February 2013

February 2013

Contents

Nerve Magazine • February 2013

Features

16

12 Life in Ecuador

Beneficial Bacteria

An interview with a Queen’s student currently living in Ecuador.

Gut flora and the advantages of fecal transplants.

(Catherine Owsik)

(Ralph Yeung)

22 Space Discussions The first annual Queen’s Space Conference inspired delegates to stay curious.

(Andrew French)

Shorts Curiosity Tweets

4

From our favourite sassy Mars rover.

The Smell of White

4

Researchers match the colour to a smell.

Wrinkles Resolved

5

The evolutionary reasons for pruney fingers.

New Genetic Test

5

Pre-natal genetic testing is now safer.

Science Anthropomorphized: The Journal of a Killer T Cell Our immune system has one purpose: to protect The Body,

Editor in chief

Just a warning: this story gets a bit emotional. One certain T Cell starts to contemplate his purpose in life... what is this Body? Is there a reason for all the brutality? It’s a long story, but the information is balanced with a smart wit.

6

There was always a rumour that Twinkies would outlive humans in a post-apocalyptic environment. Well, that hasn’t happened yet. But we can investigate the Twinkie’s chemical composition.

What makes it so indestructible?

(Leif Simmatis)

Catherine Owsik Staff Writers

Ralph Yeung Tyler Vance Copy Editors

(Tyler Vance)

The Chemicals we Eat

26

Frost Flowers

8

These delicate “flowers” form from water leaking out of broken plant stems and freezing.

The result is an incredible, delicate natural marvel.

(Genevieve Chan)

Geoff Lundell-Smith Genevieve Chan Layout & Design

Catherine Owsik Social Media & Marketing Manager

Mary Gilaine Arkles Nerve is published monthly. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the express written permission of Nerve Magazine.

Iinaugural issue was released August 2012. Print issues will be released as funding permits.

News

Curiosity Update From @MarsCuriosity:

“The real deal! First drilling on Mars to collect a sample for SCIENCE is a success.” — Feb. 9 “Today marks half a year on Mars...” — Feb. 6 “Knock, knock, knocking on Mars. See the mark I left by a percussion test; necessary prep for drilling.” — Feb. 4 “ Rave on! Just took my 1st nighttime images of Mars, including one by UV/blacklight.” — Jan. 24

Do you smell that?

It’s

WHITE

Researchers have discovered an odour that is analogous to the colour white. The concept of white is the outcome of combining elements of equal intensity, which consequently cancel each other out. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute started with 86 pure scents, spanning the “smell map”, and combined them to create and compare various blends. They found that as more odours were blended together, subjects were more likely to rate the scents as similar, even if they were comprised of different components. The odour of ‘white’ was concluded to be a smell that was neither pleasant nor unpleasant, but neutral, much like the color itself. These findings suggest that our smell system may be more complex, and take in whole scents at a time as opposed to detecting individual odours.

— Alison Rockley

4 • Nerve Magazine

Solving the

Wrinkle

Riddle

(Wiki: Maksim)

— Michael Gulak

New Genetic Test

Safer for Baby and Mother

(Sabrina Campagna)

(NASA JPL)

Ever wondered why your fingers and toes look like prunes after a soak in the tub?

Up until recently, scientists struggled with the question too.

However, in late 2011, an evolutionary neurobiologist named Mark Changizi hypothesized an answer, and in his most recent 2012 study, confirmed it.

The answer is grip. In a series of tests, he asked participants to pick up objects such as marbles with normal fingers and with wrinkled fingers. As expected, participants picked up wet objects more efficiently and with greater ease with wrinkled fingers as opposed to normal ones. The explanation isn’t that complex: wrinkles allow water to drain away more efficiently from the fingers as they are pressed against an object, giving more surface area and a firmer grip. This product of evolution could have helped our ancestors gather food from streams or wet vegetation, and to get a better footing in the rain.

Pre-natal genetic tests can give information on gender, as well as potential fatal conditions that the fetus may possess.

In June of 2012, researchers at the University of Washington discovered a method of non-invasive fetal genome sequencing that can give a comprehensive genetic ‘blueprint’ as early as the first trimester.

This technique requires only maternal blood, and relies on the fact that fetal DNA circulates in the mother’s bloodstream and can be isolated and sequenced. Using this approach, thousands of potentially problematic genes can be spotted in addition to commonly tested chromosomal abnormalities such as cystic fibrosis and Down’s syndrome.

This non-obtrusive method avoids the two percent risk of miscarriage presented by the most common prenatal genetic tests, and may be available for clinical testing in as little as five years.

— Alison Rockley

Science

The Chemicals we Eat We survived the 2012 apocalypse...

but the Twinkie didn’t.

The Twinkie: It was the ultimate symbol of life being better through chemistry, until its producer Hostess Foods closed down.

