UNFOLDING The newest advancements in science that are being discovered right now
Modern Technologies: Better than Science Fiction Star Classification: Find out the Science in the Stars
The Future of Human Exploration: Where will we go next?
learn about global warming and how we can stop it
Table of Contents 8
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Technology:
6:
The You of The Future
8:
The Great Art Debate
Technology has advanced drastically in the recent past. People will soon acquire the ability to mechanically enhance their bodies and gain many advantages because of this. Check out this page and get a sneak peak and start planning out “The You of the Future”!
The computer science field constantly grows as time goes on, but is there truly artistic value in video games, a subsection of the field? We interview developers and reviewers to get to the bottom of the Great Art Debate.
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Printing Cubed
Recently, 3-D printers have risen in popularity, and for the LASA robotics team, they help tremendously. Here we see their view and opinion on these new devices and how they have utilized them so far.
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Technology You Didn’t Know About:
As large as the field is, there are bound to be things being discovered everyday that we never get to learn about. Get to know about some of the newest innovations that very few others know.
Astrology/Geology:
12:
Star Classification
19:
Saving Water By The Numbers
Stars come in multiple shapes and sizes and astrologists classify them into groups based on color, mass and other characteristics. Find out the descriptions of each group in this colorful Star Chart!
As much of the US suffers from a drought, the importance of people to conserve water. Many US citizens use up way too much water than necessary. Do you want to find more ways to conserve water? Find out different methods on this page.
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24:
Global Warming Explained:
Many people actively debate global warming nowadays without being familiar with many of the most basic components. Yet without this science, we could not predict if climate change occurs.
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Black Holes and How They Work:
Black Holes, one of the most mysterious objects in space, still elude mankind grasp, but this will explain the in’s and out’s of the mysterious Black Holes and How They Work.
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17:
Benefits of Regular Exercise:
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Hazards of the Hospital:
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A Night Full of Homework:
In today’s society, more office jobs and lots of fast food restaurants spontaneously appear. With this combination, many people forget to exercise. Exercise gives you unthinkable benefits such as improving your overall health.
Most people go to the hospital with an idea of safety in their heads but in fact most healthcare infections originate from the hospital.
Global Warming: Earth’s Hottest Topic:
Global warming has clearly risen to the largest problem for the next generation, and yet many people still choose not to acknowledge this issue. Learn more about the US policies and the tragedy of commons on this page.
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Biology:
Life On Mars?
Humans have slowly created more and more advanced technologies and in time they can travel to Mars and colonize Mars for their own benefits. Learn the process it would take and the costs of the mission it would take to have Life On Mars, and if the possibility even exists.
Today, teens in high school have the largest homework load and have many things to do outside of school. With such a high demanding life, teens don’t get enough sleep every night. According to a National Sleep Poll, most teens only get 4-6 hours of sleep.
Meet the Authors
Photos by: Aishu Gandhi
Tyler Kaung was born in Rangoon, Myanmar and moved to Wisconsin
when he was 3. He later moved to Texas when he was 6 and attended Sunset Valley Elementary school. Tyler attended Kealing Magnet school for middle school and is currently attending LASA High School. His love for science originated in elementary school but he specifically enjoys studying the astrology field. Throughout his school career he took multiple classes about astronomy, and aspires to be an astrologist himself.
Noah Shimizu currently attends Liberal Arts and Science Academy (or LASA) as a freshman in Austin, Texas. He always had an interest in math and science. In his spare time, he enjoys playing games, watching TV, reading manga, and playing piano.. Sometime in the future, he looks to work in either the field of mathematics or programming.
Aishu Gandhi,14, is a sweet and funny person who enjoys learning new
things every day and attends LASA. Most days she spends her time sitting outside and reading. She always had a deep passion for the science field in general, but loves the medical field. Ever since, she has been working to learn more about neuroscience and genetics. Her favorite thing about medicine is that there is always a way to help people no matter the situation.
Matthew Cabello is a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Acad-
emy in his hometown Austin, Texas. Matthew likes to mess with computer science and programming and graphic design. He loves art and strives to culture people about the rich and creative computer science field and the art in it.
Christopher Soremekun,15, is currently a freshman at LASA. He’s a
video gamer with a passion for technology. He’s loved technology ever since he was a kid, and aspires to be a video game designer in the future. He has attended various coding classes since middle school and wants to create his own games in the near future.
Letter from the Editor
Hi there, I’m Matthew, Matthew Cabello. Welcome to Unfolding
Magazine made by a randomly assorted group of amazing people. We hope that you will find something you like in this magazine as there are so many different topics covered. Though we may not have a singular theme, we hope our readers enjoy the stories and leave with some new interesting knowledge that they can share with others. Thanks for reading
~
THE YOU YOU OF OF Soon people will be able to make many technological advancements to their bodies to make the more effective. Keep reading to get a peek at what advancements will be accessible in the near future!
