The Ramaz Science Publication Winter Edition / April 2019
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Table of Contents
Diving Deep: Explorer Ventures to the Deepest Point in the Atlantic Ocean by Zach Buller ‘20 Pg. 3
Drinking Water Now Comes From the Air by Gabrielle Ostad 21’ Pg. 9
Regenerating Worm Gene by Daniella Feingold ’20 Pg. 5
Chang’e 4; An Update on Chinese Space Exploration by Sophia Rein 21’ Pg. 11
The Way We Think by Talia Halaas ‘21 Pg. 6
Biometrics in Hospitals by Rachel Shohet ‘20 Pg. 13
The Future of Memory by Rebecca Massel 21’ Pg. 7
Don’t Keep It Bottled Up by Samantha Sinensky ’21 Pg. 14
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Diving Deep: Explorer Ventures to the Deepest Point in the Atlantic Ocean For centuries, explorers have ventured near and far, pioneering the West, America, and the Moon. But never before has an explorer gone so deep down below sea level that he reached one of the deepest points on Earth that humans have ever achieved: the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Millionaire businessman and explorer Victor Vescovo spent $48 million building a Triton submarine, which he named “The Limiting Factor,” equipped with the tools allowing him to journey safely 27,480 feet below sea level. The journey down under is not as safe as it might seem. The pressure levels that deep below sea level are so high that his voyage has been classified as the same caliber of danger as the first journey to the moon. Vescovo is part of the Five Deeps Expedition, a group trying to go to the deepest points in each of the five oceans: Atlantic, Southern, Indian, Pacific, and Arctic. Vescovo achieved the group’s goal of going to the bottom of the Atlantic, and film director James Cameron has already reached the bottom of the Pacific, but Vescovo next plans to reach the bottom of the Southern Ocean at the South Sandwich Trench. This area underwater has not been named, so Vescovo is excited to claim naming rights when he ventures out in February 2019. In a statement, Vescovo wrote, “It felt great to get to the true bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in history and to prove the technical capabilities of this diving system, which we believe is now the deepest operational one in the world. We are really looking forward to continuing to the other dive sites, and continuing our technical and scientific goals.” In addition to providing him with bragging rights, Vescovo is hopeful that these deep-sea journeys will yield positive implications for scientific researchers as well. Marine ecologist Alan Jamieson from the Newcastle University said that the deepest 45% of the ocean has been ignored by explorers, and that these dives can help oceanologists understand things about ocean life that they were never able to be understood before. Many scientists
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are hopeful that Vescovo and other explorers as part of the Five Deeps Expedition will continue to open a new path to understanding the intricacies of our world. Zach Buller ‘20
Works Cited Brueck, Hilary. “A $48 Million Submarine Just Took a Record-Breaking Dive into the Deepest Corner of the Atlantic Ocean - 27,840 Feet Down.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 20 Dec. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/victor-vescovo-triton-submarine-reaches-bottom-of-atlantic-ocean-2018-12. Saplakoglu, Yasemin. “Explorer Reaches the Deepest Point in the Atlantic Ocean.” LiveScience, Purch, 21 Dec. 2018, www.livescience.com/64376-explorer-deepest-dive-atlanticocean.html.
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Regenerating Worm Gene Most know that if you halve a worm, the half with the brain typically regrows. Dr. Mansi Srivastava is a professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. She and her coworkers recently discovered “full-body regeneration”. They found the gene in charge of regrowth in the three-banded panther worm-- a worm which can be chopped into thirds and regenerate as three separate entities within eight days. The gene responsible- Early Growth Response (EGR)- was found in all different kinds of animals, humans included. EGR is usually activated by an injury that penetrates the skin. It is the type of gene that tells other genes whether to be active or not. Dr. Srivastava’s team discovered that EGR was critical in the regeneration of the three-banded panther worm by fully sequencing its entire genome. They then sliced open hundreds of worms and monitored how they regrew. When EGR was disabled the worms were unable to regenerate. People were initially very excited about the prospects of human regrowth as a result of this study. However, Dr. Srivastava and her peers assert that it will be at least ten years until any significant changes in human regrowth will be made. Daniella Feingold ’20
Works Cited Murphy, Heather. “Chop Up a Worm. It Will Regenerate. Scientists Figured Out Why.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Mar. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/science/wormregeneration.html.
