Timelines of Science by LASA Ezine

Timelines of Science By William Brito, Hayden Ortiz-Caudle, and jack martin

Spring 2022

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Kakkar Bread

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Kakkar Bread

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Kakkar Bread

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Kakkar Bread

Table Of Contents! 6-7: Letter From The Editors 8 - 11: Feature Story Jack 12 - 13: ASF Jack 14-17: Feature Story Hayden 18 - 19: ASF Hayden 20 - 23: Feature Story William 24 - 25: ASF William

Meet the Authors William Brito

Hayden Ortiz-Caudle is a person invested in the study of aerospace engineering and rocket science and will be writing an article based on those. He is very much looking forward to doing so. He also very much enjoys reading, video games, and “procrastinating on homework because I don’t like homework”. He enjoys games very much and aspires to be a game designer in the future after his education. Also, due to his vertical giftedness, he is a basketball player.

William Brito is the author of the feature article on culinary science in our magazine. He prefers to be called William or Will, not trebuchet or burrito. When asked about what he wants to create in Ezine he responded “I don’t know. I think it would be cool to code.”. His favorite hobby is Playing video games. He doesn’t have a favorite. His reason for playing video games for the same reason as many people do, an escape from the real world. His plans for after he graduate is to start a business and start to invest in upcoming companies that look promising. When asked if there were any weird or interesting things people should know about him he said no.

Hayden Ortiz-Caudle

Jack Martin Jackson Martin - This is Jackson, but you can call him Jack. He is the person that focused on computer science in our magazine! Surprisingly, he is one of 2 twins in his family, and currently resides in Ukraine (at least according to his chess acount). A little less surprising is that he likes video games, although he declined to give any more detail other than “It’s fun”. When Jack graduates he wants to do something so unique, it’ll change the Earth. He wants to get a job. Good job Jack, we believe in you!

RACHIT KAKKAR Special Thanks to Rachit Kakkar who was never an actual member, and didn’t write any feature stories. However, he created a few of the illustrations for our use in the inset pages.

The evolution and future of computers

Computers

By Jack Martin

ave you ever wondered how computers went from being the size of a room and programmed by card with holes punched out in them just to do calculations at 0.01% the speed of modern computers that we can carry around in our pockets? Computers have slowly integrated themselves into

everyday life, and it’s important to remember where they came from, so we can predict how they might evolve and change in the future.

so old that the first analog computer, the Astrolabe, a small clock-like device that was used to measure angles on a vertical plane, was most likely made in 150 BC. One of the most famous Analog and digital and more modern analog comWhen talking about computers was an analog computer created by William Thomson, puters there are actually two types of computers, analog and a British mathematician who would later be known as Baron digital. Analog computers are any device that takes in contin- Kelvin, in 1872 that could preuous data and using an equation dict the tides. William Thomson’s tide predictor gained the gives the output to your problem. Analog computers are old, majority of its popularity when

to digital computers. This was because as digital computers evolved they became faster and smaller while gaining more memory. Although analog computers were more accurate than digital computers, they could not get the same size, speed, and memory that digital computers had, so they became obsolete. Because of this the large majority of computers are digital and this is why this article will focus on digital computers not analog computers. Turning and the ENIAC The beginning of modern computers and computer science all started with one man, Alan Turing. In 1936 while at king’s college Turing began to study a mathematical problem called the Entscheidungsproblem. The Entscheidungsproblem asked for someone to create an algorithm that only takes the input yes or no if a statement is valid. To solve the Entschei-

it was used to plan the time for the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Digital computers are any device that takes in information, and then turns it into data which is expressed using binary. In comparison to analog computers digital computers are brand new with the oldest digital computer only being 76 years old. As digital computers began to evolve analog computers slowly became more and more irrelevant in comparison

dungsproblem turing came up with the idea of the turing machine which he used to prove that the Entscheidungsproblem can not be solved. The turing machine would take in a strip of paper, similar to a film roll, that has boxes filled out with a 1 or 0. Then depending on the instructions for the box it would change it or move on to the left or right box. An example of this is if the instructions for box 14 were to change it to a 0 if it was a 1 and if it’s not then move to the left. The answer to the Entscheidungsproblem was what all the squares were when the machine stopped, 1 is yes and 0 is no, was the answer, but it never stopped so Turing concluded that the Entscheidungsproblem was unsolvable. The Turing machine is the foundation of all modern computers and programming languages which Turing used later to propose Artificial Intelligence. The first digital comput-