By Leif Simmatis With the death of Hostess and the future of the Twinkie in question, we can now investigate the components of this muchmaligned morsel. What do all of the ingredients do? Why is there calcium caseinate or cellulose in that cake?

It is infamous for having such a wild range of factory-derived ingredients that it may be virtually indestructible, having a long shelf life and being resistant to mold and decay. Is there any truth in this rumour?

First, consider the purposes that a Twinkie’s ingredients serve. Then, compare them to their “traditional” counterparts and see if the ingredients of a Twinkie really are all that scary, or if they serve a more sinister role.

The first ingredients on the list are either to be expected or are at least understandable. Enriched wheat flour, sugar and water are all near the top of the list and

6 • Nerve Magazine

these are typical ingredients in any sponge cake. Corn syrup is also present as well as the dreaded high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS in particular is much-derided for its health dangers, and with good reason. Fructose, unlike glucose, does not get as readily taken up into cells for energy production and thus gets more readily stored by conversion to fat deposits. They are primarily used to maintain moisture in the cake as opposed to using more granulated sugar, which would otherwise absorb moisture from the other ingredients and produce a dry cake.

Fat is another critical ingredient in most cakes, providing softness and helping to retain moisture by not evaporating along with water during the baking process.

Twinkies use a combination of saturated fat, in the form of shortening, and unsaturated fat, in the form of canola/cottonseed oil to

perform this function.

By adjusting the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat, the tenderness of the cake can be controlled and the balance can be tipped either in favour of chewiness (more unsaturated fat) or fluffiness (saturated fat).

Now that both fats and water have been used, one has to consider a simple problem: water and fat do not mix. Normally, this would cause the batter of the cake to separate or “break” ad produce a horrid, lumpy texture.

Enter eggs. The yolks of eggs are natural emulsifiers, which are substances that are both soluble in water and lipids (fats) and can therefore be used to “bind” them together. In the case of Twinkies, another type of emulsifier, soy lecithin, is employed to enhance the effects of the eggs without risking potential contamination and also serves to improve shelf life.

Of course, the whites of eggs serve a purpose too: their high protein content provides a “scaffolding” upon which the final product rests. The

proteins stretch out and set while baking, holding their form.

Consider angel food cake, which is this principle taken to the extreme (it consists of only egg white, a small amount of flour and sugar). This role in Twinkies is augmented by the use of wheat gluten (the protein in wheat flour that gives breads their structure) and also by cellulose gum. Cellulose gum is a type of fibre that retains water and provides a structure for the finished cake to adhere to, adding texture and bulk to the cake.

Leavening ingredients (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate and monocalcium phosphate) all act by simply producing gas during the baking process that, when combined with the structural ingredients already mentioned, gives the Twinkie a lighter texture.

It is at this point

that the ingredient list gets a little bit hazy. Polysorbate 60 is another example of an emulsifier so, although the name is not well known, the role is at least understandable. But what about other stuff in there?

Sodium stearoyl lactate (SSL) for example? Believe it or not, the first two function as emulsifiers (SSL) and protein (calcium caseinate) to improve texture and structure, both roles that we have already considered indepth.

In fact, that statement can be applied to most of the things on the label of the now-defunct Twinkie. Although often unpronounceable, they all serve(d) roles that could be understood. The best reason to use, say, soy lecithin instead of eggs?

Money. Traditionally derived ingredients require more transport and resources to produce, not to mention more specialized storage methods.

As the investors of Dragons’ Den might say, it’s all about money. •

(Larry D. Moore)

7

F Science

rost lowers

With the ground under an icy blanket of the winter cold, you probably don’t see any flowers blossoming in February. There is, however, one type of natural blossom that only appears in cold weather, and is so rare that many people will never see it in their lifetime.

Frost flowers are created when thin layers of ice are pushed through tiny cracks in wood or plant stems, particularly in plants that are non-dormant during the winter. Their rarity is a result of the specific conditions needed for them to emerge: during late fall or early winter, when the ground is still unfrozen, but the subzero temperatures cause the plant stems to crack ever so slightly.

8 • Nerve Magazine

(Flickr: markinspecx)

9

Science

As the plants continue to slowly pull water up their stems, the water leaks out of the cracks and freezes. More water follows, gradually pushing more frozen layers from the cracks, forming delicate patterns of layered ice.

(Flickr: Cotonis)

10 • Nerve Magazine

(Flickr: crestedcrazy)

The results are exquisite “flowers” that are fragile enough to be destroyed by a slight touch or gentle warming of the sun, hence, their infrequent sightings.

— Genevieve Chan

(Flickr: Lotus Carroll)

11

Science & Technology

Life in

(Justin Chin)

Ecuador

A look at science and technology in Ecuador, from the perspective of a non-science student.