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The Way We Think You probably know that you remember things because your brain stores the information for you, but do you know how that actually works? Well it happens because our neurons are constantly rearranging themselves in ways that help us retain information. This means that when we are making memories, our neurons form new structures so the information from the event will be stored in our brains. However, it gets a little more complicated with new research. Scientists have found that even if you’re not actively doing something, your brain cells are changing so that your brain basically gets smarter. What this means is whether you’re at a party or just sitting on the couch, your brain cells are changing to make you smarter and more able to see and understand things. So, how did scientists discover this? Monkeys! If you look at the picture on the right you probably just see a bunch of little dashes, but can you see if any of these dashes make up bigger lines? That is the task scientists had the monkeys do. The scientists gave the monkeys a bunch of pictures that looked like this but with lines made up of different amounts of dashes. When the line was made up of nine dashes the monkeys could find it easily, but when the line was made up of only three dashes it took a lot of work for them to find it. While the monkeys were playing these games the scientists were using machines to watch the changes in the monkeys’ brains. They saw that as the monkeys played and the pictures got harder, the cells in their brain were rearranging so that they could figure it out. Because monkey brains are so similar to ours the scientists concluded that if the monkey’s brain cells change themselves to make them smarter then so too human brains can do this too. This article sheds light on how our brains work which is always helpful in the advancement of science. Our brain advancement is not limited to when we are actively working on it but it is constant. Now, scientists could explore what this means and how this could change the way we view the brain. For example, this could lead to more discoveries on personality disorders. Talia Halaas ’21
Works Cited “To See What's Right in Front of You, Your Brain May Need Some Rewiring.” News, www.rockefeller.edu/news/24015-see-whats-right-front-brain-may-need-rewiring/.
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The Future of Memory In early 2018, a research team led by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University, developed a brain implant which boosts memory. This device, which was written about in Nature Communications, is intended for those suffering from dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and other memory-damaging conditions. Like a pacemaker, the device stays quiet when one’s brain is working, but pulses to aid the brain when it is struggling to remember new information. The device is based on years of experimenting and discovering brain signals. It is recently funded by the Department of Defense which donated more than $70 million to develop treatments for traumatic brain injuries, which is the main disability of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This form of implant has been used by doctors for many years to block abnormal bursts of activity in the brain, usually in people with Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. Dr. Bradley Voytek, an assistant professor of cognitive and data science at the University of California, San Diego, said, “The exciting thing about this is that, if it can be replicated and extended, then we can use the same method to figure out what features of brain activity predict good performance.” The implant is experimental and has only been tested in people with epilepsy, but so far it has improved word recall by 15%, about the same amount of memory that a patient of Alzheimer’s loses in about two and a half years. It was tested on 25 people with epilepsy who were being evaluated for surgery. In the evaluation, doctors test whether a surgery might prevent seizures. They thread an array of electrodes into the brain and wait for the patient to seize. Sometimes the waiting in hospitals can take weeks before the patient seizes, so scientists use this time to give memory tests and record the results of the implants. The research team found precise patterns for each patient’s high-functioning state, when the memory storage section of their brain worked well, and when it did not, in the low-functioning state. Each participant was asked to memorize a list of words and then, after a distraction, recall those words. There were multiple tests, some with the implant turned on and some with it off. The participants did approximately 15% better with the help of the device on. David Mabrey, a participant who owns an insurance agency, said, “I could not honestly tell how the stimulation was affecting my memory. You don’t feel anything; you don’t know whether it’s on or off.” Experts are concerned with a memory device being misused. For example, ADHD drugs are taken by many students as study aids. However, the device currently involves multiple electrodes being implanted in the brain to determine when it is at the high-functioning or low-functioning state. Dr. Voytek believes that because of the delicate nature of the machine, it would only be used for those who have no other options, like those with traumatic injuries or those suffering from dementia. “The exciting thing about this is that, if it can be replicated and extended, then we can use the same method
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to figure out what features of brain activity predict good performance,” he said. “Ideally we can find other, less invasive ways to switch the brain from these lower to higher functioning states.” Rebecca Massel ‘21
Works Cited Carey, Benedict. “A Brain Implant Improved Memory, Scientists Report.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/health/brain-implantmemory.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer.