1 5 2
4
3 Photo by: Nintendo
THE FUTURE
by: Christopher Soremekun
Retinal Prosthesis
1
Healthy eyes use the rods and cones in the retina to convert light into electrochemical impulses. These impulses are sent through the optic nerve into the brain. At that point to brain decodes the impulses into images. If the rods and cones cease function, or function incorrectly due to a disease such as retinitis pigmentosa, then the first step of the process is disrupted and the brain doesn’t receive the signals to turn into images. Retinal prosthesis bypasses the damaged rods and cones altogether. A camera receives the images and processes the video into a signal. This signal is then sent to the brain and the person is able to perceive sight! http://www.2-sight.com/
Cochlear Implants
2
The point of hearing aids is to increase the sounds heard by the brain. Hearing aids and cochlear implants are completely different things. Cochlear implants give deaf people or people with damaged inner ears the ability to hear again. These implants take over the job of the damaged ear and sending the sound signals to the brain re-enabling hearing! http://www.cochlear.com/
iLimbs
3
iLimbs are the limbs of the future, when prosthetics not only return physical ability but also enhance strength, endurance, and comfort beyond current human capabilities. These limbs are very useful for people that have been in incidents because they can be given access to limbs and things they would have originally been excluded from like playing instruments, rowing, and driving. http://www.touchbionics.com/
RNA Interference
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People will be able to use Gene Therapy and RNA Interference to change negative genes in a person’s body to make them more healthy or even as supplements to increase daily productivity. This can even lower the chances of people inheriting genetic diseases like cancer and diabetes, on top of raising people’s productivity rates and even how long they live! https://lifeboat.com
Self Customization
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What if we could customize our bodies for our everyday lives? Jerry Jalava got into a motorcycle accident and lost his finger. He realized how important his USB drive was for his daily life, so he decided to embed his USB drive into his prosthetic finger! Neil Harbisson has a specialized electronic eye, rendering perceived colors as sounds on the musical scale, so it lets him “hear” color, essentially giving him synesthesia. He was color blind from birth only being able to see in gray-scale. He grew up to be a composer, and thought that this cybernetic enhancement would be the best way for him to experience colors. Soon, many personal advancements like this will be available to the general public! http://www.mnn.com/
The Great Art Debate by: Matthew Cabello
A museum goer at the MOMA Video Game Exhibit is playing Pac-Man, a classic arcade game that has been around since the 1980’s and considered a classic by many, its simple design and fun gameplay appeal to many people, gamers and non alike.
photo by: Alejandro Castro
This is a picture of the living room which you explore in the game
Everyone
sees art in a different way, and that will always be how humans work, but sometimes people cannot see art in forms that others create a living in. Video games, whether believed to be art or not, have carried their weight in controversy as the violence portrayed in many games disturb parents and guardians of the children who play, but do they have to be violent to be a game? The process in which games are made mirror so closely the way that all other art is created. When in the process, you constantly have new ideas or things that you want to edit or remove. When it comes down to it, the creation of many games is an exact replica of the creation of any other type of art, but the issue for many is still in the final outcome of the game, is it possible for a piece of art to be winnable or interactive.
photo by: Fullbright
That is where the main argument stands. Talking to developers, consumers and reviewers will attempt to open the minds of many and strengthen the beliefs of others. Video games have been around for decades and have carried their share of controversy. The debate is still quite heated on both sides with each providing points and counterpoints to one another. Roger Ebert is the most famous to have argued on the “nay� side while a majority of the gamer community took a stand against him on the other. Many developers and artist weigh in on the subject as well like co-founder of Fullbright Company, Karla Zimonja. Fullbright Company has developed Gone Home, a PC, Mac and Linux game that is a very big point on the side of the gamers.person to defend his claims. On his blog he wrote a very prolonged and detailed explanation and
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“I think there’s a severe flaw in his conception of “I daresay that Ebert, who was a very respectable, hugames having to be ‘winnable;’ again, that’s not Ebert’s mane movie critic, just didn’t have enough experience fault, because he couldn’t foresee the blurring of lines with games, yes. It’s not his fault, he was steeped in a between authored story and experiential game (and fully linear medium, ‘games not being art’ was not an the interplay between those ideas, etc),” Zimonja said. illogical idea for him to form,” Zimonja said. A lot of people are easy on Ebert as he was just not Many people like to credit Roger Ebert of having the alive to see or experience these games that we see tomost important and or powerful voice on the issue. day but Keram, the Editor-In-Chief of IndieGameReHe made many arguments viewer.com, says “No. It was a I daresay that Ebert, who was misfire for him.” A great number of and was the most famous person to defend his claims. a very respectable, humane movie people think that Gone Home is a On his blog he wrote a very very intriguing and artistic gaming prolonged and detailed ex- critic, just didn’t have enough ex- experience that allows the player to planation and documenta- perience with games, yes. live a story interactively instead of tion of his experiences and reading straight text. This is a new arguments with people about ~ Zimonja concept and has not been explored this topic. much yet. In the future, many feel He had a very large idea that games had to be winthat this will become a new medium and branch into nable and that that aspect was the artistically limiting something new. This all due to Gone Home. feature of the art form.
“
This is the homeworld in the game Fez.
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”
photo by: Wikipedia
“I don’t think that any of us (on the team) is a Truly Great Visionary Artist, honestly! But then again, that label is probably not terribly useful or helpful, either when making a game or when considering its ‘status.’ Where do you draw the line? What are your criteria for ‘greatness’? I suspect it’s very difficult to define well.” Zimonja said. “I think that Gone Home should be compared to works of art. I believe the main reason people would be against that opinion would be because normal “art” isn’t something you interact with. In my opinion Gone Home is more like art than it is a game,” says Chris S. In the development process of games, many ideas are constantly changing and the game goes through many phases of development. This can change the artistic direction of the game but also the beliefs of creators according to Zimonja. Some developers say the way they think about art has changed since they have started the development process. “So much about the games we make changes during development, which is normal for us. There’s a lot of iteration between the space and the story and the interactivity, at the very least, not to mention us constantly thinking of ways to improve things and make the game more interesting,” says Zimonja. The process in which games are made mirror so closely the way that all other art is created. When in the process, you constantly have new ideas or things that you want to edit or remove. When it comes down to it, the creation of many games is an exact replica of the creation of any other type of art, but the issue for many is still in the final outcome of the game, is it possible for a piece of art to be winnable or interactive. That is where the main argument stands.
