrogen, carbon and sulphur compound operates as a superconductor at up to 59 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 50 degrees hotter than the previous high-temperature superconductivity record. This is a great achievement, ‘a landmark’, said Chris Pickard, a materials scientist at the University of Cambridge. However, this new compound will never find its way into lossless power lines, frictionless high-speed trains, or any other technology that could become ubiquitous if the fragile quantum effect underlying superconductivity could be maintained in truly ambient conditions. This is as the substance superconducts at room temperature, only while being crushed between a pair of diamonds to pressures roughly 75% as extreme as those found in the Earth’s core. The goal now is to discover a superconductor that operates not only at room temperate but under everyday pressures too.
Crushed between two diamonds, a compound of hydrogen, sulphur and carbon superconducts at room temperature. Credits: Adam Fenster
THE NEWLY DISCOVERED MAGNETAR Read more here On April 28th, a newly built radio telescope was monitoring the quiet skies over British Columbia when it caught fast radio bursts. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has already spotted hundreds of these; an ordinary burst might be seen by two to five of the instrument’s antennas- this burst triggered 93.These bursts were extremely powerful; for a brief fraction of a second, the radio waves put out by the source were as bright as those from the sun, meaning that they were comparable to extragalactic fast radio bursts.
An artist’s impression of a magnetar- a dead star that spins and generates incredibly high magnietic fields. Credits: Pitris
This lead to the discovery of a new magnetar: an ultradense, rapidly spinning and highly magnetised cinder of a stellar core. The task now is to pinpoint how exactly a magnetar creates the brief burst of radio waves.