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Drinking Water Now Comes From the Air H2O, two hydrogen atoms and one atom of oxygen, make up water. Something we, people of America take advantage of having unlimited access to. However, for the majority of this world, this is not their reality. 780 million people do not have access to clean water. Water covers 70 percent of Earth, but only three percent of the world’s water is fresh, and twothirds of that is unavailable for use. Because of this, “some 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to water and a total of 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year,” the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says. At the current rate that the world is using water, by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages, the WWF estimates. Most of us know our water comes from streams or bodies of water, but because of Watergen, water can now come from the humidity in the air. Watergen, an Israeli Company, takes the humidity out of the air and turns it into clean and safe drinking water. Watergen uses many filters to clean the air. Once the air is brought into the filters, they use a plastic heat exchanger, it is chilled to remove the humidity- water is created and made into clean water. One kilogram of water can be made by using a Kilowatt of power. This is different than other water companies that either require an intake of 3 to 4 times more energy and produce three to four times more energy. Watergen is the cheapest alternative to be used when distilled water is not an option. Watergen is working with countries that do not have sufficient amount of water to make ends meet and are facing water shortages, by implementing their machines in those areas. The patented science technology is one that took a while to develop. First, air is brought into the Watergen atmospheric water generator and the air filter removes anything that contaminates the air such as chemicals and dirt. This now clean air goes through Watergen's “genius technology” and a heat exchange and cooling process. This brings the air to its dew point, the state at which condensation occurs and water droplets can form, that are safe for drinking. This water now goes through a series of filters including a chemical filtration, biological filtration and mineralization. The water is now 100% ready to drink, but until the usage of water is necessary, the water is stored in a “built in reservoir” that constantly turns the water keeping it fresh. Even while using little energy, Watergen’s Genius machine creates 5 times more water per kilowatt hour, than any other water machine. In addition, this machine
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is energy safe, due to the fact it can be operated by energy or solar panels. Watergen’s Atmospheric Water Generators have the ability to produce 600-5000 liters per day. In addition, Watergen is being produced right in our backyard. Although an Israeli company with Israeli technology, it is being produced in America! Already having opened one plant in Columbia, South Carolina, Watergen USA President, Yehuda Kaploun says the reason for coming to America is because as a company we like working with our allies and we know Americans like products made in America. Watergen employs 400 workers per plant and plans on opening 3 or 4 plants in the US over the next couple of years. Now that drinking water is coming from the air, who knows what the future holds? Gabrielle Ostad ‘21
Works Cited Business, Fox. “Watergen to Open at Least 3 More US Plants, President Says.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Nov. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKK12lmbiTs. Solomon, Shoshanna, et al. “Extracting Water from Air, Israeli Firm Looks to Quench Global Thirst.” The Times of Israel, www.timesofisrael.com/extracting-water-from-air-israeli-firm-looks-toquench-global-thirst/. Watergen. “Watergen GENius Technology.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Oct. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5D-qm8O384.
