Fall 2007: Volume 1, Issue 1

The Amherst

ELEMENT Volume I, Issue I

November 1, 2007

The Genographic Project

Efforts to collect DNA samples result in conflict

Quantum Entanglement A mind-boggling phenomenon

Strange Early Echinoderms

Editorial

Scientific Literacy at Amherst

W

elcome to The Amherst Element, a new magazine devoted to science and scientific literacy at Amherst. At Amherst, the sciences flourish, with faculty and students engaged in cutting edge research, and a robust curriculum that both challenges science geeks and welcomes the less scientifically inclined. And yet many in the community either don’t know about, or seem indifferent to, the science side of Amherst. Our hope is that this magazine, by illuminating the sciences at Amherst and addressing important issues in science more generally, will interest not only budding scientists but also those who, out of inertia, disgust, or an unnatural obsession with poetry, view Merrill as nothing more than a quiet place to read.

In an age increasingly dominated by technological and scientific issues, scientific literacy is essential if we are to understand ourselves and the world around us. Many of today’s most important topics–stem cell research, oil dependency, climate change, and genetic engineering– defy intelligent analysis without a solid grounding in basic scientific principles. As at least some of these issues are heavily influenced by ideological or religious interests, a scientifically literate public becomes even more important. Appropriately or not, the public increasingly has the power to make decisions about the ethics, legality, and safety of scientific practices. It is unsettling that many Americans, including many elected officials, are unequipped to differentiate solid scientific ideas from pseudoscience. Many Americans are no match for the misleading language of astrology, parapsychology, and intelligent design. In a 2005 National Science Foundation survey, Jon D. Miller found that more than two thirds of Americans cannot “identify DNA as the key to heredity” and that one fifth of Americans do not understand that the Earth orbits the sun.

Amherst College is known for its first-rate liberal arts education. Its mission is to prepare undergraduates to “seek, value, and advance knowledge, engage the world around them, and lead principled lives of consequence.” But Amherst, with its lack of core requirements, allows many students to graduate without anything approaching scientific literacy. Worse, some seem to leave with an active hostility toward science. Of course, our open curriculum also allows students to graduate without exploring the worlds beyond math and science. But too many advisors and peers are quick to condemn the science-only group while tolerating or even encouraging those who avoid science like the devil. We don’t mean

to criticize the Amherst curriculum, which allows undergraduates the great intellectual freedom to shape their own education in and outside of the classroom, but we do mean to criticize those among us who exploit the curriculum in order to avoid the sort of literacy, scientific or otherwise, necessary to productive citizenship.

It is clear that there is a variety of ways for Amherst students to engage in scientific learning and thought. Within the curriculum, students can choose from hard science classes like Quantum Chemistry, non-major science courses such as Cancer and AIDS, and science-related classes in the humanities like Philosophy of Science. Beyond the classroom, there are countless opportunities for research in or related to the sciences, an excellent collection of accessible lectures (Eric Mazur’s recent talk on visual illusions comes to mind), as well as a wide range of scientific journals in the science library. The Amherst Element aspires to help students keep abreast of the exciting scientific research going on at Amherst and elsewhere, and to help fill a void for students who choose not to take any science courses.

In each issue, we plan to examine the complex coupling of science and the humanities. In “Features,” News in Brief provides a selection of interesting science-related current events and The Amherst Interview Series portrays a historical figure in science, this time the famous chemist Antoine Lavoisier. In “Discourse,” students investigate important topics in a wide range of disciplines.

In this issue, Emma Fink addresses ethical issues concerning the Genographic Project’s collection of DNA, Michael Kreisel examines the problem of induction in science, and Sarah Leyman discusses technological advances in oral contraceptives. Our final section presents, in a broadly accessible form, the noteworthy “Senior Thesis Research” of Amherst students in the sciences and related fields. In this issue, geology major Emmy Smith writes about the appearance of biomineralized skeletons during the Cambrian Explosion, history major Janani Ramachandran writes about medicine and colonialism in nineteenth century Algeria, and physics major Jesse Rasowsky elucidates the phenomenon of quantum entanglement.

We hope that this and future issues of The Element will serve a unique function within the ever growing panoply of Amherst publications: to increase our community’s scientific literacy and to broaden and deepen our scientific discourse.

- Melissa Moulton, Editor-in-Chief

We do mean to criticize those among us who exploit the curriculum in order to avoid the sort of literacy, scientific or otherwise, necessary to productive citizenship.

November 1, 2007

Table of Contents Features

News in Brief The Element Interview Series: Antoine Lavoisier

Discourse

The Genographic Project: Collision of Science and Ethics Can Science Be Trusted? The Problem of Induction Can an Old Pill Learn New Tricks?

Senior Thesis Research

Strange Early Echinoderms: Among the First Skeletal Animals The Dark Side of White Medicine in Colonial Algeria Alice and Bob Discuss Quantum Entanglement

Staff Editors-in-Chief Melissa Moulton David Westwood

Chief Copy Editor Michael Chernicoff

Chief Layout Editor David Westwood

Associate Copy Editors Laura Alagna Dylan Bianchi Sophia Cai Ambika Kamath Darienne Myers Maria Rosasco

Staff Writer Liason Michael Kreisel

Thesis Student Liason Holly Saltrelli

Features Contributors Laura Alagana Sanjay Salgado

Staff Artists

Sanjay Salgado Laura Alagna

4 5

Emma Fink Michael Kreisel Sarah Leyman

6 8 11

Emmy Smith Janani Ramachandran Jesse Rasowsky

13 16 18

Get Involved Become a part of our staff by writing, drawing, or editing for The Element! The Element welcomes contributions in the form of articles or letters to the editor from students or anyone in the Amherst community.

Send questions, comments, letters or submissions to:

mmoulton09@amherst.edu or AC# 342

The opinions and ideas expressed in The Element do not necessarily reflect the views of The Element or Amherst College. The editorials represent the opinions of the current editors-in-chief of The Element. The Element does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, scientific background, religion, or age.

Research findings published in The Element are not intended for wide distribution or for the reader’s profit. As a member of the Amherst community, please use the information and data presented in The Element judiciously.

Special thanks to Charlie Quigg, Sam Grausz, Alex Urquhart, Vicky Chau, and the Council of Amherst Publications.

Tim Ripper David Westwood

November 1, 2007

Features

News in Brief Sanjay Salgado

ssalgado10@amherst.edu

Just one drink a day leads to higher risk of breast cancer Flushing perfectly good fertilizer After analyzing the drinking habits of over 70,000 women, researchers in California have found that women who had one or two alcoholic drinks a day increased their risk of breast cancer by 10 percent. Women who had more than three drinks a day raised their risk by 30 percent. It is unknown exactly how alcohol contributes to breast cancer; some scientists speculate that it raises the amount of hormones in the blood to cancer-causing levels.

Researchers in Finland have just published a study showing that farmers can use urine in lieu of traditional fertilizer to get an increase in cabbage yields. Experiments showed that the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content in urine were comparable to that of conventional fertilizer.

