Inspire - Lent Term 2022

INSPIRE

Table of Contents Goodbye to Angela Merkel…………………………………………………..2 Unsolved Mysteries………………………………………………………….4 Xenotransplantation………………………………………………………….6 What is the true nature of the universe? ……………………………………...8 Che Guevara: Hero or Villain? ……………………………………………..10 The Psychology of Recovery from Sports Injury…………………………..12 Henrietta Lacks and how unethical is too unethical?………………………..14 Social Media and overthinking……………………………………………..16 A Short Introduction to Linear Algebra…………………………………….18 The Hindenburg…………………………………………………………….23 Misogyny in the Ancient World…………………………………………….25 Who were the Seven Deities of Kievan Rus? ……………………………….27 Can we ever really change? ………………………………………………...30

Editorial Inspire, the magazine of the Academic Scholars, returns for its next edition featuring articles from a whole new range of scholars.

The outbreak of the Omicron variant of corona virus has filled the news and this edition appropriately focuses on sciences in particular.

In Inspire we aim to present carefully written and interesting articles on a wide range of topics.

The Academic Scholars have produced a selection of fascinating articles covering all manner of topic areas. We hope readers will be inspired!

Please enjoy, Rosie

With Special Thanks to: Sophie H, Erin B, Rosie H and Chicha N

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Goodbye to Angela Merkel Having been chancellor for sixteen years, Germans are now preparing to say “auf wiedersehen” to Angela Merkel.

The 2021 German federal election was held on the 26th September to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag.

Everyone is now wondering, what will be in store for Germany after this big change in parliament?

Serving as Chancellor of Germany since 2005, Merkel is the first female chancellor of Germany, previously being described as the ‘most powerful woman in the world’. After the German reunification in 1990, she was elected to the Bundestag, and then was appointed as Minister for Women and Youth in 1991. Having then become Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, she was elected the party’s first female leader. Emphasising international cooperation, playing a crucial role in managing the global financial crisis, and focusing on future energy development; Angela Merkel has made a huge difference, both in Germany and worldwide, over her reign in the last sixteen years. She has had a big impact in global politics – through the Eurozone crisis, the migrant crisis, and now the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first thing that springs into many people’s minds when thinking about Germany is Angela Merkel, as she has been a constant figurehead throughout the past sixteen years. Many Germans respect her and will miss her, saying that she has lead them well through these times. One German resident said: “she gave us a feeling of security”, whilst another said: “she showed the girls of my generation that it’s possible for a woman to become a leader”. Admired for her rationality, her level-headedness, her willingness, and the amount of hard work she put into her job, some people are worried about what will happen when she’s gone. Many Germans have doubts as to whether the new candidates will be able to step up to the job, having said that they believe that “she will leave a hole”. Many who are concerned about what will happen in the future are the younger generations: ‘Generation Merkel’, who have never known any other prime minister during their lives. Young people have stated that they respect Angela Merkel; however, they also blame her for not preparing Germany enough for their future, on the environment and beyond. One sixteen year old said: “she has not prepared this country for change”.

Angela Merkel has been described as a “great crisis manager, but lacking vision for Germany’s future”. Being one of the wealthiest nations, Germany is well known for modern and efficient buildings, and vast improvements in technology. However, there are some matters that have already shown up, which will need to be addressed by the new Chancellor. Germany’s infrastructure is slowly wearing-out, and internet access needs desperate attention: one-in-three German villages has bad connectivity. This has proven to be a big problem during the pandemic with everyone working from home. One citizen said that Germans have felt that they lived in a country of ‘stability and prosperity’, and everything seemed to be ‘running smoothly’, but that the pandemic has uncovered some weaknesses. Digital infrastructure needs improving; Germany’s manufacturing industries (particularly the car industry) have increasingly depended on the Chinese market, this causes problems because Germany is now falling behind on innovations of artificial intelligence, the sharing economy, and electrical cars.

Some believe that Germany is behind on the technological trends and desperately needs to catch up. This is something that the next Chancellor will need to deal with, and there will be many impacts from it. To add to that, since the migrant crisis in 2015, when Merkel allowed over a million Syrian refugees into Germany, equality and integration have been key discussion points. It has caused many issues that are not going away, and many will remember her for causing this problem.

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Angela Merkel has proudly led Germany throughout the last sixteen years, and she has remained popular around the world during this time. However, people are now beginning to look forward and wonder what is next for Germany. Being the EU’s richest and most influential country, whilst also being a very important country globally, other countries will be wondering what is next as well. Soon, we will find out the answers to many questions: ‘what will Germany’s role be in Europe?’, ‘what will its attitude to America be?’, ‘will it invest in Europe?’, and ‘what about the relationships with China and Russia?’. It is “auf wiedersehen” to Angela Merkel, but “hallo” to a new era of Germany.

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Hannah K (L6)

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Unsolved mysteries In this article I’m going to talk about mysteries and crimes over the ages and across countries, as well as unsolved mysteries that intrigued me.

Mysteries do not just come in the format of crimes. Many jobs are a form of detecting, even though they might not carry a magnifying glass. For example, many scientists who discover new theories or new species, such as Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, where he uncovered the mystery of how species have adapted.

Another type of job which solves mysteries is an archaeologist, who uncovers the history of species. Then there are the obvious detectives, police and possibly spies who uncover the truth of a case. This shows that many different jobs involve some form of detecting.

Despite the common misconceptions, forensic investigation has been practised in one form or another for thousands of years. Before the discovery and impact of DNA in the early 1980s and the advent of fingerprinting in the early 1800s criminal investigators were using the science of forensics to solve crimes. For example, photographs were used in the late 1800s to capture images of killers or criminals on a victim’s eyeballs during the investigation of the world’s first documented serial killer, Jack the Ripper.

There are of course fictional detectives as well as real life ones today. The most famous, perhaps, being Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is a fictional character created by Arthur Conan Doyle. However, Conan Doyle did model Holmes’ methods and mannerisms on those of Dr. Joseph Bell, who had been his professor at his university. I find it interesting that such a successful detective who can solve anything, was based on a non-fictional person who isn’t even a detective. This leads back to the fact that detective work is in everyone’s lives. He combines efficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science, and logical reasoning that borders which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard. His popularity and fame are such that many have believed him not to be a fictional character but a real individual. I thought that this was quite interesting.

Although Sherlock Holmes is fake, there are many real murder cases, that interestingly are still a mystery. If Holmes indeed was real, would he be able to solve them? A famous example is one I mentioned before, Jack the Ripper. Between August and November 1888 five poor women were brutally murdered in London. They were all killed in very similar ways, at night and in the notoriously dangerous Whitechapel area of the city. The police at the time did not know how to properly investigate the scene of a crime, and so couldn’t work out who the murderer was. So, the killer began to tease them. He wrote a letter telling him that they would never catch him, signed Jack the Ripper. Jack was right, as still to this day, he was never caught.

However, there were some suspects. The police first thought it was a hairdresser who worked nearby called George Chapman. He was a Polish immigrant which made the police more suspicious of him. Although Chapman was probably not guilty of being Jack the Ripper, he did poison several of his wives. However, the methods were not the same so some believe he should be ruled out. Secondly, they thought it was a famous actor called Richard Mansfield. He was acting in a play where a villainous alter ego created by the main character goes rampaging through London murdering and causing chaos. The play was then closed due to the murders, and the actor had to convince everyone that he only played a murderer on stage, not in real life.

There is one more explanation that is more probable. From the way that they were murdered, it’s likely that the murderer was a doctor or surgeon. The body of a doctor, Montague John Druitt was found floating in the Thames. Coincidence, or could he have been Jack?

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Secondly, I’d like to talk about the Road Hill House Murder. This is a Victorian murder mystery begins on the th evening of the 29 June 1860 when Samuel Kent locked up his family home, Road Hill House. In the house with him were his servants, his children from both his first and second marriages, his second wife and their little son Francis. No one heard anyone breaking in but in the morning Francis’ nursemaid, Elizabeth Gough woke up to discover that Francis was missing and there was a window open downstairs. The family and neighbours searched everywhere, and finally Francis was found dead in the outhouse. The police were called as well as a Scotland Yard detective called Whicher. He ordered an efficient search of the house which uncovered a bloody nightgown hidden up a chimney. The nightgown was simple and plain, and so it was first thought that it might be Elizabeth’s, Francis’ nursemaid. There was a theory that she and Samuel Kent had been in love, and the nursemaid killed Francis because he had discovered their affair. However, I find this extremely unlikely, as Francis was only three, so would not be interested nor understand grown-up affairs. But then another suspect was found, Constance Kent. She was Samuel’s daughter from his first marriage. She was not treated well by her stepmother, and she resented her half-brothers and sisters, especially the favourite, Francis. Constance was strong enough to have killed Francis, and she was missing one of her nightdresses... The detective accused her and everyone was outraged. She was wealthy and English and no one liked the idea that someone who seemed nice could commit such an awful crime, and wealth meant a lot in court back then, so her trial collapsed, and no one else was ever accused. However, years later, Constance confessed to her murder. But was she telling the truth?