An item in “Gone Home” that you use to find out more about the story, which is an integral part of
The cover art for the game Fez.
photo by: Wikipedia
Art is an ever-changing entity and is hard to grasp in its entirety. Video Games have not been around forever and are a comparably recent art form in the minds of many. “Of course! As time goes on, we’ll recombine things in new ways, for sure, and very possibly come up with completely new things.” Zimonja said. This leads to thoughts of new art forms emerging, but what could possibly come next? It is difficult to think about and no one feels they can predict what will be next. In the future, art may be a mixture of all the senses, as we create more ways for people to experience things that were not able to be replicated in the past. Art has come a long way and still has a very long time to evolve. photo by: Wikipedia \
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Star Classification: The Rainbow of Stars by: Tyler Kaung
A: Temp: 7,500K - 11,000K Color: Blue Characteristics: Avg. Mass: 3.2x of Sun Avg Lumonsity: 80x of Sun
O: Temp: Over 25,000K Color: Blue Characteristics: Avg. Mass: 60x of Sun Avg Lumonsity: 1,400,000x of Sun
O
B: Temp: 11,00K - 25,000K Color: Blue Characteristics: Avg. Mass: 18x of Sun Avg Lumonsity: 20,000x of Sun
B
A
Stars come in distinct shapes and sizes and astronomers classifiy them in different groups: O, B, A, F, G, K and M. These groups take into account the color, temperaature, average mass and lumonsity, along with other characteristics, of the stars.
G: Temp: 5,000K - 6,000K Color: Yellow-White Characteristics: Avg. Mass: 1.1x of Sun Avg Lumonsity: 1.2x of Sun
M: Temp: Under 3500K Color: Red Characteristics: Avg. Mass: .3x of Sun Avg Luminosity: .04x of Sun
F:
Temp: 6,000K - 7,500K Color: White - Blue Characteristics: Avg. Mass: 1.7x of Sun Avg Lumonsity: 6x of Sun
F
K: Temp: 3,500K-5,000K Color: Red - Orange Characteristics: Avg. Mass: .8x of Sun Avg Lumonsity: .4x of Sun
G
K
M
Sources: www.space.com www.enchantedlearning.com astrophysical.org Photo by: Tyler Kaung
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photo by: John Biehler
PRINTING
3
story and photos by: Christopher Soremekun
The Litto 3-D printer comes in a do-ityourself kit to give people who are new to using 3-D printers a better understanding of how they work.
photo by: Christopher Soremekun Marek Travnikar working with a 3-D Printer. He is an expert with 3-D Printers and is the team’s go-to whenever they need a complex part.
Imagine designing a robot on a computer screen, then the robot being able to come to life exactly as you designed in the real world. This becomes a reality for people with 3D printers, and once the Robotics team at Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) obtained one, it’s been indispensable to them. With the advancement of 3D Printers, the Robotics team has been able to custom-make parts for each of their robots for any specific function they want. Due to the rise of 3D Printers, the people in LASA Robotics have been able to make many specific parts for their robots. They have been able to advance their designs thoroughly by no longer being restricted to only conventional store parts. With 3D Printers the team can now increase their design complexity and overall productivity. Completing complex and unique robots might not have been possible under their strict deadlines... without 3D Printers that is. “For many years now there has been the ability to turn a part designed in the computer into something real by means such as CNC mills, lathes, routers, etcetera,” Marek Travnikar, a junior in the LASA Robotics team said. “All these methods are known as subtractive manufacturing because they all take away, or subtract, material from a stock to get a final product. 3D printing is the opposite, being one of the only additive methods that exist.”
This technology has been around for a while, but only recently has it become more easily accessible. The technology has astounded the members of the robotics group, and has been indisposable in manufacturing their more complex designs. “The idea of being able to design a part, push a button, and have it become a tangible object seemed to me at the time like science fiction, and still kinda does now. It was such an intriguing concept, I had to make it happen,” Travnikar said. The difference between buying off-the-shelf parts and printing their own custom parts is very important to the
“
The idea of being able to design a part, push a button, and have it become a tangible object seemed to me at the time like science fiction, and still kinda does now. -Marek Travnikar
”
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robotics team. “The main benefit of 3-D printing is that I can make any part of any shape and size without consideration for my manufacturing abilities,” Daniel Teals, a junior on the robotics FRC team said. Using the 3-D printers to make parts specific to the robotics robots has saved the teams a lot of time trying to use parts that weren’t created for what the function they needed. “Before I had a 3-D printer, I had to spend quite a bit of time circumventing, attaching difficult-to-interlock pieces, or using oddly shaped off-the-shelf parts,” Teals said. “Now, I can make a piece of any possible shape I need, which cuts down both on design and build time, because I don’t have to redesign fittings or manually make the part,” Sales of personal 3-D printers increased 35,000% from 2007 to 2012. They’ve gained a lot of popularity. Whenever someone first hears about these printers they want to see one in action. “Everybody I’ve talked to says that it’s extremely neat. They all want a [3-D] printer,” Teals said. 3-D Printing has even developed a community for things that allows them to create stuff on their own printers without having to design the item on their own. There is a website called “Thingiverse” where people can go to find layouts for
“
If you averaged my use throughout the year, I probably make one or two parts per week. -Daniel Teals
”
things that other people have printed, and print them out for themselves without having to design them again. “Periodically I will find myself browsing Thingiverse for neat creations to print, and I [have] countless little gadgets around my house that are a result of that,” Travnikar said. Now although many people want to get their hands on a 3-D printer because of the concept, when put into practice Daniel Teals, part of the build they may not be as satisfied with team for this year’s FRC group. the purchase as they thought, depending on what they want it for. “I, as an engineer, am extremely happy to be able to print anything in three dimensions… My hobby, for one thing, is building 3-D printers,” Teals said. These printers have thoroughly impressed the robotics team, but they definitely aren’t for everyone. How useful they are depends on what they’re used for. There are many things to consider for a purchase of one of these complex machines. “Should they be bought by every household? If you want to learn manufacturing, yes; if you want something as easy and useful as an inkjet printer, no. The technology needs to advance a little more first” Teals said. Even though 3-D printers are not for everyone, they seem to have found a home among the robotics team here at LASA. The team’s found that their usefulness is essential. When the building gets tough the 3-D printers get printing! “If you averaged my use throughout the year, I probably make one or two parts per week,” Teals said. “[although] when I’m building a project, I may make as many as four or five large parts per day,” The team even uses for 3-D printing outside of robotics. “I mostly use my printer for creating parts for my own creations… at this point there are more parts on [my 3-D printer] of my own creation than parts that came in the kit,” Travnikar said. Although the team finds them so practical, that’s because 3-D printers are just another tool to the engineers in robotics. “Right now they’re just another tool, akin to something you might find in a machine shop,” Teals said. However, there are more limitations to the device than the user’s imagination, some physical limitations exist as well.