The amoeba Naegleria fowleri typically enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain. In late stages, this leads to brain damage which can cause hallucinations and behavioral changes. Not to worry though, it’s extremely rare – only several hundred cases worldwide over the last fifty years.

are gathering increasing evidence that primary consciousness resides in the medulla oblongata. In a rare condition called hydranencephaly, the cortex of the brain in fetuses become damaged or destroyed, essentially leaving them without a brain but with a brain stem. The empty space that would normally house the brain fills up instead with cerebrospinal fluid. Modern medicine has made it possible for children with this condition to live until early adulthood.

Born without a brain Brain-eating amoeba linked to 6 US deaths this year What is consciousness? Philosophical arguments aside, scientists

Study finds teens who work are more likely to smoke A study of 10th and 11th grade students in Baltimore found that those who took jobs are at least three times more likely to start smoking than kids who did not work. So do your part to help fight lung cancer: don’t get a job.

NASA successfully launches Dawn

The Delta II rocket carrying the spacecraft Dawn is the first rocket to use ion propulsion-- yes, the same technology that the TIE fighters used in Star Wars. It was launched on September 27th and is on a 3 billion mile journey to the heart of the asteroid belt.

Stopping atoms

Physicists have long searched for a way to slow down the movement of gaseous molecules enough to catch them. A group of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have found a way to do this: an “atomic coilgun” is used to slow down atoms by hitting them with a sequence of pulsed magnetic fields.

November 1, 2007

Gene K.O. wins Nobel Prize

Two Americans and a Brit won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing technology that can “knock out” genes, thereby allowing scientists to more easily find out what particular genes do. For instance, scientists can now genetically engineer a strain of mice with a gene missing, then watch to see how this affects a mouse’s behavior.

The gene that makes you want to kill yourself A new study has found that variations of two genes appear frequently in depressed patients who are suicidal. These patients are 2 to 15 times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than patients without these genes.

Skin-grown Blood Vessels

For the first time, researchers have grown blood vessels from a patient’s own skin cells, thereby eliminating the need for synthetic blood vessels and the antirejection drugs that come with them.

This technology can help patients with any number of health problems such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, or birth defects.

Features

The Element Interview Series: Pass the Lavoisier Laura Alagna

S

o you’re known as “The Father of Modern Chemistry.” High five!

Basically. The conservation of mass, stoichiometry, and the metric system are just a few of my contributions. Plus, I’m French. Scientists don’t get much more legit.

lalagna09@amherst.edu But why guinea pigs? Weren’t they somewhat of a luxury item in 18th century France?

I had a lot of disposable income. Only the best for my experiments.

But on your Wikipedia page, it lists your occupation as “chemist, economist, and nobleman.” Care to elaborate?

I don’t know if “economist” accurately describes it, but I was a tax collector. My job as a nobleman was to spend lots of my inherited fortune and to spend all of my time tinkering in the lab.

What a life.

Word. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

I imagine being a tax collector was a sweet hobby, even if it didn’t earn you many friends.

The only friend I made out of the deal was Madam la Guillotine.

I’m sure you’re the only person in history who can be described as both Ouch. I can see that you’ve been doodling this entire interview. Would “legit” AND “French.” you like to share your artwork with us?

Two words: Zinedine Zidane. They deserved the head- Do you know what this is? butt, Italian thieves.

So can you tell me about the picture you’ve chosen for this interview?

It shows one of my experiments with combustion. I proved that oxygen is used in combustion and actually gave oxygen its name, too. Mostly I like this picture because of my styling protective eyewear- I started the aviator trend, you know.

I wasn’t aware. I understand you also did experiments with calo- No. rimetry?

Right.

Oh yeah- I used guinea pigs to prove that respiration produces heat and is thus a form of combustion. …Anyway. How’s your love life?

Look, anything you’ve read in those tabloids is completely Wait, seriously, actual guinea pigs? false. I love and respect my wife for her wit and intelliYes, I think it’s safe to say the other definition of the term gence. was coined by me.

But you married her when she was 13. That’s a little creepy.

You have to lock that down.

November 1, 2007

Discourse

The Genographic Project: Collision of Science and Ethics Emma Fink

W

here did we come from? How did we get here? Although most scientists accept the theory that humans first emerged in and spread from Africa more than 60,000 years ago, the lingering question remains of how early humans dispersed from distinct population centers to cover the globe. This is the question that the Genographic Project, a collaboration of National Geographic and IBM with field research support from the Waitt Family Foundation, strives to answer.

Begun in April 2005, the Genographic Project is an ongoing five year long anthropological research study including the world’s largest survey of DNA samples to date. Its ultimate goal is to map the migration patterns of humans dating back 150,000 years and to create a global database of human genetic variation and associated phenotypical and anthropological data, including language, appearance, and social customs. These data will give scientists a rare window into the migratory history of humankind and will allow them to tackle some of the fundamental questions of biological anthropology. To accomplish this feat, the Genographic Project plans to collect more than 100,000 genetic samples from indigenous and traditional peoples—ten times more than the 10,000 specimens upon which our knowledge of early human migrations is now based.

Although the focus of the Genographic Project is on indigenous and traditional peoples, because their oral histories, customs and historically stable locations provide a framework in which to consider genetic results, the Genographic Project also includes a component of public participation. For about $100, members of the general public can purchase a Genographic Project Public Participation Kit and receive a general summary of their own migratory history based on the DNA extracted from a cheek swab. Individuals can also elect to have their DNA contribute to the overall data of the project, although it is unlikely that much useful data can be obtained from such public participation, as the average person is of mixed ancestry and lives far from his or her historic homeland. In addition to field research and public participation, the Genographic Project comprises the Legacy Fund, a portion of the profits from the sale of Public Participation Kits set aside to support educational initiatives, cultural conservation projects, and language preservation and revitalization programs among indigenous and traditional groups, participating and otherwise.

In contrast to sequencing endeavors such as the Human Genome Project, the Genographic Project examines only small portions of DNA—the Y chromosome in males and mitochondrial

November 1, 2007

efink11@Amherst.edu DNA (mtDNA) in females—to trace migratory patterns. As some genes on the Y chromosome lack homologues on the X chromosome and mitochondrial DNA exists outside of the nucleus, these areas of genetic information escape crossing over and other shuffling of genetic information that ensures human diversity. Instead, they are passed down—the Y chromosome from father to son and mtDNA from mother to child—mostly intact, with the exception of random mutations resulting from errors in DNA replication. These mutations, genetic markers, can be used to construct haplogroups, branches on the tree of genetic evolution that signify ancestral clans descended from a common progenitor in which a specific mutation first appeared.

As constituents of each haplogroup accumulate more mutations to form subclades, the order in which clans split from each other can be determined by comparing the presence or absence of specific mutations across clades. But in many areas of the world, centuries of mixing populations and years of modern global transportation have scrambled genetic signals, making halpogroup analysis confusing and difficult to relate to any geographic homeland. Therein lies the importance of indigenous and traditional peoples. With their unifying languages, historically constant locales, cultural histories, and lack of outside genetic influence in general, aboriginal peoples provide a framework in which to analyze genetic results. However, with the melting pot of the 21st century pressuring indigenous societies, the isolated gene pools reinforced by distinct languages and cultures, which are expedient for effective haplogroup analysis, may soon be lost. Thus, according to many anthropologists, the race for genetic information is one against time.