Finally, the disappearance of one of the most famous crime writers of all rd time, Agatha Christie. On the evening of Friday 3 December 1926, the writer was at the country estate she shared with her husband, Archie. After putting her daughter to bed, at 9:45pm, she took the car and drove away from the house. Her car was found abandoned near the Silent Pool, a nearby natural spring- the site of the death of a young girl and her brother many years ago- but Agatha Christie was nowhere to be found. Lots of people worried that Agatha Christie had chosen this as a place to kill herself. Others wondered whether she might have been murdered by her husband. They thought this because Mr and Mrs Christie had a very unhappy marriage, and I guess she had just discovered that Archie was having an affair, which she was very upset about. Had Archie killed Agatha to shut her up? One other suggestion was that the whole thing was a publicity stunt- a way for Agatha to get her name in the papers and sell more books. She was missing for 11 days, and the country was in turmoil. Her face appeared in the papers, and th there were many pleas for information of her whereabouts. On 14 December she was spotted in a hotel in Harrogate, hundreds of miles from where she had last been seen. She was alone, and she was using the name Theresa Neele. She claimed that she had amnesia and didn’t know who she was until she was discovered. But this doesn't seem likely to me. Archie Christie’s mistress’s name was Nancy Neele, and so using the name Theresa Neele seems like a deliberate dig at Nancy and Archie.

My theory is that Agatha knew perfectly well who she was, and where – but after she found out about Archie’s affair, she decided she needed some time to herself. So, she ran away, and used her abilities as a creator of mysteries to do it artistically, which would also help to get her name in the news, and to spread the awareness of her books.

I chose to write about this topic because I have always loved to read mystery books. One of the main aims of an author is to get the reader to want to keep reading and feel connected to the characters as well as intrigued to find out what is going to happen next. I think that in mystery books this is really prominent because you almost feel like you are part of the book, as you are also trying to figure out the case alongside the characters. I hope that this article has intrigued you to also read some mystery books and find out more about the topic. Thank you for reading.

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Tabitha M (Re)

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Xenotransplantation The waiting list for heart transplants is ever growing, while less hearts are becoming available. Lives are going to waste as the number of usable, available hearts for transplants decreases. Xenotransplantation is a new discovery and the quantity of patients willing to consider this alternative will have a huge effect on the waiting list. Is this the alternative that thousands of helpless patients have been waiting for? Alternative routes for heart transplantation have long been debated but much controversy and hazy moral ground surround the other possible solutions. Could Xenotransplantation be the future of heart surgery?

Xenotransplantation involves the transplantation of either live cells, tissues, or organs from an animal into the body of a human. The animal organs replace our own doing the same job and hopefully keeping someone alive.

But xenotransplantation isn’t just for organs, it’s other uses include grafting skin cells to grow on the human body and repair skin after burns or using pig islets to help patients with diabetes.

Xenotransplantation is most common between humans and pigs.

The first time a human’s body part was replaced with an animal’s was in 1838 when Richard Kissam replaced a human cornea with one of a pig. This operation went about with no ethical debate, but instead brought about an admiration for this new way of saving lives. The bible states that “The eye is the lamp of the body.

So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,” [Matthew 6:22] and so replacing that would be as though to cover your soul with the view of a pig. If society can accept cornea xenotransplantation, saving a life using a pig’s heart is an amazing discovery that could change thousands of lives.

On the other hand, your cornea doesn’t support blood flow, and therefore, doesn’t feed through any other part of your body and is almost as simple as a contact lens. Whereas your heart is central to your life and every organ and cell relies on its work. You could argue that life is the most valuable gift of all, and if you rely on a new organ to live, then you should exhaust all options before giving up, including using a pig’s organ. So ethically, it would make sense, if possible, to save a life, even if it would give you ‘the view of a pig.’

More than 5000 heart transplants take place every year but 50,000 people are on the waitlist, and that number keeps growing. Usable hearts are a very limited resource and less people agree to donate every year, yet more and more people have begun to trust science and are willing to have a heart transplant. Only 27% of hearts from donors after brain stem death are eventually accepted for transplantation. This means we are left with the devastating inability to save lives and must stand by watching people die saying that we have done all we can with the limited resources available when the possibility of xenotransplantation could save the lives of hundreds more. Ethics bodies and religions such as Judaism also promote xenotransplantation to prolong or save the life of a human being who is ill or dying from organ failure.

Surely a person couldn’t argue that we stop the progress of future transplantation and let people die, just because it doesn’t fit their exact moral views?

However, it’s not just a fact of life or death. Pigs are bred and genetically modified and then brought to slaughter solely for human benefit. The RSPCA states

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that all animals must have ‘freedom from pain, injury or disease: by prevention through rapid diagnosis and treatment.’ Breeding, modifying and butchering pigs could not possibly be seen as ‘freedom from pain’. Equality is also a vital part of this argument. Not only can animals' dignities be destroyed, but so can the recipient of the heart. A stigma will always attach itself to change, especially a change to something so personal to an animal, to the centre of your soul, to what defines you as being alive – your heart. How could you replace your source of being or love with the organ of an animal? A continuous balancing act levelling animal rights and human dignity will undoubtedly slow the future of transplantations.

To conclude, despite the unquestionable struggle to equalize science and dignity I believe that pig hearts should and will be the future. A life is arguably the most precious gift of all, and the opportunity to give someone back their life, however science allows, should be an accepted and crucial part of our medical future.

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Xanthe H-E (Re)

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What is the true nature of the universe?

In order to answer this question humans come up with stories to describe the world; we test our stories and learn what to keep and what to discard. But the more we learn, the more complicated and stranger our stories become, some of them so much so that it’s difficult to know what they’re actually about. Like string theory, a famous, controversial, and often misunderstood story about the nature of everything.

Why did we come up with it? Is it correct or just an idea we should reject?

To understand the true nature of reality we looked at things up close and were amazed by landscapes in the dust, zoos of bizarre creatures and complex protein robots, all of them made from structures of molecules which in turn are made up of countless even smaller things: atoms. We thought they were the final layer of reality until we combined them together and discovered things that cannot be divided any more: elementary particles. Now we had a problem; they were so small that we could no longer look at them.

Think about it, what is seeing? To see something we need light, an electromagnetic wave, this wave hits the surface of the thing and gets reflected from the object into your eye. The wave carries information from the object that your brain uses to create an image. Therefore you can’t see something without somehow interacting with it, seeing is touching, an active process, not a passive one.

This is not a problem with most things, but particles are extremely small. So tiny that the electromagnetic waves we use to see are too big to touch them. Visible light just passes over them.

We can try to solve this by creating electromagnetic waves with more and much smaller wavelengths but in quantum physics shorter wavelengths means more energy. Therefore when we touch a particle with a wave that has a lot of energy it gets a kick. By looking at a particle, we change it.

In quantum physics we cannot know where a particle is and where it’s going with absolute precision. This fact is so important that it has a name, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the basis of all quantum physics.

What does a particle look like then? What is its nature? We don’t know. If we look hard, we can see a blurry sphere of influence, but not the particles themselves. We just know they exist. But if that's the case, how can we do any science with them? We didn’t. Instead we did what humans do and invented a new story, a mathematical fiction. The story of the point particle. We decided we would pretend that a particle is a point in space. Any electron is a point with a certain electric charge and a certain mass, all indistinguishable from each other. This way, physicists could define them and calculate all of their interactions. This can be made precise in quantum field theory, and this solved a lot of problems. All the standard models of particle physics is built on this, and it predicts lots of things very well. Some quantum properties of the electron, for example, have been tested and are accurate up to 0.0000000000002%. So while particles are not really points, by treating them as if they were we get a pretty good picture of the universe. Not only did this idea advance science, it also led to a lot of real-world technology we use every day.

But there’s a huge problem, gravity. In quantum mechanics, all physical forces are carried by certain particles. But according to Einstein's general relativity, gravity is not a force like the others in the universe. If the universe is a play, particles are the actors and gravity is the stage.

To put it simply, gravity is a theory of geometry. The geometry of space-time itself, of distances which we need to describe with absolute precision. But since there is no way to precisely measure things in the quantum world, our

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story of gravity doesn’t work with our story of quantum physics. When physicists tried to add gravity to the story by inventing a new particle (the graviton), their calculations broke down, causing a big problem. If we could marry gravity to quantum physics and the standard model, we would have the theory of everything. So scientists came up with a new story; they asked, ‘What is more complex than a point?’ A line, or a string. Thus, string theory was born.

What makes string theory so elegant is that it describes many different elementary particles as different modes of vibration of the string. Just like a violin string vibrating differently can give you a lot of different notes, a string can give you different particles. Most importantly this includes gravity. String theory promised to unify all fundamental forces of the universe, causing enormous excitement among the scientific community. String theory quickly graduated to a possible new theory of everything.

Unfortunately, string theory comes with a lot of strings attached. Much of the mathematics involving a consistent string theory does not work in our universe with its three spatial and one temporal dimensions. Strong theory requires ten dimensions to work out. String theorists did calculations in model universes and then tried to get rid of the six additional dimensions and describe our own universe. But so far nobody has succeeded, and no prediction of string theory has been proven in an experiment.