photo by: Christopher Soremekun The LASA robotics team has 2 3-D Printers readily available for printing parts whenever they need to.
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“Just like a normal inkjet printer can only print on an 8.5”x11” piece of paper, a 3-D printer can only make a part so large. If I need to, though, I can glue parts together to make something bigger,” Teals said. Printing all of this would take a lot of time, of course. Having something with the accuracy of 3-D printing would naturally take a while to ensure the print matches the design. “On my 3-D printer, for example, very complicated and large structures can take upwards of 24 hours to print. That’s a lot of expensive, irreplaceable time. Hopefully the speed will be an issue fixed soon,” Travnikar said. 3-D printers are also limited in what materials they can use. Making an object out of wood or sand isn’t possible yet. “Most hobbyist 3-D printers, and all the ones we have access to at LASA, can only print thermoplastics, like ABS-the stuff Legos are made of,” Teals said ”It’s easily sufficient for most applications, but sometimes you just need a stronger part out of metal and you’re out of luck,” Even though it has it’s drawbacks, everyone is optimistic about the future of 3-D printing in the robotics team. “3-D printing is awesome,” Anthony Bertucci, an instructor in the robotics team said. The robotics team at LASA loves 3-D printers. They have become an instrumental part to the team as of right now, and their uses will likely see a vast increase in the near future. “I find it quite likely that 3-D printing will play it’s large part in [increasing the rate technology accelerates at],” Travnikar said. photo by: Creative Tools
Although 3-D printing has some flaws as of now, the team at robotics team is hopeful for it’s future applicability in their designs and projects, and how the technology of 3-D printing will advance as a whole. “One day, perhaps, 3-D printing may live up to its expectations. The Star Trek Replicator, though not here yet, is on its way,” Teals said.
“
One day, perhaps, 3D printing may live up to its expectations. The Star Trek Replicator, though not here yet, is on its way. -Daniel Teals
”
A dinosaur that was made while the team had some extra time. It was made only using the 3-D printers!
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Benefits of Regular Exercise The benefits of regular exercise stretch far beyond one would think. Regular exercise can improve the overall quality of your health and can protect you from various health problems.
1
2
IMPROVES MOOD as the hypothalamus stimulates various hormones
IMPROVES MEMORY as blood flow to the brain is better and allows the mind to work faster
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3
REDUCES RISK OF DISEASE by boosting the good cholestrol and decreasing triglycerides
5
CONTROLS WEIGHT by using oxygen which in turn burns fat
BOOSTS ENERGY by improving the efficiency of delivering oxygen to the cells
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STRONGER BONES as new muscle proteins form and increase bone strength
Photo 1 courtesy of Amy Mortiz, Photo 2 courtesy of Stanford Medical University,Photo 3 courtesy of Globe Views, Photo 4 courtesy of PSD Graphics, Photo 5 courtesy of Overstock, Photo 6 courtesy of Wikimedia Sources: www.hsph.harvard.edu; www.mayoclinic.org; teens.webmd.com
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1
5 HOSPITal H
Z RDS
Most people come to the hospital thinking that the hospital is a safe place and a place to be cured of their illness. In reality though, illnesses caught at the hospital are more common.
= Medical errors cause at least 44,00098,000 deaths every year.
This is the equivalent of 10 jumbo jets crashing every week.
2 Healthcare infections kill more people than breast cancer and automobile accidents every year.
3 4
$35.7 -$45 billion is spent to treat healthcare infections
Various methods such as direct contact, droplet, and airborne transmit healthcare infections.
5
ONLY
30%
doctors tell patients if anything goes wrong during their treatment!
Photo Credits:1Wikimedia; 2 Wikimedia and Aero Jet Services; 3 NASA; 4 abcteach; 5 Wikimedia; 6 Big Insurance Group; 7 Images Money via Flickr; 8 ClipArtPanda via Flickr; 9 PSD Graphics,;10 Wikimedia Sources: www.osha.gov; www.iom.edu; www.vox.com
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Saving Water By The Numbers By Noah Shimizu
The average American family uses 400 gallons of water each day, significantly more than necessary for basic living. And with much of the US stuck in a drought, it only gets more and more essential to conserve water.
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When Brushing your teeth, turn of the faucet and save 8 Gallons a month.
A water saving washing machine can save 20 gallons per load. Waiting until you have a full load to start can save even more!
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20
Taking showers instead of baths can save 45-60 gallons each time.
Low flow shower heads save an average of 500 gallons of water a week. An additional 500 gallons can be saved by turning off the faucet when adding in shampoo.
600
500
Hoses and faucets can use 600 gallons of water in a matter of hours. Try manually watering and preferably in the morning or afternoon.
A leaky faucet can waste a whopping 2,700 gallons each year. Add food coloring to your toilet to spot leaks early.