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Chang’e 4; An Update on Chinese Space Exploration At 10:26 a.m. Beijing time on December 27, a Chinese landing probe, Chang’e 4, landed on the dark side of the moon. After twenty two days of traveling, Chang’e 4 is the first rover to land on the side of the moon that consistently faces away from Earth, also known as the far side or the dark side of the moon. Although its name suggests otherwise, the dark side receives just as much light from the sun as the near side of the moon. After a smooth landing, the rover landed in South Pole-Aitken Basin, the moon’s oldest and deepest crater. The Chang’e 4 will travel across the crater with its six wheels powered by two foldable solar panels. This new step towards space exploration has given us access to the first close-up image of the moon’s dark side using a Chinese satellite called Queqiao. Qeuqiao has sent back images of the moon’s amazing crater. With this new information, scientists could learn more about the moon’s beginning and evolution. Not only this, but scientists also believe that China has now gained access to valuable minerals that can be found in the surrounding basin. This could ultimately give China a great advantage in future space travel. The space probe will continue to relay new images to Earth and conduct experiments on the dark side. The lander’s instruments includes cameras, a radar capable of penetrating the ground, and spectrometers. With the spectrometers, the space probe will attempt to determine the makeup of an area on the dark side formed by a meteorite. Through this research, scientists hope to further their own understanding of the moon’s geology. The lander will also plant seeds in order to determine if they can germinate in the moon’s unique environment. Because the rover is stationed on the area of the moon that faces away from Earth, the space vehicle is unable to communicate with Earth using radio frequencies, a typical form of space communication. Instead, the space rover will communicate with Earth through a satellite orbiting the moon launched earlier in the year by China. A rover has not travelled back to Earth from the moon with samples since the Soviet Mission of 1976. China is currently planning a mission next year where they will send Chang’e 5 probe to the moon and collect samples from the dark side. Scientists have noted the importance of learning about the dark side because it has a very different composition than the near side of the moon, which we have previously explored. As space exploration grows more competitive between the United States, Russia and China, it has become increasingly important for these countries to further their space travel. China plans to launch a Mars rover in the mid-2020s. Currently, US exploration of Mars has increased drastically as they recently landed Insight, a Mars rover, on November 26. In the future, other countries may also participate in space exploration. Ultimately, our understanding of space has continued to grow with our
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new advancements in technology. Whether it be Mars rovers or space probes, our missions to space have helped further our knowledge and appreciation of space and its many mysteries. Sophia Rein 21’
Works Cited Moritsugu, Ken. “China Lunar Probe Sheds Light on the 'Dark' Side of the Moon.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 4 Jan. 2019, apnews.com/c4dc6858a32b4b61bdbc6aebf5459a91. Myers, Steven Lee, and Zoe Mou. “'New Chapter' in Space Exploration as China Reaches Far Side of the Moon.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/ 2019/01/02/world/asia/china-change-4-moon.html. Rivers, Matt, et al. “China Lunar Rover Touches down on Far Side of the Moon, State Media Announce.” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Jan. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/01/02/health/china-lunarrover-far-moon-landing-intl/index.html.
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Biometrics in Hospitals Biometrics are often used in law enforcement to identify suspects with their fingerprints, veins, and other physical characteristics, but they are now becoming more common among health care providers. In a hospital, there can be hundreds of patients on record with the same or similarly spelled name and date of birth, causing confusion with identification and mistakes in patient care. Addresses are often not updated, as is other information, adding to the blunders. Hospital staff may duplicate a record of a person, not realizing they are already in the system, and forget vital information in the duplicated record. A study estimated most hospitals to have a duplication rate of 5% or 10%, while hospitals with multiple systems have around a 20% duplication rate. In 2012, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives directed a survey and discovered that nearly ⅕ of participants said they knew of at least one mismatch occasion in the past year that jeopardized a patient. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act wished to establish a patient identification system to allow health care providers to identify any returning patient. However, worried that this would violate patient privacy, Congress prohibited them from passing such an act, and this prohibition is still in place today. With this prohibition against national identification systems, more and more healthcare providers are turning to biometrics. Biometrics are used in smartphones and airport security, so it is an accepted tool of identification. Biometrics have thwarted drug addicts from going to hospitals and registering under different names seeking drugs. It has also helped identify patients who come to hospitals unconscious. Biometrics speed up the registration process for patients. NYU Langone uses PatientSecure, so all the patient has to do is write their date of birth and scan their palm. However, experts maintain that there is no one solution to this issue as biometrics open the risk of hackers obtaining patients’ medical histories. Chief technology and innovation officer for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Steve Wretling, believes that “Biometric identification is not foolproof. It works a lot better than it used to, with a lot more consistency, but there’s always a need for a backup.” Results of a study show that by 2022, 40% of healthcare providers will adopt a biometric system to identify their patients. The next step will be to make biometrics national and make each system compatible with each other.
