march 2011 issue 2
Slim
science and technology news and views magazine
in this slim edition: GIVE PLANTS A CHANCE T H E N E W MAC B O O K A I R TO P T IPS FO R W R I T IN G A C V
BIOLOGY CROSSWORD INSIDE
SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham
Editorial “Hi Guys and Girls,
Welcome to the Second Edition of SATNAV Slim, as some of you may know we now have a brand new committee, who’ve worked really hard to bring you this issue! A quick (but huge!) thanks to everyone who has written us articles, and especially to our new committee - we couldn’t have asked for a better team.
Contents
Hopefully you’ve all been enjoying the sun on campus this last week, and the myriad of flowers that have been brought with it! It is in this edition that we pay tribute to the plant, and explore its relevance in Biology today. As a topic that is
often overlooked, we offer one student’s opinion on why the Plant Biology module should not be dropped at the University. We also take a look at the MacBook Air and delve deeper into the rocky relationship between the Earth and Moon! Our goals for the coming year will be to raise more awareness, and try and attract potential writers from all areas of the University- you don’t need to be a Scientist to write for us!!
Slim Issue 2 - March 2011
this issue, then check out our website for the FULL edition packed with all of your science-based needs (we know you have them) w w w. s a t n a v m a g . c o . u k Power to the Plant!!! Andy and Jade
Look out for the next edition- where we discover how Science plays a role outside of the classroom. If you like what you see in
Editorial 2 The Shape of Nature 3 Review: The New MacBookAir 4 The Moon, the Tide and the Slowing of the Earth’s Rotation 5 Give Plants a Chance 6 Top Tips For CV Writing 9 Crossword : Know your Biology? 10
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SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham
The Shape of Nature The father of Fractal Geometry, Benoît Mandelbrot died last term on October 14 at the age of 85. He founded a study of shapes which is time and again found reflected in nature; fractals played a key role in the inception of the much publicised Chaos Theory.
the simplest ones had been visualised since many demand tedious calculations.
Fortunately, as a researcher at IBM Mandelbrot had access to early computers which were perfectly suited to such tough problems. He found he could generate phenomThroughout his early life Mandel- enally beautiful images from very brot naturally visualised and solved simple formulae. problems using shapes. However in academia this proved ill- The key ingredient was a touch matched to the traditional views of of recursion; repeatedly using the European Mathematical society. Of results of a procedure as its own particular notoriety were a group input. One particularly simple called Bourbaki who had a reputa- equation lead him to discover the tion for very strong rigour. shape which was named after him. A shape so awe-inspiring it is held So strong was the air of convic- as evidence of Mathematical Retion that Mandelbrot decided alism. It is so incredibly intricate it to end work in America. He took must have been discovered, no man on a research position at IBM in could have possibly invented it. 1958, allowing him the freedom he needed. It is here that he went The Mandelbrot set is an extremely on to develop his grand theory of complex fractal whose formula is Fractals, a term he coined in 1975. z = z2 + c. The resulting z is A fractal is in essence a rough or recursively pushed through the fragmented shape that is `self-sim- equation ad infinitum. Now some ilar’. That is to say it can be split values of c will cause the numbers up into parts which themselves to spiral off uncontrollably. The look much like the whole shape. So ones which don’t are plotted to rea fractal will appear the same no veal astounding results. matter how much it is magnified. Shapes with these properties had The traditional Euclidean geometry been previously studied but only which we are taught at school con-
cerning the world of circles and triangles is poorly equipped to describe naturally occurring shapes. In the opening of his seminal piece The
Fractal Geometry of Nature Mandel-
brot argues ‘mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth”. Fractals on the other hand do well to model the real world. Many objects have a clear fractal nature. In biology trees, lungs, coral and cauliflower all have branches that resemble the whole, providing insight into how they grow. Huge river mouths appear vascular and yet fractal, Fractal models the way water quickly are used in fields as finds the coast reflects the efficiency of the diverse as: predicting the circulatory system. course of earthquakes Physical features like and the behaviour of mountains and clouds the AIDS virus. are less obvious examples but fractal models are routinely used in special effects to render them. Besides providing answers in Mathematics and Science, fractal models are used in fields as diverse as: predicting the course of epidemics; forest fires; earthquakes and weather systems; the behaviour of the AIDS virus; human crowd behaviour and the stock market; detecting cancer and compressing data. The visual appeal of fractals is also apparent in our appreciation of art and architecture. Examples include religious iconography, the ThirtySix Views of Mount Fuji, the Sagrada Familia and the Eiffel Tower. Benjamin Holmes
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The new MacBook Air arrives…but is it 6 years after its Sony equivalent?