Catherine Owsik: What is the climate like in Ecuador? Was it difficult to get used to?

Meaghan Wray: The climate differs geographically in all of Ecuador. In the Andes, like Quito where I live, you will experience all four seasons in one day. It fluctuates between cold and hot all day: it usually rains mid-day and is cold again at night.

However, in other parts of Ecuador, like in the northern coastal region of Esmeraldas, it is very hot and humid. In more southern costal regions, it can be both breezy and warm, like in Olon, and extremely humid like in Guayaquil.

It wasn’t hard to get used to the actual weather here in Quito, but acclimatizing to the change in elevation was more complex. Quito is the highest capital city in the world—at 2,800 meters above sea level—which can cause lots of problems for people. For me, it took about a week to be able to breathe evenly and for other people in my group it caused nausea and dizziness.

What are some of the common animal species you see?

In Quito, the most common animal species is the street dog (laughing). Because Quito is a big, smoggy city, there aren’t many unique animal species that live here. However, if you go into the Amazonian region, you’ll definitely come across Sloths and Mangos, which are a type of larger hummingbird that will actually copy the noises you make if you’re persistent enough.

12 • Nerve Magazine

I went to a small Amazonian community outside of Tena and came across some dangerous species. For example, the conga ant: its bite can put you in extreme pain for 24 hours. Another species I saw was a brightly coloured relative of the giant centipede, whose spurted venom will blind you permanently if you get too close.

One word of advice... always wear bug spray. A mosquito bite in Canada is nothing compared to one in Ecuador, which left me bedridden and unable to walk for a solid few days.

What?! What did the mosquito transmit to you?

To this day, I don’t know what I contracted and neither did the doctor when I went to the hospital. They saw me right away because I had malaria symptoms, but it turns out the bites were just very inflamed. It felt like an intense bruise. There were so many that whenever I walked and my calf muscles flexed, the pain was unbearable.

The bites also caused intense swelling and bruising in my foot and ankle, which at times still hurts even months after.

I think a combination of the pain and the amount of bites caused extreme flulike symptoms. Some types of Amazonian mosquitoes actually remain in your leg for a month before they die, which can often cause infection. I was lucky with that one.

Is there any species that you’ve heard lives in the area, but you haven’t seen yet?

Almost every night in Quito, I hear a certain species of frog.

Their sound is similar to if you would clack two hollowed coconut halves together. I have yet to actually see one, as they only come out at night, and I doubt I would see them at all because I hear they live pretty well hidden.

Have you seen any conservation projects? If so, do you think there’s been progress on the issue?

There has been progress in conservation projects, but they are all quite controversial ethically. Ecuador is a very oilrich country, and it is also a developing country that requires capital in order to “develop” in a Western sense, and their prime market for capital is oil.

Thus, there is always very split opinions on whether to allow North American countries access to the oil, or to focus on conserving Amazonian land, which is some of the most biodiverse land in the entire world.

The current president, Rafael Correa, has focused his platform on preserving indigenous culture, which of course is heavily focused on preserving the land; however, he is contradicting himself by supporting mining and oil companies that come into the

(All photos by Meaghan Wray)

13

Science & Technology

country and destroy the precious Amazonian land.

What people don’t realize is once these companies do their dirty work, the land cannot be returned to the state it was in before. All of this damage is permanent, and Ecuador, in my opinion, doesn’t have a leader that is willing to give up his focus on modernity to save a part of the world that is so unique.

What it comes down to is communities standing up for their land. Communities are where the power will have to come from in order to confront the issue of conservation.

Do you think there is a place for Canadians to step in and help these projects?

I don’t think so. This change has to come within. Until Ecuador makes that change, the West will continue to prosper off the misfortune. Canada has huge investments in oil and mining not only in Ecuador, but all throughout South America. We are part of the problem.

How does technology compare to Canada’s?

In terms of technology, it is a lot more expensive here than in Canada. At Queen’s University, where 9 out of 10 pieces of technology are Apple, here Mac products are much harder to come by. I’ve seen only a handful of people with iPhones, and you know they have a lot of money if they have them. I haven’t seen one person, apart from my Canadian peers that have MacBooks. In Canada where we expect WiFi, and good WiFi at that, anywhere we go, it’s not the same here.

The power goes out often and most WiFi connections are weak unless you are right beside the router. I didn’t have internet access for almost a week when I first arrived, and you consider yourself lucky if you get it at all. Especially in more rural areas, there’s no internet at all and you have to travel to the nearest city to get it. On the plus side, the lack of Wifi means there are tons of internet cafes to stew at.

As for cell phones, most people I’ve seen either have Blackberry’s or cheap non-Smart phones. It’s also rare to see an iPod. On the bus I get a lot of stares at mine, as most people I’ve seen either use MP3’s or simply don’t have one. It seems like Apple products

14 • Nerve Magazine

are a luxury here in Ecuador and are definitely a representation of class, which is similar in Canada, but is much more prominent in South America.