But the response from indigenous and traditional peoples whose DNA the Genographic Project aims to collect has been far from universally positive. As of December 2006, almost every federally recognized tribe in North America had declined or ignored invitations to take part in the Genographic Project, and groups including the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues oppose the project, stating that it exploits aboriginal peoples and demeans their cultures and oral histories. Others opposed to the Genographic Project posit that it fails to help indigenous peoples in any way, only exploiting their DNA for the benefit of scientists. They dismiss the Genographic Project’s statement that it helps indigenous and traditional peoples to affirm their historical origins, and instead state that uncertain genetic results could destroy the sense of cultural community and shared history vital to the preservation of such

Discourse societies. Some fear legal action, stating that the determination of genetic ancestry may jeopardize land rights and other benefits based on the idea that populations have been native to certain areas since the beginning of time. If genetic results propose that indigenous peoples migrated from other locations to their current regions, many fear that arguments for the sovereignty and collective legal claims of such peoples will be weakened. In the words of Maurice Foxx, chairman of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs and a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag, “What the scientists are trying to prove is that we’re the same as the Pilgrims except we came from over several thousand years before.” Or, as Dr. David Barrett, a cochairman of the Alaska Area Institutional Review Board, questions, “What if it turns out you’re really Siberian and then, oops, your health care is gone?”

Moreover, many see the Genographic Project as a continuation of the infamous HumanGenomeDiversityProject,dubbed the “Vampire Project” by the organizations whoopposedthisfailed mid-1990seffortto collect blood and other biological samples from about 700 indigenous communities.

According to indigenous advocacy groups, developers of the Human Genome Diversity Project failed to consult with local peoples when developing the procedures of the HGDP and were unethical in planning to patent indigenous genes with possible future monetary benefits for researchers. Moreover, the founder of the HGDP, Dr. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, is now chairperson of the Genographic Project’s advisory committee, prompting criticism that the Genographic Project is merely a privately funded, well concealed attempt to fulfill the aims of the HGDP. However, official Genographic Project literature explicitly states that it will not patent genetic material and will instead release aggregate findings into the public domain to encourage further research.

The Genographic Project’s Legacy Fund is also a source of contention, as some view the provision as a public relations ploy to increase funding support, leading to further collection of aboriginal genetic material and knowledge. Others disparage it more directly, calling it a thinly veiled attempt to buy indigenous blood and DNA and contend that the preservation of endangered cultures and languages is in no way related to the scientific agenda of the Genographic Project. A wider debate over the Genographic Project, which extends to all such undertakings, is whether informed consent can be obtained from indigenous peoples who may not read or write, and, even if consent is obtained, if it is ethical to involve peoples in research who stand to receive no direct benefit from potential findings. The Indigenous Peoples Council on

Biocolonialism posits that the Genographic Project cannot possibly gain truly informed consent from those of different cultures who may not fully understand the procedures or science involved or the rights they are waiving, especially not in the twenty minutes advocacy groups state are allotted.

However, according to the official Genographic Project site, depending on local customs, scientists spend months building relationships with communities before the endeavor is even explained, and once the project is introduced, researchers are careful to follow local practices regarding communal versus individual consent and to explain the project as fully as possible, while following rigorous security procedures to ensure confidentiality. In the wider scientific and intellectual community, those such as Jonathan Marks of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte call it “troubling” that a project of this nature is privately funded, and thus exempt from many of the ethical controls that halted previous efforts of its kind.

While the Genographic Project and various opposition groups may squabble over informed consent procedures, the amount of communication with local peoples, the existence of the Legacy Fund, and similar procedural practices, the central question remains: Who does knowledge benefit? Is scientific knowledge of worldwide benefit, or is it valuable only to those who understand and can apply it? Is it ethical to perform research on those who may derive no direct benefit from scientific work for the benefit of others?

While according to Dr. Spencer Wells, Director of the National Genographic Project, “The greatest history book ever written is the one hidden in our DNA,” it remains to be seen how much of that book will ultimately be revealed.

GenographicProject.NationalGeographicSociety.1Nov.2007 <https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html>.

Harmon,Amy.“DNAGatherersHitSnag:TribesDon’tTrustThem.”

TheNewYorkTimes10Dec.2006.30Sept.2007 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/us/10dna.html>.

Harvey,Cynthia.“TrackingtheTruth.”DB2Magazine2006.30Sept.2007 <http://www.db2mag.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193105321>.

“IndigenousPeoplesOpposetheNationalGeographicSociety’sNew VampireProject.”IndigenousPeoplesCouncilonBiocolonialism.20May2006.1Oct. 2007<http://www.ipcb.org/issues/human_genetics/htmls/ipcbpr_may06.html>.

“OpposetheGenographicProject.”IndigenousPeoplesCouncilon Biocolonialism.30Sept.2007<http://www.ipcb.org/issues/human_genetics/htmls/ factsheet.html>.

Vergano,Dan.“’GenographicProject’AimstoTellUsWhereWeCame From.”USATODAY17Apr.2005.30Sept.2007<http://www.usatoday.com/ tech/science/2005-04-12-genographic-project_x.htm>.

November 1, 2007

Discourse

Can Science Be Trusted?

The Problem of Induction Michael Kreisel

I

nductive reasoning is central to the way we understand the world around us. Even our most basic observations take for granted that time, space, and physical laws will remain constant and familiar to us. This is why it is so appalling and unnerving when we realize that inductive reasoning is logically invalid.

Suddenly, the most basic assumptions about the world are called into question. It is no less logical for this paper to disappear while you are reading it than it is for the paper to remain in your hands as all papers have before. The goal of this essay is to explain why we naturally assume that inductive reasoning holds. Beyond that, I will discuss its intricate relation to science and propose that the tenets of inductive reasoning are actually essential to any theory we might seek to label as scientific.

The stereotypical image of a scientist is that of an old, frazzled man in a lab coat laboriously collecting what he hopes are consistent data.1 While this image is outdated, the modern scientist is still in search of observations, or data, that might support his hypothesis.

When a hypothesis predicts that a certain event will be observed given certain circumstances, and that event is observed consistently, we say that the data support the hypothesis. The type of reasoning that allows scientists to move from singular observations to general statements about the nature of the world (a scientific hypothesis or theory) is called inductive reasoning. David Hume first called induction into question when he asked, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why does any amount of data actually support a specific hypothesis?â&#x20AC;?

Inductive arguments assert two premises in order to support their conclusion. The first premise consists of a past observation or multiple past observations, and the situation under which the observed phenomenon arose.

The second premise states that future events will be 1. If we were to try to find data for the time it takes for an object to fall, we might consider that data consistent if the measured times for each drop were all within a specific range of values. This range is determined by the amount of uncertainty in measuring instruments and the uncertainty due to human errors in the measurement process.

A more qualitative definition of consistency would be observing a relation where specific observations always followed from a specific situation.