2700 Photo By sameold2010
A NIGHT FULL OF HOMEWORK by: Aishu Gandhi
Many students are constantly looking at the computer or their phones when studying. Technology is very beneficial but not necessarily in this case.
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photo by: Flickr via sleepdep
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Imagine a night with loads of homework from school with many essays, projects and regular homework due in
close succession. Due to this, many teenagers are forced to stay up all night in order to attain a higher grade on that assignment. Throughout that night, teens and many adolescents feel like they are getting lots of work done and are not very sleepy anymore. In the morning though, many students have various effects such as drowsiness and lack of concentration. Many students say that they can “catch up” on their sleep during the weekends. But the question is, is this “catch up” process really possible? Emmy Gentile, a student at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas, is a very hard-working student who has a large amount of homework every night. Due to the great demands of the school and the large load of homework she has, Emmy ends up sleeping at odd hours. “Usually I get 5 hours of sleep because of the massive amounts of homework I have. Sometimes, when I am finished with homework, it is around 10:30 or 11:00 p.m,” Gentile said. There are a very few amount of students today who get the prescribed amount of sleep. Elizabeth Caroll, a neurologist at the St. David’s South Austin Medical Center, believes that teenagers should get much more sleep than five hours. Many teenagers need at least eight and a half to nine hours of sleep on a daily basis. Based on the poll taken by the National Sleep Foundation, less than 20 percent reported getting their full eight and a half to nine hours of sleep on a daily basis. With many students sleeping at odd times after finishing homework, they rarely get a good night’s sleep on week days. The average hours slept by a typical teenager ranged from
Many students fall asleep infront of the computer at odd hours due to the large amounts of homework. This affects the brain’s homeostasis.
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“
The computer screen is the blue light which will stimulate the hypothalamus ...keeping you up for more hours. -Elizabeth Caroll
”
ranged from five hours to six and a half hours, according to the World Sleep and Technology Poll in 2011. “In general, we are very used to sleeping at certain times. Our body basically gets on this internal clock. That’s part of the body homeostasis,” Caroll said. This internal clock is very precise but can be messed up very easily. One of the main culprits is the dependence on our personal electronics. Students such as Emmy constantly use electronic devices to get their homework done, listen to music and chat with their friends. Emmy’s mother, Christy Gentile, is very worried about her child when she sees her looking at the bright computer screen at 1:00 a.m. The bright screen could affect her daughter’s eyes in the long run as per their family eye doctor, David Tybor, and also lose concentration the next morning. Christy Gentile strongly believes that sleep is not optional. It is imperative just like breathing, eating, and physical activity. “In fact, she’s gotten up, gotten dressed and laid back down and doesn’t remember doing this when I wake her back up,” Gentile said. “That computer screen when you’re looking at it is that blue light which will stimulate the hypothalamus. It will
photo by:Optimum Performance Institute
This is where the hypothalmus is located. When the hypothalmus is constantly stimulated, this is how the brain looks.
stimulate the hypothalamus. It will infact keep you up for more hours,” Caroll said. Many teenagers are prone to stay up and work all through the night due to their homework load. Staying up at night becomes easier because the hypothalamus is stimulated. Most often, it is difficult to go to sleep immediately after looking at the screen for such a long time as Elizabeth Caroll mentions in the interview. “There are many days when I just can’t fall asleep after finishing my homework. I eventually fall asleep because I’m very burned out, but it still takes a good half hour for me to fall asleep,” Emmy said. When the hypothalamus is constantly stimulated, it is very hard to subdue the activity. This, in turn, prevents the body from getting the necessary rest. According to the New York Times (Hard Lesson in Sleep for Teenagers), most people in today’s society do not get the prescribed amount of sleep but teens are at the highest risk. There are many side effects to sleep deprivation. Insufficient sleep in teens increases the risk of such effects and diseases. Some of these effects show in the next few days while other side effects do not start showing up until adulthood. “There’s this ongoing fight throughout the day to maintain wakefulness but also get sleepy,” Caroll said. “Basically as the day goes on, usually the sleepiness factor takes over. And then you start to feel the effects of sleep deprivation where you
photo by:Brothers Soft
can feel the excessdaytime sleepiness that will impair your attention, again your ability to work and your reaction time.” There are various other effects such as heart attacks, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity drowsiness, and lack of concentration. Insufficient sleep also hinders judgement and reaction time immensely as per Edward Ortiz, a medical director who specializes in sleep. High school teachers woften say many of their students are half- asleep in first period. A teenager’s sleep cycle shifts almost an hour which makes it strenuous to fall asleep before 11 p.m. Adding to this shift in sleep schedule, there is technology, smartphones and media, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. This blue light stimulates the hypothalamus even more, as Caroll mentioned. Trying to “catch up” for the lost sleep on weekends causes a permanent jet lag. Sleeping late and getting up late shifts the internal clock, making it harder to wake up on Monday morning.
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Global Warming A Brief Five Part Explanation By Noah Shimizu
Today, many people argue over global warming, in the news and in congress. Yet the actual science of this phenomenon can often just not come up. Without the science, we wouldn’t have any accurate models, and there fore couldn’t predict what would happen next. So here it is, Global Warming : A Brief Explanation
1. The Sun releases energy in the form of light.
4. As sunlight reaches the polar ice caps, they begin to melt. As the ice melts into water, it can no longer reflect as much light as before, speeding global warming. This is often referred to as the albedo affect.
3. Greenhouse Gasses such as carbon dioxide reflect the light back to earth, causing global warming.
2. Some of this sunlight reaches earth. While the earth absorbs some of this light, some of the light is reflected.
5. Clouds reflect 1/3 of sunlight reaching the earth. When the earth warms, more clouds form, slowing global warming
Illustrations by Noah Shimizu
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Black holes: The Universe’s Darkest Secrets Revealed by: Tyler Kaung Black holes forms from massive stars, and when they die, the gravitational pull of the star pulls material inward and compresses them until the star becomes an extremely massive core in which the gravity becomes so strong that light cannot even escape.