Kathleen McNulty and Frances Bilas showing the ENIAC to the public at Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electronics on February 13, 1946.

er was created by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. in 1945 and was called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, ENIAC for short. The ENIAC was designed with the purpose of calculating the range for artillery during world war 2, and could get 5,000 additions in one second. The ENIAC was revolutionary because up to 1945 no other computer, which at the time were all analog computers, could give as fast of results, but the ENIAC had one down side that limited the speed for the calculations. That was the fact that every time you wanted to use the ENIAC for a calculation you had to reprogram it entirely which on average took two weeks. The ENIAC was programmed by using switches, relays, and plugboards which were boards with holes in them that when a wire was plugged into them and into the ENIAC it would send an electrical signal between them. Each different hole would hold a different value so when you plug in the wire it inputs the value into the ENIAC. With a size of 1,800 square feet the ENIAC had about 40 plugboards each over a foot in length, and having over 7,500 switches and relays that needed to be in the right positions, it’s not surprising that it took on around two weeks to program the ENIAC each time a calculation was needed.

when transistors, a device that amplifies and controls electrical signals, became a lot more common. Up until this point most computers were using vacuum tubes which was a device that controls electric currents in a vacuum, but they were replaced by transistors because they were much more efficient and powerful for their price. In 1957 the programming language Fortran came out, and it was revolutionary. Before Fortran was created in order to program a computer you would either program before you would have to program it when creating the computer or you would have to program it using binary. Both of these options were bad because they took a long time, were complicated, and expensive to fix any mistakes in the program. This led John Backus, an American computer scientist working for IBM, to create Fortran which was simpler to use and to reprogram. ipA few years after the release of Fortran almost every computer was using it, and in the present Fortran is considered the first modern programming language. These new computers were considered second generation computers because they were faster and smaller, and contented to stay relatively the same, just slowly shrinking until the 60s. In 1961 the first computer chips were made by two electrical The biggest evolu- engineers, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. This increased the tions speed, accuracy, and memory After the ENIAC digital of computers while decreasing computers were mostly unthe cost of them.With computer changed until the late 1950s

chips the hardware manufacturers were able to do largescale integration which allowed them to create computers the size of a big toaster while still being better than the older generation in every way. In the early 70s the first microprocessor was created marking the beginning of the fourth generation of computers. A microprocessor was a small device that could do arithmetic and logic while controlling circuitry which used to all be done by the central processing unit, CPU for short, of the computer. Around the same time the first semiconductor memory was created which was memory only made of a few microchips. Using these new creations hardware companies started to move from doing large-scale integration to very large-scale integration(VSLI) which increased memory, amount chips, and they also added microprocessors into computers. This was the fourth generation of computers and ended around the 80s when the fifth generation, the generation we are currently in, started when VSLI was increased into Ultra Large Scale Integration. With the upgrade from VSLI to ULSI came the ability to make Field-programmable gate arrays or FPGA for short. Before FPGA every computer chip was an ASIC which had a big problem. “Designing these ASICs you had to hire a lot of specialists to design a chip for every device. It took us three years, at a minimum, to design the layout, do the floor plans and then go