November 1, 2007

mkreisel10@amherst.edu similar to past events. The conclusion of the argument states that given a specific situation and information about past observed phenomena we can predict that this situation will result in phenomena similar to past phenomena. Hume directly and successfully challenges the legitimacy of this reasoning with the following argument: All reasonings may be divided into two kinds, namely, demonstrative reasoning, or that concerning relations of ideas, and moral reasoning, or that concerning matter of fact and existence. That there are no demonstrative arguments in the case seems evident; since it implies no contradiction that the course of nature may change, and that an object, seemingly like those which we have experienced, may be attended with different or contrary effects. May I not clearly and distinctly conceive that a body, falling from the clouds, and which, in all other respects, resembles snow, has yet the taste of salt or feeling of fire? Is there any more intelligible proposition than to affirm, that all the trees will flourish in December and January, and decay in May and June? Now whatever is intelligible, and can be distinctly conceived, implies no contradiction, and can never be proved false by any demonstrative argument or abstract reasoning a priori.

If we be, therefore, engaged by arguments to put trust in past experience, and make it the standard of our future judgment, these arguments must be probable only, or such as regard matter of fact and real existence according to the division above mentioned. But that there is no argument of this kind, must appear, if our explication of that species of reasoning be admitted as solid and satisfactory. We have said that all arguments concerning existence are founded on the relation of cause and effect; that our knowledge of that relation is derived entirely from experience; and that all our experimental conclusions proceed upon the supposition that the future will be conformable to the past.

To endeavour, therefore, the proof of this last supposition by probable arguments, or arguments regarding existence, must be evidently going in a circle, and taking that for granted, which is the very point in question.

- David Hume

Hume attacks the second premise, that future events will be similar to past ones, by first stating that there are two ways for us to gain information about the world: deduction and experience. Through deduction, we might try to prove the second premise by assuming its opposite, that future events will not be consistent

Discourse with past observations, and then trying to find a logical contradiction that arises. An inconsistency, however, does not arise in the case of premise two. For example, suppose that I have seen a blue car parked outside my building every morning since I have lived there. If the car were gone one morning, I would not assume that any basic logical principles had been broken.

Furthermore, there is no reason for the car to be parked

David Hume

there ever again. My prediction of the carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s continued presence could be false for all future times. Because no contradiction arises through the denial of premise two, premise two cannot be proven by deductive reasoning.

The second way we gain information about the world is through experience. We are always making observations. These observations may support premise two and allow us to prove it. The only reasoning we have to turn singular observations into general statements is inductive reasoning. In order to prove premise two on these grounds, we must say that the past has always resembled the future and will therefore continue to

resemble the future. This, unfortunately, is not true.

We must assume that inductive reasoning is logically sound before we can make the very inference that would prove it to be sound. Circular reasoning like this constitutes a logical fallacy. Hume concludes that we have no means to prove premise two. So, surprisingly, it is not logical to believe that the ground beneath you will still be there when you inevitably turn your head away from this page.

Humeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s argument has stood the test of time.

Over two hundred years have passed since his famous argument, and no philosopher during that time has been able to solve the problem of induction. Despite the force of Humeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conclusion, we continue to believe that the sun will rise tomorrow as it has every day before. Why? While there may be many explanations as to why we still make inductive inferences, there are two specific reasons I find to be most convincing.

The first reason is that it has been evolutionarily advantageous for people to make inductive inferences.

If each morning I had to check that everything I had previously owned, from my books to my body parts, were still there, then I would waste a good portion of my day. Furthermore, upon completing my study I would be well advised to start again; my hand might have meanwhile disappeared. Likewise, if a squirrel could not bury his nuts during winter under the assumption that they would remain intact, then he would have no store of food when spring finally came. Without inductive principles, our lives would not only be unenjoyable, they would be unlivable.

Instead of making sure my philosophy professor exists before going to class, I assume that he does because it is a useful, if not reliable, assumption. Induction is logically neutral. It is no more logical to assume it than not to assume it, so we choose to use induction because we consider it advantageous to do so.

The second reason we make inductive inferences is because without them we would have no access to the outside world. I interpret every sensory experience in terms of things I have known before. If I did not assume that future sensations would be similar to past ones, then I could never make an observation about the world around me. I would be stuck in a position no different than Descartes when he suddenly believed that the world around him was an illusion. I would also be unable to make any predictions about future events because I would be utterly incapable of interpreting present ones. Using induction is necessary for us to November 1, 2007

Discourse accept the idea of any kind of stable external world and to predict its future state. While my predictions are in no way guaranteed to be accurate, I make them so that I might be prepared if a specific set of events occurs in the future. It is better to be prepared for at least one possible future scenario than to be prepared for none at all. Assuming inductive principles has been not only advantageous, it has been necessary to give the outside world any kind of substance.

Past our ever yday lives, induction plays an important role in scientific exploration and discovery.

Science uses a different sort of induction than I have described in the examples above. Let us return to the example of the blue car parked outside my building.

After I have observed one instance of the car not being parked outside, my inductive argument entails a probabilistic claim instead of a certain claim. Now I have evidence to support both that the car will and will not be outside tomorrow. I might be able to formulate a new probabilistic prediction based on the chance that the car will be there; however this new probabilistic assumption is almost guaranteed to be false. It would have to predict, based on the data, that the car would almost always be parked outside. This could clearly be false, especially if the car were towed and destroyed.

In that case, the probabilistic theory would make no correct predictions about the future. Even though the prediction would get more and more plausible as time went on and more days without a car were observed, the prediction would only approximate the truth: that after the car was gone, it would never be seen again.

The strongest scientific theories are based on initial premises that have, so far, always made correct predictions. This includes both the probabilistic 2 predictions of quantum mechanics and the standard predictions of mechanics. Electrodynamics is a powerful theory because it is rooted in the claim that the electric field patterns of a point charge act in a certain fashion.

All tests on this claim have inductively supported it. I will call inductive arguments that are supported by all available data in their first premise “strong” inductive arguments for the following reason: While inductive arguments made with wholly supportive data are no more logically sound than those with inconsistent

data, they feel oddly and unjustifiably more believable.

For example, I am much more certain that the basic laws of physics will hold tomorrow than that I will go to lunch at my usual time. Inductive inferences are at the heart of science, and I believe that they are a feature that separates science from non-science. I will postulate that the initial premises of a scientific theory must be related to this “strong” type of induction, and that this relation defines part of what makes a theory scientific.

As of yet, philosophers have had a hard time finding an acceptable definition of what is or is not a scientific theory. That is, they have been unable to develop both necessary and sufficient conditions for when a theory can be called scientific. Karl Popper made a historic attempt to name at least two necessary conditions for a theory to be scientific when he said that a scientific theory must be testable and refutable.

These conditions are clearly not sufficient because, as Thomas Kuhn points out in a response to Popper, they allow creationism to be considered science despite our wish to exclude it from the realm of scientific theory.

Claims of creationism are testable and easily refuted, so under Popper’s criteria it is still a science.

While refutability is definitely one necessary condition of a theory being scientific, I would like to put forth another claim as a possible necessary condition.

For a theory to be deemed scientific, its initial premises must be proven via the “strong” form of induction.