Static Limit: Event Horizon:
The boundary between normal space and the ergosphere.
The opening of a black hole, also the point of no return. Any matter that passes the Event Horizon cannot escape the black hole’s gravitational pull, even light.
Ergosphere: The distorted region of space around the black hole that is being dragged due to its gravitational pull.
Singularity: The core of a collapsed star.
Effect on Gravity:
Effect on Stars:
The gravity around a normal planetary object usually bends as shown in the picture, but when gravity gathers around a black hole, a huge indentation occurs where the black hole would be as the gravitational pull from black holes is extremely strong.
Once a star gets close to a black hole, the matter of the star gets slowly sucked in by the black hole until the star completely gets destroyed.
Sources: science.howstuffworks.com www.space.com science.nasa.gov All photos by Wikimedia
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Recent Technology Innovations That of the the legally blind people on Earth will soon be able to see thanks to a bionic chip implanted in the brain that reads data to see outlines of objects, more improvements are promised as well.
There is a growing emphasis on privacy as people all over the world are afraid of the different ways that the government and other groups could be using and storing their data. Out of this a man named Phil Zimmerman and his team have created a phone Operating System called PrivatOS. It gives the user more access to what apps can and can’t see and what data is allowed to be shared.
We all have had our interactions with voice recognition but we don’t realize how far it’s come in recent years. It used to be a thing only seen in science fiction and now its almost always available to us. Just a few years ago it was something everyone hoped for as at the time, it was available, but expensive or hardly usable.
You Didn't Know About
There is a White House Project called the BRAIN Initiative which is working on a project to create a dynamic map of the brain. It could help neuroscientists to understand the origin of cognition and perception and help then find
Written and Illustrated By: Matthew Cabello
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photo by _DJ_ via flikr
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Scientists in China have created the first artificial 4 quark particle (right). Most particles are in 2 categories containing 3 quarks (top left) and 1 quark and an anti quark (top right). It is said that 4 quark particles were involved in the creation of the universe and have intense energy inside.
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The first lab-grown burger was made in the Netherlands this year. It was made by putting stem cells specialized to be muscle in a petri dish and let them multiply to the shape of the petri dish. This is the same kind of meat because it is made out of the same type of cell, but it is still impractical to make and costs way more than a traditional burger. Many people want are pushing to make these practical as it improves the life quality of cattle and reduces animals harmed. Will it stop here, or will grown foods become the meal of the future? photo by culteredbeef.net
Global Warming: Earth’s Hottest Topic By Noah Shimizu
Photo by TC Morgan via Flickr
A few decades back, the earth lived as it had for centuries, a safe 60 degree
Fahrenheit average in global temperatures, and balanced water levels. Yet in recent years, we can clearly see an increase in weather impacts. In fact, 14 of the 15 hottest years on earth have occurred within this century. As a result, we have seen droughts in non-coastal parts of the countries, and almost every source predicting to see the current coastline completely submerged and at worse, a 50 inch rise in sea levels. Not to mention the 80 percent increase in Category 4 and 5 hurricanes. Global warming, everyone’s heard it before, yet not enough people have a full enough grasp of the subject. Most people know the basics, greehouse
gases. Some researchers even predict a 7.5 degree rise in global temperature by 2080. In other words, what is seen now may seem small compared to what could come in the future. “Intense, deadly heat waves, devastating droughts, flooding of coastal areas and islands around the world due to a rise in sea level,” Jim Spencer said, KXAN weather reporter. He has won the national weathercaster award, and people rated best weathercaster in the Austin Chronicle for 16 of his 25 years. “Intense and deadly storms of all kinds. Weather extremes like we haven’t experienced in our lifetimes.” And weather’s not the only thing that people are affected by. Their health will also be affected, with increased
Photo by Oxfam International People protesting for Oxfam international, a confederation of 17 different organizations
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People have said climate change if we don’t get things right it will be the greatest tragedy of all time -Michael Quirke
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heat waves, longer allergy seasons, and air pollution. If the weather looks like the only thing affected, think again. Yet people talk about things besides this, Like how global warming isn’t that bad, or how it’s not human-caused. “There are a whole lot of people who are misinformed,” Michael Quirke, the executive director and temporary journalist for the Climate Change National Forum (CCNF) said. “And that’s just what they heard from family members, or social media.” People often only hear about climate change from non-trustworthy sources like these. Even more often one source argues with another source over some of these statistics, regardless of the fact that much of the time one is far more accepted by the scientific community than others. Many online websites hope to fix this, such as CCNF. “I chose climate change just because not many people were giving it really comprehensive attention and it was just needlessly politicized,” Quirke said. Even after these difficulties, there exist more obstacles. This includes getting people active about climate change. If you look at a lot of people, you will most likely going to see many individuals who understand the issues, yet get too caught up in their own goals to do anything. People call this, the tragedy of commons. “The tragedy of commons happens when working for the collective interest is everyone’s dream,” Quirke said. “The perfect example is like fishing. You can overfish a species of fish and then it just collapses and screws everyone. But it’s really hard to get all these individual fishermen to say okay, I’m gonna reduce my catch, because some people are just like well, screw you ... So it’s kind of the same thing with climate change, because
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it’s not just in your face,” Quirke said. “But it’s also a challenge because we’re talking about fossil fuels here, a whole lot of zesty interests, this isn’t just a few companies, so you know theres just a huge kind of campaign to attack science to sow doubt to disinform, misinform on purpose.” Fossil fuel companies generally lead these types of campaigns. Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas, and help produce our energy. About 79 percent of the United State’s energy comes from fossil fuels, which in turn makes up 32 percent of the US’s CO2 emissions. This makes these groups a large obstacle for climate change awareness. “It’s kind of a walk back, you know people are like, okay, we know it’s happening, but we’re not sure about the human imprint,” Quirke said. “That’s a huge challenge for the journalists of our generation and our scientists that’s not there comfortable zone, in terms of science communication to the general public.” Many people don’t have a quality grasp on climate change due to it’s
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It happens very slowly, and it’s kind of hard to tell. If I’m in the arctic, I’m very conscientious of how much has changed because it’s just ⅓ of the ice gone from 1970. That’s massive change -Michael Quirke
a lone smoke stack emiting CO2 as a result of fossil feul burning.