String theory did not reveal the nature of our universe. One could argue that in this case string theory really isn’t useful at all, as science is all about experiments and predictions. If we can't do those, why should we bother with strings? It is all about how we use it since physics is based on maths. 2+2=4. This is true no matter how you feel about it. And the maths in string theory does work out. That's why string theory is still useful. Imagine that you want to build a cruise ship, but you only have the blueprints for a small rowing boat. There are plenty of differences, the engine, the materials, the scale. But both things are fundamentally the same: boats that float. By studying the rowing boat blueprints you might still learn something about how to build a cruise ship. With string theory, we can try to answer some questions about quantum gravity that have been puzzling physicists for decades; such as how black holes work or the information Paradox. String theory might point us in the right direction. When used in this spirit string theory becomes a precious tool for theoretical physicists and help them discover new aspects of the quantum world and some beautiful mathematics.

In conclusion, maybe the story of string theory is not the theory of everything. But just like the story of the point particle, it may be an extremely useful story. We don’t yet know what the true nature of reality is, but we’ll keep coming up with stories to try and find out until one day hopefully, we will find an answer.

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Phoebe H (Sh)

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Che Guevara: Hero or Villain?

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was an Argentine Marxist, revolutionary, author, physician and guerrilla leader who played a significant role in the Cuban Revolution from 1956 to 1959. As a young man, he was commonly known as “el Che” or simply “Che”, a nickname meaning “mate” which arose from his frequent use of this form of colloquial slang. Che grew up wanting to be a doctor and as a medical student, he travelled throughout South America during his holidays. His most significant journey was one which he took with his friend Alberto Granado in 1951.

As they set off on a motorcycle named “the Powerful”, they made their way from Argentina through Chile, Peru, Colombia and into Venezuela where Che then travelled alone to Miami before returning home. During this long journey, he kept a journal which is now known as Diarios de Motocicleta: Notas de un viaje por América Latina (The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey). In this journal, he recorded all that he had witnessed: extreme poverty, hunger and disease. Taken aback by the horrors which he had seen, Che was inspired to make a change. He believed that through a revolution, the imperialism of the United States and the Batista regime could be abolished, and that Latin America could gain liberation. However, despite the belief that Che Guevara is an inspirational and heroic historical figure to be remembered, many see him as quite the opposite, a villain.

One of the reasons why Che can be seen as a hero is through his motives and success in the Cuban Revolution. In 1955, Che met the Cuban Revolutionary Leader Fidel Castro and joined his ‘26th July Movement’. He played a key role in Castro’s attempt to overthrow the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista who was supported by the U.S. government. When the Guerrilla war was successful in 1959, Castro took power and Che became president of the National Bank of Cuba and then Minister of Industry. He was a freedom-fighter; he wanted to help the people whom he witnessed living in such terrible ways and his determination and eventual success in standing up for his beliefs are reasons why so many people view him as a hero. Furthermore, during his travels as a young medical student, Che spent three weeks at a leper colony in the Amazon rainforest in San Pablo. Here, both Che and Granado gave consultations and treated patients. The equality that they saw in this humane treatment of 600 patients with leprosy inspired the pair to continue fighting for a more united Latin America. Also, at the start of the Cuban Revolution, before he fought with weapons, Che acted as the force’s doctor who helped the injured revolutionaries. He was a human rights activist, and it was important to him to help people as well as lead and fight for them. Throughout his life, Che often used his medical knowledge to aid others and due to this, he is viewed as a life-saving hero. Moreover, along with the many heroic actions which Che made whilst he was alive, the rise of anti-American, left-wing elected governments in South America shows that his legacy and ideals continue to live on in today’s society. So, the way in which he remains influential is a reason why many believe that he has always been and will always remain a hero and inspiration to mankind.

Despite Che’s desire to improve and unite Latin America, there are still many people who only view him as a villain. Although he joined the Cuban Revolution to help people and to fight for liberation, the wars led to destruction as well as victory. For example, when fighting wars in Cuba and Africa, he ravished the areas and killed many, many people. In addition, he was the leader of the Cuban Revolution’s first firing squad where traitors and deserters were executed under his order. When Batista was overthrown, Che killed supporters of the previous regime and he was not only a killer himself, but he even encouraged his supporters to do the same when he once proclaimed: “Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a

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human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become...”. People feared him for his ruthlessness and brutality and many both used to and still see him as a merciless murderer of thousands of innocents. Another reason why Che is viewed as a villain is due to his ruling over Cuba’s labour camp system. This system was used to imprison homosexuals, those who had AIDS, or people who were otherwise considered undesirable members of the community to the government. Surrounded by reports of homophobia, discrimination and an introduction of strict food rationing as Minister of Industry, to a lot of people, Che hardly appears a human rights activist and more a cruel, brutal villain.

In conclusion, despite the strong reasoning that Che Guevara had villainous attributes, I believe that he should be remembered as a hero. Without his influence and action, the Cuban Revolution might not have been successful, or even have taken place and so not only Cuba but the world would be very different. The huge number of deaths that were caused by his revolution and power was shocking, but he needed to make an impact to make a change, and for the future of Cuba, a revolution was necessary. Any leader in war will have death at their hands, but what can be recognised in Che is not his perfection, but his perseverance to fight for others and for what he believed was right. He was viewed as a great hero by some, a barbaric villain by others, but personally he felt it was very important to inspire others as a revolutionary and to free Cuba from responsibility; Che will nevertheless be remembered by all.

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Serena M (L6)

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The Psychology of Recovery from Sports Injury The process of returning to sport after an injury can be stressful, and one that involves both physical and psychological loss. Sportspeople, particularly elite athletes, may experience emotions such as anxiety, tension, low self-esteem, anger, and depression after injury and during their physical rehabilitation. The Emotional Responses of Athletes to Injury Questionnaire (ERAIQ) has shown that an athlete’s mindset seems to relate to their progress in rehabilitation. A pessimistic attitude to injury was shown to lower attendance to rehabilitation sessions and generally increase recovery time. Meanwhile, a positive attitude assisted by techniques such as selftalk, relaxation, goal setting and healing imagery was shown to decrease recovery time.

Returning to competition after injury is a complex process, which includes physiological (rehabilitation or medical treatment) and psychological factors. The first step in recovery is often surgery followed by physiotherapy. However, to return to their sport in prime condition, an athlete must also be able to regain both their technical skills and their psychological confidence. One of the most critical factors in whether an athlete has a successful return is their belief in whether or not they are ready and fully prepared.

Researchers have found that returning to competition before an athlete is psychologically ready may lead to anxiety, fear, re-injury, depression, and stress due to a lack of confidence in their physical condition and, consequently, a decrease in performance. This can lead to a vicious cycle of repetitive injury which can unnecessarily shorten a sportsperson’s career and success.

There are many psychological hurdles that athletes must overcome to achieve a positive return to sport. These include a pessimistic outlook (thinking negatively about your situation), an all-or-nothing attitude (being too rigid with your thinking and goal setting), a fear of re-injury, everyday stressors (such as work) which can directly affect body function and hinder your ability to recover, and the stigma associated with discussing mental health issues, often resulting in people not receiving the help they need to come back as quickly as possible.

In 2009, Douglas Glazer developed the Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport Scale (I-PRRS) to specifically measure the confidence of athletes at different points in their recovery. It highlighted the importance of sportspeople getting the psychological help they need to be fully confident in both their physical and technical ability. This facilitates a successful performance when they return to a competitive environment. The results suggest this may be an effective way to measure when athletes are confident enough in all aspects of recovery to make the return to sport at the right time.

Now that we have considered best practice in psychological recovery from sports injury, our focus must now turn to how it can be achieved. An athlete's coaches and trainers play a crucial role here because they are familiar figures in their lives and a source of reassurance, encouragement, and support. In addition, sports psychologists are an increasingly important source of help as they offer insight, strategies and expertise often not offered by a coach.

One way to build an athlete’s confidence is by using imagery and visualisation. It allows them to mentally run through their specific skills, plays or strategies in their own time during a more inactive part of their rehab session, such as when they are icing at the end. In the case of rugby, a player could visualise, or watch set moves, or even picture themselves successfully playing their part in a move. The same could be done with kicking or passing if relevant to their sport. This can help the athlete to build confidence in their ability and keep a positive mindset about their situation.

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Sport-specific skills can also be modified to still make them accessible to an injured athlete, even if they are immobilised in some way. This can vastly increase their motivation to return to their sport, as well as gently start to mentally prepare them for when they can return to a competitive environment. For example, a Basketball player suffering from an ACL injury could still work on passing or shooting drills (even if some are modified) while sitting down in a chair. In addition, while their team is training, the injured athlete can watch their teammate who plays a similar position and provide feedback to remain mentally engaged in the sport even though they are not physically participating. This makes their rehabilitation a more enjoyable and interesting process.

It is also recommended that injured athletes incorporate goal setting on a daily and weekly basis for their rehabilitation exercises and their modified sport-specific skills. Goal setting constitutes a crucial part of rehabilitation by setting timelines by which to reach milestones of recovery, such as regaining a degree of mobility in a knee injury. This gives both the coach and physiotherapist evidence of how far the athlete has progressed. However, it also shows the athlete all they have achieved and motivates them to persevere, especially if rewards or positive feedback are given after they reach their goal.