This claim implies testability because the very genesis of the theory requires it to be observable. This does not appear to exclude any of the theories we currently hold to be scientific, such as theories of chemistry or physics. Also, it does not alienate old science that has since been proven wrong. Even old science used consistent sets of data to make predictions, though the data were mistakenly interpreted and the researcher’s predictions were false. This necessary condition would, however, exclude creationism because creationist theory was not developed from the observation of some external phenomenon and was instead created a priori by its followers. It would also exclude Freudian psychoanalysis and Marxist historiography because their initial premises are not based on a “strong” inductive argument. I believe that these new criteria 2. Probabilistic predictions are said to make a correct prediction of demarcation for the “scientificness” of theories are when the distribution of a data set is within statistical significance of the predicted value. Data sets may not be perfectly in line with the more successful than previous criteria; they exclude prediction, but they are always sufficiently close enough for rigorous more instances of pseudoscience while preserving mathematics to say they are essentially equal. those activities that we know to be science.

10

November 1, 2007

Discourse

Can an Old Pill Learn New Tricks?

Sarah Leyman

M

sleyman11@amherst.edu

ethods of contraception are old news on a college campus, and the birth control pill, affectionately called “the pill,” is no exception.

Besides being a mode of birth control, the pill is used to regulate timing of the menstrual cycle, alleviate related cramps, treat acne, and relieve symp to ms o f PMS. T he National Center for Health Statistics reported that in 2002 the pill was the most common for m of contraception with

a wo m a n o n t h e p i l l t a ke s o n e c a p s u l e d a i l y.

The first twenty-one pills of the month contain synthetic estrogen and/or progesterone, depending on the product, while the final seven are placebos that contain no hormones. By regulating the levels of hor mones, birth control pills stop the body from preparing for pregnancy: no egg is released and extra tissue does not accumulate in the uterus.

When women use this 21/7 day cycle type of pill, they

19% of women ag ed 15-44 using it. Recently, the effect of the pill has taken on a new form: actually reducing the number of periods a woman experiences per year.

This may seem like an unnatural mode of achieving simple convenience, but in an era when women experience an average of 450 periods per lifetime – up from 150 a century ago – many women are opting to give science a try.

The menstrual cycle consists of varying levels of hormones that prepare the body for pregnancy. During the time before a woman’s period, her body builds up the endometrial lining of her uterus. If an egg is fertilized, it moves from the ovaries to the uterus, where the lining protects the developing embryo.

If an eg g is not fertilized, the thickened uterine lining is not needed and must be shed, causing monthly bleeding. Bir th control pills work by regulating the levels of hormones in the body so that the uterine lining never accumulates. Usually,

experience an unnecessary menstruation or “pill period” during the last seven days of the cycle.

During a “pill period,” the drop in hor mone levels caused by the switch to placebos results in the weakening and bleeding of the un-thickened uterine lining.

Since the uterine lining does not thicken when oral contraceptives are used, the “pill period” is not thought to be biologically necess a r y. S c i en ti s t s have developed a continuous pill that gives women the option of eliminating their periods completely. The continuous pill contains lower levels of hormones than the traditional pill and does not include a gap period of placebos.

T he first of these new pills, Seasonale, was released in 2003. For three months at a time, Seasonale users take an active pill that contains synthetic hor mones. Each three month stage is followed by a set of spacer pills, allowing four November 1, 2007

11

Discourse pill periods a year. The producers of Seasonale, Duramed Phar maceuticals, recently released a related drug called Seasonique, which also gives a woman four periods a year. Unlike Seasonale, this new product does not have spacer pills for women during their period. Instead, women take pills with lower doses of estrogen during their period, which may prevent unexpected spotting.

Another product, Lybrel, was released by Wyeth Phar maceuticals in 2007. This dr ug eliminates periods as long as the woman chooses to take it; the woman using it must decide with her doctor how long to use it. The FDA just approved the use of Lybrel in May of 2007, and performed two clinical studies on the drug since its release. Both year-long studies, explained on the FDA’s website, consisted of more than 2,400 women ag ed 18 to 49. The primar y study tested the efficiency of Lybrel from the beginning of treatment until fourteen days after the last pill was taken. One percent of women using Lybrel became pregnant.

T h e m a n u f a c t u r e r s, h o w e ve r, c l a i m t h a t t h e dr ug is 99.9% effective. T he secondar y study compared Lybrel to a 21/7 day cycle pill, testing for effectiveness as a contraceptive. One pregnancy occur red in the Lybr el g roup and three in the cyclic g roup. The studies also investigated the occurrence of spotting, or unexpected bleeding.

These studies found that women taking continuous contraception experienced spotting, but sug gest that it decreased in about 30% of women after one year. It should be noted that most women experienced spotting, and that about half the women dropped out of the study.

P r e ve n t i n g m e n s t r u a t i o n d o e s n o t s o u n d natural, so should women be concerned about the safety of these pills? An important concern is that no tests on the long-ter m side effects of these new pills have been done. Our generation is the guinea pig for these drugs. On the other hand, the cyclic form of birth control pills, which has been around for over four decades, has undergone substantial tests for long-term side effects. In the 12

November 1, 2007

long term, cyclic pills have been shown to increase the risk of blood clotting and high blood pressure, but have no effect on future fertility. Because of similarities to traditional cyclical pills, it seems likely that these new period-eliminating pills carry similar benefits and threats, but this has yet to be seen.

Some doctors think that a decreased number of periods may actually be healthier because a p er p etua l l y th i n uter i n e l i n i n g m ay reduce the risk of uterine cancer. Since the uterus is not being prepared for pregnancy, it may be more natural not to have any period than to force one. The spacer pills were originally put in birth control packs so that women could insure that they were not accidentally pregnant. In this day of dr ug-store pregnancy tests, this spacer period has become obsolete.

With all of the dr ugs available today, there are many ways to control how one feels and how one’s body operates. Some would do anything to eliminate, or at least lessen, their periods. If the new forms of the pill prove to be safe and provide the benefit of period elimination on top of relief f r o m m e n s t r u a l c r a m p s a n d P M S, p r e ve n t i n g pregnancy may become a secondary benefit of oral contraceptives for many women. On the other hand, women have been dealing with bleeding, cramps, and PMS for thousands of years and certainly could continue to do so. The benefits of the new pills include relief from uncomfortable m o n t h l y s y m p t o m s, w h i l e t h e r i s k s a r e t h o s e associated with any drug that has not undergone long trials. A personal decision has to be made: do the short term advantages outweigh the uncertain long-term risks of these new pills?

ABC- “How Safe Is Extended Cycle Birth Control?” http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=edell&id=5045832 FDA drug label and study info for Lybrel http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/label/2007/`21864lbl.pfd Fewerperiods.com Noperiod.com NPR- “ ‘Continuous Contraception’ May Banish Periods” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5458926 WebMD.com FDA study for Lybrel http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/label/2007/`21864lbl.pfd

Senior Thesis Research

Strange Early Echinoderms: Among the First Skeletal Animals Emmy Smith

Advisor: Whitey Hagadorn

For anyone who has ever considered the bizarre panoply that composes the Echinodermata, it is difficult to lose sight of the fact that echinoderms are strange. Their ontogenetic twists and turns of symmetry, absence of certain familiar organ systems, and presence of some less familiar systems might tempt one to imagine an extraterrestrial origin for the Echinodermata. The very strangeness of the Echinodermata is partly responsible for the dedication that specialists in the group feel. We revel in the weirdness.