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only recent appearance in the public eye. This means that simply climate change hasn’t had much time as a major issue. Many adults never learned about it in grade school, just because the lack of knowledge on the subject at the time, or the lack of time for the information to get through our education system, with concern not increasing until around the 1960’s. “[I learned] very little [on climate change], as I went to school in the middle 1980s, and we didn’t yet have a clear picture of what was going on.” Spencer said. Yet of course, things like this have improved. Climate change has
Photo by Gyre
reached our education system, from elementary through high school. This means great things for the next generation of climate change activists. Take for instance, Alex Siegenthaler, a high school student at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) in Austin, Texas. “My school … had a very comprehensive curriculum, going into the science, causes and effects of global warming,” Siegenthaler said. Yet of course, this all goes back to the individuals and the tragedy of commons. Humans are the ones consuming energy and creating pollutants as a result. “Some respected researchers say that’s 10 percent of the problem, in terms of the true global problem. This is because Americans are so big consumers,” said Quirke. “If the whole world was like America, there would be no resources left in terms of sustainable Earth systems.” Although 10 percent might seem like very little, especially when you divide it among over seven billion people, you cannot deny that you have an impact. Yet this does not mean that we can only prevent climate change by 10 percent. More importantly preventing climate change can involve getting government’s active, to reach out to the larger groups. As a result, there has recently been a bill between China and the US over carbon emissions, in which China agrees to reach peak emissions by 2030 and the US agrees to decrease emissions by 26 - 28 percent of 2005 levels. But even now, the document itself cannot be called law. “It’s not a treaty, because Congress nor the senate has the majority,” Quirke said “So, the next president, if he doesn’t like it, then he can just turn right around and end it.” Yet even with all of the talk of major companies and countries, there still exists that 10 percent. Just turning off
an image sybolizing three alternative energy resources, solar, wind, and biomass.
lights and other electronics can make a major difference. Even things as simple as opening a window instead of turning on the air conditioner. “I do see myself wasting energy daily, in such simple things as forgetting to turn off the lights or unplug electronics,” Siegenthaler said “I try whenever I can to stop such wasteful activities.” Larger lifestyle changes can be made too. When making the choice of buying a car, choose one that has better milage, or better yet, an electric car. Or just whenever buying an electronic appliance, just by an energy saving version. “I am cognizant of [my energy
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Photo by Jurgen
I do see myself wasting energy daily, in such simple things as forgetting to turn off the lights or unplug electronics -Alex Siegenthaler usage] .... So I try and go, not have a big gas guzzler, and I’m cognizant of my energy use and in terms of eating and what not,” Quirke said “It takes investment, but that’s improving. Like there’s hybrids, there’s battery-powered. So there are some opportunities to make some real change.”
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Life on Mars?
The future of human exploration
by: Tyler Kaung
Tracks from the rovers humanity has sent up to the Martian surface.
photo by:Wikimedia
An artist’s conceptional drawing of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander touching down on the surface of Mars.
Imagine a world where there’s no protection from the harsh sunlight or any liquid water or oxygen. Now imagine
humans stepping into that world and making the planet their second home. The concept seems far-fetched at first, only appearing in science fiction, but with the recent advancements in flight systems, technologies and research, the possibility of colonizing another celestial object could become a reality. If humans colonized another planet or object besides Earth, it could act as a Plan B if anything extreme happens on Earth; that danger slowly looms over us right now with the increase of carbon emissions and global warming. However, humans will need to take into account the technologies needed to get to Mars and build settlements, the cost for it to be possible, and the conditions on Mars and how it produces a challenge for us to colonize on the Martian surface. Humans has various celestial objects for us to colonize, such as the moon by using the lunar elevator as Alexander Bagrov suggested, but currently Mars presents itself as the most ideal planet for humans to venture onto. “There are multiple reasons why Mars is a superior choice to colonize, those being: There is soil in the water, as mentioned before. It is not too cold or too hot, relative to other planets besides the Earth. We are able to use the sun for energy using solar panels we will provide our crew on Mars. And the day/ night cycle is not too different from Earth, meaning that the crew will not have to adjust their cycle significantly.” explained the CEO of Mars One, Bas Lansdorp.
photo by:Wikimedia
There still exist countless challenges that we need to solve before a colonization on Mars can be fully established. The most obvious problems include the supplies needed for survival, such as food and water. “One of the challenges for Mars is life systems that can support you for a long time without any type of external providence of air or water,” Raymond Francis, a mechanical engineer for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said. Mars One has designed a life support unit to try and find a solution on how to acquire water, food and oxygen while the humans reside on Mars. It would not be possible to send a constant line of supplies towards the colonists as it takes around seven months for materials to travel from Earth to Mars.