These methods are effective at trying to increase the athlete's confidence and ensure they have a positive attitude towards their rehabilitation. Having a negative mindset can directly affect bodily function and hinder an athlete's ability to recover, therefore increasing the time that they are absent from their sport. An elite athlete will want to return to a competitive environment as quickly as possible but doing so too soon can have negative implications on their performance. If the techniques outlined above are utilised an athlete should be psychologically confident about their physiological state so they can make the transition back into a competitive sporting environment in an optimal, but safe time.

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Leo F (Re)

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Henrietta Lacks and how unethical is too unethical?

One woman changed the face of science, but nobody knows her name. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman living in Queens, California in the mid 1940s, struggling with extreme poverty and the prospect of raising the five children she had had with her cousin, Day. It was not actually until her death, in 1951, that she participated in one of the largest discoveries of modern-day science.

When Lacks was only 31 years old, she developed a severe case of cervical cancer which spread throughout her entire body and eventually lead to her death later that year. At the time of her diagnosis, George Gey, a professor at John Hopkins Hospital, was attempting to culture the first line of immortal cells which would survive when separated from the human body. This would give the world the possibility to test vaccines, medicines, the effect of viruses, bacteria and almost anything else on the human body; it would revolutionise contemporary science.

On the surface, the prospect of the development of cell cultures and testing procedures seems to be a predominantly positive one. The decrease in animal testing, increase in medicines and overall, a reduction in human suffering are encouraging outcomes which we would see if Gey’s discovery ever amounted to anything. In 1951, George Gey understood these vast potential impacts for people in the future and began to disregard the ill-effects it had on people in the present day; he would take test samples from black African American patients on the John Hopkins hospital wards without their consent or knowledge and use them in his own research. Henrietta Lacks was one of these patients. Gey felt that because these black patients were receiving free health care, their ‘donation’ constituted their due payment.

At the time, in Baltimore, segregation was law and therefore racism was not contested very much. The consent and ownership of tissues was, and still is, a highly debated topic; the law does not now (and did not then) have a clear-cut definition of what is right and wrong in this field, even if morally there seems to be an obvious answer. Due to this, many other unjust trials were allowed to commence, the most notable being the ‘Tuskegee study’ of 1932, performed to observe ‘the effect of Syphilis on the body when left untreated’. Within this trial 600 black men (399 with syphilis and 201 without) were informed that they were to be treated for ‘bad blood’, a term which encompassed syphilis, fatigue, anaemia and many other ailments. In fact, the treatments they received were too weak or even void of the necessary drugs. Even worse, the doctors on the trial were secretly telling other medics to withhold life-saving treatments from their test subjects should they request them. It was not until the study was finally discovered by the American government and forcefully disbanded in 1972 that they confirmed the deaths of 128 of the men and the infection of 40 of their wives. As well as this, 19 of the test subjects’ children acquired congenital syphilis; all of which could have been avoided through a prescription of penicillin.

These medical abuses are not just stories of the past. In 2007, the Retained Organs Inquiry investigated a series of cases on the removal of recently deceased babies’ organs. This included brains, livers, and hearts which had been removed without the knowledge or consent of the parents, for the purposes of research and education. The parents were told that their children’s bodies were buried when in fact most of their parts were simply incinerated.

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It was whilst Henrietta was suffering on her death bed in John Hopkins hospital that George Gey managed to successfully get her cells to replicate in his carefully formulated culture. This had been attempted in his lab multiple times with ever dwindling success; the cells would usually die within a few hours. However, Henrietta Lacks’ cells, branded HeLa, thrived and replicated at tumultuous speeds. Nobody had achieved this level of replication before; the closest was thought to be the growth of the ‘Immortal chicken heart’ by suspected FrenchNazi Alexis Carell in 1912. However, shortly after his death, his research was found to be a ruse and the cells said to be immortal were actually being replenished regularly with new cells once they died! Immediately, George Gey began shipping HeLa cultures all over the world with primarily little monetary gain for himself.

Over the years, HeLa cells were discovered to grow in substantial amounts and at extremely low costs. They were used to test the effect on the body of everything; from vitamins, steroids, and hormones to chemotherapy drugs (the malignant nature of HeLa being extremely helpful for this). One of the major contributions of HeLa to society was its assistance in the development of the Salk vaccine to fight against the Poliovirus. Before the discovery of HeLa, monkeys were being used as test subjects for the Salk vaccine and other like trials. However, this practice became increasingly more expensive and, not to mention, it was extremely unethical. As it turned out, HeLa cells were even more susceptible to the Poliovirus than the monkey cells, making them more useful, affordable, and accessible for this research. In addition to this, the Poliovirus studies were eventually conducted in the HeLa distribution centre in Tuskegee, built specifically to produce HeLa cells in culture. This was the location of one of the most prestigious black universities at the time and the research would provide thousands of jobs for young black scientists, as well as excessive funding to support their scientific research. Other interesting uses of HeLa were in the testing of the effects of atomic bombs on humans and the identification of a possible cancerous cell line within a genome.

The consequence of George Gey’s primarily unethical actions have resulted in great medical advancements as well as the increase of opportunities for previously underrepresented black scientists. Although, for years, nobody knew Henrietta’s name; medical journals would print the donor’s name as Helen Lane or would even neglect to mention it at all. All the while, her family was still living in poverty, unable to secure health insurance, whilst their mother’s cells were being sold for thousands of pounds per vial. I want to leave you asking yourselves: did the ends justify the means? Can we simply forgive the injustice done to Henrietta and the Lacks family due to the rewards which society has reaped from it, and is this selective forgiveness becoming an unwelcome trend in scientific discovery?

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Helvetica H T (L6)

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Social Media and Overthinking One of the most famous sentences from René Descartes is “I think, therefore I am”. The ability to think is a gift that the creator gave to humankind. It is the single most important capability responsible for where the human race is with the development of its civilization.

We often hear: “Think before you act! Think through it!”

With the ability to think, can one overthink? We definitely can. We also often hear: “Don’t think too much about it”.

But what exactly is over-thinking if it does exist? At the risk of over-simplifying, overthinking can be defined as thinking way too far beyond the point of where reality actually stops. And no, this is not ignoring the question: what about imagination, which often happens beyond reality? Imagination is not the same as overthinking. It does not follow the same kind of logic. While thinking concerns what is possible within the domain of everyday life, imagination has its emphasis more on what is desirable, often without regard as to whether it is possible in the context of everyday life.

Overthinking has many variations. A scientist can do this by, for example, missing a critical clue that often takes a simpler and more mundane form than what they believe. A economist can overthink which subsequently leads to them over-complicating their model so that its ties to reality become tenuous. And so forth.

However, the main focus now is on overthinking in our daily lives.

Overthinking often occurs subconsciously and without us realising that we are doing it. It could be a simple phone conversation after which we worry that we may have said the wrong thing. As a result, we call another friend to ask for advice. This friend then repeats it to a third person, with their own colourings. The third person then to a fourth…then back to the person that they had the original conversation, resulting in a misunderstanding. This overthinking has thus mushroomed into a complex situation that cannot be easily resolved.

Take a job application: it is possible to overthink the cover letter: fifty drafts later and we might still worry that whoever receives and reads the cover letter may still potentially have questions that are not addressed the text.

These so-called “what if” questions aggressively popping up in our minds every second. Eventually, our brain becomes so muddled that we can no longer think clearly, ending in a phenomenon known as “paralysis-byanalysis” trap.

Into the fray of these common daily overthinking situations comes social media. The biggest psychological effect of social media on many is the fear of missing out (FOMO). Seeing all those stories and images of other peoples’ glamorous lifestyles spin our minds into ways of overthinking that have never been seen before. We start to think of the many ways other people’s lives are superior to ours, worrying that we are missing out and that life is passing us by. The constant checking for messages even though there are none, or when there are only notifications from those who we aren’t wanting a response from as badly. When messages from friends don’t show up at the moment we refresh the page, we panic, thinking that they must have abandoned us and moved on to greener pastures. Furthermore, we imagine that at this very moment our friends must be at some big exciting gathering to which we have not been invited.

Being human has its perks, but it also has its drawbacks. One can argue that overthinking is one of these. At its worst, attenuated by social media, overthinking can bring ruin upon us. Overthinking can be like having the devil on our shoulder, with the ostensible purpose of protecting us but can instead lead to our downfall. One of the things it says is: “don’t let anyone else steal your thunder, only you are allowed to ruin your life!”. In certain cases this might be considered useful, however, once it sticks in our minds, we adhere to it and bring it around with us

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everywhere we go. It takes control of us and thus ends up having ourselves destroying our own pleasantries first so that ‘others aren’t able to’.

So, what is the antidote?

It may not appear to be intuitively obvious, but at the most fundamental level, the resolution for overthinking is a healthy dose of confidence in oneself, this is because one of the big reasons for overthinking is our lack of self-confidence. We constantly have the urge to be reassured by others and this is one of the reasons we find ourselves asking for advice. Overthinking is often employed to address the self-doubt that is associated with a lack of confidence in oneself.