Rachel Shohet ‘20
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Don’t Keep It Bottled Up Across ocean shores, sea turtles were found laying helpless and severely injured, due to ingestion of plastics thrown into the sea. Mistaking the clear plastic bags and bottles for jellyfish, turtles consumed the plastics. Sea turtle populations are declining, as more and more turtles are found dead, with pounds of plastic trapped in their stomach and intestinal tracts. Recently, a sperm whale washed up on a beach in Spain and had 64 pounds of plastic and other refuse in its stomach. Millions of tons of plastic waste from single-use plastic bottles are not recycled, but are dumped into the ocean. As a result, such refuse is harming marine ecosystems. Although living on land, humans also ingest plastics on a daily basis. The plastics consumed by humans are not in the form of bags and bottles, but rather as microplastics. Apparently, plastic bags and bottles dumped into oceans are slowly broken down into smaller pieces, becoming so minute that they are barely visible. These microplastics make their way into the food chain. The World Health Organization (WHO) analyzed levels of microplastics in bottled water and reported that over 90% of commercially-available bottled water contained microplastics. For example, one bottle of Nestlé Pure Life contained 10,000 microplastic pieces per liter of water. Polypropylene, a plastic used to manufacture bottle caps, was shown to be the most common type of plastic found in bottled water. Orb Media is another organization that analyzed microplastics in bottled water. Nile red dye, which specifically sticks to man-made materials, including plastics, was used as the glowing indicator to visualize microplastics in bottled water. Nestlé, the company that manufactured the bottled water, claimed that the Nile red dye generated “false positives.” Coca-Cola, another brand name tested and found to have microplastics in its water, acknowledged the legitimacy in finding microplastics in their products. Coca-Cola explained to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that although they have thorough filtration methods, microplastics are a worldwide problem and, because of that, it is still possible for microplastics to show up in their products. Perhaps a lesser known source of dietary microplastics is salt, specifically sea salt, rather than lake and rock salts. An article published in the journal, Environmental Science and Technology, reported findings of a study that investigated 28 sea salt brands from six continents and found that 36% had microplastics, with those from Asia being a major source. This is no surprise, as countries such as China are known for extensive pollution and waste production. The range of microplastics was from 28 pieces per kilogram of sea salt to a whopping 13,000 microplastic pieces per kilogram of sea salt. BREAKTHROUGH -APRIL 2019
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Different commercial sea salt brands have various levels of microplastics, depending upon the extent of pollution in the aquatic region serving as the source of the sea salt. Indonesia has the largest amount of microplastics in its sea salt, with the average Indonesian ingesting 2,000 pieces of microplastic each year, just from salt and not including other microplastic sources. Such high levels of microplastics in everyday dietary items, such as sea salt and water, may seem alarming. Dietary consumption of microplastics is a rather new finding and, as yet, there is no definitive evidence of truly harmful effects. However, we should all be aware that plastic waste is harming oceanic wildlife and now potentially may be a threat to human health. Samantha Sinensky ’21
Works Cited Keck, Catie. “Over 90 Percent of Table Salts May Contain Microplastic, Study Finds.” Earther, https://earther.gizmodo.com/over-90-percent-of-table-salts-may… Kim, Ji-Su. Lee, Hee-Jee. Kim, Seung-Kyu. Kim, Hyun-Jung. “Global Pattern of Microplastics (MPs) in Commercial Food-Grade Salts: Sea Salt as an indicator of Seawater MP Pollution.” Environ, Sci. Technol. pubs.acs.org/est Mandelbaum, F. Ryan. “Report Finds Microplastic in 93% of Bottled Water Tested, But Don’t Freak Out Yet.” Gizmodo, 13 Mar. 2018, https://gizmodo.com/report-finds-microplastic-93-ofbottled-... Readfearn, Graham. “WHO launches health review after microplastics found in 90% of bottled water.” The Guardian, 14 Mar. 2018, https://www.guardian.com/environment/2018/mar/15/micropl… Rogers, Kaleigh. “You’re Literally Sprinkling Plastic On Your Food.” Motherboard, 18 Oct. 2018, https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wj9a95/youre-lierall… Vicor, Daniel. “Plastic Junk Found in Dead Whale in Indonesia.” New York Times, https:// www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/world/asia/whale-plastics-indonesia.html Yee, Amy. “Rescuing Imperiled Sea Turtles Off Kenya.” New York Times, https:// www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/science/sea-turtles-endangered-fishing.html
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We hope you enjoyed this issue of BREAKTHROUGH! EDITORS Daniella Feingold ’20 Samantha Sinensky ‘21 FACULTY ADVISOR Ms. Lenore Brachot
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