Review
The time has come when a new eagerly anticipated Apple product hits the shelves. The USA was the first to see the new and improved version of the ultimate lightweight Mac. But is the MacBook Air unique? It’s true the technology behind the Air has been around for a while, and players such as HP and Sony have already experimented in the ultra lightweight laptop market. Back in 2004 the VAIO X505 was released with very similar attributes as the 2010 Air. Weighing at just over 800g the VAIO is almost 300g lighter than the MacBook Pro. Its specs were very good too considering that it’s over 6 years old, and the VAIO boasted an Intel Extreme
Graphics Processor and operating Windows XP Professional. So why was the VAIO not a big hit? Put simply, it may have been the price. It was nothing short of $3000 (£1900) in 2004 compared to a mere $999 (£636) for the Apple in 2010. Although the price of laptops has been steadily decreasing over the years, back in 2004 the VAIO made the mistake of being far too out of reach for the majority of people. Early critics are arguing the new MacBook Air is simply a “much faster iPad” or equally a “much slower MacBook Pro”. I disagree however; the appeal of the Air is not its speed, but its stylish, lightweight design. For the price, it is not tech-
nologically outstanding, nor is it going to bankrupt Microsoft. However, more and more people are converting to Apple’s more user friendly layout and the Air gives customers another option to consider when the style of a laptop is as important as the technology within it. Apple have not created a new era in lightweight laptops, they’ve created something cool and quirky at a time when it seems that anything Apple touches turns to gold. Greg Povey
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The Moon, the Tides, and the Slowing of the Earth’s Rotation We are all familiar with the idea that the tides are caused by the Moon, and the interaction between the earth and its satellite deserves some thought. We are inclined to regard the tides as coming and going throughout the day, but a more justified point of view is that in fact it is us that visit the tide. The gravitational attraction of the Moon, and to a lesser extent the Sun, pulls on all parts of the Earth, but not with the same strength. Material on the side of the Earth facing the Moon has more force exerted upon it than material on the opposite side. This is because the gravitational force between two objects is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, as Newton famously elucidated after an apocryphal encounter with an apple. Of course, the liquid water of the Earth’s oceans is more prone to moving under this exertion than the rigid, solid material of the Earth. The net effect is the creation of two “bulges” of water on the Earth, one facing the Moon, the other facing away from the Moon on the opposite side of the Earth. The water on the side facing the Moon is attracted more strongly
than the centre of mass of the solid, rocky Earth, which in turn is attracted more strongly than the water on the opposite side. There are also two smaller “bulges”, produced in exactly the same way, but by the Sun. Now, to some celestial observer, the tides, these “bulges” in the Earth’s oceans, maintain the same position with respect to the position of the Moon, while the Earth, as it rotates on its axis, moves through them. This is the origin of the “coming and going” of the tide. However, this is not the end of the story; we have so far left out of our description the effects of friction. As the Earth turns through the tidal “bulges”, the water exerts a drag on the Earth which acts to slow it down. This frictional effect causes a continual slowing of the Earth’s spin. The days are, very slowly, getting longer by about 0.002 seconds every century. As the Earth slows down, it loses angular momentum, and angular momentum must be conserved, so where does it go?
This means that as the Earth slows down, the Moon moves further away from the Earth, its distance increasing by about 4 centimetres a year. the Earth, its distance increasing by about 4 centimetres a year. The process is self-correcting, because if the Moon is further away from the Earth, its gravitational pull on the Earth’s oceans is smaller, producing smaller tides and a smaller drag force on the Earth. So the rate at which the Earth slows down and the Moon moves away from the Earth decreases with time. Matthew Robson
The answer is that the spin angular momentum of the Earth is transferred to the orbital angular momentum of the Moon. This means that as the Earth slows down, the Moon moves further away from
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All we are asking is to give plants a chance..... At the Eden Project in Cornwall, there is a display which shows what would happen if plants no longer existed. In a typical domestic scene, clothes, food and furniture all disappear. Whilst striking me as being slightly strange, as without plants to produce our food we would probably be more concerned about our imminent starvation than the lack of wooden furniture, a valid point is made. We rely on plants from the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to bed at night, at which point we’re probably still lying on cotton sheets in a wooden bed. As well as being the backbone of biodiversity, supporting innumerable other species, the plant kingdom has huge diversity of its own. The study of plants is going to play a major part in developing new ways of feeding the world’s population. New technology allowing the breeding of plants to ensure better resistance to pests and disease is being developed, and the genetic engineering of plants, while controversial, represents