When we are self-confident, we tend to trust our own judgement and as a result, we are able to make decisions based on the judgement.

When mistakes do occur, we deal with it not from fear for the mistakes’ possible consequences, but we think calmly about how to fix the situation if it requires a remedy. Again, take the example of the phone conversation in which we think we might’ve said something wrong: our self-confident selves would go straight back to the person we had spoken with to resolve the issues instead of going around to tell third or fourth parties. However, this does not mean we have to go straight into it and ask about whether we’ve said anything wrong - even though it could be one way of resolving the issue, if preferred. We can instead speak to them again and see how the situation is; if they are acting as they usually do. And if not? Then there is our chance to inquire about our suspected ‘hurtful’ actions.

Additionally, freeing ourselves from social media has often been proven to be tricky. It is an addiction, akin to smoking and drug use. Trying to short-circuit the overthinking part of the problem is a first step. Put the phone down: we have our own lives to get on with and constantly waiting for others is unnecessarily torturous as we cannot live their lives for them. So, naturally we do not know what they are doing or thinking at every second of every minute – it is a waste of time to try and guess anyway. Instead of our minds spinning constantly with the fear of missing out, focus on ourselves and what we have in front of us away from the device. The here and now.

What is happening right now in my life? Have I got any exciting plans? If not, make some. It could be anything, with others or on our own.

It has to begin with trust and interest in oneself.

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Tatiana Y (L6)

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A Short Intro to Linear Algebra Before I begin, let me ask you a question: what is your favourite subject? Now, that may have been an easy question, or it may not have been. What is hard, is if I were to ask you: why? Now, quite often it could be simply because you are good at that subject. Maybe it was what your parents or friends were interested in. What I want to explore today, is that there is often more to a subject than you first think. That is what makes a subject interesting: when you break the surface of what the subject is really about and see how it fits together among all the other knowledge man has found.

I won’t be able to prove this for all the subjects, but I hope I can give you an insight into the world of maths beyond those monotonous calculations you learn. I hope to make you feel that it is instead a whole new language to describe the world around you in a concise yet beautiful manner. It is definitely not obvious to many that this is in fact the case.

Let us consider basic numbers for one moment. Quite straightforward, right? We use them all the time: 2 apples, 5 trees, 9 people, π houses. Well, maybe not all numbers are as useful as others in the real world. What is important to note, is how basic these numbers are. They can be described as one-dimensional. They manage perfectly well on their own to make some beautiful maths; most equations and formulae happen to use onedimensional numbers. But there is more: there are far more interesting numbers out there, waiting to be used.

The kinds of ‘numbers’ I am going to be talking about today are called vectors.

It is very likely that you have come across a vector and that it is familiar to you. There are several ways which you can imagine a vector. Firstly, you can 3 imagine it as a kind of list of numbers. For example: ( ). This vector is 4 simply showing the list of numbers 3 and 4. You could also imagine a vector 3 as an arrow in space. For example, this vector ( ) would have 𝑥-coordinate 4 3 and 𝑦-coordinate 4. It would look like the diagram to the right: Notice that this is now a kind of two-dimensional number. And with this kind of maths, which is called linear algebra, there is no limit to the number of dimensions you have. You can work with one hundred dimensions and the maths will still be the same. This is what makes this kind of maths both interesting and important.

Now you’re familiar with what a vector is and the kind of maths we are going to be working with, let’s get straight into looking at some linear algebra.

Let’s imagine we have our regular two-dimensional plane as shown to the left: If we were to imagine that each of the points on this plane was a vector, then we could start to think about one of the most important parts of linear algebra: linear transformations. I want you to imagine that every point on the plane is going to move over to a different point (or a different vector to be precise). I will keep a copy of the original grid so that it is clear what has happened:

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We can see that the lines have been tilted space one unit to the right.

Instead of focusing on the whole grid, try focusing on just two 1 0 vectors. These vectors are ( ) 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ( ). We call them 𝑖̂ and 𝑗̂ 0 1 respectively. These are called our unit vectors since 𝑖̂ goes one unit along the 𝑥-axis and 𝑗̂ goes one unit up the 𝑦-axis. This is not obvious from what is shown, but I can tell you that 𝑖̂ has moved to 0 the vector ( ) (in other words, it hasn’t shifted) and 𝑗̂ moved to the 1 1 vector ( ) (in other words, one unit along the 𝑥-axis). The rest of 1 4 2 the vectors on the plane moved according to this. For example, the vector ( ) moved to the vector ( ) and the 2 2 3 vector ( ) stayed in place. Notice that all the lines remained parallel and evenly spaced, and the origin stayed in 0 place. This is what a linear transformation is. What is useful about linear transformations is that all we need to know is where 𝑖̂ and 𝑗̂ have landed, and we can work out where any vector has landed.

Using that same linear transformation, let’s try to predict where a certain vector lands. Let’s say we pick the 5 1 vector ( ). If we know that 𝑖̂ has stayed in place and 𝑗̂ moved to ( ), we might think about a very basic piece of 1 4 information: 𝑖̂ is just a unit in the 𝑥 direction and 𝑗̂ is just a unit in the 𝑦 direction. Therefore, any vector could be 1 expressed as a multiple of 𝑖̂ and 𝑗̂ added together. For example, we might write the vector ( ) as 1𝑖̂ + 2𝑗̂ = 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 ( ) + 2 ( ) = ( ) + ( ) = ( ). I might not have taught you how to add and multiply vectors, but doesn’t it 0 1 0 2 2 just feel right to do it like this? If not, then have a look at the following formulae and make sure it makes sense to you before you move on: 𝑎 𝑥𝑎 𝑥( ) = ( ) 𝑏 𝑎𝑏 𝑎 𝑐 𝑎+𝑐 ( )+( )= ( ) 𝑏 𝑑 𝑏+𝑑 We call this kind of representation of a vector a linear combination. This is simply when you multiply two vectors by two numbers and add them together. Here is some maths vocab for you, just to make everything a bit more formal: Multiplying = scaling (because it stretches or compresses a vector) Normal number = scalar (because it scales a vector) Adding and scaling vectors = linear combination Because 𝑖̂ is simply a unit along the 𝑥-axis, multiplying this with a number will give you a vector with only an 𝑥coordinate. Let me run through an example so that it is clear: 1 4 ( ) ∙ 4 = ( ) (just the 𝑥-coordinate) 0 0 The same applies for 𝑗̂ when you multiply it by a number: you will just get a vector with a 𝑦-coordinate. This means that when you add them together, you will get a vector with the 𝑥-coordinate of the first number and 𝑦coordinate of the second number. For example:

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1 4 0 ( )∙4+ ( )∙2= ( ) 0 1 2 This is a linear combination. In fact, any vector can be expressed with the following linear combination: 𝑥 (𝑦) = 𝑖̂ ∙ 𝑥 + 𝑗̂ ∙ 𝑦 This is important for what we are about to do, so make sure this makes sense to you.

When thinking about a linear transformation, we record where 𝑖̂ and 𝑗̂ have landed in a matrix which is like a 2x2 vector. For our example earlier, it would look like this: (

1 1 ) 0 1

Where the first column is where 𝑖̂ landed and the second column is where 𝑗̂ landed. Using our idea that any vector can be expressed as a linear combination of 𝑖̂ and 𝑗̂ we might try the following: 𝑥 𝑖̂ ∙ 𝑥 + 𝑗̂ ∙ 𝑦 = (𝑦)

𝑥 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑖̂ ∙ 𝑥 + 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑗̂ ∙ 𝑦 = 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑑 (𝑦) And indeed, this is true. This is extremely useful, because now we can work out where any vector we want has landed. For example: 1 1 9 ( )∙5+( )∙4= ( ) 0 1 4 5 And this is where the vector ( ) would have gone to after the transformation. This is a really key part of linear 4 algebra, and I find it quite an elegant way to visualise it, don’t you?

Before we finish, I want you to feel as though you’ve gained a thorough understanding of what you’ve learned. It is important to realise that, although it is straightforward, it is not obvious what is going on. The idea of linear transformations is fundamental to your understanding of linear algebra, and it is important that we dig even deeper into the concept.

So far, we’ve learned that to find out where a vector has landed after a linear transformation we need to record where 𝑖̂ and 𝑗̂ have landed after the transformation. Using linear combinations, we can then see where our vector has moved to. It is quite a straightforward process when broken down like this.

Let’s now imagine that instead of just one transformation, you want to know what would happen after two consecutive linear transformations. Let’s say you want to know the overall effect of both of these linear transformations.

Let me show an example to the right so that you can visualise it:

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1 −1 ) and Firstly, I have done a leftward version of the original transformation which described by the matrix ( 0 1 then I have stretched out space by 2 units in the 𝑥 direction and 3 units in the 𝑦 direction. This is described by the 2 0 ). Can you see why? (It might help if you draw it out) matrix ( 0 3 We say that the outcome of applying both of these tranformations is their composition. What you are effectively doing, is multiplying the matrices. To do this, you have to imagine they are functions (which they are) and so function notation applies (reading from right to left). For example: 𝑔(𝑓(𝑥)) This means to calculate 𝑓(𝑥) then put it into 𝑔(𝑥). The same applies for matrices: 𝑀1 𝑀2 This means do 𝑀2 first and then 𝑀1. With what I said earlier in mind, what do you think is the matrix composition of: (

2 0 1 −1 )( ) 0 3 0 1

The question is really saying “What is the overall effect of applying a rightward shear (name of the first transformation) followed by a stretching of space?”