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It’s very hard to estimate the cost of something of something that you don’t understand fully on how to do...but at the very minimum, we’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars, and more realistically, a trillion. -Raymond Francis
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An artist depiction of a colony on the Martian surface and how life will be like on Mars
“Water...will be extracted from the soil...heats the soil until the water has evaporated then condenses the water vapor and stored...for oxygen, we will split water into its two main components, oxygen and hydrogen,” Lansdorp explained. “We will store the oxygen and circulate it around the living areas... for food, the settlers will have some storable food from Earth as emergency rations but they will grow their own plants... protected by the martian soil from radiation.” Of course, on Mars, since there only exist a very small atmosphere surrounding the surface, radiation occurs in large quantities. Without the understanding of radiation, it would be almost impossible to come up with a solution to radiation and thus, impossible for humans to stay on Mars. “Before we start colonization any of the planets but radiation is a major challenge,” Raymond explained. “The Earth’s atmosphere protects from the harsh radiation of the environment of outer space but on other planets, we don’t have that kind of protection.” According to Francis, radiation presents quite a big challenge for humankind to overcome, there are possible solutions, however, with the limited information we have of Mars’ radiation and the effect of radiation on our bodies, those solutions may not be perfect. “Well when we talk about hazardous radiation, there are three things: time, distance and shielding, those are the three things that will protect you from radiation. But if we were on Mars all the time, then time isn’t really much of a solution. You can’t be exposed for a short time and distance is hard because it’s all around you,” Francis proposed. “The last thing you’re left with is shielding, if you are on the surface of Mars, you may want to bury your habitat a couple of meters under Mars dirt and that will resolve most of it.”think of the spacecraft also. The spacecraft can also be affected by radiation by solar flares and particles in space. According to Mars One and Francis, humans need to
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photo by:Wikimedia
think of the spacecraft also. The spacecraft can also be affected by radiation by solar flares and particles in space. We will need a material that is cheap, light and able to protect the ship from those particles. “One material very good for shielding is water and so if you could surround your spacecraft, well your spacecraft would probably carry water with you anyways, if you could build a spacecraft in which the water is used to shield the living areas, that might be helpful....there would be designated areas in the spacecraft that the crew can go to when alerted by the monitoring systems [of the solar flares],” Francis said. Along with the water shielding, Lansdorp also suggested that there could be designated areas in the spacecraft that the crew can go to when alerted by the monitoring systems while the spacecraft travels towards Mars. However, Francis says that there is still one problem that can only be solved by the humans that will be on Mars. We have to take into account the human interactions and psychology and how they will work together. Once the humans are on Mars, it will be very difficult to interfere with the issues that arise, so they have to work through the conflicts themselves. We will have to be able to sufficiently know how the humans will act and feel when they are isolated on Mars, Francis says. Lansdorp mentions that before we send the humans to Mars, his company will have to make the correct choices in the selection of which humans will actually participate in this mission. However, the company would not be entirely dependent on the quality of the choice as they could change in a moment’s notice, so the company could provide communications with their family to compensate. “We have selected the crew based on their certain skills and qualities and all of them are willing to go to Mars and live their dream. They will be kept busy by the research and construction and every two years another set of astronauts will arrive. They
will also have easy access to e-mail and communications so they are able to contact their families and friends,” Lansdorp said. However, Francis mentions that the most important challenge for mankind to overcome is to try and make the technologies as sufficient as possible and able to last. Humans can not keep on sending new technologies every time something breaks. “Ultimately the biggest thing is that you have to make your technologies extremely robust...it’s hard to make an extremely reliable system in the face of a very difficult environment,” Francis said. However, Raymond does have a few concerns and requirements that the technologies has to meet and tries to provide a possible solution. “We need to improve the production and reliability of our technologies and we need to do all of this at low mass, because it’s very very difficult for heavy things to orbit and at low cost...whether it’s redundancy or reliability, they have to last,” he suggested. Even after space companies are able to solve all these problems, sponsors still have to pay for the actual mission towards Mars. There are many estimates on the cost of this mission, and many opinions differ because of the difficulty to estimate a cost of a mission in its first stages. “It’s very hard to estimate the cost of something of something that you don’t understand fully on how to do...but at the very minimum, we’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars, and more realistically, a trillion. The International Space Station which has been operating for 15 years, costs, at the time, about a hundred billion dollars, and that’s not a permanent city on another planet so it would cost a lot more than that,” Francis says. Lansdorp disagree however as they already have the estimated cost price of the missions and they are quite different from Francis’. “According to our current estimates, the cost of putting the first four people on Mars would cost around $6 billion, and additional manned mission would cost around $4 billion,” Lansdorp says. However, they both agree on the possibility to pay for the mission to send humans to Mars, but in Francis’ words,
humans should not be worried about the possibility but instead of another question. “When will we choose to do it not whether we think it’s worthwhile, because after a very long time, it becomes cost neutral,” he said. “So I think the human race could develop a suitable technology then I think we can do it.” With the possibility of traveling to Mars confirmed, we have to question the worthiness for humans to go to Mars . Will we, as a human species, be required to go and colonize another planet as a backup planet for survival? Right now, global warming slowly becomes a bigger threat, but would it become a big enough of a reason for us to abandon Earth and try to survive on Mars. Even so Mars may not even become the backup planet that we want, Francis says. “Those colonies don’t actually supply us with Plan B or planet B, until they are completely self-sustaining, until that point they are dependent on the Earth just like people on the Earth do. Until they can completely become self-sustaining, it’s still essential to take care of the Earth and the people on the Earth...we need to solve the problems here on Earth.” Francis said. These words should act as guidelines for humanity so ambition cannot undermine the work humanity has done. Instead humans have to take careful small steps towards the goal, and even though the steps may seem insignificant, they all work towards the next giant leap for mankind itself.
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Ultimately the biggest thing is that you have to make your technologies extremely robust...it’s hard to make an extremely reliable system in the face of a very difficult environment. -Raymond Francis
The harsh rough terrain of the Martian surface that is litered with rocks.
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photo by:Wikimedia
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