know what’s good or bad. So how do I constrain or teach it moral ethics? You’re talking about a simple binary equivalent of good and bad, but I can’t even express the equivalent of this in human life”. Similarly to this when Rivest was asked if he thought that AI would cause an apocalypse he said “ The idea of an AI apocalypse is why we have the isaac asimov three laws of robotics. This should stop AI from destroying humans, but it is still possible. For example if a AI design to protect humanity decides that the only way to project humanity it has to deinto production, so by the time this very fanciful, right idea. Yes stroy a big portion of humanity” in principle, it’s possible, but we you rolled the chip out it was Conclusion already three years late.” Jimmy are 1000s of years away from Computers have evolved a long Ray Purser, a software engineer being able to engineer anything way from the ENIAC being the like that.” . Turning level of AI at VMware, said. size of a room and taking days The future of comput- may not to reproexist for “AI has no morals, it has no way ers. gram to thouThe next generation of comtheir besands of to know what’s good or bad. puters is going to be the sixth ing more years, generation which will start So how do I constrain or teach people but it when computers have a high with still is level of Artificial Intelligence. phones import- it moral ethics? You’re talking Ronald l. Rivest, a professor at then ant reais MIT, was asked about what he about a simple binary equiva- there are questhinks the future of computer people tions science would be. He said “As with about AI. lent of good and bad, but I can’t we get closer to a Turing level access to When type of AI, you’re gonna see even express the equivalent of toilets, Pursthese programs start to write and they their own languages, programs, er was this in human life”.-Jimmy ray Purser are still asked and their own ways of commuevolvwhat he nication.”. As AI becomes more ing. In thinks and more of a reality there are the near the a lot of people that believe that future we are going to start to future of AI will be he said “As AI will bring about an apocasee stronger computers and AI lypse. In response to these fears we are slowly transitioning into which brings up many questions the sixth generation of computScott Aaronson, the Professor on the ethics of AI. At the end of Computer Science at UT, said ers, conversations about AI and of the day all we can do is hope the ethics of AI are becoming “I regard the prospect that AI is that AI doesn’t rise up and take more relevant and urgent. “AI going to become super intelliover the world and become our has no morals, it has no way to gent and take over the world as overlords.

Analytical Engine 1837

START

Turing Machine Harvard Mark 1 1936 1944

ENIAC 1946

Transistors 1951

FORTRAN Silicon Chip Minicomp 1957 1961 1965

Timeline o

puter 5

Large-Scale Integration 1971

Microprocessor 1971

Ultra LargeMicrocomputers SemiconductorVery Large-Scale Personal Computer Scale IntegraIntegration 1973 Memory tion 1976 1982 1982

of Computers

1973

11:43 PM

Aeronautic Adva

went from Earth to space. Then space to the moon. Space travel is building tremendously, even though it may not be in the news constantly, the aerospace industry is persistently growing. Aerospace engineers

are continuing to develop new technologies that break barriers and allow us to reach new heights, or planets for that matter. With many things turning to electricity as its main source of power, like cars and trucks, more

things will come. Soon, we may see all electric planes that run on wind power or electric boats that run on water power, but would it be possible to see an electric rocket? The short answer is “not anytime soon”. “I

ancements The “taking-off” of endless possibilities

and oxygen which combine in our engines to propel the rocket to space.” Claire says. These liquids provide the thrust needed to ensure that the rocket can make it into space. “When Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen combine, it creates a controlled explosion that generates the thrust of the rocket. Electric motors and such cannot do that.” George Farah, a structural analysis engineer at Boeing, states. The amount of thrust generated by the hydrogen and oxygen are able to push the rocket into space, however electricity wouldn’t be able to produce that same explosive thrust as that explosive concoction.