It could be put even more simply as “Record the position of 𝑖̂ and 𝑗̂ after both transformations” Let’s run through this step by step. Firstly, let’s find where 𝑖̂ lands after both transformations: 1 ( ) 𝑖𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 0 𝑤𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑑 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑟: 2 0 2 1∙( )+0∙( )= ( ) 0 3 0 𝑤𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑗̂ 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 1 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 ( ) 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: 1 2 0 −2 −1 ∙ ( ) + 1 ∙ ( ) = ( ) 0 3 3

𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛, 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑥 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑠 𝑢𝑝 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 2 −2 ) 0 3

𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠: (

If you don’t understand how we got to this point, go back to make sure you really understand how to find where a vector has moved to after a linear transformation. This is all we have done here: we have looked at where the (already transformed) 𝑖̂ and 𝑗̂ have gone to after the second transformation. Then, we have stored this information in a matrix which perfectly sums up both transformations.

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This matrix which we have just found is exactly the matrix that I put into the computer to generate that second image next to the leftward shear. It is called the composition of both transformations. I thought it would be interesting to include the method which is taught to most students who learn linear algebra, so you can see how elegant this way of doing it really is:

(

𝑎 𝑐

𝑏 𝑒 )( 𝑑 𝑔

𝑓 𝑎𝑒 + 𝑏𝑔 𝑎𝑓 + 𝑎ℎ )=( ) ℎ 𝑐𝑒 + 𝑑𝑔 𝑐𝑓 + 𝑑ℎ

This is a dreadful way to present linear algebra, especially due to the beauty at its core. I hope you find our method of working through linear transformations more interesting than simply crunching a bunch of numbers and looking at the result.

And there we have it. I hope that you were able to follow all that information effectively; it was a lot to take in. most importantly, I hope that you really got a sense for what maths is about: it’s not about the calculation, it really is all about the elegance and the intuition. Maths is more of a creative subject than most will think, I would even argue that it is an art along with music and others. It is a way to tell a story and to gain an understanding of the universe. Maybe maths isn’t your favourite subject, but I hope at least you have seen a different side of it and can look upon it differently. For me, this was truly beautiful, don’t you agree?

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Elliot R (Re)

The Hindenburg The Hindenburg was the largest airship dirigible of its time based on the zeppelin design. It was the pride of Nazi Germany, designed by Ludwig Dürr and manufactured by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. In 1936 it began its journey of commercial air service by travelling over the North Atlantic sea and carrying 1002 passengers across 10 flights between the USA and Germany.

The first successful airship was built in 1852 by a French engineer named Henri Giffard. This airship powered a three horsepower engine which turned a large propellor and moved at 6 miles per hour! The zeppelin is a rigid airship that is named after its creator, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. The Zeppelin was developed by the Germans in the late 19th century. They made their airships to have light framework of metal grinders that would protect a (hydrogen) gas filled interior, whereas the French structure had heavy framework.

The Graf Zeppelin was a large enough airship to carry an adequate (24) number of passengers. It was a dirigible that travelled around the world in 1929, and in 1930, it initiated the first transatlantic air service. This lead to the later construction of the Hindenburg, which was a larger passenger airship that could carry up to 50 passengers, and there was still room for crew.

The Hindenburg was launched in Friedrichshafen, Germany, in March 1936. It was 245 meters long and could travel at a maximum speed of 135 kilometres per hour, but cruised at 126 kilometres per hour. The airship was originally supposed to be filled with helium gas, which is a non-flammable, non-toxic gas that is lighter than air.

This makes sense as it is a substance that we use in our typical party balloons, so it safe to use. Unfortunately due to the export restrictions on Nazi Germany from the USA, they were unable to fill the balloon with helium and had to use hydrogen gas, which is highly flammable.

After more than 30 successful years of air travel on zeppelins, it all came to an end after one of many explosions.

Zeppelins had travelled more than 2000 flights, covering over a million miles, and one major incident brought it all to an abrupt halt. This was the disaster of the Hindenburg.

Passengers could travel in the luxurious interiors of the Hindenburg between Europe and North and South America, in half the time of the fastest ocean liner. The passengers would enjoy meals in the sophisticated dining room and could relax in a living room while listening to an aluminium piano. They could even smoke in a designated smoking room, which you do not get on modern aircrafts.

The Hindenburg left Frankfurt, Germany, on the 3rd of May, 1937, where it would travel across the Atlantic to Lakehurst’s Navy Air Base, carrying 36 passengers and a crew of 61. Sadly this was the Hindenburg’s last flight.

While it was attempting to moor at Lakehurst, flames suddenly immersed from the airship. It fell 200 feet to the ground, and the hull of the airship burnt to a crisp, within seconds of the explosion. 21 crewmen, 13 passengers and 1 civilian on the ground lost their lives, and most survivors suffered severe injuries.

How did it happen? After 80 years of research and scientific tests, the same conclusion as the original German and American investigations in 1937, was drawn. The cause of the explosion was an electrostatic discharge (a spark) that ignited some leaking hydrogen. However the spark was caused by a difference in electrical potential energy between the surrounding air and the airship. That day the atmosphere was electrically charged, but luckily the framework of the Hindenburg was grounded by the landing line. The spark caused a jump between the ships

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fabric covering (which was able to withstand a charge) and the framework of the ship (that was grounded by the landing line) which was the reason there was a difference in the electrical potential energy.

A less likely, but possible cause of the spark could have been by coronal discharge, which is “an electrical discharge brought on by the ionization of a fluid surrounding a conductor, which occurs when the strength of the electric field exceeds a certain value” – from Collinsdictionary.com The ship experienced a serious leakage of hydrogen before the disaster, but what generated this is still uncertain. There were rumours that a Nazi on board might have sabotaged the airship, but there is no evidence for this. There was also a conspiracy that the zeppelins fabric was highly flammable, but this isn’t true. The Hindenburg was one of many airships that went down in a fire, but it had its accident because of its lifting gas - Hydrogen. The reason the Hindenburg was destroyed, was because it was filled with hydrogen, and it went down in 32 seconds.

One could argue that the Hindenburg was just ahead of its time, and had it come later, we all might have been travelling in sophisticated airships that could have revolutionised air travel.

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Dani L (Re)

Misogyny in the ancient world Often considered the framework of the Western world and widely celebrated for its cultural and philosophical attainment, Ancient Greek civilisation is by far one of the most accomplished in history. The ancient Greeks influence government through democracy, they influence the architecture of many of our buildings and wrote the epics that we know and study. However, deeply embedded within the rich culture of Greek literature and society are the underpinnings of misogyny and the mechanisms that have silenced women.

Homer’s odyssey is one of the world’s oldest surviving texts and provides monumental insight into antiquity. Yet within book one of Homer’s epic poem, as Mary Beard once said, is the first recorded example of a man telling a woman to ‘shut up’. Penelope, wife of Odysseus, who’s loyalty remains constant throughout the poem, comes down from her quarters into the communal place of the palace, to find a bard performing songs to her suitors about the Achaean’s return home from Troy. She requests politely, having been understandably upset by the distressing content of the song, that the bard choose something less sorrowful to perform.

Telemachus, her son, then rebukes her behaviour, telling her to return to her quarters and attend to her ‘own’ work regarding the loom and spindle. He proceeds to interject that making decisions must be men’s concern. Of course, Penelope submissively obeys her son, having listened to his ‘sensible’ words. Right where written ancient literature begins, we are shown that women’s voices are not to be heard, and when they are they should be silenced by a man.

Telemachus’ reprimand was only one case, with many to follow within antiquity, where a man has attempted to reject and exclude a women’s contribution to the public sphere. In 391 BC the playwright Aristophanes wrote an entire comedy Assemblywoman based on the unimaginable and clearly hysterical impossibility where the women of Athens assume control of the government. Much of Aristophanic comedy, including Women at Thesmophoria and Lysistrata, derives from mocking women. However, despite what may look like blatant misogyny there is a scholarly debate regarding Aristophanes attitude towards women. Some academics view him as an abhorrent misogynist who mocked women for fun within his plays, whereas others regarded him as a sort of proto feminist.

A few of his plays, specifically the ones I previously mentioned, are sometimes called ‘feminist fantasies’. Within these plays, Women are put in charge and manage to solve big problems facing contemporary Athens. For instance, in Lysistrata they can bring peace between Athens and Sparta. There is certainly some interesting nuance to be considered – does Aristophanes find the idea of women having power amusing or is he critiquing the attitudes of his fellow Athenians? Perhaps it is dependent on how seriously we take these plays. However, it was not only playwrights who publicly ridiculed women. Aristotle, a fair contender for the smartest man who ever lived once said “women are unfinished men”, the man who created the first system of widely circulated logical reasoning, who pioneered zoology and botany and contributed so much to a spectrum of fields, believed women to be objects of passivity.