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a leap forward in agriculture. So bearing in mind that plant biology is a fast moving and important area of the biosciences, why has the University of Birmingham dropped its third year Plant Biology module? A confession: I wasn’t always so enthusiastic about plants. I scraped through my first year module and felt a little silly about choosing it in second year, however that’s when it really got interesting. I enjoyed the lectures, finally understood the experiments, and felt that maybe this was something I wanted to be involved in. A drastic improvement in my module result sealed the deal and I chose not only to take the Plant Biology module, but to write my dissertation on Genetically Modified Crops. Imagine my surprise then when August rolled around and I received my module information for Human Evolution. I’m as interested in evolution as the next biologist, but I was hoping more for Arabidopsis rather than Australopithecus. I emailed the school office to
check that it wasn’t a mistake, and was told that no, the module wasn’t running. Less than 8 people had signed up and the School of Biosciences had exercised its right to withdraw courses with so few people. So why are plants so unpopular? And is this botanyphobia restricted to Birmingham, or is it a widespread trend? Dr Juliet Coates, the lecturer who would have been in charge of the plant sciences module thinks so, and what’s more, she has a good idea as to the reasons for it: “I suspect that some of the fundamental problems start before you even come to university; I think there’s a problem with the way plant biology is taught and perceived by students at school, and I think a lot of people come to uni not expecting to enjoy plant science in any form.” I know that the plant science I did at school consisted mainly of covering photosynthesis at least twice a year and repeatedly chopping up onions to inspect their root hair cells through a microscope, the most exciting part of which was playing with the knives. However what can be done about this plant-apathy? Dr Coates believes that part of the problem is that students don’t realise everything that plants have to offer: “In the last 10 years, because of new technologies like genome sequencing, it’s possible to do molecular plant science, when it just wasn’t before, and maybe we’ve been a bit slow in our teaching to try and bring this across to people from an early stage.” Certainly in schools this is the case, and perhaps even in first year
SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham
Biological Sciences. If people want to study molecular biology they have plenty of options, and don’t seem to realise that plants can offer them interesting insight into this subject area, and that lectures won’t just involve “looking at pretty flowers”, as one biochemist put it. Timetabling too might be an issue. When asked, many people remark that they like plant biology, but that it’s just not a priority. Even human biologists have said that although they don’t think plant science is needed on their course, they do enjoy botany lectures. They don’t want to ‘waste time’ on plants while they could be studying eukaryotic gene expression or proteomics, which are also very useful and relevant subjects. However, as Dr Coates points out, what could be more relevant than plant biology? “The big things that we’re worried about at the moment are sustainable agriculture and food security, and we’re going to have to address these issues with new crop plants, new sources of nutrition and ways of using land more effectively. The other big thing we’re worried about is with fossil fuels running
out, where are biofuels going to come from? It’s going to be plants and algae, and so we are going to need to train a generation of researchers who are well versed in plant science.” So how do we make sure that this year is just a blip? Juliet Coates goes into schools to try and engage students in plant biology and is working on trying to change the third year module to make it more attractive to students. However, the bottom line is that without more students signing up for the module it won’t be run next year either. In the end, as with many things, this issue comes down to money. Modules with small numbers aren’t economically viable, especially not in the current climate. This isn’t a policy I agree with. In my opinion there is no excuse for there not being any final year students graduating from the University this year with no third year level knowledge of plants, especially when this is such a vital time for plant biology. Unfortunately, this is the reality of the situation, and I’m too busy trying to graduate to blockade the Vice Chancellor’s office with plants to try and
change his mind. So if you’re a first or second year biologist, make sure you give plants a chance this year because they’ve got it all. It sounds ridiculous, but if you like cellular biology, they have cells. They also have complicated biochemistry and gene regulation as well as, of course, photosynthesis. They’re what’s going to save us from a food crisis and are one of the fastest moving research areas in biology today. We can only stop University of Birmingham from becoming a plant-free zone by getting involved and showing that it’s worth funding the course.
what could be more relevant than plant biology?
Alison Leonard
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Top Tips for CV Writing Top IT graduate Employer, FDM Group, receives over 20,000 CV applications a year for its award-winning Academy Programme. Your CV needs to make you stand out from the crowd and immediately capture the attention of the reader. Recruiters receive literally hundreds of résumés a day and spend only about 10 seconds “skimming” through each one. To combat this you should customise the CV that you send out and tailor it to the “hot buttons” that will grab the employer’s attention.
tion, Employment History, Interests and Activities, Additional Information and Referees/References Available on Request.
L o n g C Vs
A graduate CV should never be more that two pages. Long resumes are laborious to read and imply the candidate is unable to be concise about the skills they have on offer. Recruiters want details to be short, succinct and to the point.