Chicken Pox, but also to cure insomnia and menstrual pains. When I went to Carchi to learn about agriculture, I was so surprised to learn that many of the vegetables they eat have naturally grown on their lands, without Is there any technology you miss? any planting. Hundreds of different types of potatoes just grow naturally in their soil.

I really miss my Blackberry and my MacBook I never even knew this was possible, and Pro! I’m now using one of the cheap phones, it really made me realize how harmful it after my Blackberry disappeared. I can’t would be to ruin that land. remember the last time I didn’t have a These realities create a totally different QWERTY keyboard. I can’t check Facebook bond between the natural world and or update my Twitter at the tip of my fingers, humans – I can see how much, particularly or play Brick Breaker when I’m bored. My in the Amazon, people rely on and respect games have been reduced to Snakes, which nature. That’s a vital factor in conservation moves too slowly to keep my attention for projects succeeding. If you can see the value more than five seconds. I’m currently using and worth of the earth, then letting oil an HP Mini, which is great for what it is but companies destroy it isn’t even a question. it certainly isn’t an Apple product.

Thank you Meaghan! Best of luck with the Was there anything that surprised you, rest of your trip, and stay safe! in terms of the biology or technology in Ecuador?

I was really surprised by the uses of particular plants and herbal remedies, even here in the big city of Quito. Whenever I have been sick, my host mom has kindly brewed teas with natural ingredients that have often times worked faster than taking a medicine like Advil. While on my trip to the Amazon, we were taught how to use many different plants for a variety of things. One particular plant was used not just to cure

Meaghan Wray is a blogger and third-year global development student at Queen’s University.

15

Science Science & Technology

Bacteria

Your Secret Garden Of

16 • Nerve Magazine

Biodiversity.

We often associate this term with the great outdoors, the intricate balance that governs the stability and well-being of all the species within a particular ecosystem.

Although the definition is true, this common and exclusive association to the great outdoors is a bit narrow in scope. An ecosystem can be much smaller than we normally think. In fact, inside each of us right now, a diverse ecosystem thrives within our own gastrointestinal (GI) tracts.

U

By Ralph Yeung

nlike other organ systems, the GI tract relies heavily on the existence of a large and diverse microbial population in order to function. These bacteria form a symbiotic relationship with humans and fulfill multiple functions, including the digestion of products we can’t digest ourselves, and the production of nutrients that we absorb. They even enhance our immunity towards insidious pathogens and otherwise unhealthy substances that end up in our GI tract.

As much as we love our bacterial co-inhabitants, as landlords we have to deal with some shady tenants.

Different species have adapted to the threats of the GI environment, including

the threats of other bacterial species. They excrete various factors which ultimately act to suppress the livelihood of other bacteria. One of the victims of such suppression is the bacteria Clostridium difficile, and it isn’t a very friendly bug.

Once accidentally ingested, C. diff is often suppressed by other bacteria in the gut and doesn’t get the chance to produce enough of its own toxins to affect human health.

However, if the other bacteria die, as they would if the patient takes antibiotics, C. diff thrives because it is no longer supressed.

The increased amounts of C. diff. toxins cause inflammation, diarrhoea and associated dehydration, which can prove to be fatal in patients

17

Science & Technology

that are unable to fight off the infection. C diff infections continue to be an on-going problem in Canadian health care due to their relatively easy transmission within hospitals. There may be drastic consequences to this.

Stronger antibiotics and adaptive immune responses can combat the pesky C. diff infection, but not without putting the patient’s at risk of adverse side effects and long recovery periods. Researchers have been pressed for a more effective and faster solution to this infectious disease – and we’ve found it in the most unappetizing way.

Feces.

For several years, clinicians have experimented with the usage of fecal transplants from healthy donors to C. diff infected patients who lack a diverse and healthy gut microbial population.

The theory behind it is simple: healthy individuals excrete a large part of their bacterial populations every day, making it possible to easily collect the population and simply introduce it into a patient that is currently dominated by C. diff The introduced diverse bacteria can produce toxins that supress C. diff, which helps bring the patient back to a healthy state.

“It’s a community of

18 • Nerve Magazine

A mass of C. diff bacteria from a stool sample, as seen through a scanning electron micrograph.

bacteria that have come out of a healthy person, evolved to co-exist with humans and is an entire ecosystem. It’s different from probiotics,” comments Dr. Elaine Petrof, a microbiologist and clinician at Queen’s University. “We call it microbial ecosystem therapeutics.”

The process is fast and easy, and in practice, is cleaner than what you’re probably imagining.

“We resuspend [the feces] in saline or water, homogenize it, filter it for any particulate matter and it’s ready,” Petrof says. She conducts research at the Gastrointestinal Disease Research Unit within the depths of Kingston General

Hospital.