Design Process don’t think we will be able to do fully electric rockets with the power that we are currently demanding to get to the moon and Mars but as technology continues to develop who knows what is possible.” states Claire Burditt, an Aero-

space engineer working at Boeing and someone who has directly worked with the rocket “Artemis 1”. Rockets require a very high amount of thrust to make it to space from Earth. “Our rocket store is 730,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen

Most of the rockets that have been built in recent years have had some components copied from previous rockets, and anything that didn’t work on past designs are worked on for the future rocket. “This helps expedite the design and see places for improvement. Using heritage hardware does limit the

design improvements we can make because we have to support the older hardware. In places we design new hardware we are able to make more efficient design choices based on new technologies.” Claire says. As stated above, using old designs can lead to outdated parts, which means you can’t make as many improvements as you would be able to using the newest hardware. If you were to be asked what you think the most important part of the rocket is, what would you say? You may answer that it’s the engines or the or the storage. “The engines because we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere or have as much power as we do without the engines.” Claire says. “The Engine Section. It’s the most complicated part of the rocket and will dictate what the rocket looks like and how much it can carry/how big it can be. Most of the rocket burns up in the atmosphere and is used to propel only a small module into space.” George agrees. A rocket has four major components being the structural

system, the payload sys- space. The powerhead tem, the guidance system, raises the pressure of any and the propulsion system. hydrogen that enters the The Propulsion System rocket, and the rocket nozThe propulsion sys- zle accelerates the speed tem is made up of the at which the fuel- oxidizer tank pumps, the pro- combination pushes out, pellants, the powerhead generating extra thrust.

“For a development build there are a lot of headaches for first time. Having to navigate things that haven’t been done before can present road blocks such as tooling not fitting properly or not working as expected, leak test failures, or components not working as expected.” - George Farah

The Guidance System

The guidance system of a rocket includes sensors, computers, radars, and communication equipment. The guidance system’s role is to both provide stability to the rocket and to control the rocket during any maneuvers. One example of this are vernier rockets. Vernier rockets are rockets placed on the sides of a rocket that turn on and off whether you want and the rocket nozzle. to turn the rocket or not. The Propulsion System These were used on the The tank pumps, as its rocket Atlas in the 1950s. name implies, pumps fuel The Payload System and oxidizer from the The payload system tanks to the fuel injectors is all about what the rockat high speeds. Propellants et is carrying. What it carare the fuel and oxidizer, ries varies depending on sometimes the fuel is ker- the rockets’ mission. Some osene, other times the fuel of the earliest payloads for is liquid nitrogen. The two a rocket were fireworks to components combine to celebrate holidays. Some produce a strong enough of the early ideas of stagthrust to push the rocket ing were from wanting to into the air and later, into push fireworks as high

as possible. During WW2 the payloads changed into thousands of pounds of explosives. Following WW2, in the early 1960’s, the most important payload to still go to space today, a human being.

The Structural System The structural system of a rocket includes parts which make up the frame of the rocket; the body, the fairings, and the control fins. The body is usually made cylindrical because it ensures less weight on the rocket’s walls. Fairings protect the rocket, and more specifically the third phase, when the rocket first enters the boost phase because some of the external forces on the rocket could affect it. The control fins are moveable so that they can adjust the amount of pressure from aerodynamic sources on the rocket. The Launch and Staging T-minus 10, 9, 8 , 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, blast off! Now that you’ve launched the rocket, what’s next? Well, it’s not over yet. You still have to make it to space. A rocket goes through a pro-

cess called staging where it discards some of the rocket in order to make it all the way to outer space. The purpose of staging is to lighten the weight on the rocket so that it’s not carrying around heavy metal after all of the propellants have been used up. There are two types of staging, Serial staging and Parallel staging. In serial staging, there is a small second stage attached to the main first stage. When the first phase runs out of propellants, it gets discarded and the second stage activates, pushing the rocket into space. An example of a serial staging rocket is the Saturn V, which was a three stage rocket, whose discarded stages were never retrieved. In parallel staging, there are multiple first stages attached to a central rocket. As the launch commences, all of the engines activate. When the first stages’ propellants are depleted, they get discarded and thrown into the ocean and the central rocket continues into space. The discarded stages then can be re-

trieved from the ocean and used again once filled with more propellant. An example of a parallel staging rocket is the space shuttle.

Conclusion Now you’ve designed, built, and successfully launched your rocket into space. You send communications down to Houston, hopefully not to tell them you’ve got a problem, and you make way to wherever you’re going.