Gods and Goddesses were believed to control every aspect of life. The Greek goddesses were symbols of strength, yet despite their conceived immortality and perceived influence, were often bound by their male counterparts and prohibited from having their own power. It largely goes unrecognised that the Greek goddesses

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shared in the oppression of the ancient women who so dedicatedly believed in them. For instance, Hera, goddess of marriage and of the life of women, ironically lived within a forced marriage. Despite rejecting Zeus’ relentless overtures, her lack of interest was dismissed due to his rank which surpassed all other Gods. To the Greeks, Hera was supposedly a divine image of the ideal marriage yet she herself was continually flouted by her husband. Hera was also completely dependent on Zeus, if they were to divorce, she would lose everything. Greek mythology dictates that Hera was solely dependent on his power for her own. Mythology illustrates that the Goddesses were barred in every sense by a male counterpart and had no hope in changing this. In many cases, the Greek Goddesses were not able to represent their powers. Aphrodite Goddess of love had a loveless marriage, disallowed to love the man she wanted. Hera, goddess of marriage was barred to a serial adulterer and Athena, goddess of wisdom deferred to Zeus. In some ancient literature Athena is portrayed as particularly terrifying because she is a female goddess who acts like a man, this is illustrated within Lucian’s Dialogues of the Gods.

Even the most superior ‘women’ in ancient times each remained inferior to a man.

To conclude, it is indisputable that there is a large amount of misogyny within ancient texts and there was certainly a sizeable amount in society. However, we must consider the attitudes of the time and the very different world that they lived in. Some would argue that perhaps it is not particularly surprising that sexism reached such unequalled heights, it could be argued that these men only indulged such misogynistic overtones as a means of reinforcing the patriarchal society they lived in. Why would one not encourage a society that guarantees your own prosperity? These examples only further remind us that the gender roles assigned since the age of the Odyssey must be rewritten.

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Tabitha H (L6)

Who were the Seven Deities of Kievan Rus? Early Slavs were pagans and had a vast number of deities. Most of the information we know today comes from the records made by Christian monks, as well as from Russian folklore. However there is still a lot that we do not know about early Slavic paganism. Early slavs practiced in open nature. This incorporated trees, rivers, stones, and every other aspect the natural world around them. Forests also acted as border between this world and the next. This is indicated in many folktales in which a hero must cross the forest to complete their mission.

These religious practices lasted for around six centuries until the arrival of Christianity throughout the 9th to 12th centuries. There were three separate groups - the east, west, and south Slavs. Though the mythology and deities differed, all were based upon the fundamental beliefs of the Proto-Slavs. In fact, similarities of eastern Slavic rituals can be seen in some practices in Iran.

Vladimir dedicated his temple to 7 gods and goddesses. In 978 he constructed the idols to popular and important deities on hills around the capital. These were Perun, Veles (sometimes named Volos), Xors (Hors), Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl, and Mokosh.

Rod was known as a protector of families. He was a also a god of fate. He was once believed to be the supreme god. He is usually mentioned alongside the Rozhanitsy, invisible spirits of destiny. Ones first haircut was dedicated to him in a ceremony in which he and the Rozhanitsy were given the hair. His cult seems to have lost its significance through time and in the ninth or tenth century he was replaced by Perun and Svetevid. This explains the absence of a statue dedicated to him.

Perun (перун) Perun is the most well-documented god in comparison to the all the others.

Perun is known to be the god of lightning and thunder. He is known to be connected and sometimes represented by oak trees. Hi is also a god of war.

He shares many traits with that of the Norse and Germanic Thor and Odin combined. Perun is considered a ‘dry’ god and is associated with fire, unlike Veles who is ‘wet’ and is connected to water. It was believed an oak tree the represented the world the top branches were the heavens the trunk and lower branches were the realms of humankind and the roots were the underworld Perun lived in the highest branches so that he could see all that happened in the world Perun was worshiped with shrines on hills and in oak trees to this day.

Perun still means ‘thunder’ and ‘lightning’ in several Slavic languages. In the Storm Myth, Veles appears as a snake and challenged Perun by stealing his cattle. Perun and Veles then fought in a huge battle in which Perun used lightning to defeat Veles. Veles then fled and shapeshifted into animals, trees, and even people to hide. Once Perun had found and then killed Veles, everything that had been stolen was freed from his body, falling from the sky as rain. This myth helped to explain the change of seasons. the dry periods were when Veles was stealing, storms were seen as the divine battles when Perun fought Veles to take back what he stole, and the rain was when Perun had defeated him and the stolen cattle was returned to Perun. The myth would repeat each year and Veles would be reborn as a snake. Although in this myth he takes on the role as the antagonist, Veles was not seen as an evil god. The conflict between Perun and Veles does not represent the opposing sides of good and evil, but more so the natural opposition of the two elements: Earth and water being Veles, and Perun being fire.

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Veles (белес) While being the god of the Underworld, Earth, and Waters, Veles is also considered a trickster deity akin to Loki in Norse mythology. He is also connected with magic and sorcery. Veles is described as the god of livestock and farmers who punishes those who go against him with sickness. It is also suggested in multiple myths that he was a shapeshifter, often in the form of a snake or a dragon. In addition to horses, cows, goats, and sheep, Veles is also associated with wolves, reptiles, and blackbirds (specifically ravens and crows). His name is primarily mentioned in 16th-century Czech records, here his name has the meaning of ‘dragon’ or ‘devil’. His realms were in the roots of the tree. The primary chronicle is a detailed record of early Kievan Rus and it mentions the god Veles multiple times.

Veles’ idol did not stand next to others on the hill where the prince’s palace was, but was in the city marketplace lower down. This indicates that the worship of Perun and Veles had to be done separately for several reasons.

One being that Perun and Veles were enemies and so it would be wrong to place the two in such close proximity to one another, and secondly was that while it was correct to place Perun’s idol high on mountains, Veles was supposed to remain down in the lowlands.

Dazbog (дажьбог) In most surviving images, he is shown with a glowing halo around his head and an orb in his hand. Both of which are represent the sun. Dazbog is the god of the Sun, fire, light and weather. When winter ends, Dazbog brings the light from the sun and rain to help new life begin again. Because of this, Dazbog is viewed as a god of life. The primary tale about Dazbog is that he lived in a palace made of gold in a land of never-ending summer and wealth. The morning and evening were known as the Zoryi and were his daughters. The Zoryi would open the palace gates to allow Dazbog to leave in the morning. Later in the evening, Zoryi closed the gates and in different versions of the myths, the sisters are combined into the single goddess Zorya. In some stories, Dazbog starts out in the morning as a young, strong man but in the evening he is elderly and weak. He is reborn every morning. At night Dazbog crosses the great ocean with a boat pulled by geese, wild ducks, and swans. Dazbog is said to be the son of Svarog the god of the sky and celestial fire, and the brother to Svarozhich. He is married to the moon goddess Mesyats, who is his opposite.

Stribog (стрибог) Stribog was the god of the wind and is also the son of Perun. They both ruled over the sky. All winds, no matter if they are from land or sea, small or great, are considered as his grandchildren. His symbolic animal and messenger was the eagle. He is represented as an old white-bearded man with a large horn which we uses to call the winds.

There are several possible interpretations of his name. Stribog could originally have been an epithet meaning ‘father god’. The ‘stri-’ root can be linked to the proto-indo-european ‘-ster- , which can also seen in the verb

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‘sterno’ from Latin, meaning ‘spread’ or ‘distribute’ which links back to him being the god of winds as well as distributing wealth.

Simargl (симаргл) Simargl is the god of the flame, and he is said to be Perun’s second on command. Simargl ia a shapeshifter who could be found in the form of a warrior surrounded by fire, or as a large winged dog. His wife is known as Kupalnitsa, the goddess of the night, who is also his opposite like how Dazbog the Sun is married to Masyats the moon, and Perun dry sky god is married to Mokosh, the moist earth goddess.

Zorya, the solar goddess keeps Simargl chained to the star Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor which prevent shim from breaking free and destroying the constellation and then causing the end to the world. He is the god of physical fire unlike Svarog, who is the god of celestial fire. There is however, little else documented on Simargl.

Historical sources barely say anything of his purpose, attributes, or how he was worshipped.

Mokosh (мокошь) Mokosh is the only goddess in Vladimir’s temple. Mokosh watches over women’s work, women’s destiny, and childbirth, similar to Artemis in Greek mythology. Her role is broad and diverse and also encompasses weaving. She is the mother earth and spins destiny. Mokosh is considered the supreme Slavic goddess and she is loosely comparable to the Greek Titan Gaia. She has power over the earth, water, and death. As mother earth, she is considered the most important goddess and sometimes she is depicted as the only goddess. She guards cattle against disease and people from drought, sickness, and unclean spirits. Unfortunately, surviving images of Mokosh are rare. As she is the moist earth goddess, she is the opposite of Perun, the dry sky god’s.