Once prepared, the solution is simply introduced into the GI tract of the recipient via an enema in a non-sterile setting, making this intervention fairly easy to administer.

And the success rates are astounding. According to Petrof, 90% of the patients treated with fecal transplants recover fully from C. diff. infections. So why has this intervention not been more widely adopted?

There are a number of factors, and according to Petrof, the time required for proper screening is one of them.

“Traditionally, we have

had family members of patients step up to provide transplant samples. The problem is, and we’re seeing it here now, it takes 2 to 4 weeks to screen for pathogens, so it can’t be used right away.”

As useful as the diverse microbial population within feces is, clinicians don’t want to risk introducing other harmful pathogens including hepatitis viruses, parasites, salmonella and HIV. Like blood transfusions, the donated feces must be cleared of all potential infectious pathogens, and bad bugs are not the only concern.

Recent evidence has indicted pro-inflammatory cytokines, which can exacerbate C. diff and cause other GI pathologies. These

cytokines are often found in the feces of patients with colitis (swollen colon) and introducing them into a recipient patient may result in predisposing the patient to colitis.

On the note of cytokines, although pro-inflammatory cytokines threaten the efficacy and safety of fecal transplants, there are anti-inflammatory cytokines as well. Our current understanding of many inflammatory GI diseases seem to suggest an imbalance between these two classes of cytokines as a major contributor to the development of inflammation.

Therefore, fecal transplants from healthy donors that have an abundance of anti-

“It’s a communitiy of bacteria that have come out of a healthy person, evolved to co-exist with humans...”

— Dr. Elaine Petrof inflammatory cytokines may be useful as an intervention for patients with other GI pathologies ranging from colonic cancer to food allergies.

In considering options to relieve the logistical bottleneck, researchers and clinicians have brainstormed a number of ideas. According to Petrof, some institutions have a “super-donor” who

More Evidence of Effectiveness

Fecal Transplants are More Effective Than Antibiotic in Clinical Studies

T

ypical treatment for C. diff is repeated and extended courses of an antibiotic called vancomycin. Before feces transplants, there were no

effective treatment for repeat infections.

However, a clinical trial found that after flushing the intestinal tract and infusing feces from a healthy donor into

an infected patient, cure rate increased from 31% to 94% and reoccurrence of infection dropped from 64% to 6%.

The underlying reason is likely the

reestablishment of normal microbiota as a host defense against C. diff.

— Michael Gulak

19

Science & Technology

Artificial stool would be created in a sterile, lab environment. Researchers such as Petrof hope that it becomes more accepted by patients.

regularly donates their feces in order to create a fairly steady and consistent supply of fecal transplants.

This alleviates the 4 week screening time because this patient’s system has already been tested. However, other researchers like Petrof are working on another solution.

“We could have a bank [of donors], but a cleaner method would be to make

20 • Nerve Magazine

synthetic stool. From a healthy donor, we isolate all the bacteria, around 60-70 strains which we identify, and we can test for what they are with different antibiotic challenges. We then eliminate about half of them, to about 33 strains remaining, which we can then [introduce into a solution that can be put into the patient],” Petrof says.

This approach would lend

the same benefits as a superdonor in terms of ensuring a steady supply of useable, already tested transplants, but it also addresses another issue. Ultimately, when one mentions the possibility of a fecal transplant to someone, it’s not the most appetizing idea.

Yet, Petrof did raise a valid observation: most people hesitate, but concede to the necessity of an effective intervention. It is hoped that with advances in developing synthetic stool transplants, that the perceived ick-factor won’t prevent patients from considering this easy, fast and effective intervention to an often much nastier infection by comparison.

The “ick-factor” affects everyone. I asked other GI researchers’ about their personal views on whether they could ever see themselves donating or receiving fecal transplants. People always hesitated in their response; some outright said that they wouldn’t. Perhaps in the future, with advances in synthetic stool transplants that Petrof and others are working on, GI researchers and clinicians can change the public’s mind. •

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Engineering

Starting the

discussion

sPace

By Andrew French

“We

are here to discuss, challenge, interact, learn, and investigate all that is space."”

With these opening words Brendan McCormick, the Queen’s Space Conference chair, gave as a goal for the weekend.

It was the first annual Queen’s Space Conference and we, the delegates, were sure to meet this goal; the speakers in attendance were from throughout the space industry, including the Curiosity Rover team and SpaceX, and they were willing to share their perspectives with us.

The Queen’s Space Conference was inspired from a meeting of the Queen’s Space Engineering Team just one year prior to the event. According to McCormick, Sci ’13, it all started with one simple question addressed to him by a friend: “You’re interested in space … do you want to plan the first annual conference?”