-Rich Mooi, “Evolutionary Dissent”

build mineralized skeletons. The “Cambrian Explosion” marks the beginning of mineralized skeletons, and thus, the proliferation of animal fossils. Skeletal animals quickly diversified and colonized different niches in the world’s oceans, leaving behind beds packed with millions of fossils. For paleontologists, this meant a record of the time period and conditions in which the organisms lived. Among the first animals to do this were echinoderms, marine organisms comprised of hundreds of high-magnesium calcite skeletal plates surrounded by soft tissue. Although the first echinoderm species were hen Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, the oldest incredibly successful and abundant for a few million known animal fossils were from the beginning of years, they suddenly and unexpectedly vanished from the Cambrian Period - 542 million years old. The absence the fossil record. My thesis examines how changes in of older fossils made Darwin question the validity of his ocean chemistry and environment may have influenced own theories, but paleontologists later realized that the the existence, proliferation, and sudden extinction of absence of older animal fossils did not mean that older some of the early echinoderm species. animals had never existed. Instead, the organisms were Echinoderms are weird and interesting animals; not preserved in the fossil record because they could not modern examples include sea stars, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, sea lilies and sea urchins. But the earliest echinoderms, species such as helicoplacoids, eocrinoids, and edrioasteroids, are the strangest because of their odd body plans. Even though odd body plans are the norm for echinoderms, these early species have radically different body plans within the basic echinoderm design.

For example, helicoplacoids have elongate, spindleshaped bodies that are strikingly different from the more common design of pentameral, radial symmetry.

Some of the earliest echinoderm species are known from just a few localities in western North America and only survived for a few million years. Studying echinoderms, particularly the short-lived, early species, is difficult because the animals are so poorly preserved in the fossil record. When an organism dies, it is rarely preserved in articulated form; rather, the tissue disintegrates, leaving a collection of skeletal plates.

My task is to reconstruct the environment in which echinoderms lived by studying the physical characteristics of the rock in which they are preserved as well as the fossilized skeletal plates themselves. My main goals are to understand the environment in which these early echinoderms lived and to use a morphological Emmy has conducted her research in Death Valley, the Mojave Desert, and Caborca, Mexico. investigation to discover which species are present in

W

November 1, 2007

13

Senior Thesis Research my samples. These goals are important because they will help me understand why echinoderms were among the first biomineralizing organisms, how they lived, and why they vanished.

I will investigate the environment in which these echinoderms lived through shellbed, stratigraphic, sedimentological, and geochemical analyses. The beds that I am studying are inter-bedded carbonates and siliciclastics in which there are laterally continuous and thick echinoderm shellbeds. By studying hundreds of meters of the stratigraphy where these beds are found, I can gain an understanding of the depositional environment of northern Laurentia (a 542-old supercontinent, now the West coast of North America). Some of the ways in which I will accomplish this will be to study sedimentary features, lithologies, the size of mineral grains, and other trace fossils. I also intend to discover why echinoderm plates, and only echinoderm plates, are so prolific in beds in different locations in western North America.

Some of the best-exposed rocks that capture the depositional record of early echinoderms are in the upper Wood Canyon, Poleta, and Puerto Blanco formations in the Mojave Desert and Death Valley

14

November 1, 2007

of California and Nevada in the United States and Sonora in Mexico. Last May, I traveled with a fellow thesis student, Ariel Morales, our â&#x20AC;&#x153;sophomore slave,â&#x20AC;?

Ben Klein, and my advisor, Professor Hagadorn, to record various depositional environments and collect samples from outcrops in the Mojave Desert and Death Valley. Because few geologists have ever studied early echinoderms, there is no guidebook or map describing where to find them. Instead, we spent the weeks leading up to our trip scouring past theses, journals, and maps for straight stratigraphy (places where the rock is more likely to be unaltered) with our formations exposed at the surface.

After building a list of potential localities, our next step was figuring out how to access the sites. Many of the sites were far from highways and major roads, so often we had to rely on unmarked mining roads and dry river beds, many of which had not been used in ten or twenty years and had been washed out by seasonal rains.

Fieldwork in Death Valley and the Mohave Desert was an adventure. We had six flat tires in three weeks, woke up at sunrise, worked in the field until after sunset, and camped in tarantula territory. During the last few

Senior Thesis Research days of the trip we were eating only rice and beans three times a day because of poor meal planning. One day we spent two or three hours hiking up a mountain only to realize that the Wood Canyon formation containing my echinoderms was several peaks over. I quickly learned that fieldwork in innovative research areas is exciting but can also be frustrating. I also learned that no matter how prepared you think you are going into the field, plans always change – you never have half the time you need.

For Fall Break and the week following it, I traveled to Sonora, Mexico with Professor Hagadorn and Dr. Stu Hollingsworth, a world expert on early Cambrian trilobites, to conduct the second part of my fieldwork.

I analyzed four shellbeds of echinoderms, recorded stratigraphic columns, and collected more samples. Dr. Hollingsworth joined us to use the debris and traces from trilobites for biostratigraphy. Since trilobites lived concurrently with echinoderms, we can use the known dates of different species of trilobites to bracket the dates of the echinoderm beds.

I will incorporate the samples from Mexico into the analytical processes that I am using for my samples from California. I have a total of 64 geochemical samples (samples from carbonate beds every 1 to 3 meters) and 12 paleontological samples from my two localities in California. To examine the contents of my samples, first I cut them into slabs and photographed them. Then I analyze my slabs by looking at grain sizes, clasts, organic matter, and echinoderm debris. After recording my shellbed analyses of the slabs, I cut my slabs into billets for thin sections, slides of rock thin enough to allow light to pass through, to analyze my rocks at a microscopic level. This will complete my three-tiered approach of analysis, from the outcrop level to the slab level to the microscopic level. This three-tiered approach will allow me to more completely piece together the stratigraphy, since I can combine the microscopic details of a rock with the bigger picture of an outcrop.

Another portion of my thesis involves analyzing the depositional environment through geochemical analysis of stable isotopes and trace elements. By using carbon and oxygen isotopes and the trace elements calcium, magnesium, strontium, and manganese, I hope to compare the ocean chemistry not only within each location, but also between my two fieldwork locales.

These types of analysis will help me further recreate the depositional environment of northern Laurentia at the time when these echinoderms lived.