Wo r d y P a r a g r a p h s
Here are 10 top tips to help you No recruiter has the time to read do this: long paragraphs, which look like a narrative out of ‘War and Peace’. Presentation Make sure you quickly get to the Most CVs are viewed in Word and “meat” of what you are trying to are normally only printed after communicate about yourself. Your short listing so make sure your resume should be easy for the CV looks good on the screen. The reader to “scan” your text for your reader’s eye needs to be drawn skills and accomplishments. Conto your profile and key achieve- sider using the following formatting ments. Try not to make your CV too techniques: cluttered as the CV must be easily • Use blunt, paraphrased bulletreadable. points • Use appropriate amounts of “white space” to help guide your Font Choice Keep your font simple. Try not to reader use italics or extremely difficult to read fonts like Edwardian Script. Current Contact Details Font size is just as important as This bit is pretty simple. The emstyle. 8-point fonts are too small ployer simply needs to know who to read. Recruiters recommend ei- you are and how to get in touch ther using 10 point Arial with bold with you. Make sure these are on 12-point headings, or Times Ro- the first page at the top of your man 12 point. CV and the information you give is still up-to-date. Is that email adStructure dress still live? Have you included Your CV needs to have a clear struc- your current telephone number? ture. You want to make it easy for the employer to read – not a chal- E a s y t o F o l l o w P e r lenge! Standard content elements s o n a l S u m m a r y of a graduate CV include: Contact A resume has to catch the reader Details, Personal Summary, Educa- from the first few seconds. An
effective summary section will help the recruiter identify if the job seeker is a viable candidate for the position quicker. This summary section can be customised to the position you are applying. For candidates of a technical nature, it is imperative that a Technical Summary is also compiled. Make sure that these technical skills are clearly laid out and current.
Spelling Errors, Typos, and Poor Grammar
Your CV is your opportunity to make a first impression. Any careless errors you make reflect on you directly as a candidate. Make sure you double check (or even triple check!) your CV before you send it out. A top tip is to get someone else to read it for you as sometimes others notice mistakes you may have overlooked.
Be truthful
Although you obviously want to present yourself well, don’t go too far and embellish the truth. It can easily backfire on you. Be Honest. If you got a 2:2 in your degree but claim you gained a first, don’t be surprised if you’re then asked to prove it on receiving a job offer.
Knowing your CV
Make sure you read through your CV before interview. You will most likely be questioned on the content so it is imperative you know exactly what you have written about. FDM group
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Know your Biology?
ACROSS 1 An organism that lives on or in the body of
another from which it obtains its nutrients (8) 5 The largest organ in the human body (4) 7 Pores found in the epidermis of leaves involved in gas exchange between the plant and the atmosphere (7) 12 Physiological state in which metabolism decreases, heart and respiratory systems slow down and body temperature is maintained at a low level (11) 17 The entry of several sperms in to the egg during fertilisation (10) 18 Short DNA molecules produced by discontinuous replication, complimentary to the DNA strand (16) 20 The stage of cell division during which the nuclear membrane breaks down, the spindle forms and chromosomes attach to the spindles at the equator of the cell (20)
DOWN
2 A biological community and the physical
environment associated with it (9) 3 A chromosomal alteration in which the organism possesses more than two complete chromosome sets (10) 4 A molecule that binds specifically to another molecule, usually a larger one (6) 6 Dead organic matter (8) 8 Regulation of body temperature by either physiological or behavioural mechanisms (16) 9 Protein occurring in hair, feathers and nails (7) 10 The uptake of extracellular material via invaginations of the plasma membrane (11) 11 A heart valve located between each atrium and ventricle (16) 13 The diploid product of the fusion of haploid gametes during fertilisation (6) 14 To produce a structural change in a protein or nucleic acid that results in the reduction or loss of its biological properties (8) 15 The process in the ovary that results in the production of female gametes (9) 16 The most abundant type of white blood cell that engulfs bacteria (10) 19 A tissue that transports water and dissolved mineral nutrients in vascular plants from the roots to the rest of the plant (5)
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SCIENCE IN...
About ISSUE 3
The topic will be ‘Science in’ and it will explore the various and sometimes unexpected ways that Science is present in other subjects! From arts to literature, to food and emotions. Start writing and stay tuned for more SATNAV updates.
science and technology news and views magazine
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This is our special hard copy Slim edition. Be sure to check out the main magazine, with massive content from students. Find themainisuueat www.satnavmag.co.uk in the upcoming weeks !
Part two of the Science of Bees by Tom Jeavons, explosing the very different chemical potency of pheromones, and venom. The start of a new series explaining the purposes and aims of CERN, what exactly a large hadron collider does, and why the world isn’t going to explode. Plus: reviews on the latest gadgets, a bounty of scientific articles, science fiction, more careers information, and puzzles!
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SATNAV TEAM Chief Editors: Jade Ogle & Andrew Wright Life sciences Editor: Ryan Hamnett Review editor: Scott Davies Maths & Technology editor: Benjamin Holmes Copy editor: Laura Bowyer Secretary: Laura Nunes Co-Layout Editors: James Churm & Laura Nunes Publicity Officer & Treasurer: Pavithra Ganesan
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