The conference began with a wine and cheese social on the evening of Friday, Jan. 25, where everyone had the opportunity to talk to the upcoming speakers and discuss their views on various topics amongst their peers.

The first speaker of the conference,

22 • Nerve Magazine

With breakfast served and endless coffee refills the following morning began with speaker Marc Fricker of the Canadian Space Society (CSS). Fricker enlightened us on the roles that the CSS is playing in the battle for control of the north. Many of Canada’s satellites are used to monitor seasonal ice cycle around the North Pole; they have shown that the once traitorous Northwest Passage has opened up for much longer periods of time than in

the past. This ice melt is providing a quicker means of travel between Europe and Asia, and therefore there is an issue over control.

Fricker also challenged many of us to think about living on Mars: is it very realistic in the near future?

We then heard from Joshua Brost of SpaceX, which is currently the only private company in the US to launch rockets into space. SpaceX’s main goal is to be economically feasible: they want to reduce the costs per launch from approximately $450 million during the shuttle program to $50 million for the Falcon9 rocket. SpaceX currently has a send-and-return cargo contract with the International Space Station. They have made a breakthrough in rocket technology in which the rocket can land at the same launch point, thus reducing time and costs of transportation. With future plans to successfully land the Falcon9 rocket back on Earth, these economic goals will be obtainable.

Following a lunch break and interactive

23

(Kieran Williams)

Paul Fulford of MDA (a Canadian aerospace company), gave us insight into how minerals on the surface of Mars are being analysed with the Curiosity rover.

His team built and developed the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), which is so fundamental that it’s the only research instrument also found on previous Mars rovers. The evening concluded with more discussions and a chance to finish off the remaining wine, which left everyone feeling a little more comfortable in approaching one another.

space trivia, Ron Petersen discussed minerals on Mars and the instruments aboard Curiosity used for mineral analysis.

Petersen, a famed geologist and mineralogist, discovered meridianiite, a terrestrial mineral that is also likely on Mars. He told us that one of the amazing ways Curiosity is so efficient is because it first uses the ChemCam laser to determine rock properties from up to 7 meters away to decide if it worth the travel for detailed analysis.

We dove into the smaller side of the

24 • Nerve Magazine

Universe as we learned about the HiggsBoson. William Trischuk of CERN walked us through the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), initial testing, and the necessity of statistical analysis to verify scientific findings.

Space debris, which is the collection of non-functioning objects orbiting the Earth, is becoming an ever-increasing problem for satellites. Used rocket stages, old satellites, and fragments of disintegration: they all pose collision dangers to a satellite. As Neil

Ron Petersen shows off this mineral’s properties under UV light (left).

(Kieran Williams)

A graphic showing all the space debris currently orbiting the Earth (below).

(NASA)

Rowlands of COM DEV told us, a debris monitoring and elimination system is now a necessity. He gave us insight into the satellite monitoring systems in development, which will use robotic, trajectory visualisation, and control technologies to remove debris orbiting the earth.

Barry Turner, a retiree of the satellite industry offered a thoughtful tutorial on the history of satellites and the great advancements in the field. Without theses advancements we would not have the GPS,

communication, or television capabilities we have today. He has seen the satellite industry grow from “a child to the grandfather” it is today.

The conference concluded with insightful words from McCormick, which played on a slight twist of his opening words: “We have discussed, challenged, interacted, learned, and investigated a small part of space… but I hope this has sparked your curiosity to investigate more.” I believe the weekend did just that, it sparked curiosity in all the delegates, including myself, to investigate more and challenge what the future holds in the space industry. • Check out next month’s issue for more articles about other Queen’s Engineering conferences!

25

The Mixture

Science Anthropomorphized:

The Journal of a Killer T Cell You

By Tyler Vance

wake up on a Monday morning and there is something not quite right. The true gravity of the situation doesn’t hit until you try to move. Aching joints, pounding head, an uncomfortable inner heat: you, my friend, are sick. Now, before you shriek madly and wake up all the members of your estate, take heart in the knowledge that within you is a crack team of fighters that dedicate their rather short lives to your protection from the evil forces of bacteria, viruses and all other manners of ne’er-do-wells. Among these fighters comes a rather intensely named group, known as the Killer T cells, or Cytotoxic T cells, depending on how melodramatic you want to be. They perform cell-mediated immune responses through the recognition and subsequent destruction of infected or aberrant cells that display the antigen of choice (an antigen being a small bit of a foreign protein that is distinctly Not-Of-The-Body). Their war and struggles are all in the name of You and Your Health. That said, like all the more interesting heroes of fact and fiction, their story is not one of absolute benevolence, for their zealotry can also occasionally lead to autoimmune disorders or the rejection of transplants. Are they champions for justice or mindless killers on a loosely-gripped leash? Well, you may not care to dawdle on morality as you sit there with your Advil and thermometer, but still the question persists. Let’s find some answers!