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Reaching the

How to become a Things that can help your chances: Join a school or community math, science, engineering or robotics club. If there are none in your school or community, start one! Participate in science and engineering fairs. A end maker fairs and develop the skills to design solutions to a variety of problems. Plan to apply for an internship at JPL or NASA. You can apply for opportunities as early as your freshman year of college when you are working toward a degree in a STEM major.

Two y or at time

BOOM! Now you’re an astronaut!

Stars!

an Astronaut. Pass the NASA long-duration spaceflight physical.

years of related professional experience, least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command in jet aircra .

Master's degree in a STEM field, or Two years of work toward a Ph.D. program in a related science, technology, engineering or math field or A completed doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathic medicine degree.

Image provided by Jonathan Pielmayer

Where’s the Food By William Brito

Introduction Do you eat food? I think you do. I’m pretty sure that if you’re reading this, you’ve eaten food at some point, and that food needed to be grown somewhere, which needed to be discovered at some point in time. Everything you eat comes from somewhere or something, so when discussing where food comes from, starting with the very beginning,

is the best way to discuss it. So, we’ll start at the earliest time that we can. Early History To understand the food we eat today, we need to understand what was available. The first humans began spreading out all over the world, beginning in Africa1 and going all the way to the Americas. Some environments that they

Alyssa Critteden Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator PhD, Department of Anthropology

Nino Bariola Graduate Fellow PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology

would live in became brutal, while others would live in land with plenty of wildlife. Environments could be so brutal that people would have to eat their prey to its entirety, including the parts that the average person couldn’t stomach, to get the nutrients they needed to survive. An example of this is the native americans who lived near or in the North Pole. Their primary diet would consist of some plants and whole animals2. Due to plants being scarce in the cold environment, the way they would obtain necessary nutrients that are difficult to get primarily from meat such as vitamin C, would be avoided by eating the entire animal. They would consume the entire body, and these would contain the vital nutrients that would normally be lacking on muscle tissue, which is what is normally

eaten. This was an would kill harmful extremely difficult bacteria and unlock environment in which calories that would humans would find a normally be inaccesway to survive, by sible3. Fire played no doubt telling an instrumental their kids to finish role in making peotheir seal brains ple change what they before they could ate. leave the dinner ta- The beginning of agble. The main diet of areas around the world, however, would consist of meat and foraged goods, mainly Image provided by Reinhard Thrainer because people hadn’t found riculture started any better methods a large abundance yet. Of course, this of food, as huwould change very mans began growing soon, when people berries and grain learned how to culplants. These betivate plants and gan in Mesopotamia animals. around 10,000 years ago4, or “some conMajor Changes troversial sourcThe most important es say”(Crittenchange in how earden 2022), possibly ly humans ate was 23,000 years ago5. the ability to cook Around the same their food. This was time, animals were important because it being domesticated,

which is also necessary for getting protein. This changed the

Image provided by Kanenori

amount of energy gained from getting food, because instead of spending energy hunting and searching, they had a consistent source of food that they

would grow. This caused much more variety of the kinds of ingredients and dishes around the world, because there were many foods available in different environments. Bread is a staple food in the world due to it being loaded with carbohydrates. It is enjoyed in many places and many different ways such as naan originating from India and brioche from France. Bread came from the ability to make dough from milled plants, such as corn

Image provided by Eilic-Sonas Aceron

and wheat, and mixing it with a risener, such as yeast, and finally, heating it. This was a very important food for early civilizations that had it. The first definitive evidence of breadmaking was 14,500 years ago, crumbs and tools such as a grinding stone suggested that the ingredients of bread were made by grinding and kneading6. Categorizing Food Today Nowadays, different types of food, depending on the culture, are widespread to the point where it be-