In addition to the environment in which they lived, I need to understand the creatures’ morphology. By using the few articulated or partially articulated early echinoderm samples in the world (from museum and university collections), paleontologists have been able to piece together a dynamic and continually reworked classification scheme of the earliest echinoderms. I will

A rock packed with echinoderm debris. The small round circles are echinoderm plates, which are visible due to the weathering of the rock.

attempt to discover what types of echinoderm species my shellbeds contain by comparing the shapes and sizes of the plates in my samples to those of known echinoderm species. In addition, I plan to use the patterns of stereom—the microstructure of the plates that is a network of interconnected holes—of different echinoderm species to help recognize differences between the species. There has been little to no work examining stereom in this way, so we do not know if different species’ plates will actually contain different stereom patterns. It is also possible that this new technique could become the focus of my thesis.

Any research on the mysterious abundance of echinoderms in the fossil record is significant because few scientists have studied the phenomenon of these early biomineralizers. There are no current geochemical analyses at such a specific scale of early Cambrian beds, and no scientist has ever studied the patterns of stereom in the early species of echinoderm plates. My research will reconstruct the environment and conditions under which animals first began to biomineralize, which is a very underdeveloped area of study, and will serve as a springboard for continued research in this field by using new methods of analysis.

November 1, 2007

15

Senior Thesis Research

The Dark Side of White Medicine In Colonial Algeria Janani Ramachandran

I

came into this thesis topic quite by accident during the fall of my junior year when I was researching for a history seminar paper about science, progress, racism, and the case for the Mexican-American War. I saw an article on the academic database JSTOR entitled “Imperialism, Colonial Identity, and Race in Algeria, 1830-1870: The Role of the French Medical Corps” by Patricia Lorcin. Intrigued, I clicked, and found myself engrossed by not just the idea of science as an oppressor but the theory and practice of medicine as a colonial tool. My academic interests had, until then, been divided into two distinct categories: I had my scientific interests that I developed as a pre-medical student and potential biology major, and I had my historical interests, which tended toward immigration, imperialism, race, gender, and oppression. Here, then, was the answer: a thesis that integrated the social and political impacts of French medicine with the colonial experience in nineteenth century Algeria.

“Very well, so what?” might be the most obvious question to ask here. I am sure that while this undertaking is inherently interesting to the few who share my particular intersection of intellectual interests, to a greater number of people all this is mere posturing, impressing ideas on a bygone era in an effort to prove some seemingly unimportant point. The modern implications, however, are broad, drawing attention to cultural differences and systems of power that dynamically interact with both clinical and research-oriented medicine.

The Marxist-Freudian revolutionary and noted psychiatrist Frantz Fanon is central to another consequence of nineteenth century colonial French medicine both in his individual person and in his work as an activist. In the latter part of the twentieth century, Fanon became the model for worldwide anti-colonial and Black Power movements.

I will begin with Fanon as a man and a writer.

“More French than the French,” in some ways, Frantz Fanon was born into an elite black family on the island of Martinique in 1925. Under the French 16

November 1, 2007

Advisor: Sean Redding colonial system of assimilation and association, a “native elite” class became well educated and, in theory, on par with French nationals. Of course, this was only in theory, and when Fanon visited France as a young intellectual, he was shocked to suddenly realize that, in spite of his education and social grace, he was not a racial or social equal in the eyes of the French. Accounts from this period of those who knew him tend to fixate on his “perfectly accented French,” since to many French nationals the idea of a black man from the colonies being so like themselves was mesmerizing. At the young age of 27, Fanon published the bestseller Black Skin, White Masks while still in France, and, after leaving for Algeria in the early 1950s, became radicalized in his political anticolonial views through his experience during the Algerian War. He published a string of books before his death from cancer in 1961 at the tragically young age of 36.

Fanon questioned the education he and his fellow colonized elites had internalized—an educational system that made science of racial difference and used the legal and political system to reinforce imperial oppression. And yet, in spite of his awareness of the world that had created him and his contemporaries and turned them into pawns of the colonial state in the continued existence of French power, Fanon’s arguments were informed by the same enlightenment ideals against whic he implicitly rebelled. Some critics argue that Fanon was not really the revolutionary he has been portrayed to be, as his rhetoric returns to the sort of “rights of man” liberalism under which he was educated. Thus the paradox: Fanon’s writing, Fanon’s person, and Fanon’s legacy—all interrelated, all essential to each other, and yet, all in some sense contradictory.

In spite of all these elements, Fanon reveals much about the consequences and future of the French colonial medical system in the 19th century, which began with early missionary and military work. Officially, doctors came with the French to

Senior Thesis Research serve the army, and, in a less official capacity, to serve as tendrils of imperialism into the colonized state of the future. Doctors could go where most other people could not because they were seen in general as a benign and universally helpful force.

In reality, many reported back directly to French foreign and military authorities, detailing the lay of the land, the people, and the often deadly tropical diseases typically encountered.

French medical practitioners in Algeria also wrote extensively about the people they

movement. These scientific journal articles were disseminated around the world and to a large extent regarded as purporting theories as valid as any others of the day. Thus, French medicine in Algeria was key in the worldwide discourse on scientific racism, which we today define as the justification of racism by scientific means.

What links Fanon most directly to my work in this project are not the implications of his existence but some of the substance of his writings, which address the psychiatry of the colonized and tie the political system to a “scientifized” racial perception of Algerians. The imperial power machine enabled science to racialize colonized peoples, and this science returned to reinforce colonial policy exercised in the imperial state. The elaborate racebased triaging of medical care is a fine example of this cycle, as the system suggested that whites were to be preferred as their lives were more valuable. Clinical research confirmed this position, buttressing its place in the system and beginning the succession again.

As I have alluded to, French medicine, scientific racism, and the colonial climate of 19th century Algeria were all intertwined and essential to each other. As such, any study of one is in a large part dependent on the other two, and together the three create a rich portrait of a particular time and place with widespread implications and global consequences global in the following centuries.

As a personal philosophy, I tend to ground my historical work as closely as possible in tangible, accurate primary documentation. It is my hope in this thesis to thoroughly explore these issues and others through sources that will include 19th century scientific journal articles and French colonial government documents. These, I believe, will add considerable credence to the arguments I have thus far laid out.

Perhaps the most lofty goal of this body of Frantz Fanon work is to show that the effects of political and encountered, treating them as scientific subjects. social conditions on medicine can be very tangible Over the course of the 19th century, the validity of and both create and enable systems of power and fact became more and more related to its ability to be oppression. I do not mean to discount global efforts “scientifically” justified; medicine was cooperative of western medicine as inherently proselytizing in the systematic racialization of groups in Algeria or imperial, but it is important to remember that and abroad. Thus, this “scientific” work can be medicine is not intrinsically benign. Just like any viewed in retrospect as their attempt to prove racial other practical discipline, it can be used for entirely difference in the decades leading up to the eugenics un-Hippocratic, unscientific ends.

November 1, 2007

17

Senior Thesis Research

Alice and Bob Discuss Quantum Entanglement Jesse Rasowsky

B

Advisor: Kannan Jagannathan

ob: Alice, I would like to learn about the strange world whether the moon is really there when you’re not looking [4]. of quantum phenomena, but I really don’t have a physics B: Hmm, but those two principles seem so obvious. I background. The title of this article is even a little intimidating. What guess the disturbing character of Bell’s theorem is that it forces the heck is quantum entanglement? us abandon one of them (Fig. 1).