26 • Nerve Magazine

Journal Entry 1: Training I’m not one hundred percent certain of the protocol for these log entries, nor am I sure of the preferred content. The higherups failed to provide us with adequate instruction in that regard. As such, I will begin with a brief introduction of myself, my purpose and my experiences as they may be.

These topics are what follow.

My name is CD8+, which I imagine fails to provide a decent identification considering the vast number of cells much like myself within Thymus Academy. I have just finished the Selection process, and as such have now been deemed prepared by the higher-ups to take the fight outside of the Thymus and into the vast organism that houses it. Once outside, my mission shall be to render infected, uncooperative or otherwise unsalvageable cells harmless via a highly effective and extremely potent lysis technique. Said purpose has led our collective of T cells to be termed Killer T cells by the more crude of the body’s cellular complement.

I prefer the term Cytotoxic T cells myself, though it is not my position to preach on semantics. I have yet to become fully indoctrinated into the Cytotoxic T cell title myself due to the absence of activation. But such information is one step ahead of my current train of thought, for I must regress to describe the training process to which I previously alluded.

My fellow recruits and I began training at an early age, migrating to Thymus Academy as mere stem cells and starting to differentiate into the semi-mature cells we are today. We were outfitted with all the necessary tools of the trade, the most

important being the T Cell Receptor (TCR). It is this surface protein that provides each of us with the specificity to an antigen which is Not-Of-The-Body. To be Not-Of-The-Body is a serious crime and is not tolerated within the epithelium of this organism.

A series of accessory proteins were also supplied, allowing us to complete the tasks that lay ahead. Clad in our appropriate peptide attire, we were then put through the Selection process, which graded our binding performance to a series of self antigens.

The trials were grueling, as the margin for success was very small. The majority of the classmates with which I had differentiated and proliferated failed to bind with the appropriate intensity and were therefore disposed of.

A cruel fate, but a necessary one — for binding too weakly to targets could allow the enemy quarter where none should exist, and binding too tightly could indicate a potential for rampant behaviour that would counteract our collective’s intentions to stay our destructive hand where it is not needed.

Having bound with enough vigour to show resolve but not enough to demonstrate zealotry, I was segregated into the Cytotoxic T cell collective, where I now stand ready to begin my work upon activation.

So concluded my training, and therefore concludes this entry.

Journal Entry 2: Activation I have now been activated, and as such have become a true Cytotoxic T cell. The process was quite efficient and brief, though the result continues on even as I recount its origins here.

My activation was done by a

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The Mixture

professional Antigen-presenting cell (APC), known as a dendritic cell. As a fellow member of the Immune Response, we both protect the organism through our cellular functions and efforts and as such we are equals. However, I found myself plagued by strange feelings of inferiority. The exact reasons for these feelings still elude me, though it could possibly originate from the dendritic cell’s obvious familiarity with the body and its workings, about which I am still considered naive.

In spite of these distracting emotions, I carried out my duty as we had been trained to do. Upon my approach, I noted the presence of my specific antigen presented by the APC’s cell surface proteins. I used the TCR that I’d crafted during training to form the interaction that would lead to my activation.

The interaction itself was quite interesting, as it was my first time truly encountering my specific antigen. An odd feeling it is to come across your reason for creation, and to find it to be just a small fragment of a peptide. That said, it stunk of NotOf-TheBody, and its presence invoked a deep inner wish to follow this fragment to its source.

For the first time, I felt the

true “killer” instinct we were promised.

In addition to this new impulse, my activation also led to a substantial increase in proliferation which continues even now.

Mitosis seems almost omnipresent to me, to the point where the number of clones has grown higher than I care to count. This great host will certainly provide a worthy army against the foreign invader my cytoplasm boils to encounter, yet the presence of so many me’s is troubling.

We all share the same purpose, yes, but also the same memories, the same identity. I have never much concerned myself with the idea of identity, but with so many divisions I wonder if I can even pretend to call myself the same cell that inscribed the first log entry. Do we all write in a journal of our own? Do we write the same things? So many questions, for which protocol does not allow answering. For now we have work, this horde of me, and we shall be off to find it.

Journal Entry 3: Travelling During my travels through the organism in an attempt to reach my desired target, I bore witness to an event that invoked additional unwanted responses on an emotional level. Hence, they are recorded here for future analysis.

During my trek I witnessed a NotOf-The-Body microbe racing through the bloodstream. It was being pursued by a swarm of small immunoglobulin proteins released by the B Cell Unit, one of our brother factions in the greater Immune Response. Said unit of elite lymphocytes synthesize and train antibodies to tag foreign invaders within the extracellular fluid, a process I thought to be quite satisfactory until I saw it for myself.