Xors (хорс) Very little was actually documented on him, however we know that he would have been the god of the Sun. He also has connections with both illness and heath. Xors travelled from one side of the sky to the other throughout the day and remained underground during night. Based on the situation of his statue in Vladimir’s temple, it is believe that he would have been the second most influential deity in the time that Vladimir ruled. However, he is not to be confused with Dazbog. Both were solar gods, but while Xors represented the sun in and of itself, Dazbog symbolized the power that the sun held, especially its healing power.

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Hero B (Re)

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Can we ever really change?

Can humans ever truly change, physically or mentally? In this article I will look at whether we can fully change, physically and psychologically, or if our changes can only alter who we are, not make us a different person. I will look at cell regeneration, scars and tattoos, popular acclaim and the influence of our past.

One argument that people can change, physiologically, is that our cells regenerate every seven years, so we change and become many completely different people throughout our lives. Every part of us that we experienced the past with is gone, so as we go into the future acting as the new people we have become we have no physical links to our past and can continue unattached. This is a common misconception. Although this is true for most cells, the otic capsule in our ears, the enamel in our teeth, the lenses in our eyes and the neurons in our nervous system never regenerate. Although most of us falls away and is replaced by new cells, some parts of our physiology will always remain the same so we can never truly become a different person as there are some parts of us that are our permanent companions throughout our lives.

Another part of our identity that is unchangeable is scars and tattoos. Scars are constant reminders of our past experiences and tattoos can be a way of expressing ourselves to others throughout our lives. Scars don’t disappear when our cells are replaced because when the skin is wounded, it triggers the production of scar collagen, which is different from the normal protein collagen that skin is made of. Scar collagen doesn’t die and isn’t replaced like other skin cells, so remains present and visible. These scars are reminders of an event in our lives that permanently changed our looks and potentially our personality as it is from our past experiences that we can develop our opinions and reactions. Tattoos also don’t disappear as cells regenerate because the ink particles that make up the tattoo are too large to be ingested by white blood cells so aren’t removed like other foreign bodies, allowing them to continue to colour your skin. Tattoos are a way of revealing your character as you can choose how you present yourself to the world through the tattoo you choose to keep with you for your entire life. Even if your personality develops, there will always be that reminder of who you used to be, so you can never truly erase it and become completely different. Tattoos are a physical connection to who we were in the past or are in the present.

One way we can’t become fully different, even if we change, is by popular acclaim. No matter how much you change your looks or your personality, you will always be considered by others to be you. You will always be associated to your past as people see you as the person you’ve been throughout your life, not just who you are in the present. This can be displayed using the thought experiment Theseus’s ship (or Trigger’s Broom for the more intellectual among us). The ship goes on many voyages and is damaged each time, with pieces being replaced until the whole ship is made of different parts to the ones the ship was originally made from. Is it still Theseus’s ship? Although it may physically be another ship, people would still consider it to be Theseus’s ship as the ship is viewed as part of its past as well as how it is in the present. Each piece replaced part of the original ship at some point and continued to be used for the further voyages as Theseus’s ship. The purpose and use of the ship carried on with the new parts so the material may be different but the ship is treated as Thesues’s ship. People are also considered to carry with them meaning from their past, so even if you’ve changed significantly, people will still see you as a combination of the person you used to be and the one you are now.

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We can also never fully change because we are shaped by our past experiences. We learn from our past experiences to gain the personality we currently have. Our opinions and reactions are based on the events that have happened previously in our lives, so we can never fully become different because our past will always influence how we act and respond. Even if a past event has convinced you to change your personality, the past is still relevant as it is shaping those differences, connecting them forevermore to the personality you have before.

We learn from our past mistakes and change how we act accordingly, so can only ever become an improved version of our past self. If someone reacts adversely to something you say, you learn not to repeat the mistake in the future and use the memory to alter you future actions.

These arguments can be summed up as predeterminism. Predeterminism is the belief that all events, and human actions, have already been determined. Even if we believe we have free will, the choices that we make are the only choices we could’ve possibly made, so they aren’t really drastically determined by us. They are simply an extension of all our past decisions, and who we are. This is usually supported with causal determinism, which says that there is a chain of prior actions and events stretching infinitely back through time that determine what future events will occur. As these actions are predetermined, humans cannot change what future events will come from them. This means that even if we think we’ve changed drastically, we’ve really only become what we were always going to be based on our past actions. Our “new” self is simply a continuation of who we were and what we did. We can never truly change because we can’t become more than the result of our past selves and actions, tying us permanently to them.

In conclusion, although we can change we can never become truly different as we will always have some physiological characteristics that we are incapable of losing, like certain cells that aren’t replaced or scars and tattoos that we’ve gained in our past. We will also always be considered to be ourselves. Our past actions live on in people’s memories and are associated with us no matter how much we change. Finally, our past selves also live on as they shape our current personalities. We learn from and improve upon our past actions, which shapes our current opinions and personalities, which are key parts of who we are. Although changes can be made, our past will always play a guiding role on our today.

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Lottie J (Re)

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A Review of the HATA trip to Bath Bath is a city of huge cultural and historical importance for England, and our HATA group had the pleasure of visiting it. Most widely known for its ancient Roman baths, it has been a tourist destination since the 18th century due to the ‘magical’ properties of the springs that run beneath the city. Whilst the extraordinary monuments of the 16th and 17th centuries, like the Gothic Abbey built by Robert and William Vertue, stand out as some of Bath’s finest, our group’s focus was on the 18th century, arguably even more fascinating.

This period is considered to be the golden age of Bath, and the sites we visited did not disappoint. Between 1730 and 1830 Bath was rebuilt; the previous Baroque style was replaced by a Renaissance style called ‘Palladianism.’

This was inspired by the Italian architect Palladio who worked in Venice in the late 16th Century during the Renaissance, and as a pupil studying this period, I found it incredibly interesting to see the influence the developments of Italy have had on the rest of the world. Not only was Bath inspired by the new techniques from Italy, but Palladianism swept through the rest of Britain from 1715 and became the dominant form of Georgian architecture.

Bath was reliant on tourism, and therefore its elegant and magnificent design attracted thousands of visitors each winter, making Bath the prominent cultural and social centre of the time. Not only did the grand Palladian buildings attract people, but Richard Nash, who ran Bath’s entertainments, could also be credited.

He organised the assemblies, dances and concerts that took place in the Lower and Upper Assembly Rooms; it is here the orchestras would play, as the holidaymakers would dance, drink and court. Unfortunately, the Lower Assembly Rooms are not longer standing, but our group visited the Upper Assembly Rooms, built by John Wood the Younger in the 1760s. Here, in the ballroom, we heard a magnificent orchestral concert performed by the Nash Ensemble. Transformed by pieces composed by Mozart, Beethoven, and Dvorak, we got a great sense of the rich cultural life of Bath, whilst surrounded by Palladian architecture, a truly magical experience.

The golden age of Bath has left behind several other major monuments, many of which we visited. We started our day in the Georgian extension to the north of the city centre where we visited the Royal Circus, built by John Wood the Elder from 1754 and the Royal Crescent, built by his son, John Wood the Younger, from 1767. The classical revival Italians had wished for during the Renaissance is clear to see here; the Royal Circus is inspired by the Roman Colosseum! Interestingly, each major monument was linked to the next by a simple street, making them even grander. For example, Gay Street, which connected the beautiful Queen Square to the Royal Circus, and Brock Street, connecting the Crescent to the Circus. John Wood the Elder and his son are responsible for much of the town planning of North Bath, which reflects a time when Bath was at its most sophisticated and grand. In the decades to come, architects would be inspired by their developments, building more crescents along the hillsides of Bath and then elsewhere, for instance Bristol, London, and Edinburgh.

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Alongside the Woods, the architect Thomas Baldwin made the biggest impression on Bath. His greatest works include Bath Street which connected his ‘Cross Bath’ to the elegant Pump Room, a place for daytime assemblies and concerts. More importantly, his Guildhall, the main room adorned with gold and green, was the climax of the 18th century interior design. Whilst a centre for town government, it was also home to vast entertainment, highlighting the nature of Bath’s culture; you can still hear concerts here today!

Baldwin was also responsible for expanding Bath out to the east, across the river Avon, by building the most monumental street in England, Great Pulteney Street.

His works are inspired by Robert Adam, and the pair built more ‘Roman-style’ buildings; however, the overlap with Palladianism is vast.

Bath continued its role as a spa for the next century and Palladian buildings continued until around 1840. Whilst Hitler bombed Bath, notably the Lower Assembly Rooms, in the 20th century, more destruction came from Bath’s own city council from the 1950s. They destroyed many of Bath’s beautiful Georgian buildings, and the south was devastatingly replaced by a bus station and supermarkets. This demolition stopped in the 1970s, after the publication of a book called ‘The Sack of Bath’, and conservationists managed to rescue the rest of the city. We can visit Bath today in all its grandeur, and see the range of architecture: Roman, Gothic, Palladian and Victorian, that fills its streets.

Thanks to this trip, I can appreciate the impact Bath has had on the rest of England and realise how much more there is to the city than just a Christmas shopping centre! The influence of the Renaissance period on this English city and the way it transformed Bath into something resembling a great global capital is truly fascinating and I urge anyone interested in cultural developments to visit the extraordinary city of Bath.

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Erin B (L6)

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