Alice: Entanglement is a fancy Which one do we throw out, realism word that physicists use to describe or locality? funny correlations between particles.

A: I’m sorry, but that seems to be a You see, according to quantum question for the metaphysicians rather mechanics (QM), objects can behave in than the physicists, one to be settled by very unintuitive ways. More specifically, philosophical rather than experimental the mathematical formalism of QM investigation. permits interactions that violate our B: OK, I will ask them about it dearest classical intuition. In fact, in in Cooper House. Tell me, can these 1935 Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen [2] funky “entangled” systems actually inspired Schrodinger to emphatically exist in the real world? declare that entanglement is the feature A: Yes, they can, and they do! of QM that entails an utter departure Though this was not demonstrated from our classical modes of thought. until the 1980s when Aspect observed B: How do we know that entanglement “violates” our violations of Bell’s inequality [5]. That was enough experimental classical worldview? What does “classical” mean anyway? proof to show that their system really was entangled!

A: Well, several decades after Schrodinger and EPR asked B: Can you give an example of an entangled system? some basic theoretical questions, J. S. Bell advanced an elegant A: Sure. Imagine a source situated between us that emits argument showing that by assuming a “local realistic” worldview, electrons periodically, two at a time (Fig. 2). One electron from you can derive an inequality that is violated by QM [3]. That is, each pair flies toward me on the left and the other toward you on Bell’s theorem demonstrates that QM theory is incompatible with the right. Now, if these electron pairs are in the entangled state, the seemingly innocent assumptions of locality and realism. ↑↓ – ↓↑, then we will always get opposite results when the electrons B: Whoa there partner, what are ‘locality’ and ‘realism’? strike our detectors. To put it more vividly, just by looking at your A: Locality is the principle that distant objects cannot measurement result, you instantaneously know what my outcome influence one another instantaneously. More precisely, it says that was. That is, if you get ↑, then you know I got ↓, and vice versa. no information travels faster B: Hang on Alice, what is than the speed of light. Thus, so strange about that? How do in a local worldview I cannot you know the electrons were send you a “superluminal” not just mutually opposed message. Realism, on the other to begin with, one pointing hand, is the seemingly intuitive up and the other pointing idea that physical objects down?

Figure 1: Quantum mechanics is inconsistent with a local realistic actually have definite states A: Good question, Bob. picture of reality. Moreover, because we observe violations of Bell’s prior to and independent We know our electrons inequality in the laboratory, we know that nature itself does not conform to both locality and realism. of our observations. Put are different because their another way, realism says that correlation is independent even if we haven’t measured the particular properties of an object of our direction of measurement. Suppose they start out simply (position, momentum, etc.), there always is a real “state of affairs” up and down, ↑↓, as you suggested. Then if we measured in to speak of. Einstein dramatically illustrated this idea by asking the horizontal direction we would see random results totally 18

November 1, 2007

Senior Thesis Research without correlation. On the other hand, if we measure our called “entanglement cost.” entangled state, ↑↓ – ↓↑, then no matter which way we measure B: So, those are two different ways to measure entanglement?

– sideways, slantways, or whatever – our measurement results will A: Yes sir! Actually, they are equal only for pure, two-particle be anticorrelated. systems, like the electron-pair we considered above. In the general B: Oh, I see now – the correlation is really quite strong! What case (i.e., mixed or multipartite), there is no unique measure of else can you tell me? entanglement.

A: Well, if a pair of B: W hy might an electrons is entangled, then undergraduate have any according to QM there business involving himself is simply no separable in this area? description specifying the A: Much of the states of the individual ongoing research in this electrons. Rather, the only field is dedicated to selecting expression afforded by appropriate criteria for Figure 2: Two particles are emitted from our source S, one to the the quantum mechanical entanglement measures, left toward detector A and the other to the right toward detector formalism is a holistic one: and ultimately deciding on B. Whereas a classical pair of particles might be described as ↑↓ it tells you everything about “good” measures themselves. (or ↓↑), the quantum correlated (i.e. entangled) state, is a superposition of such states: ↑↓ ↓↑, for example. the electrons as a pair, but Once you have a measure, nothing about the electrons you can try and compute it as individuals. The best you can do is to write a description for various systems. For example, calculations of the “relative that makes reference to both electrons. For example, the non- entropy of entanglement” in high temperature superconductors entangled state ↑↓ can be articulated as “particle A is up and suggest that non-classical correlations can exist in macroscopic particle B is down.” On the other hand, for the entangled state ↓ systems with a large number of degrees of freedom. That is a ↑ – ↓↑, we cannot say “particle A is so-and-so and particle B is surprising result! such-and-such.” In other words, the state of an entangled pair B: This is very fascinating. How can I learn more about it? may not be reduced to the states of its parts.

A: Unfortunately, we cannot discuss the matter exhaustively B: Are there any neat applications of entanglement? in a just few pages, but there are plenty of resources on this A: You bet. Using entanglement as resource, scientists have material on the web or in the Amherst library. And if you see a already dreamed up beautiful communication and cryptographic goofy-looking student around campus named Jesse Rasowsky, he schemes. One example is quantum teleportation: if we share would be happy to talk to you about it too. an entangled state, then just by telling you over the phone the [1]Schrödinger, E. (1935) “Discussion of Probability Relations results of some particular measurements, I can transmit an Between Separated Systems,” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 31 (1935): 555-563; 32 (1936): 446-451 identical copy of my state to you many kilometers away. Another application is quantum cryptography: by using entangled states, [2]Einstein, A., Podolsky, B., Rosen, N. (1935) “Can QuantumMechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered we can detect any eavesdropper listening in on a conversation Complete?” Physical Review 47: 777-780 over a quantum channel because she would necessarily disrupt [3]Bell, J.S. (1964) “On the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox” the delicate quantum correlations between our states. Using Physics 1: 195-200 quantum encryption, we could communicate with total security. [4]Jordan paraphrasing Einstein’s remark about the moon from: Mermin, N. D. (1985) “Is the Moon there when Nobody Looks?

B: That sounds neat! Where does the question of measuring Reality and the Quantum Theory,” Physics Today April 1985 38-47 entanglement come in?

[5]Aspect, A., Grangier, P., Roger, G. (1982) “Experimental Tests of A: Well, because various applications use quantum Bell’s Inequalities Using Time-Varying Analyzers” Physical Review entanglement as a resource in distinct ways, different schemes Letters 49: 1804-1807 Further Reading: will call for distinct quantifications of entanglement itself.

•Deutsch, D. (1985) “Quantum Theory, the Church-Turing B: For example…?

Principle and the Universal Quantum Computer” Proceedings of A: Well, if I want to distill out as many maximally entangled the Royal Society (London) A400: 97-117 states as possible from a collection of given states, then I will want •Bennett, C.H., DiVicenzo, B.D. (2000) “Quantum Information to use a measure called “distillable entanglement.” On the other and Computation” Nature 404: 247-255 hand, if I want to calculate how many maximally entangled states •Nielsen, M.A., Chuang, I.L. (2000) Quantum Computation and Quantum Information (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) I need to construct a given set of states, then I will use a measure November 1, 2007

19