The microbe tried to evade its pursuers, but they were plentiful and relentless, eventually attaching to the invader with extreme prejudice. The multitude of these immunoglobulin tags was staggering.

So many of them clung to the pathetic unicellular organism that it became quite encumbered and much larger in size.

Its predicament eventually attracted the attention of a monstrous white blood cell, known to me as a Macrophage: a phagocyte capable of swallowing those Not-Of-TheBody whole. The microbe saw it coming, but could do nothing to avoid it aside from squirm hopelessly.

Something about the sad attempts it made to survive disturbed me. During training, those who had been selected for cell death did not fight it, but accepted it with a solemn dignity; it was for the preservation of the organism. Watching the little invader disappear into the gullet of the Immune Response, I began to see that the microbe’s attempts to escape were also done for the preservation of an organism.

To be Not-Of-The-Body is worthy of death, for it jeopardizes the organism - that is the creed of the Cytotoxic T cell collective.

Yet those Not-Of-The-Body are fighting for an organism too . . .

But it’s not my organism. I can’t lose site of the goal and I won’t. There are infected cells out there and they must be taken care of, by our hand.

Journal Entry 4: Kill When I arrived at the site of the infection things changed quite quickly.

The Immunity cells had arrived in full gear and a major battle to destroy the invaders was underway. With these efforts came a plethora of overlapping stimuli

from all manners of cells. The sea washed over me, annealing to cell receptors and activating an army of protein signal cascades that surged throughout my cytoplasm. My eternal weapons were made ready and my sensory equipment came to bear. Any potential for remorse, empathy or doubt was lost in the sea of bloodlust created by the Immune Response. Relieved of all moral burdens, I flung myself into the fray fuelled by this new, unrelenting urge to attack and to kill.

What follows is an objective account of my activities, relieved of any internal commentary. I quickly found myself within a group of infected cells. They were flying the antigen — my antigen — on their MHC I to show their compromised state. Within each brewed the potential for hundreds of viral offspring. As such they were NotOf-The-Body, and so my work began. I positioned myself beside one of them and attached via my TCR. The contact with the antigen resulted in a repositioning of my golgi apparatus, so that I was able to prep the packages and directly deliver them to my target without collateral damage. The packages of which I speak contain the Cytotoxic T cell’s two primary weapons: perforin proteins that form aqueous pores and proteases that cleave other proteins into smaller peptide chains.

Once delivered to the target, the perforin produced pores within the cell membrane of the victim through which the proteases could enter. This “punching of holes” also destabilized the target cell’s membrane structure.

The proteases then began their dirty work, eating away at the internal cellular and viral proteins and activating further cascades that would eventually lead to apoptosis, or programmed cell death. I know

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The Mixture

this, because it was told to us in training.

I did not stop to witness its effects on my target first-hand; instead I repositioned my golgi to attack another and another and another. Each interaction with an antigen refuelled my cytotoxic arms so the process could continue. I was a perfect killing machine, as I had always been intended to be.

Journal Entry 5: Memory In the aftermath the flood of stimuli subsided and the blindness began to abate.

The fluid around me was littered with the debris of fallen cells, phospholipids and peptide chains all that remained of once living hosts. The Immunity cells were dispersing, with only the phagocytes remaining to clean up the mess our war had made. The battle was over and the outcome had been in our favour.

Yet my earlier vigour had been replaced with an unwanted urge to exocytose all my innards onto the battle field.

A paracrine signal jolted me out of my inner musing.

Such direct signaling between T cells for any other purpose than aiding in the Immune Response was strictly regulated.

It was a new cell. He approached me and said the following: “I am a member of the Memory T cell archive. We store the knowledge of past enemies and past wars so that the organism can be prepared if the same foe should arise again. Not surprised that you haven’t heard

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of me. They don’t dwell on the future in the Thymus Academy.

Perhaps someday we shall fight a battle against something that should not have been fought. Maybe we already have. Maybe the very battle we just fought was against cells marked for death that were not meant for it.

But regardless, what will be remembered — all that will ever be remembered — is that an evil invaded and was defeated by good.

The rest is silence.”

Journal Entry 6: Endings The phagocytes have dispersed and left behind the immaculate landscape of a former warzone. A Body swept clean as it were, for better or for worse. As I approach the end of my usefulness, and my impending death in the name of the organism, I do find myself comforted by the fact that these memories will not be my burden to carry. The Memory T cell has agreed to take my journal for future analysis. The original intention of this journal remains a mystery to me, but this end seems fitting.

Perhaps it is true that the questions that plague me regarding this system are not for our kind. Perhaps they belong on a different plane, in a different time, for other entities to deal with. Regardless, these entries of silence shall remain somewhere, in case someone needs them. Maybe when the next battle comes, things will be different . . . maybe.

And so concludes my final journal entry.

Sincerely, A Killer T Cell

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