A Fun Fact about Milk One of the things that changed diet throughout the world was the ability to consume milk. Some 20,000-2,000 years ago, humans evolved a gene that allowed them to produce lactate far after infancy7. This was a big step because people who consumed dairy were limited to mainly kefir and cheese as edible dairy options. Milk contains most of the nutrients needed to survive, so the areas that had the gene that allowed lactate to be produced were surviving much better off than most other areas. The gene primarily dominated Europe and Asia, and now a third8 of the human population has the gene.

gins to be more difficult to try to find. This is why there are now jobs to track the changes in dishes that exist or find the history of them. The job of studying the history of a food’s culture and origin lies with Sociologists. In an interview with Food Sociologist Dr. Nino “The transition from wild harvesting of plant foods to domestication was gradual and is marked by the appearance of early Neolithic villages with homes equipped with grinding stones for processing grain.” -Alyssa Crittenden

“Follow that Thing” approach, which is “where does it come from”?.” -Dr. Bariola Dr. Bariola ex-

Image provided by CordMediaStuggart

Bariola, I asked what his job is about and what the goal of the field is. “There is a

plained that there were two main studies to being a sociologist, that being the cultural aspect and the economic/moral part into the study. These studies help bring light to current changes in food

Sources: 1. Introduction to Human Evolution: HumanOrigins.si.edu: “Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa” 2. The Inuit Paradox: Patricia Gadsby, Discover Magazine: “Raw caribou liver supplied almost 24 milligrams[of vitamin C], seal brain close to 15 milligrams, and raw kelp more than 28 milligrams. Still higher levels were found in whale skin and muktuk.” 3. Was Cooking a Pivotal Step in Human Evolution: Alexandra Rosati, Scientific American: “Although it might seem being smarter is always better, having a big brain exerts a high

toll. Ancestral humans may have compensated for this energy cost by cooking food.” 4. The Development of Agriculture: National Geographic: “...prehistoric seedless fruits discovered in the Jordan Valley suggest fig trees were being planted some 11,300 years ago.” 5. First evidence of farming in Middle East 23,000 years ago: Tel Aviv University: “The researchers examined the weed species for morphological signs of domestic-type cereals and harvesting tools, although their very presence is evidence itself of early farming.” 6. Scientists discover oldest evidence of bread: Helen Briggs, BBC: “Scientists have discovered the earliest known evidence of bread-making, from a 14,000-year-old dig site… [they] uncovered two buildings, each containing a large

around the world through things such as its farmers and the traditions. Conclusion The history of food has many different areas to study. Drawing conclusions from human diets around the world requires knowledge of environments, culture, and the human body. Discoveries in Food Anthropology and Sociology help us archive cultural and bodily advancements and better understand our diets.

circular stone fireplace within which charred bread crumbs were found.” 7. Evolution of lactase persistence: an example of human niche construction: National Library of Medicine: “Dates of origin for [the gene were] ranging between 2,188 and 20,650 years ago [36], and between 7,450 and 12,300 years ago [37] have been obtained” 8Lactose Intolerance Definition and Facts: 8. National Institution of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases: “Experts estimate that about 68 percent of the world’s population has lactose malabsorption. In the United States, the following ethnic and racial groups are more likely to have lactose malabsorption: African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanics/Latinos”

ar kk et Ka ck Ro

Kakkar Bread

ar kk et Ka ck Ro

Kakkar Bread

ar kk et Ka ck Ro

Kakkar Bread

ar kk et Ka ck Ro

Kakkar Bread

ar kk et Ka ck Ro

Kakkar Bread

ar kk et Ka ck Ro

Kakkar Bread

ar kk et Ka ck Ro

Kakkar Bread

ar kk et Ka ck Ro

Kakkar Bread

Taking a deep dive into how things have changed since the past, Hayden Ortiz-Caudle, William Brito, and Jack Martin take a look at subjects such as the history of the computer, aeronautics, and food.

Image by Bill Jelen

Aeronautic Advancements by Hayden Ortiz-Caudle

Image by Vishnu Mohanan

The Evolution of Comp-Sci by Jack Martin

Image by Bill Jelen

Where’s the Food by William Brito